SLIDE 3.
A slow slide of
viewpoint out to Jupiter orbit shows that the anomaly is spreading.
Already some of the smaller Jovian moons are missing; Thebe and
Amalthea have vanished, and something appears to be eating Himalea.
A metallic cloud of smaller objects swarms in orbit around Europa,
pinpricks of light speckling their surface.
Meanwhile, the shoals
of momentum-transfer bodies are thinning, their simple design
replaced by numerous perversions of form and purpose. Still powered
by light sails, the new vehicles carry exotic machines for
harvesting energy from the solar wind and storing it as antimatter.
Shuttles move among them like ants amidst an aphid farm, harvesting
and storing their largesse as they swing out to Jupiter before
dropping back in toward Mercury.
Some of the hundreds
of metal moons that orbit Europa are glowing at infrared
wavelengths, their temperature suspiciously close to three hundred
degrees Kelvin. Against the planetary measure of the solar system
they are tiny—little bigger than the moons of Mars. But they’re
among the largest engineered structures ever built by the dreaming
apes; vaster than cities and more massive than pyramids. And soon
they will start to move.