An artifact that was never meant to be found. Robots are building a colossal telescope on the far side of the moon, with just two people supervising its completion. After a minor incident, these scientists become aware of an obstacle in the lunar soil. It's located outside the area reserved for the hypertelescope and is therefore none of their business. But their curiosity gets the better of them. The artifact seems to have properties that completely defy physics as they know it. As they investigate, they inadvertently plunge themselves, then the entire solar system, into a terrible, unavoidable whirlwind of events. Will they manage to make the mysterious black monolith harmless before we all run out of time?