Max didn't know what it was, so he activated a cloaking process he had created, and all the structures on the planet became invisible—even to the cannons in orbit.
He set an alert to notify him when he reached the solar system.
Max began focusing on researching how to increase the engine's speed.
After a few days, his research progressed slowly; he managed to improve the engine design to reach fifteen percent of the speed of light.
It was becoming exponentially more difficult to improve the engine.
Meanwhile, the laser cannons were ready and would form a network in orbit around the planet.
Everything was in order and ready.
An alert buzzed in the ship's computer console.
Max looked and saw something appearing at the edge of the solar system; it was a colossal ship, with what looked like thousands of tentacles beneath it.
He was amazed by this sight; a flame inside him seemed to roar with excitement and curiosity, but it was soon extinguished by the calm in his gaze.
He knew he was no longer an explorer but a traveler who wanted to know what had happened to his home.
It advanced slowly toward the sun, then stopped and turned toward the destroyed station, heading in that direction.
Max had read about various discoveries of his civilization in the universe, yet there was one thing that had never been found: another civilization.
He didn't know if it was due to the short time that had been explored or to the youth and vastness of the universe.
Even after unifying the planet and achieving peace, due to the planet's high gravity, technology had to advance significantly to break through the atmosphere.
And when exploration began—even after exploring several solar systems in the vicinity—no evidence was ever found.
If this had happened earlier, he might have been fearless, but now he needs to be cautious.
He activated the ship's system to analyze the target's technological level.
Then he watched the ship.
When it approached the station, it stopped, circled for a few hours, and various tentacles emerged from the ship and began collecting the debris.
After collecting the debris, the ship began emitting strange radiation, and the temperature on the ship's exterior rose; after some time, it returned to normal.
Once it finished what appeared to be refining the debris, it resumed its original course toward the sun.
Now Max noticed that wherever the large ship passed, it left a faint trail of radiation.
When the ship reached the vicinity of the sun, some very different tentacles seemed to reflect a faint golden glow.
It entered the sun and seemed to be absorbing its energy.
Max didn't know how long the ship would stay there.
As he watched.
Analysis complete.
Unknown ship.
Energy pattern similar to nuclear radiation.
Unknown material.
The ship's design resembles marine animals.
According to the analysis, the ship uses a short warp jump that consumes an absurd amount of nuclear energy. To withstand a jump on that scale, the material would have to be forged in the core of a planet.
When Max saw the analysis, he thought of the light he'd seen from space—it must have been when the ship initiated the jump.
Max decided to stay put until the ship left.
Simultaneously, he decided to focus on the project he had in mind. He considered using the ship he'd considered a means to an end, but he quickly rejected that idea because it was too conspicuous.
Using that much energy would set off an alarm for everyone, revealing exactly where you are.
A few months passed.
The massive ship finally began to move; it headed to the edge of the solar system, and, with a considerable explosion, it was gone.
Max finally relaxed his mind.
During that time, he only designed and did not build anything, for fear of drawing attention.
That ship seemed to have the power to destroy the planet with just a few attacks from its tentacles.
Max made significant progress on the engine, reaching fifty percent of the speed of light.
However, he realized that was the limit of his artificial sun.
When the research was complete and the large spacecraft departed, Max began modifying the engine, which grew larger, and the artificial sun became more compact, emitting more energy.
He also designed a new spacecraft called the Metal Pearl.
The ship looked like a sphere or a moon.
Even though he wanted it to be large, a project of that size would take time.
So he would start with a core measuring five hundred meters.
He called all the robots to begin construction, which would take ten days.
During that time, Max would create a more powerful mini-sun, based on the image of a neutron star.
Five days later.
Max was having trouble making progress, so he changed course and created another star identical to the one he already had.
He placed the two together and created a twin-star propulsion system.
Thus, the amount of energy he could use wasn't just one plus one, but an exponential increase.
After a few more days, The Metal Pearl. It was ready.
He began collecting various samples from the planet.
And he stored his old ship, which he would call the Explorer.
When the Pearl rose into the sky and passed through the atmosphere, the laser cannons moved toward the ship and docked on the surface. Everything was ready.
Max was ready to search for traces of his species.