14. HeliolithThey positioned the Dragon away from the mass of the star while they shot an unmanned lander into the sun's hazy corona. Since they'd learned about the constructions found within stars, they'd worked to amp-up the landers' protective capabilities. By boosting the energy hull far beyond its normal maximum, they'd calculated the little craft could survive for a maximum of six hours; after that, the extreme temperatures would mean the vessel's obliteration. As with the probe, conditions within the star would seriously degrade the comms they'd receive.
Selene, Ondo and Lilith watched the noisy, indistinct video coming from the red giant. The Heliolith was a shifting black shape, detail impossible to discern. The lander had been programmed to orbit it, scan it with every sort of s
