Empires of Saturn, Part One

*FINAL CHAPTER*, Chapter 17, No More Sun

Chpt. 17 No More Sun

The ship landed. The door to the stuffed compartment opened again, and the aliens began taking people out. Jeonon tried to jerk free when they grabbed him, but he received a painful zap from his shock collar, so he complied, letting himself be led along, being marched in a double line with these aliens on either side. He looked up, and his jaw fell open- not for the first time recently- at what he saw.

A ginormous superstructure, they were on the inside of the invaders' planet. A colossal spire protruded from either end of the world, pointing towards the center, where an ornately structured super sphere that must have been the size of a planet's core was floating between the spires, glowing a radiant yellow gold. It was an artificial star. In every direction, Jeonon could see the sprawling planetary supercity covering the entire inside of the world, with parks and streets and stadiums and anything he could think of and then some all across the inner surface. Level with the star in the center, but at right angles from where the spires would be, were two humongous circular doors in the planet, big enough that core could've fit through. Barely, maybe, but big. Several smaller gates ran in a line around what Jeonon assumed was the planetary equator, if the spires were the poles. Which they have to be, since that star has a magnetic field... He thought to himself.

Thinking about the logistics of such a structure, he glanced to one of the aliens beside the double line, asking "Where does the excess heat vent at?"

The yellow-mouthed creature gave a reply of sputtering clicks and snaps. Of course. Jeonon thought. Doesn't understand. It then hissed at him, clearly warning him to keep moving, to which he begrudgingly complied. Silently he was glad everyone else seemed to be equally awed and frightened by the scale of the alien planetary fortress and such things, because Jeonon didn't think he could withstand the intense shame of his people- and others- all staring him right now, helpless and presumably imprisoned like they were without anything at all to do for them or himself.

He tried to summon a tiny white flame in his mostly closed right hand, but his collar shocked him, so he made it disappear. That was just cruel. He thought. He lowered his gaze to the ground in front of him, passively complying with being led into some alien structure.

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Crassel felt bad when Tamri had been taken away from him and separated after they'd been brought inside, but the aliens seemed to be dividing people by age groups, though what the exact ranges were, he didn't know, as he saw barely anyone younger than himself anymore, but a number of people at least 12 to 14 years older. The initial double line was split into smaller lines by age once they were inside the very large alien facility, and each of those were led in different directions, where they were then split into groups of about 20, which were each directed by one alien in front to lead them, and one behind to keep them in check.

The entire facility was smooth and white, with occasional pinstripes and vertical sliding doors along the walls with some strange circular thing beside them, but no decoration- unless the round thing was, but it seemed not. The only other feature were the straight, thin, luminescent white lights in the ceiling. Crassel guessed this was some science facility, which would make sense given that humans seemed to be a new species for these creatures. Thoughts of grotesque horrifying experimentation came to Crassel's mind however, making him shiver, reaffirming his sense of helplessness in the situation.

The aliens were bringing the group down the hall, and turned a corner to another hall, where the doors were much more frequent. The aliens began stopping at each one, opening the doors and putting one human inside each starting at the front of the line. Crassel was near the middle. The doors closed behind each human who entered, though he couldn't tell how.