Captain, there's something. There. Right there.

I see it. What is a scour picking up?

We've got metal, plastics, definitely synthetic materials. It's a spaceship, Captain.

A spaceship. What are you doing there?

Captain Takhtun Cantari placed his hand on my shoulder and squinted at my screen, then turned his head to the window.

In front of us, the comet we call Mother's Light Spun slowly in the deep black of space.

Mother's Light holds a special place in our history. It once burned across the night sky of our homeworld,

Thramaria, several hundred cycles ago.

Brighter than any before it, the comet had been taken as a divine sign, prompting several warring empires to declare peace.

Later unifying into the planet's first world government.

This was the catalyst for a renaissance that had advanced Thramaria science and technology in leaps and bounds.

Until finally, 20 cycles ago, we had launched our first chemical rocket into orbit, which is where we found the Federation waiting for us, with open arms.

The Federation accelerated our technology even more.

The vessel we were in represented the pinnacle of Thramaria engineering.

It was our first faster than light ship, built based on technology bartered from the Federation soon after first contact.

Its name was 01-001, model 1, vessel 1. We called it Wands.

This was only the one second mission. A short in-system hop to visit Mother's Light, a test flight, a training mission, and a pilgrimage for our people.

Telescopic observations prior to first contact had confirmed that Mother's Light had not been an ice-laden comet at all, but rather a massive rocky asteroid that had passed close enough to graze the atmosphere of our planet, causing the light show that had lit the fire of modern civilization.

Here on the bridge of the Wands, the crew and I were dumbstruck.

Nothing could have prepared us to find an alien craft anchor to the side of the great comet.

I'm not getting any heat off the object, Captain. No obvious signs of life.

Align trajectories and take us as close as you can. I'm going in.

...