Eastern reaches of the Imperium's current territory.
Void monitoring station.
The station commander was awakened in his bedroom. He immediately dressed and left the room.
In the corridors connecting every part of the monitoring station, scholars and ordinary staff hurried back and forth.
The commander immediately ordered the station to prepare for a dimensional jump. If anything unusual happened, they were to leave this uninhabited star system at once, then he headed for the command deck.
On the command deck, scholars who had rushed in from elsewhere had gathered together in discussion, their conversation overflowing with scientific terminology.
Ignoring the scholars, the commander went to the observation system and took over from the operator to adjust the equipment.
The portion of the stars monitored by this station appeared in the observation system.
A sprawling purple astronomical phenomenon, resembling the face of some vicious, grotesque creature.
Those stars converged together, looking like lines.
"Something has changed there." A scholar conducting self-funded research at the monitoring station approached with a stack of heavy documents, slammed them onto the table, and stroked his beard. "That bizarre unknown astronomical phenomenon is even stranger than anything we observed before."
"It's strange. I know." Without even looking at the pile of documents, the commander asked, "Didn't Beliscoronna Sector University establish a special research project? Did they find anything?"
"An expedition went to an uninhabited world near that astronomical anomaly." The scholar's beard trembled. "They died. But among the images they sent back, unknown lifeforms were discovered."
The commander frowned.
The scholar immediately went to the stack of documents, instantly found a file tucked inside, opened the folder, and shook out its contents.
Photographs.
Glancing at the colleagues arguing behind him, the scholar whispered, "I advanced my pension to hire someone to steal these photographs from Beliscoronna