HUMMMMMM—WHOOOOSH!
At the southern pole of Galactic Sewage & Qi-Recycling Plant #1, the three-light-year-wide brass exhaust pipe glowed with dazzling seven-colored rainbow light.
Every ship in the Central Void—from General Tie Zhan’s military tugboats to Master Gu’s rusty scout vessels from the southern galaxies—flew down toward the southern nozzle to see what was coming out.
“Stand back! Keep your shields up!” Master Gu shouted nervously over the open comms, still half-afraid of the black hole’s old reputation. “Before Lord Pei put this pipe on, whenever the Eye of Oblivion burped out a polar jet, it shot out a beam of deadly black gamma-fire that could fry ten solar systems into charcoal! What if the trash we just dumped in comes out as boiling poison mud?!”
“Relax, old man!” Boom-Pot Sun’s voice crackled from a small silver shuttle that zipped right past Master Gu’s nose and parked less than ten miles from the giant brass nozzle.
Boom-Pot Sun was leaning out the open hatch of his shuttle in an asbestos apron, holding a long-handled iron dipper and an empty glass jar. His eyes were wide with the fanatical glee of a mad alchemist waiting for a pill furnace to open.
“When has Lord Pei’s divine creation ever spat out mud?!” Boom-Pot Sun cackled. “Look at those runes on the brass pipe! That’s the same flaw-removal law that turned my exploding stew pots into unbreakable artillery cauldrons! Get ready to witness a miracle!”
