#¤††«-.... ....-«††¤#
##¤††«-... ...-«††¤##
###¤††«-.. ..-«††¤###
####¤††«-. .-«††¤####
###¤††«-.. ..-«††¤###
##¤††«-... gray skies, swirling with soot. stony ...-«††¤##
#¤††«-.... ground with no hints of vegetation. ....-«††¤#
¤††«-..... .....-«††¤
††«-...... below the surface are the mines, ......-«††
†«-....... spiraling down into the crust. small .......-«†
«-........ compared to the caverns they eventually ........-«
-......... reach and join with. the temperature is .........-
.......... higher down here, and the view is not ..........
.......... as monochrome: a green light beckons ..........
.......... from below. ..........
-......... .........-
«-........ long ago, there was a lifeform here. in ........-«
†«-....... the center of the planetoid, something .......-«†
††«-...... dormant, waiting for a collision with ......-«††
¤††«-..... another body. but no planet was .....-«††¤
#¤††«-.... reached, and over time, the seedling ....-«††¤#
##¤††«-... became a sludge. ...-«††¤##
###¤††«-.. ..-«††¤###
####¤††«-. and elves came as miners, and the .-«††¤####
###¤††«-.. sludge was bottled. ..-«††¤###
##¤††«-... ...-«††¤##
#¤††«-.... ######################################## ....-«††¤#
¤††«-..... # # .....-«††¤
††«-...... # #################################### # ......-«††
†«-....... # # # # .......-«†
«-........ # # ####†#††††††††††††††††††††#†#### # # ........-«
-......... # # # # # # .........-
.......... # # # the cargo ship is filled, # # # ..........
.......... ¤ # # prepared for launch, # # ¤ ..........
.......... † # # ignition sequence started # # † ..........
-......... † # # hours ago. elves in the # # † .........-
«-........ † † # passenger cabin, not yet # † † ........-«
†«-....... « † # seated. but something is # † « .......-«†
††«-...... « « ¤ wrong. there is something ¤ « « ......-«††
¤††«-..... - - † green around their mouths. † - - .....-«††¤
#¤††«-.... - - † the sludge has been sampled, † - - ....-«††¤#
##¤††«-... - - « entertained, and then « - - ...-«††¤##
###¤††«-.. - - - finally binged on. - - - ..-«††¤###
####¤††«-. . . . . . . .-«††¤####
###¤††«-.. . . . the engines are burning hot, . . . ..-«††¤###
##¤††«-... and the ship accelerates ...-«††¤##
#¤††«-.... away. the elves have ....-«††¤#
¤††«-..... strapped themselves in, and .....-«††¤
††«-...... are lying completely still, ......-«††
†«-....... like corpses. .......-«†
«-........ ........-«
-......... .........-
.......... ..........
.......... ..........
.......... ..........