The universe as they had seen it was not a spectacular place. The only celestial bodies they had ever seen was was their home, the planet the Illitani called Luklini and the Zarkans called Jerez, the simple small red star they called the sun, and two boring beige gas giants in the outer system, and the long, dead, empty dark. It would take a lifetime to explore it all, but just one.
But there is the ring. It had been there as long as either Illitani or Zarkan could remember, like the world, the sun, and the two outer giants, but it was...strange. Nothing else was a ring. Its motion through the Long Dark was different than all the other bodies. The two species couldn't agree on what it was: the Illitani say it is a holy relic, a gift from the sun they worshiped, but the Zarkans thought, admittedly without compelling reason, that it was a gate, but they did agree that it didn't belong here.
So they look up, and wonder what it really is. Some say it would take until apocalypse to find out.
