Following the molecular drones' trajectories with his gaze, He-El tracked them to a moon.
It had once been a moon of Krypton, but had been thrown out of orbit and was drifting into deep space.
A tunnel two kilometers in diameter appeared before his eyes, piercing the mantle and running straight to the core.
"It's the spacefaring civilization that extracted the core of the rogue planet MT745."
He-El had previously rested on the rogue planet MT745 and examined its center, discovering that its core had been extracted and that it was slowly dying.
He had never expected this civilization to come to the Krypton Ruins, arriving several years before him to salvage Krypton's resources.
He-El had never thought he would encounter this spacefaring civilization again. The universe was simply too vast; diverging at even a random angle meant distances measured in light-years.
His gaze followed the tunnel into the moon's core. The vast, 350-kilometer cavity was exactly like the one inside the rogue planet MT745. Its core had already been extracted.
The difference this time was that the civilization had not abandoned this moon. Instead, they had put it to use.
At the center of the moon's vast, 350-kilometer cavity stood a miniature military-industrial city, seemingly enclosed beneath a glass dome. Countless molecular-scale machines worked inside it day and night, continuously transporting salvaged resources and manufacturing all kinds of mechanical units.
He-El wove through the torrent of molecular drones, his cape pressed against his back as he advanced toward the moon. Veins bulged around his eyes, his pupils dilating and contracting as his gaze penetrated the miniature civilization's base.
"This is..."
The sight sent a jolt through him.
A half-finished Stellar-class Engine lay before his eyes, burning and operating like a blazing sun.
Earth's sun was a star.
A Stellar-class