This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/NoOneFromNewEngland on 2024-06-16 20:40:15+00:00.

“What’s that?” someone said.

“What’s what?” the Director replied to whomever it was, among the sea of scientists and engineers and other technicians.

“In the lower left. About 5% from the left margin and… maybe 7% up from the bottom. It’s a shape that looks a little too regular to be part of the natural debris field, even though it’s floating along behind it. Also, it is not tumbling the same as everything else.”

The room went quiet as the hundreds of eyes all tried, in futility, to enhance the grainy image.

All at once, as if on cue, the murmuring began throughout the room. Variations of “It’s just a weird rock” and “it IS spinning differently than everything else” and “yeah, what IS that?” were all silenced when someone had the audacity to vocalize what about half the room were thinking: “it’s an alien craft hiding in the comet tail.” Again, the room went silent. The video from the commentary exploration probe panned past the little, grainy, thing and continued onward. 

The murmurs continued, in small groups, for the remainder of the 7 hours that the probe was passing through the comet’s tail. Tomorrow, normal work would resume as everyone would analyze the data collected; today, though, was special.

Dozens of scientists spent hundreds of hours studying each facet of the probe’s data, each of them wondering, in secret, what the weird object was. Dozens of engineers spent hundreds of hours reviewing the performance telemetry data of the probe, each of them wondering, in secret, what the weird object was. Dozens of technicians went about their daily business, keeping all of the operations machinery up and running, each of them wondering, in secret, what that weird object was. Secrets such as theirs don’t die, they fester; and, eventually, they erupt into gossip and speculation. Within 6 weeks of the probe’s passing the sections of the data stream related to the anomaly were reviewed thousands of times more often than any other section of the data. Opinions were formed and small discussions crept their way into larger discussions until it was apparent that everyone in the facility had an opinion on the topic and was willing to discuss it. Two months after it was noticed, to the day, the cafeteria began erupting in open conversations as groups with differing opinions did their best to unravel opposing views and reinforce their own ideas on the object. Given the lack of data on the object, no one was able to prove their point.

Three months into the perpetual debate the Director called in the core team of the comet tail project to discuss the next phase. Their meeting included verifying the current plan for the next phase of the project, in which the probe would pass through the tail a second time, having used a shorter orbit than the comet’s to race ahead of it. When everyone had affirmed that the plan was as they noted it in their records and documentation, the Director proposed altering the project. “Should we not, instead, spend some of the resources actively looking for, and assessing, ‘the anomaly’ instead of the comet’s debris field? Afterall, it’s all anyone is able to talk about around here and, I must confess, it is intriguing. We have data on several other comets and will have many other opportunities to study comets in the future but this anomaly, even if it turns out to be a small asteroid picked up along the way, could tell us much more than verifying data we already have.”

The assent to the idea was immediate, unanimous, and without hesitation. 

“Ok, great, make it happen.” The Director advised the Project Leads before she dismissed them from her office.

They had another 5 weeks to compile the adjustments to the trajectory and course-correction thruster programming before transmitting it to the probe. More than enough time, assuming the anomaly would be in the same relative position to the comet. If it was not there then that told them a lot about the anomaly, too. The deadline was easy and the work completed well ahead of schedule. The updates transmitted and confirmation received back from the probe. The waiting then began. 7 weeks of waiting. Every day an excruciating exercise in patience in the face of the unknown. The discussions in the cafeteria changed from speculations to what WAS it to what IS it, with everyone sticking to their previous thoughts, each group trying to prove their point with the rehashed arguments that were long past stale and ineffective. 

The day came and, again, the entire facility halted their work and gathered in the flight control room to watch the video feed live. The normal background chatter continued through the entry into the tail, the aura of fluorescing gasses in the solar radiation retaining their beauty, but not the focus of the assembled crowd. For two hours they all watched, everyone scanning the large screen for the first signs of the anomaly. Someone proclaimed “it’s gone, or we screwed up. We’re not going to see it again. This is a waste of time.” The door to the flight control room opened and slammed behind the angry individual. The rest were pushed into silence by the outburst until, shattering the silence, someone else yelled “there it is!” 

The catalytic spotting erupted the room into nervous and excited chatter as everyone stared, their mouths running through all of the reasons why their hypotheses of the anomaly’s nature were correct, in abject eagerness for a better picture.

The anomaly grew in size and prominence in the display, slowly, but measurably so until it occupied a full quarter of the display, dead center. It looked intentionally shaped with lateral symmetry. It tumbled slightly, perhaps 1% the speed of the normal rotational velocity of the debris field object. It shined in a way like nothing else in the debris field, strongly indicated it is of refined metals. “Telemetry from other sensors confirm that the anomaly is laterally symmetrical. Temperature is consistent with the rest of the debris field. No off-gassing from the anomaly, which is a deviation from the majority of the measurable objects within the debris field. Spin is significantly less. LIDAR and RADAR do not penetrate the surface of the anomaly at all, it appears completely solid to them. This is inconsistent with the majority of the debris field objects, most of which have irregular shapes which both can pass through and map as craters.”

A single voice rose above the murmur “is that… A door?” to which a canon of cacophanonic responses replied, mostly affirming that the slight irregularity in the side of the anomaly looked like a door.

The video shuddered, spun off the anomaly and careened around in a dizzying path of multi-axle spins before going completely blank. 

“Report!” the Director’s voice cut through the astonishment rising from the assembled crowd.

“Impact. Telemetry indicates that something hit the probe, spinning it out of control and it crashed into a larger object. A rendering of the telemetry data, converted into an path model, replaced the video feed on the blank wall. “The camera is destroyed. Most of the rest of the equipment is badly damaged. We cannot collect anymore data on the anomaly.”

“Alright, everyone, back to work. Show’s over for today. Leave the probe’s instruments running and collect all data returned by it until it dies.”

—-------

109 years later the comet returned and a ship was ready to rendezvous with the anomaly. 

The mission was uneventful. The Boson field shields allowed the ship to cut through the debris field of the comet without incident. The anomaly was easily located and the recovery ship docked to it with ease. The return voyage to the lunar research base yielded no surprises in operations. The anomaly was placed in a research hangar and it was pressurized. The best scientists and engineers humanity had to offer were stationed at the lunar research base and it would be their life’s work to unravel the secrets of this alien craft.

—--------

47 years passed before the prototype ship was built and ready for testing. Made from the best humanity had to offer, mixed with the secrets extracted from the anomaly, its test flight targeted the comet where the anomaly had been found, easily reaching it in the darkest, deepest space out beyond Makemake. A suite of scans were run on the comet and the ship re-located itself back to the earth orbit. The entire journey was less than a day; 7 hours from the lunar surface to the outbound jump point, the jump, 5 hours scanning the comet and reassessing all of the instruments and engines, the jump home, and another 7 hours from the return point back to the lunar hangar. 

Humanity was finally ready. With the help of whomever it was who made the anomaly, humanity was now ready to explore the stars.

Fleet construction began within a month. Hundreds of exploratory, small-crew ships were constructed, all to be launched for deep space on the anniversary of the anomaly’s first discovery.

—----------

“Sir, I think we have a problem” the space traffic control technician signaled the on-duty controller. 

“Yes? What is it?”

“Well, sir, there are 359 blips in the traffic scopes with no flight plans.”

“359? All at once?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Is it some sort of malfunction?”

“No sir, confirmed through the detection net as well as through the transponders.”

“What are they registered as?”

“That’s part of the problem, sir. According to the transponders, they’re all showing up as the same craft.”

“The sam…

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