"Now, let us turn our attention back to what lies beneath our feet."
The old man's steps remained firm and strong, his pace neither hurried nor slow.
Looks like he could work for me for another decade or two, or keep sorting out documents at the Academy of Sciences, Xi Yan thought.
"Based on the debris floating in orbit and our studies of the segment's ruins, we believe a massive war took place here long ago. The precursor civilization here-Cybrex Alpha-lost, and the attackers subjected the Ring World to a prolonged bombardment."
"Strangely, we haven't found any evidence that Cybrex Alpha resisted. They seem to have calmly accepted their fate. Of course, it's also possible that our technology isn't advanced enough."
"In any case, there is no doubt that the Ring World suffered heavy bombardment."
Gu Zaiyun spread his hands and said, "The Delta Segment suffered the most damage. Even its underlying framework was damaged to some extent, and the ground was reduced to what you see now."
The group skirted another enormous pit.
Temporary safety railings had been installed around it. After all, the entire Ring World was still operating, and its gravity remained normal.
Anyone who fell in would go straight out of the Ring World.
The old man's steps grew lighter. The years had not worn down this experienced scientist, and he continued his explanation. "We don't know what happened to the Cybrex Alpha civilization, or why this Ring World was abandoned after that great war."
"But none of that matters. What matters is..."
With the group clustered around Xi Yan, they stopped at a bottomless pit.
"We found this in the ruins left by the bombardment."
Xi Yan approached carefully, crouched at the edge of the great pit, and looked down.
A passage stretched into the