[ WP ] A Derelict Spacecraft Turns out to be a Library

“ Engage evasive program lambda ” The captain gripped her seat as the forces from the evasive maneuvers made their way past the inertial damping system. “ Report ” 
 “ Sir, appears to be an automated defense system we activated when we came within range. ” 
 “ All automated systems are required to comply with galactic-standards, why didn ’ t we receive a warning message? ” 
 “ Carbon-scanners seem to be malfunctioning, but this ship may have been built before the galactic-standards were implemented. ” 
 “ This ship must almost half a milli-rot old to be made before the gs was passed. Is there any automated transmission? ” 
 “ No sir ” 
 “ Any visual markings? ” 
 “ We ’ re not within visual range yet, we ’ re only within carbon scanner range. ” 
 “ Does the turret pose a threat? ” 
 “ No sir, it launches radioactive projectiles at just under 0.03C, evasive programming can keep us safe until we are within range to disable the turrets with our EPM pulser. ” 
 “ Get us closer, bring us within transport range, I want to know what was so valuable that an automated turret was installed. ” 
 “ Yes sir. ” 
 Once the turret ’ s targeting pattern was decoded, the evasive maneuvers became much more gradual, until finally, the EPM pulser was able to disable whatever circuitry had been running the turrets. The captain stood up and walked to the view portal. A small silver spacecraft, unlike any he had ever seen before floated in front of him. 
 “ What ’ s it ’ s speed commander? ” 
 “ About 0.001C ” 
 “ Any radiation threat? ” 
 “ No sir. ” 
 “ Dark energy emissions? ” 
 “ Just background levels. ” 
 “ No singularity drive? ” 
 “ No sir, it appears this ship may be from well before the development of the singularity technology. ” 
 “ That ’ s almost an entire milli-rot. What do those markings mean? ” 
 “ The computer is running them through the translation matrix now sir ” 
 “ Has anyone ever seen anything like that? ” The captain turned from the view screen towards her bridge crew. The ship, a silver cylinder with two projecting arms and a conical thruster emerging from the back. 
 No one responded, it was something entirely new. 
 “ Sir, propulsion is through an ion-acceleration technique. ” 
 “ What the hell is ion-acceleration? ” 
 “ Dead-end pre-C technology pursued by the Rathion ’ s about a micro-rot ago. Offers unlimited accelerative capabilities, but over long periods of time. ” 
 “ Can we use its current speed and location to estimate where it came from? ” 
 The science-officer hesitated before responding. “ We already have sir. ” 
 “ And? ” 
 “ Depending on its ’ age, it ’ s either from the Oshyad arm of the galaxy, or outside the galaxy. ” 
 “ What the hell is the Oshyad arm? ” The captain thought back to galactic-geocation class back at the academy, an age ago, when she had to memorize all of the arms of the galaxy, but couldn ’ t recall an Oshyad arm. ” 
 “ It ’ s a spur of the Messier arm, on the outer edge. The carbon sensors indicate the material for this craft was created approximately 0.98 rotations ago. ” There was an audible intake of breath on the bridge. The galaxy was assumed to have been devoid of sentient life before 0.5 rotations. “ Sir, the translation matrix has decoded the markings. ” 
 “ How? ” 
 “ Unsure sir, we lease the translation technology from the Bolians. ” 
 “ What does it say. ” 
 “ Quarantine, or prison. ” 
 “ Which one? ” 
 “ The matrix is not sure, but there are several warning symbols as well. ” 
 “ Get a boarding party together, go see what ’ s been imprisoned since before sentient life. ” 
 “ Yes sir. ” 
 The craft had a simple mechanical hatch that was quickly pressurized and the boarding party stepped into the interior. The atmosphere had long ago escaped through micro cracks in the metal structure, but the contents were perfectly preserved. Stacks of parcels, each containing hundreds of pages of precisely folded micro-metal pages filled the walls. Each page showed hundreds of smaller mysterious characters. An inefficient way of storing information the commander remarked as he began the process of transferring all the parcels back to the ship. 
 “ Report commander. ” 
 “ Sir, the craft is filled with what appear to be reading vessels in the same language as the warning. ” 
 “ What ’ s so dangerous about those? ” 
 “ Unsure sir, I ’ m having them sent to the isolation lab for de-contamination and then we ’ ll put them through the translation matrix. ” 
 “ Sounds good, carry on commander. ” 
 Some time later, when the parcels had all been transferred and the ship had been flagged for retrieval by a larger cargo-preservation vessel the bridge crew held its post-mission briefing. 
 “ …The pages were made of an alloy of gold and platinum and then engraved by a laser. The process must have taken quite a long time to complete. ” 
 “ Anything on the translation? ” 
 They all appear to have been written in slightly different languages, but we should be getting the report any moment now. ” A chirp echoed throughout the room as the report was instantly downloaded into the display chips of all the officers. At first it was a list of titles, four of the reading-vessels: 
 *Being: All to Being* 
 *A Criticism of Pure Reason* 
 *The Wealth of Sovereignties* 
 *The Great Charter of Liberties* 
 The computer was uploading the contents of each parcel as it completed it. It was a slow way of assimilating information, but the bridge crew was hypnotized by what they saw. Ideas, imprisoned for an eon had been released once again. 

