Far out in the deep, a planet turned.
It was not a planet so much as a world swollen past all reasonable scale, a super-mega sphere whose curve filled the void from edge to edge, its surface a patchwork of continents that each could have swallowed a dozen ordinary worlds. Rings of artificial satellites threaded its upper atmosphere in slow, gleaming braids, and across its night side, vast cities burned like constellations brought down to the ground.
The view fell toward it. Past the satellite rings, through a band of high silver cloud, down toward one unremarkable speck on the planet's vast face. A dome. From orbit, it looked tiny, a single dewdrop on the skin of a giant.
It was not tiny.
