- Local time
- Today 9:03 PM
- Messages
- 86
- Pronouns
- she/her
They named it The Wayfarer.
It had appeared on the Interstellar Relay 100 days ago – first as a speck on deep space scans, then as a distant bauble worth monitoring, and ultimately as a confirmed rogue object on a trajectory skimming just past the edge of their solar system. Initial calculations predicted, at worst, a temporary nuisance.
Until the asteroid began to slow.
And subtly began to alter its own course.
Physicists were baffled. A planetary-mass object of this size had no propulsion system, no energy signature – no tail or plasma wake to indicate thrust – yet it was accelerating. It defied every known law of matter. The first probe confirmed its impossible behavior; the second and third never returned.
By Day 75, humanity was fracturing.
Some clung stubbornly to reason and science, desperately seeking answers in calculations and equations. Others turned starward, interpreting the approaching object as a fulfillment a prophecy made manifest. Others still found newfound purpose in fringe cults that worshipped the object as a cosmic herald – perhaps of judgement, or perhaps mercy. Across the system, colonies fell to chaos – some through uprising, others through collapse. Governments scrambled to reassert control, but their efforts proved almost comical in the aftermath that followed the widespread panic that had already consumed so many.
The first clear image came on Day 50 when The Wayfarer passed by their outer most sensors at the edges of their system.
Its irregular topography seemed to shift when observed, scans never returning the same rock formations or patterns twice. The mineral composition of the surface was a mixture of common periodic elements and an unidentified metallic ore that did not register on any of their telemetry. Far below, sensors detected complex geometry beneath the jagged outer crust: hollow cavities, maybe even artificial structures? Or were they vast, interconnected tunnels that had been carved by something massive? Certainty at this distance was next to impossible.
Then on Day 25, it began to transmit.
A signal, repeating every 100 seconds on loop. Humanity's brightest codebreakers, linguists, sociologists, and even archaeologists tried to demystify its meaning and failed. The Interstellar Star Vessel – ISV Pathfinder – was dispatched for direct observation and potential first contact… or last. They were a a mixed crew of scientific and military personnel and their mission as it had been explained to them was very simple: observe and record.
They had 5 days left. Once The Wayfarer reached the first human colonies, well… it probably wouldn't matter anymore anyway.
The Pathfinder adjusted to intercept, maintaining a cautious berth of several hundred thousand kilometers. The object loomed in the void and on every screen and instrument, vast, cold, and impossibly large. Again, sensors returned only impossible data – until it was too late. All telemetry now pointed to one disturbing conclusion:
The Wayfarer might not be a meteor at all.
On the final day of the countdown, the crew of the Pathfinder sent a single transmission. It burst across every relay in the inhabited system, repeating every 100 seconds, this time in a common human language for the whole system to understand:
MANKIND IS NOT PREPARED. GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOULS.
It had appeared on the Interstellar Relay 100 days ago – first as a speck on deep space scans, then as a distant bauble worth monitoring, and ultimately as a confirmed rogue object on a trajectory skimming just past the edge of their solar system. Initial calculations predicted, at worst, a temporary nuisance.
Until the asteroid began to slow.
And subtly began to alter its own course.
Physicists were baffled. A planetary-mass object of this size had no propulsion system, no energy signature – no tail or plasma wake to indicate thrust – yet it was accelerating. It defied every known law of matter. The first probe confirmed its impossible behavior; the second and third never returned.
By Day 75, humanity was fracturing.
Some clung stubbornly to reason and science, desperately seeking answers in calculations and equations. Others turned starward, interpreting the approaching object as a fulfillment a prophecy made manifest. Others still found newfound purpose in fringe cults that worshipped the object as a cosmic herald – perhaps of judgement, or perhaps mercy. Across the system, colonies fell to chaos – some through uprising, others through collapse. Governments scrambled to reassert control, but their efforts proved almost comical in the aftermath that followed the widespread panic that had already consumed so many.
The first clear image came on Day 50 when The Wayfarer passed by their outer most sensors at the edges of their system.
Its irregular topography seemed to shift when observed, scans never returning the same rock formations or patterns twice. The mineral composition of the surface was a mixture of common periodic elements and an unidentified metallic ore that did not register on any of their telemetry. Far below, sensors detected complex geometry beneath the jagged outer crust: hollow cavities, maybe even artificial structures? Or were they vast, interconnected tunnels that had been carved by something massive? Certainty at this distance was next to impossible.
Then on Day 25, it began to transmit.
A signal, repeating every 100 seconds on loop. Humanity's brightest codebreakers, linguists, sociologists, and even archaeologists tried to demystify its meaning and failed. The Interstellar Star Vessel – ISV Pathfinder – was dispatched for direct observation and potential first contact… or last. They were a a mixed crew of scientific and military personnel and their mission as it had been explained to them was very simple: observe and record.
They had 5 days left. Once The Wayfarer reached the first human colonies, well… it probably wouldn't matter anymore anyway.
The Pathfinder adjusted to intercept, maintaining a cautious berth of several hundred thousand kilometers. The object loomed in the void and on every screen and instrument, vast, cold, and impossibly large. Again, sensors returned only impossible data – until it was too late. All telemetry now pointed to one disturbing conclusion:
The Wayfarer might not be a meteor at all.
On the final day of the countdown, the crew of the Pathfinder sent a single transmission. It burst across every relay in the inhabited system, repeating every 100 seconds, this time in a common human language for the whole system to understand:
MANKIND IS NOT PREPARED. GOD HAVE MERCY ON YOUR SOULS.