And the void stared back

Y'all remember the Voyager probe, right? We talking Voyager 1 here with its Voyager Golden Record. Voyager 2 had the same golden disc, but this probe is still screeching through the openess of space. But Voyager 1 is an entirely different story now.

A few years before Humanity became friends with the Nemeians the Voidwalkers made contact with Humanity as well. But unknown to them it was an invitation. Well, they wouldn't have found that really small probe if a man called Jackson Davis wouldn't had tried to contact... someone from the planet Hieroglyphus with their scientific long-range communication array. Let us hear the story, yes?

"Jackson?"

"Mark?"

"Are you ready for this?"

"I was born ready, but when you mean the array, of course. I was setting up the parameters, vectors and wave-lengths for a week now. If our scientists are not horribly wrong, this should go directly into the void."

"You mean XL-98766."

"Yes, that. Void would be easier, to be honest."

"But it is not a void. It is something with enough mass to be a planet, but there is no light and it isn't any kind of black hole we encountered."

"Yes, Mark, thanks for the explanation. Again." Jackson winked. "In two hours TST we are ready to fire."

"Good. Are you up for it?"

"Again, I was up for it the moment I was born."

Mark groaned.

On midnight the huge communication-array started to spool and then sent out a message into the Void, XL-98766. It was basically a greeting and the galactic adress of Hieroglyphus and Terra itself. If anyone tried to attempt contact they know where to find Humanity. What was the worse that could happen? They had John Sullivan on their side.

---

"Did you get that?"

"No. But the signal is coming from Planet 3445645. It is not entirely readable."

"Why would anyone inhabit this hellhole?"

"Don't ask me, Cha'er." Oj'ma clicked with his jaw, his four eyes started to itch the moment they started to glow as a sign of excitement. "Bring the fleet. The small one. And an explorer. Could be that we find the remnants of an older civilisation."

"What do you expect to find? The last try for going home blew directly in our faces."

"Yes, but imagine the possibilities!"

"I imagine them, Oj'ma. So shall it be, we set out. I ask the {admirals} when we can depart."

Days later the dreadnought, the six heavy cruisers, the two frigates and the dozens of support ships set out from their planet. The dreadnought was not necessary, but it had the strongest engine and the largest lab of any ships they had in their posession. The lack of mobile labs had triggered a change request for dedicated ships. But that was another story. Yes indeed, that was the small fleet.

"{Captain} Tu'pa?"

"Here. What is it?"

"Uh, it shouldn't be possible, but we picked up...something?"

"Can't you be more specific?"

"It is spikey, made out of metal, dozens of systems and it holds something."

"What is it with you people not describing things? Do I have to go down and take a look myself?"

"That would be appropriate, {Captain} Tu'pa."

Tu'pa stepped away from the bridge and the hovering purple screens, took the gravlifts to the labs and from there to the hangars. The lifts were fast and had to be, since the dreadnought was about twentyone kilometres long (13 miles) and walking would take ages. They dropped her out at the labs and she walked the last few dozen steps. Engineers, pilots and staff had gathered around a... thing. It was round, had antennas and a black-charred white round antenna in the middle, which was now "looking" up. The first engineers had gathered their tools and a few gravlifts for carrying heavier components.

"Po'ca, what do we got?" she asked the First Engineer. His four eyes shone brightly in excitement and confusion.

"Uh, not sure, Tu'pa." He gestured with his three-fingered hand to the thing. "It appears to be some kind of probe or satellite."

"Quite ugly."

"I approve this assessment, but it appears to be more pratical than to be designed beautiful."

"You have any idea what it is, apart from being a probe? Which species has sent it?"

"No, Tu'pa. We haven't started the examination to wait on you. We only scanned it once before we called."

"Alright, then get started." Could it be a coincidence? First the signal from Planet 3445645, now this probe? But this thing... it looked old. Not quite ancient, but old enough to be a relic. The signal was not as old as this.

The gravlifts got to work as well as the engineers. They detached the antennas first, the longer one appeared to hold a lot of systems for scanning or recieving, maybe sending, signals.

Long spiraling things were driven out of the hull of that probe, clattered to the ground and were picked up by the gravlifts. They appeared to hold the individual parts together. The huge round thing in the middle was grabbed by a gravclaw and slowly, carefully detached. Tu'pa took a look at the engines. It wasn't even fusion tech. Some kind of combustion system? Nuclear?

"Did anyone check for radiation?"

"Yes." came the answer. "Cold. This thing hasn't operated in decades. The rest of the radiation is weaker than our own."

"Good. Something unusual about it?"

"The radiation? No. Primitive, maybe."

"Hm, proceed then."

Slowly the parts of the probe came away. A nameplate was nowhere to be found, but who ever sent the probe must have given it a designation. Some of the parts broke and crumbled into pieces while being held in the gravlift. Piece by piece the probe came away, until they reached three massive tubes which appeared to be some kind of energy storage. Those emitted the faint radiation.

"{Captain}!" One of the engineers came to Tu'pa, holding a golden plate in their hands. "This was on the other side of the probe. It just came loose."

"What is it?" Tu'pa picked up the golden disc. It was not as heavy as it looked. It was marked with various lines, circles, something which appeared like a wavelength...

"It appears to be some kind of instructions." said the engineer and Tu'pa made a gesture which signaled understanding. She gave the disc back. "Try to transcribe it and take a look if something is on this disc. But do it in a secured environment."

"Yes." The engineer bellowed commands to some of his colleagues and they got to work.

Someone sent a probe into deep space. Someone attached a golden disc to that probe and sent it into deep space. To be found by someone entirely different or not to be found at all. Maybe the signal from Planet 3445645 and the probe are a coincidence, but are related somehow?

Lets find out.

---

Two galactic standard weeks later they dropped out of {Accelerated Speed} right at the rim of the solar system where the signal was sent from. The sun was a very bright one for Voidwalkers, so their screens tuned down the brightness quite a lot. It had twenty planets, two of them inhabitable, and a few moons and two asteroid belts.

"Contact." Ih'na pointed at the holographic map of the solar system. A few dozen blips popped up. "Ships. Small ones. Probably for transport."

"So it is inhabited?"

"No. Both planets are."

"Sorry, come again? Aren't those too warm for living beings?"

"It appears not. - Oh, they saw us. They are... hailing us?" Ih'na sounded very confused. "In a few galactic languages as well. But don't they have their own? Like... several?"

"At least according to this disc, yes." Tu'pa was confused as well. "What are they saying?"

"They greet us and invite us to land on the second planet."

"Just...like that? - Gather a landing detail and a few soldiers, I'm going down as well. Their technology might have evolved, but they are still primitive."

"You might be right, {Captain}. Assembling landing party."

A few {hours} later the dropship whirred down to the planet from the fleet which was waiting close to the planets gravity well without being pulled in. A security measure just in case. They had built a machine to read the golden disc they had plucked from the probe. It was... an interesting challenge and looked like an unholy abomination. But at least the Voidwalkers now knew what they were up against. The so called Humans bore a striking resemblance with the Lyranians, but were entirely different. In languages, musical styles, appearence, writings... but familiar to a degree, at least from sight.

"Activating cooling." said Tu'pa and activated the cooling system in the atmosphere suit, which should provide a comfortable environment on this nearly molten rock with their extreme temperature and the extreme vegetation.

The strange beings had built some kind of spaceport near the northern magnetic pole and had submitted their coordinates right there. Well, if they insist...

The landing ship with its black hull and the purple runes started to descent, broke through the atmosphere and landed with extended landing gear on the huge black-grey field. Chunk chunk clong made the gear, engines hissed as they powered down to a resting state.

A huge gathering has reached the end of the landing field. A few ugly and practical ships were sitting a bit to the side. The so called Humans had created some kind of colourful parade which hurt her eyes. The parade was surrounded - protected? - by a few dozen armoured people in the darkest black. Not as black as the endless space, but close. Some ugly armoured vehicles parked at the sides, smaller and larger with an interesting faceted surface.

Banners fluttered in the wind and her suit showed that the surface was a lot warmer than anticipated. How could those Humans stand the heat? And the hot wind? The pressure? The gravitation?

Tu'pa increased the strength of her cooling system, especially at her feet. Then the gangway hissed down and the three doors opened; hot white light flooded the sluice of the landing ship. The filters in her transparent helmet reacted a fraction too slow and blinded her for a second.

She stepped out of the landing ship and saw that the Humans were indeed like Lyranians, even in size. With her {3m/10ft} she towered over the Humans and even over their large armoured vehicles. Which she noticed with some satisfaction.

"Welcome!" A Human dressed in a white... white... uh, suit with golden seams and some medals on his chest had spoken. "Welcome to Hieroglyphus. I am Alexander Richardson and the human ambassador in absence of Alira Børsheim. Do you understand us? It is Common Speech, we hope, you don't mind?"

"We actually tried to learn your language from your plate." said Tu'pa surprised in English and a lot of humans shifted uneasy, maybe as surprised as her.

"Our...plate?" Alexander Richardson looked as confused as Tu'pa felt. She made a move with her right hand and one of her soldiers brought it forward. "Ooooh... is that what I think it is? Emily? Can you take a look?"

"Sure." A woman, small enough to be Tu'pas child, stepped forward. Her attire was grey in grey and somewhat formal maybe? She stood before the soldier, small as a pebble, and reached out. The huge soldier kneeled carefully and handed her the golden disc, which looked really tiny in his and a lot bigger in her arms. The woman called Emily eyed the disc, turned it in her hands and made a sound which indicated surprise.

"Where did you get this?" she asked. Which... those Humans were strange. They didn't show any signs of fear or resentment; not even the Lyranians had the nerve to step in front of her soldiers. The only ones as fearless as the Humans were the Simiiforcs and those brutal primates were just nuts.

"We plucked it from some kind of probe."

"Did it look like really...spikey and old?"

"Yes, why? And why do you look like you have awaited us?"

"Ah, you are not so strange as you think." Emily made a thing with her lips. It didn't look threatening, but what kind of being showed their teeth as a sign of friendliness? "You are tall and... wait, what are you actually?"

"We are {Voidwalkers}. And you are Humans, said the disc."

"Voidwalkers... hm. Oooh... you were the ones with the Purple Cataclysm?"

"Guilty as charged."

"Hu. - Alexander? Lets greet our guests."

"My thoughts exactly. We might need some tents or do you wanna be in the shade?"

"It is sizzling hot out here, you mind if we go inside?"

"Not in the slightest. Your ship is to be untouched by us as long as we remain friendly."

"This is a fair gesture, Alexander Richardson." Tu'pa made another gesture. One soldier and one engineer came with her, the four eyes of each scanning the area out of different reasons. She was surprised the translators worked so well, even with Common Speech and English. They were brought into the building which appeared to be the spaceport. It was quite large for such tiny creatures and they had no problem with bonking their heads or even reach the ceiling: it was just too high above their heads.

To her surprise the temperature inside was just above her own comfort level, so she decided to took her helmet off, which startled a lot of the Humans, but not in an unpleasant way. Or maybe a bit, but most of the Humans looked curious, not afraid.

They were brought into something that looked like a conference room with a lot of windows. It was too bright, but the temperature cool enough for her. She thanked the Humans and was surprised as they were served various drinks, some hot, some cold. Water was what she could identify. Others were brown, black, red, various colours of orange and purple. She decided to stick to water and grabbed the cup in front of her, which appeared to be some kind of decanter and was not to be used as a cup.

"Ah well, we need larger cups then." said Alexander and took a seat, then the room got a bit darker. "Better that way?"

"Oh yes, thank you." Tu'pa made a bowing gesture with her head and took a sip of the water. It tingled in her mouth, was pleasant and cool. "So, why are you not afraid? As we met with the Lyranians they were just outright terrified. But you must have known of our presence, otherwise you wouldn't have send us the signal."

Emily looked at a different man. "Jackson?"

"Hey, we thought it was just a black hole." answered the man who secreted small clear pearls from his forehead.

"Wait." The engineer with his deeper voice turned slowly to the Human. "You fired a message into something which could have been a black hole?"

"Yes."

"Well, that was our planet."

"That thing is a planet?" He looked rather shocked. "Why...the scans indicated just mass, nothing else."

"It is nothing more than just mass. It is not dead, it just has no sun."

Alexander coughed. "And you got our message and thought, it was a good time to visit us?"

"Someone pinged, we answered. It was strange enough, to be honest. On our way we have picked up your probe."

"What probe?"

"Ehm..." Emily held up the golden disc. "This one. It is a relic. Ancient. I mean, really, it is one of the first probes we sent out into space. It describes the location of Terra, has various examples of languages, music and images saved on it." She looked to Tu'pa. "How the hell did you get it running?"

"Took a lot of {headache}." She made a generous gesture to her engineer. "Ko'ta and their team worked for nearly one galactic week to get it to a readable state."

"What was with the probe? It should have been dead. I mean, it is now flying for over centuries."

"Cold as the endless space." She looked around and beside the slightly too small seats it was not as unpleasant as expected. And not so unfriendly. "Would you care to enlighten us what we have found?"

"It depends which one you have, but it appears that you have one of the oldest deep space probes humanity has ever sent in its first years. If I am not mistaken, you found one of the Voyager probes."