Space, it stretched everywhere, touching everything. Sitting in the center of the infinite blackness hung a cold, stark, blue planet. Stars twinkled about, confirming the idea that this was in fact space. A small sun hung off on the horizon, smaller than standard.

The center of attention for this image was, undoubtedly, the ice blue planet. It was a cold looking planet, not much larger than the legendary ice planet Hoth of rebellion fame. There were the standard weather patterns, swirling white clouds, which moved ever so slowly across the face of the globe. No lights were seen to twinkle from the surface; no ships fired their engines to escape the gravity, no shipyards constructed ships. To all appearances this planet was uninhabited, unwanted and unknown.

For a moment a pinpoint of red seemed to connect the small sun to the ice planet, but it was gone before an afterimage could be formed. The planet continued to sit, the clouds continued to roll. Nothing happened, nothing at all. One wondered if this was truly a real image, or simply some well-detailed painting.

Flash

A pure blinding white detonated across the middle of the view screen. Like rolling thunder the blinding white ring expanded, spreading out in ever direction, a perfect sphere. It seemed to emanate from the surface of the planet, in every direction at once. If the blinding white had not made your purples dilate instantly, you could probably have seen small objects fly out, on the outer edge of the rolling blaze. The objects seemed to “melt” with great speed, melting so fast that the ones flying at the view screen appeared to stay in one spot, instead of move. The white, blinding light dissipated quickly, leaving a rolling, tumbling ball of yellow fire ball sitting in the otherwise empty black space. From what your damaged retinas could see, the ball looked like pure fire, flecks going up into space just like the fire in a fireplace.

Flash

Another explosion, this one made of a pure blue flame ripped from the center of now yellow planet, cutting out in a perfect flat ring. The planet seemed to split in two from this eruption, the blue ring the knife that made the cut. This ring did not dissipate as quickly as the white sphere had, instead it spread out for several light years, fading only slowly. As the ring left the planet, it was clearly visible that it had indeed split the sphere in two. An enormous gash surrounded the perimeter of the globe, black against the still flaming orb.

Minutes passed, and the view screen stayed centered on the once blue planet. The fires that consumed the face were continuing to burn just as hot as before, and the ring of black stayed just as black, not moving an iota.

Flash

This time, the view screen shook slightly. From the core outward the planet boiled, bubbles lifted to the surface, before melting back. The planet began to expand. Cracks appeared all over the face of the planet, exposing a deep red color beneath the yellow flame. These cracks spread wide – becoming wider than the land between them. Yellow turned to black, as the consumables on the surface were burnt. Black on fiery red, the planet core was solid magma. Chunks of the planet crust showed black, a contrast to the magma red.

From the vantage point, the view screen was able to take in the planetary surface as it stretched in twelve different directions at once, bubbles covering the surface measuring seven hundred kilometers or more across. The chunks of planet crust dissipated rapidly, becoming one with the magma. Like a hot vat of oil, the once beautifully blue planet bubbled and boiled. Glowing red, the planet continued to expand, each bubble stretching the perimeter a dozen or so kilometers across. The view screen continued to shake, more violently now than before. Even with view correction enabled, the screen jittered.

The planet looked like a warty toad now, bubbles forming, and deforming. The size had doubled from what it had originally been, and it was showing no sign in stopping. Each bubble stretching the surface, like a baker spinning dough for his prize bread. The color of the planet was that of translucent red, nothing remained to remind someone of the beautiful cold blue it had once been.

Pop

One of the bubbles had swollen, larger than it had ever been before, the summit thin, and translucent. At its zenith, the bubble popped, spewing red chunks of magma into the far reaches of space. With the pop, the planet began to loose size, like a deflated balloon. The outlet filled in quickly, another bubble moving almost intelligently to replace the fissure. The swelling continued – faster and more furious now than before.

Pop

More magma flew into space, another shrinking. The planet was fairly rippling with bubbles, the surface tension must be great. Jitters shook the view screen as whatever ship was carrying the camera moved away from the planet for a moment, following a few chunks of magma as they flew into space. There was a little disorienting zoom, and the screen settled on a goodly sized chunk. The magma appeared to be cooling quickly, for it’s angry red color was fading fast. The view returned to the planet, which was now stretched so tight that it was lucid.

Pop

Pop

Two at once, magma jettisoning to the far reaches of the star system. The planet healed the holes instantly, and began to pop with a viciousness one sees in a wild, trapped animal. Explosions ripped the planet and magma flew. It was a violent display of power, each magma chunk able to burn through ships shields and hull.

Stop

The explosion’s were coming every five seconds now, the lurching, lumpy, translucent ball of magma healing the holes instantly. The bubbles rolled about a bit on the planet before detonating, as if seeking the perfect place to explode. It was an incredible sight to see.

Silence

The planet was now five times the size it had been when blue, and was almost completely transparent. The popping had ceased; the planet now looked like a large soap bubble. If it had not been for the red color of the magma, you could have believed someone when they said it was a science fair project their child had filmed in the backyard. The red color was incredible; it made the bubble look like a jewel, refracting the light from the small sun in every direction.

The bubble quivered slightly, and ever so slowly began to rotate counter clockwise. The view screen zoomed in, taking a closer look at what it was filming. The “planet” as it had once been was now approximately 5.5 times larger than before, and was quite transparent. From cold ice planet to molten bubble, this was one for the holovid companies.

Light was beginning to build in the center of the “bubble”, light seemingly focused from the small sun. It appeared that the translucent ness of the bubble planet focused the sun’s rays, causing them to build in the center in some fantastic way. A small, white object came into view at the far right of the screen, and began to zoom toward the bubble. On closer inspection it appeared to be some sort of transport craft, obviously run down, beat up.

The ship never strayed from its course. It sped closer, and closer to the rotating bubble, seemingly intent on getting as close as possible. Within a few short minutes the craft seemed to be within a few hunted meters of the bubble, and showed no indication of slowing.

Fuzz

The view screen turned into a black, white, and blue meteor shower. Apparently the film was done.

“Incredible” The voice was taught, as the vocal cords had been forced to vibrate.

A general murmur of assertion was heard all around the large room. A very expensive wood table ran down the length of the room, both sides filled with chairs. You could probably fit fifty or so people into this place, without crowding too much. Right now, there were only five.

“Yes, quite incredible, quite… is there anymore?” The being of whom these words belonged was leaned back, as far back as his chair could go, and was gazing at the ceiling. He seemed deep in thought, for his eyes were closed, his lips pursed.

“This is genuine, correct?” interrupted a small, fidgety man. He had the appearance of a worrier, which he no doubt was.

“OF COURSE IT’S Real! Do you think I would show you some child’s experiments in special effects?” The Worrier sat back, his hands up. “No offense Mr. Vent, but such is the nature of my job. Just making sure…”

Mr. Vent nodded his head, accepting the apology. He was standing next to the view screen, and apparently was the owner/discoverer/creator of the film this group had just seen. Turning to address the thinking man, he answered the question put to him. “No, Mr. Katta, there is no more. We are searching for additional tape, for it appears the film was edited… look, here”

Mr. Vent stepped away from the view screen, and pushed a button on the remote in his hand. The meteor shower appeared again, snow as some people called it. Vent pushed another button; and the snow disappeared to be replaced with a frozen image of the bubble, and the ship that seemed intent upon piercing it.

“If you will direct your attention to the upper right corner at this time, in the next frame you will see something…”

Vent pushed another button, causing the film to hop ahead a few frames. Again Vent pushed the button, and the film lurched ahead. “Sorry about that, wrong spot…”

Once again Vent jumped the film ahead, and got the desired result.

“As you can see, we have a diagonal cut. It goes right through the middle of a frame. Bottom half, snow, top half, planetary bubble, and what appears to be the ship you saw in the last few seconds. We had some technicians examine the frame, and the managed to blow it up…”

Vent pushed another button, causing a different image to appear. It was a close up of the planet, and ship, expanded to the limit without becoming grainy.

“Around the ship, you can see a slight indentation in the bubble. Our analysts believe this would indicate that the ship is intent upon… entering the bubble… reasons unclear”

“Any idea where the subject planet is located?” The thinker again, he still didn’t bother coming out of his relaxed state, though his eyes were on the film being shown.

“No, but we’ve had people analyzing the film, and searching star archives for any evidence of such a happening. The Gravity Well in this area must have been disturbed in some way… such a violent occurrence to a planet would surly do something to the orbit of a few satellite planets, moons, or other bodies of mass. However, our scientists believe the gravity surrounding the planet is stronger now than it was before, for some reason. That the gravity is even there surprises me.”

“Probably because the… “Bubble” held its position. That would be my guess. If the gravity was not still present, the bubble would simply... float away…”

“True, the violent explosions would have been enough to shake any planet off of it’s celestial path, certainly enough to alter its orbit. I assume they are comparing the gravity signs to old readings? Mirroring them? Checking the databases for all gravity fulgurations, special phenomena, etc etc?

“That is what they led me to believe”

“Are there more of these videos on Kail?”

“This is the only one of its kind we found. We have secured the planet, as you have seen from our intelligence reports, and are now doing a full planetary sweep of all CSA held faculties. This was discovered in the private house of the planetary governor… we are assuming that the CSA follows standard protocol on such things, and the planetary governor would only get a copy if he was either personally involved with the project, he somehow found out, or he was in on the secret to begin with. We are also making the assumption that such an … experiment, for lack of a better word, would be a secret. Such power as this video has demonstrated, would only make people greedy, and distrustful, in more than one way; and the graphic way in which the planet was destroyed could only make people think of the empire.”

There was a long pause, no one saying a word. Mention of the empire often brought such silence. Everyone remembered the Palpenine’s reign of terror. The thinking man, Mr. Katta, harrumphed, and several others began to move their chairs slowly back, and forth.

At last, Katta sat up, and addressed Mr. Vent.

“Good work, keep us posted. Get Kail’s spaceports ready for returning to import/export as soon as possible. If you need additional resources, tell us.”

That concluded the meeting. Everyone exited the briefing room, leaving Mr. Vent to pack up his stuff.

“Back to work, ay, ay.” Vent was tired of the constant running, he needed to get away, take a vacation, find a nice remote planet, loose his com, and discover sunny beaches, and cool meadows. He smiled, meadows… something his mother had told him about. He had only seen a beach once, and then only for a few minutes.

Rush rush; rush… not ever any vacation, breaks, or slowdowns. The tools to work kept getting more and more advanced, allowing you to work from anywhere, at any time. But perhaps he didn’t want to work from home; perhaps he wanted a break… Vent shook the thoughts from his head. There would be time enough to sleep when he was dead, or a burnt out hull. Stop thinking like that, you fool.

He grabbed at the last piece of flimsy from the table, and grabbed at it again as it fell to the floor, falling from his butterfingers. Finally packed up, Vent headed toward the door. The wooden doors opened with the standard swish of compressed gas, and Vent passed through without a pause. He had often wondered what would happen if the doors did not open… would his body react in time to keep him from breaking a nose? Food for thought; but nothing you would want to dwell on.

Vinda Corp was busy today, even on this executive level secretaries bustled this way and that, procuring documents, and filing flimsy. Amazing, we still work with flimsy… weren’t we supposed to totally convert to that new slimline datapad series the tec guys were spouting about? More food for thought. You’re just full of it today Vent, just full of deep thoughts. Better not tell your secretary that, or she’ll book you on the nearest speeder to a psychiatrist.

The elevator was, thankfully, free of people. Vent rushed in, and slapped his hand over the glass, selecting level twenty. Not so much as a lurch showed that the elevator had actually moved, but there the doors were opening, and five seconds after entering Vent was exiting. What ever happened to elevators that allowed you time to take a breath?

“Mr. Vent, you have two private messages, and one classified communiqué from the team on Kail. I had them routed to your office voicemail.”

“Yeah, yeah, thanks.”

“It’s my job sir.”

The door to Vent’s office closed, the sound of work, murmuring voices, printers, coms, and plain old-fashioned work dying down. His head hurt, that meeting hadn’t helped much. Things were really popping here now; business was up with Rudrig back in production again.

Vent walked over to his desk, and sidled behind. His office was fairly large, with room for a sofa, three of four nice chairs, his desk, and a bookshelf. The walls were paneled with rare wood – and despite being very expensive Vent disliked the look. Papers were piled everywhere; nothing was very neat. His secretary, it seemed, had taken a vacation in his absence. Don’t they ever keep things neat?

Slapping his datapad down, Vent sat, sighed and cradled his head in his hands; elbows on the desk. The information coming from Kail was enough to give a dozen men conniptions, let alone one. What do we have, what have we discovered. The whole op was very hush-hush, top secret. Everything section got mixed up in was. Those fools upstairs don’t know what we have here… I don’t think anyone does.

Vent shook his head in an attempt to clear the fog. It most certainly did not help. Leaning back he reached down for the bottom drawer on the left side of his desk. There were some painkillers in here somewhere…