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I saw a vast metallic heat-shield, arranged in blocky sectors. A magnetic siphon which plunged deep into MIZAR’s hydrogen-rich outskirts to feed a tapered spin-station that only looked half finished.
Closer again. The spin-station supported an array of circular construction bays – tiny on the scale of the image, but probably monstrous compared to the size of the RAIN. Most of them were empty. But one was occupied by a sleek, jet-black vessel – a bullet with a distinctive intake ring near its needle-nose prow.
The design was puzzling. There was no reason for it to be a civilian craft, not here in the burning fringes of the system primary. However, the structure also deviated too much from the design principles we had seen for it to be a warship.
And then, in a single, horrible instant, I understood what it was.