By the close of the 28th century, man - as tenuous as the term now seems - was forced to concede that the diversity of life in the Milky Way stretched far beyond that of his own races. Humanity's growth from planet-locked to space-faring species was marked out by tentative, often painful explorations that spanned centuries.
As other Galactic inhabitants were encountered, many were discovered to possess biological similarities to Terrans, leading all to question their true origins. Certainly, the concept of several apparently disparate races originating from a common point was not without precedent; it is widely accepted that Terran humanoids all stemmed from a single point, expanding so far afield that scattered pockets of them were able to survive cosmic events that wiped out most Terran life.
These remnants, gradually recovering from the planet-wide catastrophe that almost destroyed them, continued to develop separate from their ancestors for millennia. Ultimately they fathered races bearing few similarities to their common ancestors; the primitive resources of pre-crisis humanoids and the destruction of what few historical records existed made it impossible to definitively establish humankind's source.
When it was discovered that other species separated from Terra by dozens of light-years were biologically similar, the picture was more confounded still. After communications were established with those species - though not always successful or productive - the sharing of historical records revealed similarities in technological development as well. This suggested not only that the species involved may have had common ancestors, but that these progenitors still existed and were subtly intervening in the growth of their descendants.
* * * * *
As the reader may be aware, the historical data that arguably imply this conclusion are not the only indications there may be Others who also share - or shared - the Galaxy with us. During humanity's guarded and furtive exploration of its immediate Galactic neighbourhood, several anomalous discoveries were made which, while still indeterminate in origin, were undeniable indications of alien races that predate, and far exceed technologically, those encountered to date.
One such discovery, or technically discoveries, is Unidentified Objects #003 and #024. Both were discovered decades apart and no link between the two was initially spotted, until a fortunate accident revealed how they connected small chapters of human and interstellar history.
Object #003, as the ident tag suggests, was encountered fairly early in Galactic exploration, moreover in a sector long charted. Jump drives had been pioneered some fifteen years earlier and had allowed generally safe and expeditious traversal of long routes but previous, regrettable hostilities following botched First Contact had meant further space exploration was a delicate and cautious affair.
The initial detection was made when a Pan Am Space Clipper, after emerging from warp on the Scorpius Strait, encountered problems jumping to its next position fix. Diagnostic tests ruled out a fault with the jump drive and a subsequent survey of the surroundings, though limited by the Clipper's equipment, found a physical obstruction was preventing jump (this was an automatic safeguard, designed to prevent drive systems being overloaded by attempting to drag nearby objects into warp as well). It was not unknown for debris to occasionally drift through the spacelanes so this was not particularly unusual, but scans of the object were inconclusive. The crew later reported the object appeared to be artificial, but spaceline schedules prevailed; the Clipper dropped a marker beacon, moved clear of the object on conventional thrusters and continued on its way.
Several days later a Terran Space Agency scout was able to make contact with the object - by then designated Object #003 - though as it was obstructing a major trunk route it was towed into orbit around a nearby star before detailed inspection was carried out.
It was clearly a large spacecraft, albeit of an unfamiliar design. Despite being some six hundred metres long it was not entirely dissimilar in configuration to a Terran atmospheric craft; sections guesstimated as engine mounts, gas collectors, control surfaces and reaction control systems were all present, with a voluminous cylindrical fuselage. However, the whole ship was heavily damaged, evidently missing several major sections and with others only attached to structural remnants or tangled in wreckage.
A party was able to board the craft, though as far as could be determined none of the on-board systems were functioning and the hull was incapable of maintaining pressurisation. No remains of the ship's crew could be found, and inspection of what appeared to be the command deck revealed neither its origins nor the length of time it had been adrift.
The most interesting and somewhat shocking aspect of Object #003 was its cargo. Tethered in a holding bay of some sort, the inspection team found a small saucer-shaped craft. Although itself missing large sections, what remained of the craft was in good condition and appeared to be of pre-crisis Terran construction. On further inspection the cockpit of the craft was found to contain two human corpses, dressed in 20th-century fatigues of the former United States military. The corpses were fairly well-preserved and they, along with the records recovered from both ships were returned to the TSA Research Department for detailed analysis.
The corpses were subsequently confirmed by DNA and skeletal identification to be a Colonel and Major of the former United States Air Force; archived personnel records of the North American State Military listed both as killed in action in 1952, though with no detail or biographical information available on either.
All attempts to translate the records obtained from Object #003 have so far failed. The logs of the smaller craft required no translation, though antique playback equipment had to be unearthed to view them. A video and audio recording, assumed to be taken from the craft the bodies were found in, is aerial night footage tracking a small wheeled vehicle, showing it stopping, the occupants disembarking and staring in apparent horror at the camera, then subsequently collapsing. The craft's own recording ends abruptly a short time later. The following is an excerpt from the audio stream:
Pilot 1: Ranch, we got the subjects in sight, over.
Operator: Six-four, copy that.
Pilot 2: Tweak it right a bit.
Pilot 1: It's twitchy.
Pilot 2: Okay, bring it down. (pause) Heh, look at those
two.
Pilot 1: We're going to hell sir, you know that?
(both laugh)
Pilot 2: That's odd.
Pilot 1: What?
Pilot 2: Another contact at nine o'clock. Stand by.
Ranch, who else is out here, over?
Operator: Six-four, I got nothing, over.
(a roar is audible on the recording)
Pilot 2: Jack... what is that thing?
Pilot 1: How the hell should I know, sir?
Pilot 2: (SHOUT) Maximum speed! I think...(end)
The circumstances of this event are still unclear, but it appears to at least partially confirm the theory prevalent in small subsets of pre-crisis Terran popular culture, that military organisations were staging 'alien abductions', although the motives for this are also unclear.
Whatever the reason for the subterfuge, it seems that in an ironic twist of ancient fate, those staging the 'abduction' were themselves captured during the act by either Object #003 or by some other craft, then transported away from Terra, ultimately arriving where they were found. A search of tracking archives indicates no other craft were present in the area, though it is likely such a comparatively advanced craft would have easily been able to evade the tracking devices of the time.
* * * * *
Absent further clues as to its purpose or origin, Object #003 was eventually relegated to a historical curiosity and towed to a Terran orbital museum. No further analysis was run or planned, but low-key attempts by scattered individuals to decode the language of the ship's records continued.
Although the analysis of the Terran craft partially explained its condition and location, nothing found spoke to how the capturing ship came to be wrecked. Dating methods were employed in an attempt to determine its age but the results were inconclusive; certainly there had been no reports by Terran ships of accidents or encounters with unknown ships along the retroactive course. This was further cross-checked with the pertinent authorities of other species known to use the surrounding space, with the same negative results.
After some years, interest in the wreck had diminished and it was moved to a mothballing complex. No further trace of its past had surfaced and neither had any good theories, until some thirty years later when a formation of hydrogen harvesters operating in the Helix Nebula picked up an object in their scoop route. The crews notified TSA and moved on, reporting an artificial object not squawking or responding to repeated hails. It took them several attempts to register their reports due to communications interference.
By this time, unregistered artificial objects (UAOs) had been reported by Terran ships often enough that the TSA had established a small dedicated team for investigation of such artefacts; they arrived on the scene within a day.
Whatever Object #024 had been, it was impossible to determine. All that remained were two hollow objects drifting in parallel tracks, one about twice the size of the other, shaped like upturned, flat-bottomed boat hulls. Both were empty hulks and what remained of the outer structures was in very poor condition, apparently having been drifting in space for about two hundred years. After extensive audio and visual records of both were taken and sections of hull removed for study, the remains were destroyed as they were emitting dangerous levels of radiation and unsafe to leave adrift.
Object #024's wreckage gave no indication of its purpose or the nature of its builders. With such little data to go on, archaeological interest was limited and not revived until several years later. A misfiling of artefects in a museum archive happened to bring sections of Objects #003 and #024 together; the filing clerk noticed visual similarities in both and resubmitted them to the TSA Research Department for comparative analysis.
The study found that both samples contained material found in the composition of the other, strongly suggesting the two had come into contact at some point. Object #003 was quickly pulled out of storage and the exterior inspected again, to find several crushed sections of the hull of Object #024 entangled in its own twisted skeleton. Whether the opposite was true is not definite, but frame analysis of the video records of Object #024 appears to indeed show parts of Object #003's hull in the wreckage, suggesting that somehow a mid-space collision occurred.
There would be no way of determining where this occurred, and the causal factors will most likely remain a mystery forever. At the time of writing, still nothing is known about the occupants of either spacecraft. Object #003 must be at least as old as Object #024 was determined to be, raising the unsettling question of how the Terran craft and the corpses inside were so well-preserved, despite ostensibly being some six hundred years old at the time of the collision.
Although research and theorising continues, it seems unlikely that any firm conclusion will ever be reached as to what occurred in the intervening time. Cosmic archaeology relies as much on luck as on the skills of its practitioners, and notwithstanding appearances of further evidence as fortuitous as that of Object #024, research avenues are virtually all spent.
These discoveries are, nonetheless, a heartening testament that even relatively advanced races may be as fallible and vulnerable as our own. That their interstellar forays carry the same risks for them as ours do for us. Clearly, we too will suffer struggle and setbacks in our reach for the stars, but these trials should serve only to strengthen our resolve to earn our place among the galactic civilisations.
ScifiQuest 2106
Loosely based on a segment of the TTA book 'Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD' by Stewart Cowley, with an idea cribbed from an episode of The X-Files.