Liu Cixin - Devourer

It was right in front of him, but the Captain still could barely make out its translucent crystal structure. Floating through the black void of space, it was hidden by the dark, like a piece of glass sunken in the murky depths. Only the slight distortion of starlight its passage provoked allowed the Captain to make out its position. Soon it was lost again, disappearing in the space between the stars.

Suddenly, the Sun distorted, its distant, eternal light twisting and twinkling before their eyes. It gave the Captain a start, but he maintained his proverbial Asian cool. Unlike the dozen soldiers floating beside him, he managed not to gasp in shock. The Captain immediately understood; the crystal, a mere 30 feet away, had moved in front of the Sun, shining 60 million miles in the distance. In the three centuries to come, this strange vista would often play across his mind and he would wonder if it had been an omen of humanitys fate to come.

As the highest ranking officer of the United Nations Earth Protection Force in space, the Captain commanded the forces interplanetary assets. It was a tiny unit, but it was equipped with the most powerful nuclear weapons humanity had ever devised. Its enemies were lifeless rocks hurtling through space; asteroids and meteorites that the early warning system had determined to be a threat to Earth. The mission of the Earth Protection Force was to redirect or to destroy these objects.

They had been on space patrol for more than two decades now, yet they had never had a chance to deploy their bombs. All rocks large enough to warrant their use seemed to avoid Earth, willfully denying them their chance for glory.

Now, however, a sweep had discovered this crystal at a distance of two astronomical units. The crystals trajectory was as precipitous as it was utterly unnatural, and that was taking it straight toward Earth.

The Captain and his unit cautiously approached, their space suits boosters spinning a web of trails around the strange object. Just as they closed to 30 feet, a misty light flashed to life inside the crystal, clearly revealing its prismatic outline about 10 feet long. As the space patrol drew nearer, they could make out the intricate, crystalline pipes of its propulsion system. The Captain was now floating directly in front of it. Stretching the gloved right hand of his spacesuit toward the crystal, he initiated humanitys first contact with an extra-terrestrial intelligence.

As he reached, the crystal again faded to transparency. A brilliantly colored image now sprang to life inside it. It was a manga girl, with huge, rolling eyes and long hair that cascaded down to her feet. She was wearing a beautiful, flowing skirt and she seemed to dreamily drift in invisible waters.

Warning! Alert! Warning! The Devourer approaches! she immediately shouted out, stricken with obvious panic. Her large eyes stared at the Captain, a lithe arm pointing away from the Sun in unmistakable alarm. There could be little doubt the unseen pursuer was hot on her dainty heels.

Where do you come from? the Captain inquired, by all appearances unperturbed.

Epsilon Eridani, as you apparently call it, and by your reckoning of time, I have traveled for sixty thousand years, she replied, before again raising her cry. The Devourer approaches! The Devourer approaches!

The Captain continued his inquiry. Are you alive?

Of course not; I am merely a message, came the response. But it was only a short reprieve. The Devourer approaches! The Devourer approaches!

How is it that you can speak English? the Captain continued.

The girl again replied without hesitation. I learned in transit, she said, only to carry on: The Devourer approaches! The Devourer approaches!

And that you look as you do? the Captain let his question trail off.

I saw it in transit, she said, before continuing to shout with ever greater urgency. The Devourer approaches! The Devourer approaches! Oh, surely the Devourer must terrify you.

What is the Devourer? the Captain finally asked.

In appearance it matches a gigantic tire. Hm, yes, that would be an analogy that works for you, the Girl from Eridanus began her explanation.

You are very well-acquainted with how things work on our world, the Captain interrupted, raising an eyebrow behind his visor.

I became acquainted in transit, the girl replied, before again crying out: The Devourer approaches! With that last cry she flashed to one end of the crystal. Where she had been a second ago, an image of the tire appeared, and it indeed closely resembled a tire, even though its surface glowed with phosphorescent light.

How large is it? one of the other officers queried.

Thirty-one thousand miles in total diameter. The tires body is six thousand miles wide and the hole in the middle has a diameter of nineteen thousand miles.

There was a long pause before someone asked the question now on everyones mind. Are the miles you are talking about our miles?

The girl immediately and calmly answered. Of course. It is so large that it can encircle an entire planet, just like one of your tires might fit around a soccer ball. Once it has encased a world, it begins plundering the planets natural resources, only to spit out the remains like a cherry pit once it is done!

There was another pause before the officer spoke again, his voice quivering with trepidation. But we still do not understand what the Devourer really is.

The girl in the crystal offered more information without hesitation. It is a generation ship, although we do not know where it came from or where it is going. In fact, even the giant lizards that pilot the Devourer surely do not to know. Having wandered the Milky Way for tens of millions of years, they will have certainly forgotten both their origin and their original purpose. But this much is certain: In the far past, when the Devourer was built, it was much smaller. It eats planets to grow, and it devoured our world!

As she finished, the image of the Devourer in the crystal grew, gradually coming to dominate its entire surface. It soon became apparent that it was slowly descending upon the unseen camera operators world. Seen through the eyes of the planets inhabitants, their world had become nothing more than the bottom of a slowly spinning, cosmic well. Complex structures were clearly visible, covering the walls of this titanic well. At first, they reminded the Captain of infinitely magnified microprocessor circuitry. Then, he realized that they were an endless string of cities, stretching the entire inner ring of the Devourer. Looking up, the image in the crystal revealed a circle of blue radiance emanating from the wells mouth. In the sky above it formed a gigantic halo of fire, encircling the stars.

The Girl from Eridanus told them that they were seeing the jets of the Devourers aft ring engine. As she spoke, her entire body erupted into a flowing flourish, and even her cascading hair began to wave like countless twisting arms, with every last part of her expressing boundless terror.

What you are seeing is the devouring of the third planet of Epsilon Eridani, she told them. The first thing you would have noticed, had you been on our world then, was your body becoming lighter. You see, the Devourers gravitational pull was powerful enough to counteract our planets gravity. The destruction this wrought was devastating: First our oceans surged to meet the Devourer as it passed over our planets pole. Then, as it moved to fully encircle our world, they followed it to the equator. As the oceans swept the globe, their waves raised high enough to engulf the clouds.

The incredible gravitational forces tore at our continents, ripping them apart as if they were nothing but tissue-paper. Our sea floor and dry land were pockmarked by countless volcanic eruptions. The girl paused in her narrative, only to pick it up with a flutter of her big eyes. Now that it had encircled our equator, the Devourer stopped, perfectly matching our planet in its orbit around our Sun. Our world was right in its maw.