Lemuria
The Third Probe

The third probe returned from its voyage to the ring system. It had skimmed along the inner edge for a considerable distance. The close-ups revealed a shiny, obsidian surface, sculpted and worked in an intricate lacework of rosettes and arches. Truncated columns arose at irregular intervals. In the heavy shadows cast by the alien sun, the scene brought to mind visions of the underworld-dark, inscrutable, and incredibly vast. Much of it was a carbon, molybdenum alloy, but several times denser than steel. Parts of them insulated and parts of them superconducted. Marius was quick to point out that their structure appeared to be composed of repeated subunits-as if millions of artificial satellites had coalesced just outside the Roche limit to build a series of solid, circular knives.

Tatiana noted their obvious function as electrical generators. As they spun through the gas giant’s gargantuan magnetic field, they created a tremendous electrical potential relative to its surface. The result was an electrical current in excess of a hundred million watts. Nobody could postulate a use for an electrical field of such magnitude.