THEPLANET WAS ABSOLUTELY FLAT. ITS ENOURMUS GRAVITY HAD LONG AGO CRUSHED INTO ONE UNIFORM LEVEL THE MOUNTAINS OF ITS FIERY YOUTH--MOUNTAINS WHOSE MIGHTIEST PEAKS HAD NEVER EXCEEDED A FEW METERS IN HEIGHT. YET THERE WAS LIFE HERE, FOR THE SURFACE WAS COVERED WITH A MYRIAD GEOMETRICAL PATTERNS THAT CRAWLED AND MOVED AND CHANGED THEIR COLOR. IT WAS A WORLD OF TWO DEMENSIONS, INHABITED BY BEINGS WHO COULD BE NO MORE THAN A FRACTION OF A CENTIMETER IN THICKNESS. AND IN THE SKY WAS A SUN THAT NO OPIUM EATER COULD HAVE IMAGINED IN HIS WILDEST DREAMS. TOO HOT TO BE WHITE, IT WAS A SEARING GHOST AT THE FRONTIERS OF THE ULTRAVIOLET, BURNING ITS PLANETS WITH RADIATIONS WICH WOULD BE INSTANTLY LETHAL TO ALL EARTHLY FORMS OF LIFE. OFR MILLIONS OD KILOMETERS AROUND EXTENDED GREAT VEILS OF GAS AND DUST, FLOURESCING IN COUNTLESS COLORS AS THE BLAST OF OF ULTRAVIOLET TORE THROUGH THEM. IT WAS A STAR AGAINST WICH EARTH'S PALE SUN WOULD HAVE BEEN A FEEBLE GLOWWORM AT NOON.