Ripple Megastructure

After the gravitational-wave megastructure, the Collectors began preparing materials to create something else.

If the previous gravitational-wave megastructure had resembled a machine more than a living organism, then what the Collectors were about to build could fairly be called a complete machine.

On an orbital path centered around the Gate, a new flesh sphere was nurtured.

Because the biological form being nurtured within was not particularly complex, it took far less time to take shape than the gravitational-wave megastructure.

When the flesh sphere was reclaimed, the organism inside was exposed to the vacuum of space.

It was a ring with a diameter of four kilometers. On a cosmic scale, it could not be considered particularly huge, but its precision was exceptionally high. Its deviation from exactly four kilometers was only one or two molecules.

"Is the antimatter ready?"

"Everything is ready. Awaiting your ignition command."

"Begin ignition."

Following Chu's command to "ignite," solid hydrogen inside the ring's reactors began to be sprayed with minute clouds of antihydrogen. One hundred percent of the mass was converted and released as high-energy gamma rays, then transformed through biological thermal conversion into a massive, sustained electric current.

As the current within the ring intensified, its diameter gradually began to shrink. At first, the contraction was barely noticeable; it could only be clearly observed at the scale of microscopic particles. Gradually, however, the shrinkage became visible even to the naked eye on a macroscopic level.

Not only was the ring's diameter decreasing, but its thickness was also diminishing. An invisible force was compressing it.

The compression continued until the ring's diameter reached two kilometers, then stopped. At the same time, a careful observer would notice that the ring was far heavier than it had been when it was larger. Its total mass had increased.

But