Memorial: Journal Entry of Patrick Teller

September 29, 2031

I've been at Lagrange Point 2 (LP2) for only a month and already I've managed to make an enemy of General Hajicek - only the most powerful person overseeing the Derelict Program.

Being hired to study the six alien bodies on the derelict, as chiché as it sounds, is the opportunity of a lifetime. Only five years ago, as a graduate student, I had serious doubts about xenobiology as a career path. We were still speculating about the best place to find life on Mars when the Derelict arrived. Suddenly xenobiology is the hottest field in academic study. It makes one feel a bit like a very lucky fortune teller.

My first impressions of the alien mummies was that they were big lizards but their physiology was fascinating. Their body style is not too far removed from ours with bilateral symmetry but all their vital organs are encased in a tortoise like shell with fascinating silica-like properties. And they even have blue blood! Chemical differences aside, it is clear that they were intelligent. They made use of technology that enhanced their bodies, had a symbolic language of some kind and, in the opinion of at least one of my colleagues, may have maintained ritual superstitions.

Spend any time with them and it becomes clear that the old movies never really did extraterrestrials justice. The stories were always so one-sided. Alien comes to earth, eats someone, destroys something, kills people, et cetera. These beings were of little threat to us, aside from maybe catching some exotic virus or germ frozen dormant for the last 10,000 years. Their lives were extinguished in some accident or catastrophe that their technology couldn't save them from which makes them seem as fragile as us.

I can't help wondering if there was someone they left behind on their world. Is there some planet where their history records that this vessel was presumed lost like some Greek trading ship on the ancient Mediterranean Sea? Does their history even remember them? They say that it is important not to anthropomorphize when doing this sort of studywork but it is hard to separate oneself from those kinds of thoughts when lab work gets tedious.

The General, on several occasions, has remarked that it is important to "know our enemy" when asked what our studies hope to accomplish. Some think he is just using a military metaphor to get a point across. My feeling is that it is something deeper and more primitive. After all, there's a good number of people who are afraid that we're looking extermination in the face. Some of the military minds around here have speculated aloud that the ship just "looks" like something military. But you'd think that after 10,000 years somebody would have come to claim it. The fearful seem to think that because the aliens are more technologically advanced, they would want to wipe us out. It's more of that movie-thinking coming into play.

I realized that these were once thinking, feeling, beings and they deserved some sort of respect. Some way to acknowledge that they were intelligent beings and not simply experiments to be studied.

I brought up the subject at a recent staff meeting. The General, in his famous Texas drawl explained the situation very bluntly.

"Son," he bellowed, "do you think I'm running an E.T. funeral home here? I'm not havin' a memorial for a bunch of dead aliens. Hell, I don't even know if they were religious!"

He addressed the rest of the room for effect and to ensure my embarrassment was complete, "Our job here, for anyone who is unclear, is to learn as much about these critters as we can. Learn where they came from, why they are here, how to use their tech and, if necessary, how to defend ourselves should the time come."

After the meeting I plodded to the examination lab and began the long biohazard suit-up and coms check process. I proceeded through the pressure doors to the main lab and silently moved to where the six extraterrestrials were lined up for the day's rounds of tests. Our executive team and the various techs were gathered listening to the morning briefing but I wasn't getting any audio on the open channel.

"What's going on?" I said and someone signaled for me to switch to the lab-only channel. I heard the familiar voice of our xenobiology lead speaking.

"-launched themselves across the galaxy and found their end far from home." she said, "Their influence will have a profound effect on the inhabitants of our world for centuries to come. Though they are lost to their home they have been found here. Now let's recognize their sacrifice with a moment of silence."

The channel became quiet and a few heads bowed around me in contemplation. Then in a less reverent tone she continued, "Just because some people can't see past the end of their medal-covered uniforms doesn't mean we can't privately pay respects to fellow explorers." I saw her eyes fix on me with a grin, "Now let's get back to work, folks."

Origins 6

In late 2028 the derelict arrived at earth and a coalition of governments including the E.U., Japan, and the United States formed a team to study it. Fears of unleashing an alien pandemic on the world population prompted the creation of a laboratory at an Earth-Moon Lagrange point. There, the derelict would float, poised between two opposing forces, where the moon and earth's gravity balanced each other.

Unsurprisingly, the first teams aboard found the ship devoid of life. However, there were few members of the crew left. Most had been lost to the depths of space or to whatever disaster struck the derelict. The bodies that remained appeared, in the words of one team member, to be "glass lizard-bugs" a mix of reptile, insect and inorganic crystal.

An unfortunate crew member in a tangle of conduits.

China officially protested what they called the "commandeering" of a vessel under Chinese control. The country unsuccessfully petitioned to have the derelict turned over to an international team of their choosing. However, the world community was not convinced of China's good intentions. The perception was furthered by China's growing influence in world politics and the increasing need for resources which put it at odds with the other major powers. Any technologies China could derive from the alien derelict would surely be used to press a financial and military advantage on a steadily shrinking globe. China would have to be satisfied with what it could learn from its own section of the derelict.

Within five years, a small space-going city formed at the Lagrange Point filled with scientists and engineers eager to understand the ship's secrets. The aliens were able to cross vast interstellar distances suggesting a "hyperdrive" technology as well as hints at advanced techniques for manipulating gravity and the electromagnetic force. The aliens also appeared able to engineer their ships to grow themselves while integrating the necessary structures to make space travel possible. At least one study team published a paper suggesting the derelict might have been alive in some basic way.

A dark and undamaged corridor on the alien ship.

Effects from altering our environment pushed many countries into direct competition, and sometimes conflict, over the changing map of earth and its resources. The arrival of the derelict gave us new technologies that touched every aspect of human life. It also afforded the means to leave our planet far more easily than had ever been accomplished before. Explorers and entrepreneurs soon began to launch themselves into space. Some to seek greater riches and new worlds to conquer. Others to ensure that when we might finally met living aliens we were not at a disadvantage.

As with all major undertakings, exploration and colonization would not prove to be easy.

Origins 5

The Chinese mission arrived at the derelict first in hopes of staking a claim to salvage rights. The U.S. Expedition arrived just days later and took up a parallel course 100 kilometers away to observe. Mission Commander Ronald Levingson (Colonel, U.S. Air Force) transmitted his impressions of this amazing vehicle back to a global audience on earth.

"It's probably about the size of an aircraft carrier." He commented, "Light gray with irregular protrusions along the course of the hull. I'm not sure which end is forward but if I had to guess, I'd say it's the back end that is torn off. And not cleanly by any estimation."

"Aside from that it seems to be fairly intact. It resembles a giant sea animal, the hull plating reminds me of a lobster. We've had no indication that it's powered or controlled or that it is responding to our presence. I'm guessing the Chinese 'delegation' would have noticed something by now, anyway. (Mission Specialist Takahiro) Tanaka is getting ready to launch the probes to get a closer look but from this vantage, if the Chinese can't get it slowed, I think we've got a good shot at it ourselves."

Robotic probes launched to study the derelict closer revealed a slowly tumbling, battered hulk more than 300 meters long. One end had been severely damaged and sections of its interior structure were visible. The exposed tangle of conduits and passages resembled the entrails of something once alive. Along its hull were occasional meteor punctures and radiation damage. Clearly, it had been in space a very long time-perhaps even longer than 10,000 years.


The Chinese expedition had prepared a trio of robotic rocket packs to attempt to slow the derelict. Unfortunately, it seemed that they would claim the prize and the U.S. Expedition would have to be content to escort the victors back to earth. However, as the Chinese expedition began their operation, only one of the three thrusters functioned properly. At best the Chinese would only be able to cease the tumbling. Then a second thruster exploded violently forcing the Chinese to retreat to a safe distance. Once they were out of the way, robots from the U.S. expedition initiated a risky move to discard the malfunctioning packs and attach their own.

Victory was brief, however. The robots had succeeded in halting the tumbling and even nearly slowing the derelict but the forces necessary to alter it's orbit placed stress on the fragile hull. A 100 meter section broke away and the Chinese expedition moved rapidly to claim their consolation prize.