[ WP ] [ X-Post from /r/futurewhatif ] We send a small group of diverse people with supplies to a planet similar enough to Earth to allow them to colonize it . Soon after they land , Solar flares ( or whatever ) stop us from contacting them for 100+ years . After that time we are able to speak with them again .

When the ARROW went dark, many argued it would never come back online. Solar flares had torn our communication channel to ribbons and the odds were that, assuming the colony even made it through the first few months, we wouldn ’ t be hearing from them again. 
 
 Years passed and the public became ever more agitated, scrambling for any information on the new world that we so desperately needed. Their cries grew louder while the silence from the console became deafening. 
 
 The men and women on that ship had known a return journey was out of the question. They had known, must have known, that their time on X-1445 would have been short. An establishing colony could never be expected to survive for long on the alien world based on what little information we managed to gather in advance. 
 
 The deal was this: In time, they would read us their eulogies and we would listen. We would learn from their sacrifice and we would return equipped with the knowledge we needed to flourish. 
 
 In the end, it was President Marcow ’ s administration that made the call. The government could not afford to keep the lights on indefinitely for a project that was almost certainly a failure. Privately, he had confided to my predecessor that $ 30 billion a year was too much to spend on a ‘ flashlight searching out corpses. ’ That flashlight, Project Phoenix, was stripped to the bone and the ARROW declared lost. 
 
 After a century of silence, all that survived was in this room. If a message had made it out it would arrive here. Now the bunker was full of military and scientific personal for the first time in decades. Every eye was trained on the back of the luckless Dr Hamilton as he hunched over the screen. 
 
 “ The flares have indeed subsided ”, he said. “ Communication is now theoretically possible. ” 
 
 A perpetually nervous man to begin with, faced with the rapt attention of the assembled dignitaries he looked ready to fall apart altogether. Spending 20 years underground in a room no one remembers, waiting for a signal no one believes will arrive does not build a sturdy psyche. 
 
 “ What ’ s the damn message? ” General Miller was looking uncomfortable at the front of the small crowd. “ You said there was a message? ” 
 
 “ Not…yes, a signal. It ’ s a message but it ’ s not… ” Dr Hamilton struggled. 
 
 “ Son ”, the General growled. “ You activated the protocol. We ’ re here. If you ’ ve brought us down into this damp little shitbox just to tell us got overexcited and jumped the gun … ” 
 
 “ It ’ s a message ”, Dr. Hamilton said more firmly. “ It ’ s from near the site of the ARROW landing. I don ’ t know who sent it and I can ’ t verify how old it is. But it ’ s genuine. ” 
 
 “ How near? ” I asked. 
 
 “ I can ’ t be sure if the information left in the files is correct but the signal is coming from a point roughly 2,000 miles north of where the ARROW should have landed. ” 
 
 The heavy silence that descended was punctuated by a certain amount of shuffling of feet. Those responsible for the failures of the project were long dead. Those responsible for picking up the pieces were looking nervously at Dr. Hamilton. 
 
 “ The message is garbled ”, he said, now facing the crowd. “ This is what we have: ‘ Heavy losses….Colonies A through K are lost… ’ ” 
 
 “ What the hell are… ” the General started but the doctor pressed forwards, forcing him back into silence. 
 
 “ I accept the terms of evacuation offered by …being on same offered by him on the twentieth prior to the commencement of hostilities. ” Dr. Hamilton glanced up. “ That ’ s it. ” 
 
 “ Then it ’ s a mistake ”, I said. 
 
 He shook his head. “ No mistake. It is without question X-1445. But… ” His hands were trembling. 
 
 He waved towards the screens behind him. “ The message has come through the right channel but that ’ s only because it was sent out as an open communication. This was a scattershot signal, sent out on every frequency. They either took every option available to them in the hope this would reach us… ” 
 
 “ Or it wasn ’ t meant for us ”, I finished. 

