We Are Not Alone
In the years between 2086 and the end of the century, humanity was struck by three discoveries destined to redefine its place in the universe. The first definitively confirmed the existence of extraterrestrial life forms; the second led to the discovery of traces left by a technologically advanced civilization; the third emerged directly from the experience of the travellers who plied the most distant routes.
Extraterrestrial life
The conviction that the systems within humanity’s reach were devoid of life began to collapse in 2086, when an exploratory mission identified an extrasolar ecosystem for the first time. The first orbital observations had detected seasonal variations in atmospheric composition and extensive regions with properties incompatible with known mineral formations; the probes sent to the surface confirmed the presence of plant forms and mobile organisms belonging to numerous different species.
In the following years other biologically active worlds were discovered, some characterized by relatively simple ecosystems, others by more articulated food chains. A considerable share of the fauna presented characteristics superficially analogous to those of terrestrial arthropods: segmented bodies, exoskeletons and multiple appendages appeared with surprising frequency, suggesting that structures of this kind represented recurrent evolutionary solutions even in biospheres that had developed independently of Earth’s. Some planets, characterized by particularly dense vegetation and large insectoid life forms, were compared by the scientific community to the ecosystems of the Carboniferous.
Several species displayed territorial or predatory behaviour towards human beings, while others proved difficult to detect with ordinary sensor systems, or capable of surviving in conditions considered incompatible with complex organisms. Some surface missions recorded attacks by the local fauna, episodes of biological contamination and other incidents, some of them fatal. It soon became clear that the presence of life was not only a scientific discovery, but also a new risk factor for exploration and colonial expansion.
The discovery forced a rapid revision of the regulations on extrasolar exploration: quarantines, protected zones and restrictions on mining activity suddenly became necessary, meeting the predictable opposition of the MC interested in exploiting the new worlds. The European Federation played a leading role in defining the new standards, promoting common protocols for biological containment, ecosystem protection and the regulation of industrial activity in systems inhabited by life forms. Despite such measures, in the following years incidents continued to occur linked to quarantine breaches, the unauthorized transport of biological samples and the establishment of industrial facilities in areas considered high-risk.
The distribution of biologically active systems also revealed an anomaly that no model managed to explain: all the ecosystems discovered lay beyond a certain distance from the Sun. The nearer systems, exhaustively explored for over thirty years, had yielded no evidence of life; beyond that boundary, on the other hand, ecosystems reappeared with a certain regularity.
The lifeless region, whose boundaries were still uncertain and with the Solar System approximately at its centre, was informally renamed the Abiotic Region. Some researchers went so far as to hypothesize that its origin might not be natural, but the prevailing interpretation continued to attribute the anomaly to the still limited number of systems explored and to the possible selection effects introduced by the first exploration campaigns.
The Thanant
In the preceding decades interstellar expansion had already recorded a series of incidents that were difficult to explain: exploration ships, mining convoys and automated probes had disappeared in the vicinity of certain planets or while crossing particular regions of space, without managing to transmit any distress signal. The most disquieting feature of these incidents was that the rescue missions sent to locate the wrecks or recover the crews invariably met the same fate, disappearing in their turn without a trace.
The increase in these episodes progressively led to the abandonment of some routes and to the informal classification of entire systems as high-risk zones. The scientific community tended to attribute these incidents to as yet unknown gravitational phenomena capable of trapping ships within them or of compromising the operation of navigation systems; in the absence of a demonstrable scientific explanation, however, numerous legends spread among the crews and in the frontier colonies, telling of cursed places, regions of space best given a wide berth.
In 2089, during a geological survey carried out on one of the satellites of a gas giant in a system some 20 light years from the Sun, a number of artificial structures were identified. The excavations brought to light artefacts and infrastructure belonging to a technological civilization that had existed long before humanity. No bodies or identifiable biological material were found, and none of the inscriptions or structures recovered initially made it possible to establish what form their builders had.
In the years immediately following, analogous sites were discovered in several other systems, all attributable to the same civilization. The study of the finds also made it possible to connect many of the earlier disappearances to the presence of structures and devices still in operation, equipped with defence systems of enormous range and lethality. It was precisely because of the lethal capability of these artefacts that the civilization was given the conventional name of Thanant.
The Thanant Relics were progressively divided into two main categories:
- Inactive relics. Structures that had ceased to function, presumably because their energy source had been exhausted or interrupted. Although they presented structural and technological hazards that were difficult to predict, these sites rapidly became the object of scientific missions, salvage operations and disputes between Hegemonies and megacorporations.
- Active relics. Structures that still retained a power source of unknown nature and which, for this reason, it was impossible to approach or visit, since they were fitted with defence mechanisms programmed to neutralize any ship, probe or other artificial object within moments. Their location and the actual extent of their defensive perimeter could be reconstructed only from the last coordinates transmitted by the ships and probes that had disappeared.
The discovery of the Thanant, far from resolving the question posed by the Fermi paradox, ended up raising many others: where had they gone? Had they abandoned the galaxy, or had they become extinct? And, in the latter case, what force had been capable of overwhelming a civilization endowed with such advanced technological and destructive capability?
The Wraiths
At roughly the same period, certain singular anomalies began to be recorded on the longest FTL runs. Some crew members, especially after long periods of suspended animation, reported extremely vivid dreams, memories impossible to place and perceptions relating to moments in which they had been unconscious; in many cases, people who had had no opportunity to communicate described strikingly similar images or experiences, as though they had somehow shared in a common experience.
In most cases these episodes fell within the symptomatology already associated with the disorders linked to interstellar travel in suspended animation: the medical protocols of the time had long recorded memory alterations, hallucinations and temporary perceptual disturbances following revival. Publicly, the episodes therefore continued to be regarded as neurological consequences of the procedure or of prolonged exposure to warp fields. The MC, however, had a far greater quantity of data at their disposal and had begun to identify correlations that were difficult to explain; these results were generally kept confidential, and in some cases every reference to the phenomenon was removed from the voyage reports.
Despite the attempts at concealment, a certain awareness began to spread among the crews. The accounts collected did not describe only shared experiences: in some cases the images, words or sensations seemed to repeat according to coherent patterns, giving the impression that some form of intentionality lay behind the phenomenon. Some subjects reported having perceived questions, requests or attempts to establish contact; others displayed on revival behaviours and knowledge they were unable to explain; episodes of loss of control were even documented which, in the most extreme cases, suggested phenomena of possession: the accounts described the victim acting as if manoeuvred by an external presence, at times even going so far as to utter incomprehensible words, phrases or expressions. These events quickly began to be interpreted as attempts at communication and, in the most disturbing reports, as genuine forms of possession. To these accounts were added others still harder to interpret. Several crew members stated that they had seen, during the voyage or in the phases immediately preceding revival, diaphanous and vaguely anthropomorphic figures, similar to shadows. In some cases these presences seemed to observe the subjects or to attempt to communicate with them.
The absence of a shared explanation ended up fuelling numerous hypotheses: some researchers held that the deformation of space-time produced by warp drives might temporarily subject the ship to physical conditions normally inaccessible, creating a kind of bridge with another “dimension”; others suggested instead that the exotic physical states generated by the Alcubierre Drive under certain conditions might render perceptible life forms or informational structures normally unable to interact with ordinary matter.
None of these hypotheses was confirmed. One fact nevertheless remained difficult to ignore: the frequency and intensity of the episodes increased with the duration of journeys in warp and were particularly high on the longest runs. Among ships’ crews, the personnel of the transit infrastructure and the frontier colonists, a term already used informally for the presences perceived during these episodes thus spread: Wraiths.