Asher piloted The Truth About Lies below the bullseye of the ring structure. The giant concentric circles demanded awe from all who saw them, even in their dormancy. There was something primal about the 2:3:5:7 ratio of their radii. A dark cloud of hydrocarbons had coalesced around the structure over eons, huddled around its implied might.
“Keep your eyes peeled,” Cortasia said through the comms.
Asher kept his comms off and spoke only to himself, more for reassurance than anything else. “If there was something to be afraid of, there would still be someone home.” He pulled up closer to the structure so his view through the scout ship’s blister would be unimpeded by Cortasia’s ship, Void Avoider.
The largest ring was more than 50 klicks in diameter and it loomed heavily over Asher’s 10 meter recon corvette. He imagined he was flying straight up and the structure was a tall building, but the gnawing feeling that the rings were above him, about to crush him, wouldn’t stop scratching at his mind.
“Hey, too close,” Cortasia called. “We’re not taking samples. Fall back into formation.”
Notes: I used an image as a writing prompt for this piece. I found it on pages 90-91 of my copy of EVE Universe: The Art of New Eden. You may be able to find the image at Dark Horse.
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