15 A Planet Called Desolation
I WATCH AS THE RELENTLESS slides silently into orbit about the baleful red eye of Barnard's Star. The star is very old, and the system is low on heavy elements, including most metals and carbon. The two Jovian planets are no surprise in the system, but the metal-rich rock planet orbiting the star at a two million mile distance. We are heading to that planet, because it is the only concentration of metals in the system, and because we discovered from the orbital mathematics that this Earth-sized world is hollow. We have to check that out!
July 4, 2310, 1111 ST
"Enki, the tidal stresses in the planet's slightly elliptical orbit should have been enough to collapse a naturally occurring planetary cavity. Given that this planet is not a Population II accreted pl
