The planet S52J, as I learned, was colonized very recently, if we were to compare it to the lifespan of the empire behind the process of colonization. The main city was there roughly for a hundred years. From time to time the overlords would come with a new seed, and a new batch of the population to fill the new agglomeration, enslaving them forever as the workers for the sapling.
Why? The alien had no idea. He was too young to understand anything, and then he became a slave himself.
What he could understand was the fact that this was happening everywhere, as the monstrosity spread around. They had a goal. A mission. What it really was? He couldn't tell.
He actually came to this place from a different planet S27B, which was my second stop on the long journey to the capital of the fifth region.
