chunk: A group of scientists from Saro University begin to make a series of related discoveries: Sheerin 501, a psychologist, researches the effects of prolonged exposure to darkness; Siferra 89, an archaeologist, finds evidence of multiple cyclical collapses of civilization which have occurred regularly about every 2000 years, and Beenay 25 is an astronomer who has discovered irregularities in the orbit of Lagash around its primary sun Alpha. Beenay takes his findings to his superior at the university, Aton, who formulated the Theory of Universal Gravitation (the in-story discussion of this makes light of an article once written about Einstein's theory of relativity, referencing the false notion that "only twelve men" could understand it). This prompts the astronomers at Saro University to seek the cause of this anomaly. Eventually, they discover that the only possible cause of the deviation is an astronomical body that orbits Lagash.