Sheet metal, bolted down in overlapping plates, forms the ground in a blank silver-grey monotony. Dim yellow tracking lights follow the edges of the massive plates, but the faint illumination that hangs over the area is mostly reflected from the plates themselves, captured from the innumerable twinkling and flashing lights up in the vault of darkness above. Indeed, if you didn't know better, you might think yourself on the surface, beneath the vault of space and stars. Yet the lights that dot the emptiness above your head are artificial, flares of red-gold and brief white sparks interspersing with occasional bluish crackles that illuminate a maze of pipes, glass tubes, and other unrecognizable structures interlaced within the cavernous vault. Far to the west, a glowing pillar seems to hang