The Unimaginable

[Ash]

Five hundred years pass...

The primitive cluster has grown into the form of a sphere rivalling the size of a small moon. A flurry of electrical currents pass through it, detecting and storing information from the quantum fluctuations it detects in the universe around it. The planet Hodge nears, bringing with it the doom of the sphere. For too long had it been aware of the planet's stampedes toward it's counterpart. But it seems the trajectory did not bode well for it this time. It's time in this world is coming to an end, and this is the way it shall be.

It was then the sphere detected an unusual fluctuation, an unfamiliar anomaly. Unknowingly to the sphere, a small Zoner charting vessel was on approach; moving around the crescent of the planet Podge nearby. The sphere reacted vigorously to this presence, electric currents exploded from it's core at incredible rapidity. A grey aura emanated from the sphere in relation to the magnitude of information being processed in quantum.

"What the hell?"
"What?"
"That! Look at THAT!"
"Jesus..."

The sphere flashed momentarily. It recognised the manipulation of radio waves and shuddered as it struggled to process the information into theories and probabilities.

"It's incredible...."
"Check radiation scans Rogers"
"Already have cap'n, it's clear"
"Jacob?"
"Initial geo-scans classify it as a moon, but, i've never seen one so perfect"
"What do you mean?"
"Well look at it. Not a scratch. It's perfectly spherical. I mean look at this place, this thing should have serious acne"

The captain stared out at the sphere puzzled.

"Hmm..."
"From what I can gather, there are traces of phosphorous and silicon but no evidence of any tectonic fragmentation past or present. We'l need to launch a probe to get anything better than that..."
"Send one out"
"Aye sir"

The ship moved itself into orbit of the sphere. The sphere itself continued to shudder and illuminate in response to the quantity of information it was processing. It couldn't make sense of this disruption in the quantum flow of the universe and continued to struggle to find an understanding. An then an impact, the probe hit the surface of the sphere and it reacted like a mattress, bouncing it along the surface until it came to a stop. Before the probe could initiate the sphere began to cave around it, swallowing it and pulling it beneath the surface. The sphere flashed a bright yellow almost blinding the crew of the vessel above.

"God what was that?"
"We're not getting anything from the probe sir, visuals can't pick it up either"
"Well where the hell has it gone then!?"
"I......."
"Sir! Look!"

An overwhelming flow of data moved throughout the sphere. It began to make sense of the probe's components and sensors, most importantly it's capability of processing light waves into geographical images of the universe. Realising the potential of this ability the sphere began to reform. On it's equator the crust began to shift and change. A metal circle thousands of meters in diameter rose from beneath the surface, it slowly began to fill with a darker reflective material until it met the centre. A blazing blue pupil arose to mark the centre of the now apparent eye.

"My god...."

Six or seven modules began to form around the eye, slowly stretching upward, building in size like some enormous lava lamp stretching out into space around the vessel. They continued to rise at an incredible speed, continuously growing in all directions.

"Peters, get us out of here!"
"Altering course, charging cruise engines!"

The arms stretched beyond reach of the vessel and began to hook around and merge, trapping the ship.

"We're not going to make it!"
"FASTER PETERS!"
"Cruise engines are still charging sir!"
"Auxiliary thrusters! Make for that opening!"
"SIR!"

The enormous arms merged and clamped shut, blocking off the last light of the Baffin sun from the crew. The arms receded back to the surface and the sphere reformed it's terribly perfect shape. It's glow reduced now as it played with the vessel's contents in it's innards, deciphering and discovering it's workings and origins.

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