The chaos in the Laboratory gradually subsided.
In its place came a deathly silence.
Milo and Maren lay motionless on the cold floor, their eyes filled with indescribably complicated emotions.
"The verification results are in."
Maren was the first to break the Laboratory's deathly silence. "There's nothing wrong with the Probe."
"There's nothing wrong with the calculations, either," Milo replied weakly.
"In other words, the Stellar System we were observing really did suddenly lose a planet!" Maren said, nearly frantic. "That... that was an entire planet! How could something like this happen?!"
Milo fell silent for a moment, then said quietly:
"This definitely wasn't a natural occurrence."
"No kidding! How could something like this possibly happen naturally?!" Maren snapped.
Suddenly, Milo sprang to his feet and operated his assist unit, lurching toward the Laboratory door.
"Where are you going?!" Maren shouted.
"To warn the leader!"
Milo's shout was filled with urgency and unease. "The fleet needs to change course immediately!"
Inside the Command Center.
"Leader!"
A shrill, urgent chirping came from the distance, drawing the attention of a creature standing in the very center of the Command Center.
"What happened?!" he asked the newcomer in an equally shrill voice.
"B-bad news!"
As the Talodan rushing toward him shouted, he fumbled with his assist unit, trying to stop his body's forward momentum.
Thud.
Clearly, he had failed.
Having spent so long living under gravity, he was not particularly adept at operating these assist units in zero gravity.
Carried by his momentum, the Talodan slammed into the deck in front of the Talodan leader.
His round body made an excellent cushion.
But falling in zero gravity was certainly dangerous.
Seeing that he was about to drift away, the Talodan leader hurriedly reached out with his tiny claws and pulled the round