On his last visit to the galaxy of his birth, Tlön found only ruins wherever he went. But there were two kinds of ruins. Some were still overgrown with plants, and thus barely discernable without his instruments. And some were easy to spot by the naked eye, but planets on which they could be found showed no signs of life any longer. This is where he would sometimes land and rummage around the crumbled walls. From time to time, he would find small metal objects that withstood the ravages of time. By the time he was ready to abandon his search for sentient species back “home,” as he liked to call the galaxy, he had a small collection of such objects. Without exception, they were ornaments of one kind or another. The one he liked best, he placed between the instruments in the cockpit, and he took a great pleasure out of gazing at it now and then. Made of hardened platinum, it was rectangular. There were nine straight lines inscribed on it lengthwise. Tlön found its simplicity nothing short of mesmerizing.