Akasora's journey resumes as his surly ship finally reveals a reachable system, the bizarre gas world of STÎNGĂ.

To Akasora, there are no words that will do to capture the ki of this oddball planet but the following:

Gas giant's laughter,
AIs in sitcom limbo,
Inspectors juggle.

The next leg of Willy Minmax's travels brings him to the ruined world of Asanthus.  There he solemnly records as much as he can of that civilization's tragic history, and promises to carry these recordings across the galaxy to preserve their culture.  He takes just a moment to ponder how their culture was effectively destroyed by a new invention, but doesn't let that stop him from taking his own invention to yet another star system.