Pa'an

The p-Gate construction project, 20 light years from Earth, was imponderably huge, technically difficult and scientifically visionary. In short, it was just the thing for an advanced race with the capabilities of the Pa’an.

In orbit around a recently created black hole hung the remains of a small dim star, a red dwarf. It was much diminished, after being methodically peeled like an onion for generations. Monster scoop fields stripped off oxygen, nitrogen, helium and other fusion products and streamed them out to other monster machines that ionized the neutral gas into the fourth state of matter, plasma. The plasma was accelerated into higher orbit by magnetic fields. The plasma stayed ionized just long enough to create an artificial nebula around the dying star. In that same orbiting gas cloud, the Pa’A’Pavalan, a hollow tube many times the size of any Earth vessel, vacuumed up the gas, ionized it again, metered it precisely, and funneled it down to the black hole.

Three gas giants, three copies of the Pa’A’Pavalan, maneuvered around three matched black holes in close orbit around their common center of mass.

Who were these master builders, and why should Earth-bound humans be concerned about a construction project that beggars the imagination? A project so far away that it would take 40 years for a radio message to be exchanged?

Ah, yes, there was that gravity wave. A gravity wave could not be denied. It came from an alien, advanced civilization. It would have consequences.