The Offering

"You have entered a restrictive space. Turn around now or be destroyed," the robotic voice continued to repeat itself over and over again as alarms rang inside the command bridge of Jun Li.

"You don't see that every day," I grunted as I looked at the screen in front of me. The planet looked exactly what I had pictured in my mind: a light purple and green marble with pristine white clouds floating around. What I hadn't pictured was the ring of metal parts circling around the planet like Saturn's rings.

Da'kea grunted from where he was sitting at one of the consoles, trying to figure out a way to keep us all safe.

"You have entered a restrictive space. Turn around now or be destroyed."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first fifty times you said that," I grumbled, not at all impressed. I needed to be on that planet, and I needed it now. At least I knew why it was uninhabited; everyone else who tried was destroyed.