Chapter 2: Intelligence
Chapter 2: Intelligence
At that moment, Jack Sun finally understood. The "doors" on the ceiling and floor, and the metallic walls—none of it was what it seemed.
They weren’t doors at all—they were hatches of a space station. He realized with a jolt that he’d been walking sideways along the walls the entire time since waking up!
Reeling from the revelation, Jack pressed his face against the glass to get a better look. Although the planet’s surface appeared gray, he could tell unmistakably that it was Earth.
However, it looked different—completely encased in a gray shroud of metallic debris, as if the once-blue planet were wrapped in a blanket of dust.
The gray “veil” was composed of satellites—an endless swarm of satellite debris enveloping the planet. Some of the larger pieces were so massive that Jack could make out their shapes with his naked eye.
“What the hell? How are there so many satellites? What year is this?” Jack muttered to himself, bewildered. He was certain that the technology of his time could never have accomplished this, not even with the five missing years of progress he couldn’t recall.
Jack tore his gaze away from Earth and turned to his left. What he saw froze him in place. A silver-gray planetary ring encircled the Earth like a belt, but the Moon was nowhere to be seen.
The ring was made up of rocks, as well as wreckage from spacecraft and space stations. Jack realized with a chill that he was currently inside this ring, aboard one of the massive, semi-derelict space stations floating amidst the debris.