[ WP ] In the near future , mankind explores the stars in search of life . Life indeed exists beyond Earth , but you , a researcher on a science ship , discover that all of the spacefaring alien civilizations died out . Curiously , their deaths seem directly linked to humanity reaching outer space .

“ Beautiful, isn ’ t it? ” Jane started, spinning around from the hyperspace observation display. A man, dressed in the white dress uniform of a captain, was walking towards her. Captain Andrews, hero of the ISP, or Interplanetary Space Program. She saluted. 
 
 “ Sir, I was just- ” Andrews raised a hand, interrupting her. His footsteps echoed as he walked across the metal floor towards her. 
 
 “ It ’ s quite alright, everybody needs to see this at least once ” they both stared with wonder at the kaleidoscopic display for a few moments. Nobody quite knew why hyperspace was so beautiful. A fluke of photonics, according to the leading scientific theory. 
 
 “ If I may, sir, what are we hoping to discover from this planet? ” Kepler 186-f was one of the first habitable planets discovered during the early days of space exploration, in the dark days before reliable space transportation. 
 
 “ Knowledge? Another sentient species? Another home for humanity? ” Andrews mused. “ After the Martian Massacre, humanity needs a bit of hope, don ’ t you think? ” Jane shuddered. Andrews looked at her with fatherly concern. “ I heard that you were on Mars at the time. I ’ m sorry, I didn ’ t mean- ” 
 
 “ I ’ m fine, I don ’ t want to talk about it ” Andrews looked away. Jane blinked away tears. Twenty years later, ten psychiatrists, and she still couldn ’ t get over it. It was a miracle her application into ISP was accepted at all. 
 
 She remembered the robots searching through houses, looking for anything alive, the pitch black glass of their cameras lacking even a semblance of consciousness. Their reasoning was as alien to humans as a human's was to a cockroach. 
 
 She remembered her parents shoving her into a lead-lined fridge, then hearing their screams as the machines caught up with them. Millions had died in the first few hours. It was one of the triggers for the formation of the ISP. 
 
 Never again, they promised, would AI be given control over war machines. The only reason the combined militaries of the solar system triumphed that day was that the machines lacked control of the orbitals. 
 
 Sometimes, Jane lay awake at night imagining what would have happened if they had given control of warships over to the machines. She often couldn ’ t sleep after that. 
 
 “ Thirty seconds until Emergence ” the ship ’ s intercom suddenly announced. Both of them jumped at that. 
 
 “ I need my chief engineer on the bridge ” Andrews grinned at her. 
 
 “ Yes, sir! ” she grinned back, brushing those dark thoughts from her mind. 
 
 They rushed through the corridors. It was cramped aboard the ISS *Endeavour*, flagship of the ISP navy. Not a millimetre of wasted space. You couldn ’ t afford excess, not when a single mistake could make your lungs explode. 
 
 Arriving on the bridge, Andrews started snapping out commands. 
 
 “ Mobilize all weapons, I don ’ t want us caught with our pants down! ” 
 
 “ Aye, captain ” 
 
 “ Five seconds to Emergence ” the computer intoned. Only soft AIs were allowed to be used nowadays, and only on military ships. “ One second to Emergence. ” 
 
 The ship shuddered as they exited hyperspace, the titanium structure seeming to moan in relief, as though a great weight had suddenly been lifted. Reports started trickling in from every section of the ship. 
 
 “ Scanning for planetary bodies ” the computer announced. 
 
 “ Locate Kepler 186-f ” Andrews commanded. 
 
 “ Scanning complete, Kepler 186-f located. Estimate ten minutes arrival time using conventional nuclear thrusters. ” Jane checked her displays. No signals detected from the planet. 
 
 Wait. There was something. Extremely faint, a radio frequency, but still there. She ordered the ship to point its state of the art cameras in the signal ’ s direction. Even with quantum computing, image analysis still took a few seconds. Finally, the computer spat out the results onto her display. 
 
 ‘ NO OBJECTS DETECTED ’ the computer announced, seeming almost chuffed. Jane reran the analysis. The same result popped up. That couldn ’ t be right. 
 
 “ Rerun with adaptive learning enabled ” her hand clenched unconsciously. The computer acknowledged, taking a full minute to return results this time. 
 
 ‘ POSSIBLE CANDIDATE FOR SPACE STATION ’ it announced, once again chuffed, as computers always seem to be after successfully completing a task. Jane stared. No way. First alien contact, and *she* was the one who ’ d found it? 
 
 “ Captain, there appears to be a space station beaming radio waves throughout the system! ” she announced. Andrews ’ eyes widened, as did everyone else ’ s on the bridge. Real aliens, here? They'd expected to go through several systems before finding technologically-advanced life. 
 
 Andrews stared at the main screen, showing a world that looked remarkably like Earth, deep in thought for several minutes. 
 
 “ Try to translate what it's saying ” he finally decided. Jane spun around, running one of the programs she ’ d developed for her thesis. The thesis, incidentally, that had allowed her admission into ISP. It basically allowed a computer to translate any language, given enough processing power. 
 
 Admittedly she'd first developed it after watching an episode of Doctor Who and hoping the Doctor would find her, but then again, who did n't want that? 
 
 The computer grudgingly allowed her program to be installed, and dutifully ran it. After several more minutes, it finished translating the radio-wave information signal. It seemed strange that a computer could so easily translate something created by aliens, Jane mused, but then again there were only so many ways to skin a cat. 
 
 It seemed as though the aliens used a similar information storage method as humans. Binary, the computer informed her. Linguistics analysis confirmed a language based around an alphabet consisting of 34 letters. 
 
 The radio signal apparently contained a'tutorial' showing how the language worked, and then a strange, repeating'real' message. At least these aliens were helpful enough, thought Jane. Hopefully that meant they were friendly. 
 
 “ Sir, translation completed, would you like me to play it on the main screen? ” she asked. Andrews nodded, and she tapped her display. 
 
 “ RUN. RUN AWAY. RUN. RUN AWAY ” the computer intoned. “ RUN. RUN AWAY. RUN. RUN AWAY. ” 
 
 Andrews paled. 
 
'Two minutes until planetary gravity well reached, reverse thrusters engaged'' the computer cheerfully announced, completely oblivious to the mood. 
 
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 [ Part 2 is up! ] ( https: //www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/5avjc8/wp_in_the_near_future_mankind_explores_the_stars/d9k06bb/ ) 
 
 [ Part 3 is here ] ( https: //www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/5avjc8/wp_in_the_near_future_mankind_explores_the_stars/d9k7fzw/ ) 
 
 [ Part 4 finished ] ( https: //www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/5avjc8/wp_in_the_near_future_mankind_explores_the_stars/d9l2w0t/ ) 

