Ever since he had taken his seat on the Golden Throne, Xi Yan felt as though the matters he had to deal with had come one after another.
The shelter situation was still being handled when another report arrived.
There had been fresh activity from a Stellarite that Xi Yan had previously instructed the Exploration and Expansion Department to watch for.
This time, the Stellarite had been spotted at the Kagantuya Black Hole.
Any Stellaris player would know who it was at once.
Our old acquaintance, the Infinite Machine!
(Because the Infinite Machine has so many events and so much background lore tied to it, this book uses an original interpretation that combines its background with that of the Time Worm, The Excerptors, and others.)
Several years earlier, when a Science Ship arrived in the Gargantua system, it discovered a strange mechanical being outside the enormous Gargantua black hole.
(The name Kagantuya Black Hole is an obvious homage to Interstellar.)
As the Science Ship approached the Kagantuya Black Hole, its crew discovered that they were not alone. A gigantic, perfectly spherical structure stood at the edge of the black hole's event horizon, reflecting the light of the stars being drawn into that dark rift.
The Science Ship received no signals from the sphere, nor did it receive any response to those it sent. The sphere simply remained at the edge of the abyss, waiting.
The smooth, silvery sphere remained perpetually outside the black hole. Symmetrical lines marked its shell, which looked as though it could open from within to reveal the mechanical structures beneath-or perhaps its weapons.
Faced with a colossal sphere whose cross-sectional area rivaled the entirety of Greenland, the Science Ship did not rashly disturb it. Instead, it carefully transmitted signals identifying itself and hoped the sphere would