The sudden cry from the command area stunned everyone on the Officer Platform. Even Sandora fell into a daze. But our shock did not last long. Viska, that Rogue, weathered the startling news with her iron nerves and was the first to react. She lunged to the railing at the edge of the Officer Platform. "What!? Who's joking around!?"
"This is no joke!" Tawell suddenly spoke up. Her voice was excited, and her surprise was equally impossible to suppress. "It really is the home planet! Or rather... there's a ninety-percent chance it's the home planet. The celestial body appearing here can't possibly be anything else."
Sandora finally came back to herself and issued an urgent order. "Bring the image over. Let me see what's going on."
The external monitor's feed was quickly routed to the Officer Platform, and we finally saw the unbelievable sight: a lifeless-looking Dark Brown Planet floated alone in the vast, silent darkness of space. Its surface was pitted and uneven, without the slightest sign of life, yet the straight ravines crisscrossing the planet and the enormous, terrifying fissures in its crust seemed to conceal an astonishing secret. This planet was twice the size of Earth, perhaps even larger. We could not be sure—because it had suffered an obvious and horrific planetary disaster. It was on the verge of breaking apart. Vast rifts seemed to reach all the way to its core, while hideous cavities pierced through the planet. These wounds had completely altered its shape, to the point that we could not tell whether it had become "looser" or partially collapsed as a result. Yet regardless, the planet remained whole, and by all appearances, it had remained so for countless years.
Above the dark brown planet, which was nearly falling apart, floated countless black fragments. Some