Alarms sound, waking you from your unintentional slumber. A glance at one of the monitors tells you an automated defense system has you targeted, and is requesting an authentication code. You tap a few keys letting your computer system quickly crack the trillions of possible codes available, and send it to the defense system. A lit path is turned on, and precise coordinates send to your computer. Auto pilot set, you lean back and contemplate this wonderful find.

The docking bay Is seemingly deserted as you step through the hatchway. You reflect on what you had seen through the view-port before stepping out of your ship. An endless expanse of metal, and ceramics as far as your feeble human eyes could see. A far off bulge looked oddly planet-like, and a faint warpage of the structure could be detected. Turning your attention back to faintly notice an etching on the wall nearest to you. The dialect seems oddly archaic to you, but most of it’s content is discernable. “Welkomm to the mmLigar station es putu” “Welcome to the mmLigar station. Es putu”

“Es putu?” you mumble. Thinking what it could mean. You won’t get time to think upon it further because you hear a noise off to your right. A hand moves to your hip. Where you flip your atomic self shielding on. Your other hand held out the sign of peace, middle + index raised with thumb out. The origin of noise soon becomes apparent when a small void with sharp quickly moving joints round the corner. An inner sense twists in fear, but you know it to be only a servo-bot, although a very foreign looking one.

It scutters by as if you don’t even exist, as you know it would. The shadow of another rises into sight and you turn your head down the corridor when the second bot comes into sight, and on its back is something else... It chatters, and the bot slows to a gentle stop. Having left your shield running you raise your hand in the gesture of peace. The creature also raises a limb which contains only three digits, and it emulates the gesture with two of the slender appendages together, and the third out at an angle. You hope this is an actual intention of peace from the creature as you smile and nod. Both you and the creature stand there, assessing each other. The creature turns and beckons for you to follow, the limb it uses dropping to the floor to help the other two more leg-like limbs walk. You follow quickly, hoping to be enlightened about this place. After a few uneventful minutes walking you come to a very interesting room. The creature raises its “fingered” limb to flourish about in what you take to be a sign of hospitality. Glowing orbs clutter the room, giving off a gentle chiming sound. You reach out to touch one, glancing to see if the creature is adverse to this in any way. It tilts it’s head in an affirmative fashion. Your seeking touch is met by a warm feeling, and your eyes re-adjust to a point through the wall. Ahead of you, becomes a bit blurry, and returns to normal. “What the...” you begin to say, and turn to the creature once you hear a music-like chuckle behind you. “Hello, visitor, I am the god’s speaker, Nel. What you just experienced was a memory recording.” It’s head tilts to the side once again, and it’s eyes squint as if it’s smiling, but the creature has no mouth... “I brought you here for that specific reason so you could understand my speech” Nel continues... ”I’m sure you would enjoy a lengthy explanation of our world, and I am here to indulge.” You run a hand through your platinum hair. “That would indeed be nice, I am very interested in this odd place.” Nel quirks it’s head to the right, blinking slowly in a feline manner. “Let me start where the ancient histories begin.” He turns to a purple globe. Shining in a more black light sort of way than the others. “This is a memory recording that we simulated from the residual mental impressions from the beginning ring.” Nel pantomime for you to touch it, and with curiosity pushing you forward you cup a hand around it as a small flash lights your vision, and new images arise in your mind.

A man who looks much like yourself stands before you, looking through you. He talks into a camera, telling all what has occurred. “We have finished our project at long last, My people! Our ring station about a black hole, is now done. We now reap what we have sowed! Perpetual energy! “A light hum of excited shouts resonates through the walls. “As you all very well know, this opens many doors to us. We can convert base elements into anything we please. We can journey to the far reaches of space. No more war or economic strife shall plague us ever again!” the dull roar is felt again, as the real world slowly fades back in...

Nel wasted no time once he saw you were done. “But the speaker was wrong you see.” A slow blink followed by a mournful groan. “From what we could peace together, the lack of economic competition turned those being to needless bloodshed as sport. War soon after erupted, and from what we could tell the race totally destroyed itself. The other race you see about were one of their pet races, created out of whim. They propagated quite successfully after their parent race was gone. My race came not long after the final war. Our planet had been slowly dying, and we found this 'ring world' by blind luck. Our high sorcerers (or what you call scientists) quickly took advantage of the vacant ring so diligently made. We made it our own, and with our magic and theirs made it BETTER. As you can see, it has grown to a size that is almost unchartable. The power output was increaded by 87%. We have mastered all the skills that races lower on the rungs of evolution associate with gods. This ring world was the catalyst we needed to become immortal." Slitted eyes meet yours as you gaze at Nel in wonder. "and races like yours" he continues "are the only thing that threaten my kind." He holds up his appendage and points a small crystaline somethign at you. You feel a fuzzy warmness envelop you and everything goes dark.

"where what hum?" you think to yourself. You strain to look about, but your neck seems a bit stiff. Then it hits you like a brick being swung on a string by an irate octopuss. You don't HAVE a neck! To make matters worse, you have no arms or legs either! You mean to make a loud angry cussing sort of noise, but the lack of mouth or nose keeps you from vocalizing it. Your body revolts but you force your mind to stay calm, and to work out the situation. The conversation you have with yourself went something liek this: "well... they must have decapitated me and hooked me up to a machine" says you. "No no no... couldnt possibly have been. Why dont you have a mouth or nose in that case?" says a bit deeper you. "Well... what would YOU suggest then, you optimist?" says you."I would think that they but you into a new body." says the deeper, and seemingly more logical you. "Good idea! What am I then, oh learnent one?" comes a slightly sarcastic retort. "Well I would think that those small brown furry things that only subconcious noticed before would be a likely candidate, since they were just little balls of fur." Deep says. "The what?" comes High. "There were small furry things that escaped your notice before." Deep says, as a quick glimpse of what he describes is shown to your minds eye. "Well bugger" both voices say at once. With that out of the way you begin experimenting with your new body. After a few minuts of wriggling you find out how to hop and roll, both which suit your new body just fine. Just then a green scaly creature comes and eats you.

As a side note, this wasnt a ladt ditch effort to finish the story, its what I had planned from the begining. Sad endings are always much better, in my opinion. -the management.