The Writer. Danilo Clementoni

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      Planet Kerion – The tragic discovery

      "The (|) container has just left the intercommunication tunnel,” announced the tiny Kerian in charge of coordinating manoeuvres. "It will reach the docking point in 0.1 cens."

      "I want it brought here immediately to check its contents and analyse the memorised data,” Supervisor RTY ordered his subordinate.

      The strange egg-shaped object, from almost sixty-five light years away, had been intercepted by a sort of containment field that grabbed it out of the planet’s orbit and quickly dragged it down in the direction of a large opening in the immense, completely metallic structure, that stretched for nearly two hundred square kilometres along Kerion’s equator.

      "Container (|) almost in position," said the coordinator.

      "Hurry up and get it brought here," shouted RTY. "We absolutely must find out what happened on /\".

      As soon as the casing reached the docking point it was immediately taken into custody by two Kerians with decidedly unusual shapes. One was very similar to a sort of trailer without wheels, while the other was more comparable to a huge crab with six claws. The crab gently grabbed the container and deposited it inside the Kerian/trailer which, after receiving confirmation it had been successfully loaded, without a single sound, set off at an incredible speed in the direction of the laboratories.

      "Container (|) has arrived," exclaimed the coordinator. "Inspection team, carry out a full analysis of the content."

      Four Kerians, also of somewhat bizarre shape, rushed over to the object and, after immersing it in a small docking area containing an ammonia-based solution, began scanning it internally. Only a few minutes had passed when the smallest Kerian of the four announced, "Nine-hundred and ninety souls present, all in perfect condition. I am sending the log of the events recorded by the capsule to the central system."

      "On screen,” ordered RTY peremptorily.

      The images showed the surface of the moon rapidly moving away while a large, perfectly spherical object approached the area of underground laboratory /\. After a few moments, a blinding glare almost saturated the footage and immediately afterwards, there was nothing. The whole area was as if it had been hit by a giant hammer. The images showed only a huge flat area of lunar soil, incredibly smooth and polished. The recording continued for some instants showing the satellite increasingly distant, then it was interrupted.

      "The laboratory," exclaimed RTY amazed. "It was completely destroyed."

      "There’s nothing else," commented the coordinator bitterly. "The recording is finished."

      "This is a brazen and deliberate attack on our outpost. I knew we shouldn’t have trusted that alien species."

      "Do you think that spherical weapon was built by them?"

      "There are only two inhabited planets in that solar system and there are beings of that species on both. We should not have established our base there."

      "It’s an appalling tragedy," said the Kerian coordinator sadly. “There were almost ten million souls in the laboratory ready to be transferred. Only the nine-hundred and ninety that managed to escape the disaster through capsule (|) were saved."

      "I still can't believe it," exclaimed RTY astonished. "We must immediately notify the Supreme TYK."