[ WP ] A world immaculately frozen in time is discovered .

Derrick was leaning back in his chair, left hand lazily draped over the controls and his eyes scanning the display with a burning boredom. It was near the end of his shift and he could n't think of anything but sleep. 
 
 His eyes began to glaze over and his vision began to blur when a small signal caught his eyes. He straightened a bit and looked closer. 
 
 `` This does n't make any sense,'' mumbled Derrick as he read the scan results of Bd-435. He turned around to the ship's navigator: `` John, take a look at this.'' 
 
 John's eyes did their habitual scanning over meaningless numbers before acting as though they discovered the answer themselves, widening in surprise as they glanced over the final column labelled `` Classification''. 
 
 John let his white eyebrows crease for a moment. `` Double-check the sensors-'' 
 
 `` Already done it.'' Derrick's mood was puzzlingly cheerful. `` Did a couple diagnostics and there's absolutely nothing wrong with the system.'' His face softened and looked a right decade younger. 
 
 John's chipped and cut face cracked as he felt a smile growing on his face, too. `` Keep on confirming this result and run some more tests on this mass. I'll start writing the report to send to brass.'' The team plopped into their chairs and set to work like it was their first day in the corps all over again. 
 ___ 
 Captain Ampint of the U.F.E. *Beyond* was feeling the best he had felt since he was first assigned the mission to head the first mobile telescope exploration mission. He had first thought it would be a role full of danger and tough calls, but it did n't take a long time for him to adjust to the routine, boring nature of confirming already known results. 
 
 This time though, was different. Their classification system had for the first time ever identified something anomalous. Ampint could n't help but feel a slight ticklish light-headedness about the first interesting thing to happen in his career. 
 
 It seemed at first like an everyday, run of the mill black hole. But when the computer scanned the edges for some readings on it's Hawking radiation, it found that its event horizon was far too large; a whole light-year across. Its mass was nowhere near enough to justify that, and when the computer was confused, interesting things happened. 
 
 The ship had changed course for the first time just a few days ago, warping spacetime to get to the edge of the object as quickly as humanly possible. Ampint could feel the hair on his neck rising ever so slightly in conjunction with the charged atmosphere of the command center. He watched the representation of the ship blink ever closer to its destination in orbit around the object and could n't help but bounce on the balls of his feet slightly. 
 
 ___ 
 
 John did n't even turn around this time. He pressed the intercom button that went directly to Cpt. Ampint's personal earpiece and whispered with trembling lips: `` Sir... you're going to want to see this.'' 
 
 It took less than a minute for every officer and every tech and the ships' janitor to crowd into the data processing room. John had never felt so important in his life as when he transferred his images onto the big screen. 
 
 He pointed at the screen and made the first speech of his life, finger trembling gently, clearing a line of sight through the suffocating lack of space. `` As you all... can see... nothing in this system is moving.'' He gulped. `` But the thing is... it should be moving.'' He shuddered and took a deep breath. `` The whole system is... frozen. Frozen in time.'' 
 
 The air was too precious to waste with breath. Cpt. Ampint waited a full, pregnant five seconds before he said: `` If every wave of quantum foam is frozen in there, how can we see anything at all?'' 
 
 It was clear this was the part Derrick was worried about. He shifted uncomfortably in his clothing. `` You see, every scope just sees a black sphere where the system is. But our transmitter is getting an... image.'' 
 
 No more pauses. Heart attacks were imminent. `` Well, what is it?'' the captain commanded. 
 
 When Derrick had first seen the image a thousand thoughts had run through his head. What kind of sorcery, what kind of science, what kind of cruel god had created that system? Who or what had that kind of power over space? Where were they now? Why did they do this? 
 
 Derrick was terrified, his eyes welling as he tapped the next output onto the display. A thousand images filled the screen, flashes of emotion documenting an alien and terrifying concept that struck close to the hearts of everyone in the room. 
 
 Warning. 
 
 Alarm. 
 
 Disease. 
 
 Miasma. 
 
 Evil. 
 
 Death. 
 
 *Quarantine. * 

