Between the light of the stars and the shadows of planets, machines work silently upon the craggy rock surface. Airless and lifeless, they dig and drill, kicking up a cascade of dust which reflects the shine of the nearby pulsar, its regular flashes giving illumination to the docking platform of the refinery at the edge of the celestial body's massive form. The asteroid floats in the void unperturbed by the facility's inexorable advance to its core.
