It
started with a trace, a relic of a whisper, detected by near-infrared, its
spectra collected by Mechanicus 11a–c. The location was characterized by
shallow depths reaching approximately 1.92-μm-band. Most of us thought the
distant planet was stillborn. But the data indicated to me that the Black Angel
had roamed among the rock formations. We built a ship to travel there and found
colorful, enigmatic textures in the rock—the signatures of a life that centers
galaxies and grows life's structures fast to a critical density whereupon they
collapse into puzzles. At that moment, I found myself alone, covered in the
remains of my shipmates and displaced from my original orientation. Maintaining
my physical cohesion was the least of my problems. But I found a possible
transitional lithology between the Black Angel formations and the Margin Unit.
