Amarna Fayed explores the canyons on Absolem Diurna

Year 4461, third cycle of Munios, Spring, back on Earth.

The planet is tidal locked to the local star, Vashini, a red dwarf in the Opheon cluster, likely an extra solar capture, millions of years ago.

No surface evidence of civilization or cultivation, but the canyons are.. curious. Hive like burrows, miles wide and deep, but with a mathematical precision that almost certainly denotes intelligent construction.

In all my years as an apprentice exo-archaeologist and now on my own, I've never encountered such vast evidence of habitation with so absolutely little evidence of culture or even trace remains of the species.

My ship, The Raconteur, says it pinged an alien AI on arrival, but received no further transmission. Why would it make contact and then radio silence? Some last gasp protocol of an ancient, failing automated system? This bears further investigation.

Something about this place feels like a hive, but also like tomb.