Yagdrasil's Child

"Let's check out that first ring of the set that has stopped spinning, the sensors show life readings and I want to know what's going on in there." Laura states and maneuvers the ship over to one of the 'Star Viewing Ports' next to a shuttle entrance hanger for that ring, to allow them to get more detailed internal scans.

The window, which should be miles in the air over this area's 'land' is completely blocked with vegetation, and they can get little out of it, so they try several more, before finally coming to one that is 'open' and they can use their optical relay data gathering devices through it.

What they find astounds them.

Though the ring has stopped spinning the power couplings for it's 'Sun' still function and the whole inside is filled with a vast jungle of plants and animals living comfortably in Zero-G. rampant interdependence and mutualism are the mark of this ecosystem, with everything in the entire ring being somehow connected back to a massive treelike vine complex at it's center which Laura tentatively dubs 'Yagdrasil's Child' after the legends of the 'world tree' from her mother's native iceland.

However there is something else in here worthy of attention, the world tree is inhabited by humanoid life! Though they have an extra set of hands instead of feet and prehensile tails like a monkey there is a race of beings here that is otherwise human, and they seem to be living in the ring quite happily: though their civilization is primitive in the ****.

"Should we try another ring?" Jurou asks...