Scattered through the empty quarter are odd gravity anomalies the Cangacian call Whisper Pearls. It is believed they are one of the few catalogued gravity anomalies littered in Nimbus which inhibit casual hyperspace drive (necessitating stronger engines to conduct hyperspace travel). Whisper pearls are unusual in that, in addition to their gravimetric properties, they also broadcast legible transmissions. What’s unsettling about them is that they broadcast signals that have been trapped there for centuries, possibly millenia. Some of these signals appear to eminate from long-dead civilizations or starships that have long since been destroyed. Since the pearls can be found orbiting large stellar masses and other black-body phenomina invisible to sensors, they have been known to draw would-be rescuers and the curious to their deaths when they try to steer a quantum wave towards them to investigate…