Lost And Found

The ship, a silvery shape perhaps half a kilometer in length, had come to a full stop when the sensor array picked up the object.

“It appears to be some kind of artifact, Captain”, said the Communications Officer.

“An artifact? Out here?” asked the Captain.

The vessel was one of the first of its kind, a long-range science and exploration ship designed to research space outside of the solar system. Debris was to be expected, but the Comms Officer’s description piqued the interest of every crew member on the bridge.

“Yes,” affirmed the Comms Officer. “It’s…humanoid in shape”.

“Do you have visual on the object?”

The Comms Officer nodded. “Yes, Captain”.

“Put it on the screen.”

The view screen flickered from its usual image of star shot blackness into a tight focus on the object. Sure enough, the image on screen revealed a blocky figure with thick appendages and a rounded head.

The crew stared at it, the tension immediately far higher. The crackle of excitement among the crew was palpable. All of them knew that their duties, the months of sojourning among the void performing repetitive data gathering tasks, offered some prospects of exciting discovery, but that was largely an abstract. None had seriously dared to hope that there might be some possibility of uncovering evidence of alien life.

“I’ve run an image search, Captain” said Comms. “It doesn’t match any known vac suits or other objects jettisoned in space by any nation”.

A moment of silence followed. It was clear what had to happen, and a moment later, the Captain gave the order.

“Let’s bring it on board. Helm, bring us alongside.”

The Helm Officer entered the appropriate data and electronic signals shunted along intricate pathways. Thrusters abeam the ship thrummed into life and the vessel scuttled gently sideways through space. A moment later, those on the opposite side of the hull activated and slowed the craft in its move toward the mysterious object, finally bringing it to a gentle stop just a few meters from the thing.

In the silence of extrasolar space, a portal opened, and an assemblage of poles extended, followed by an arthropod unfolding of the arm, tipped with a complicated extremity designed to gently take hold of anything the ship might encounter. These zeroed in on the object, and soon, a complicated series of pressure sensors allowed the claw to envelop the artifact and affirm it was secure. The arm then withdrew into the hull of the ship, and the bridge crew breathed out in perceptible relief when the ship confirmed that the object was safe in the cargo bay.

The Captain rose.

“No one is to enter the cargo bay until we’ve performed full assessments for any biological or radiological agents. The Doctor and I will perform an initial examination in vac suits in ten minutes”.

With that, he exited the bridge.

Ten minutes later, knowledge of the presence of the mystery artifact had spread like an inferno among the crew, and virtually the ship’s entire complement lined the passageway, forming an impromptu honor guard as the Captain and the Doctor approached.

“May we monitor the data you gather, Captain?” inquired the Comms Officer before the two entered the airlock.

The Captain assented.

The crew vibrated with excitement as the portal to the airlock opened with a barely perceptible whoosh and shut behind them again. A moment later, the outer door of the airlock granted the pair access to the cargo bay and shut behind them again.

View screens in the passage and in the hands of the crew flickered into life, as a few of the closer crew attempted to crane their heads and see through the slim windows of the two airlock doors and see the action within through their own eyes.

The artifact lay before the two officers crumpled on the floor, where it had been gingerly laid by the probe arm. The head was encased in an almost globular dome, with a golden sheen to the front of it and tubes snaking around the perimeter. Its appendages were frozen in place, two of apparent manipulation pulled in close to the torso and upturned slightly, while the lower ones, perhaps those of locomotion, were bent slightly below the figure. If it had been upright, the whole effect would have been as a figure seated, perhaps in supplication to some deity, or requesting an offering from a visiting penitent.

The Doctor scanned the figure.

“It’s mostly plastic, with metal elements,” he said, as data poured into his device and across the screen.

“That’s consistent with a vac suit,” said the Captain. “Is it safe to touch?”

“I detect no know chemical, biological, or radiological agents that would be harmful to health,” stated the Doctor. He indicated by dint of a facial expression what might have passed for a shrug.

“Let’s take a sample,” said the Captain, crouching down by their passenger and motioning for the Doctor to pass the scanner.

Carefully, the Captain reached out. His thick gloves were ill suited to such fine work, and so much of wanted to touch the material of the thing with his bare skin; to feel material, he now felt sure, wrought by alien beings; but he knew that if he was harmed, or perhaps worse, damaged the find, such an infraction might end his career.

He found a sort of fabric square that stood proud of rest of the suit. It came away easily in his fingers.

The scanner had a sample tray attached, and the Captain deposited the fabric into this and ran the sampling program.

After a moment he said, “Doctor, look at this.”

The Doctor took the scanner. His eyes widened. “The carbon in this thing shows an age of upwards of thirty million years!”

The Captain stood in stunned silence. He indicated a pair of what appeared to be metal fasteners along the lower rim of the figures helmet.

“I’m going to open it,” he said, flatly.

“But Captain,” protested the Doctor, “you know it isn’t protocol!”

“Doctor,” said the Captain, “this is a voyager, an explorer like us, and have been lost to anyone, floating in the void for eons. If I deliver this to Command, they’ll take it away, and I have to look at this thing’s face and see maybe some hint of what it looked like. If you’re worried, you can go. And I’ll note your official protest in the log.”

The Doctor’s expression wavered for a moment, but after a second, set in determination.

“I’ll help you,” he said.

The two worked to figure out the series of clamps and screws that seemed to hold the helmet shut, and after long moments of turning, wrenching and fumbling, got the thing loose at last.

They expected perhaps a puff of air, or a cloud of dust, or something to token the change in the atmosphere. But raw time had stripped all moving elements and parts from the inside of the suit. Instead, what they were greeted by was clearly a mummy of some unknown being.

It had two eyes and nostrils like they did, but there the similarities ended. Instead of a sucking orifice like the Captain and all his species possessed, this figure had some sort of aperture lined with small rectangular bones. In place of the long proboscis that made for a pleasing visage, this creature’s face was short and flat, with an angled jaw which had perhaps once been possessed of more healthy fat before the ages had desiccated it so. Where the explorers’ species had two slightly oblong eyes in sockets set high on their snouts, this being had two round orbs just above the empty nostrils, and in place of a good smooth torpedo shaped skull, the whole thing was round and still bore the ancient remains of wispy hair.

The Doctor stared in amazement. “Is it some sort of primate, do you think? In Urthra, they have these little monkey things that are very clever. They stole my hat once on vacation.”

“I don’t know. Maybe they can find some DNA after all this time.”

As they stared at the mummified figure, the Captain noticed a glint of gold around the figure’s neck. He reached down, and offered a momentary prayer of forgiveness for parting the chain of a delicate piece of jewelry from the ancient traveler.

It was a necklace, with two rounded lobes at the top and a point at the bottom.

As the Captain examined it, it fell open, revealing a pair of images inside. Clearly two faces of the ancient space traveler’s species, one had a crown of short brown hair and piercing blue eyes, while the other had a smaller, rounder face framed by a cascade of yellow locks. Both had their mouths spread so wide their eyes were obscured.

“Family?” asked the Doctor, as the two regarded the paired faces.

“Probably,” agreed the Captain, and then “Do you think they ever knew what happened to their loved one?”

The Doctor regarded them for a long moment, and answered sadly, “if they did, it doesn’t matter now. They’re long dead. Their whole species is probably gone.”

The Captain agreed. It seemed to him that the excitement of the first confirmed contact with an alien species had been shattered by the glimpse of who this being was as an individual. He was still elated, but couldn’t help but feel for this forgotten comrade, who so long ago had been lost to the void.

After a moment, in silence, the two entered the airlock, and left the alien figure once more to its solitude.