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system."
    "Jed, that's just not possible. Any object that size would have gravity, even if it were artificial, it would still have gravity. The sensors have to be wrong. Look, it isn't registering an atmosphere either. How could this be the Capitol?" Mark asked. He knew there was more to this story, these people didn't make mistakes like this.
    "We believed the same thing, Sire. Until we saw the rest of the information about this system." He began typing more, and the view backed out to one of the system and icons began appearing for warships; thousands of icons. During the time the recording ship had been in range, there had been considerable shuttle activity to the 'dead' null-gravity world. As well as the amount of recorded data being sent and received, the messages themselves hadn't been recorded, the computer didn't have the capacity for it. As it was, just recording that they took place was straining its capacity.
    "The engineer of this ship had to build six more memory units in one of the holds to record all the data. Luckily, this was one of the ships that survived, or the data would have been lost. Although the traders didn't have the decryption software we have, we have been able to decode some of the message tags in the literally millions of messages. They are clearly imperial," Jed replied.
    "Could the planet be hollow? Basically a shell built to keep atmosphere in? Perhaps it's only one of the Tammerain shipyards? That would explain the absence of gravity," Mark asked.
    "Possibly Sire, but there is one more thing that is troubling. Most of that load of comms traffic was directed deeper into the empire, to the far side," Jed asked.
    "Far side; ancient Promethean Space?" Mark asked.
    Jed nodded. "We can't decode any of it. It's just a jumble of data to us."
    Mark activated his Comm again. "John?"
    "I thought you had Court, Mark?" John replied, teasingly. "Get bored already?"
    "Something else came up, I need your help at MIIO as soon as you can get here," Mark replied using the abbreviated title for the Ministry of Intelligence, Information and Operations.
    "Gonna try to turn me into a spook, Mark?" John replied. "Chloe and I have reservations at a restaurant in Capitol City tonight, do you need us to cancel them?"
    "I don't think it'll take that long, John, I just need you to take a look at something. You should be able to leave right after," Mark replied.
    "We just finished a tour of the Transit Facility, we're on our way now," John replied.
    "Good, I'll see you when you get here," Mark replied and closed the comm. He turned to one of his guards. "Pass the word that Captain-General Aster will be arriving; be sure he and Knight-Commander Diamond know where to find us."
    "Of course, Sire," the guard replied and began making the arrangements over his suit comm.
    "I asked John Aster to stop by because he's been studying the races of the Tammerain since the armistice was signed. He might be able to help us with this," Mark told his Minister.
    The old man nodded, "His knowledge of the Tammerain races is well known, Sire. I should have though to ask for him sooner."

Chapter 28
    ––––––––
    W hen John and Chloe arrived at the ministry, he expected to have to go through all the security bullshit that visiting such a facility entailed. Instead, John and Chloe were ushered right in to where the Mark and Minister Gadfries were still puzzling over the strange symbols their computers were producing.
    "Sorry it took so long, Sire; traffic sucked," John said sarcastically, it had taken them only minutes to land.
    Mark snorted and Minister Gadfries chuckled. "I have a shorter distance to go, and it takes me twice as long to get here!"
    "What did you need, Sire?" John asked.
    "This data stream was captured from a previously unknown Tammerain World. It appears to be directed towards Promethean space, but we can't make heads or tails of it," Mark said.
    John stepped up to the terminal, and looked at it for a moment.