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.