The entire crew was stunned. The planet was adrift, free-floating in intergalactic space. There was no star or other planet within 100 light-years. Yet, there it was full of Negativum. But, this wasn’t the shocking part. A planet like this should be frozen solid but it wasn’t. In fact, it was quite balmy and full of life, covered in dense vegetation. It defied logic.
The Captain on the deck of the Danu led with the queries.
“Dr. Lenz, how do you explain this?”
“I can’t. This is a major anomaly. To have a living, breathing planet in this location defies all understanding.”
“You must have some sort of theory! Give it a shot.”
“Well, every planet with Negativum in this sector to date has been on a planet with abundant life. The odds of this being a random occurrence are vanishingly small.”
“So, what are you are say Doctor?”
“I just don’t know yet. There is definitely something very odd.”
There was an awkward pause.
Then the Captain gave his order.
“Well, we need that Negativum. However, it got there. You and you’re new away team should go get prepared.”
*********************************************************
Dr. Lenz had never seen anything like it before. For a brief moment he had turned off his search light and through his visor and a small break in the canopy of this alien world, he could see the Milky Way in the night sky – what had been home and now vanquished into nothingness.
“Get off me!”
It was Candace who had taken a dislike to the local fauna, which up to this point had consisted of eyeless bugs that stuck to anything they touched. There were larger creatures but they had kept their distance at least for now.
Dr. Lenz and Candace had been assigned a new team, and Dr. Lenz was secretly wondering how close to them he should get considering what had happened last time. It consisted of himself, Candace and five other males.
“I hate this place Dr. Lenz.”
“I know Candace. Hopefully we won’t be here for long.”
They were now just a few metres from the reading of where the largest reservoir of Negativum was.
But as they fought their way through the vegetation they were astonished to be met by a door.
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