Discovery

Rumours have been spreading through system-wide communication channels on the Solarnet for the past year. Nothing was ever officially even mentioned by the UN or Martian governments but bloggers and conspiracy theorists have been running rampant for months.

The highly classified "official" report of the “Discovery” made on OU812 (the official system designation for the Dwarf Planet discovered by Nate and named Dopy) is released to the Crew of the Alderson Endeavor. Rumours of ancient aliens and invasion armadas have been all the rage on the Solarnet. The report however details how a single spacecraft of unknown origin was discovered crashed on Dopy. The report says that the crew section of the ship was destroyed but that the engineering areas were still mostly intact.

Nate and Buzzy know more about the discovery but their Non-Disclosure Agreements with the small scouting firm they had worked for were still in affect with Alderson Corp who bought out their original company after receiving the contracts from Earth and Mars to develop the engineering technologies being produced from the “Discovery”.

Alderson Corp was a leading manufacturer of Epstein Drive engines along with Fusion Power Plant systems so they were a logical choice to be given the new design specs coming out of the “skunk works” on Luna. It is also a Martian based company which was part of the arrangement agreed upon between the UN and Mars when the “Discovery” was allowed to be taken to Luna for analysis and research.

Specs on the new Epstein Drive and Fusion Power Plant look to show improved performance and efficiency but nothing radical. The most curious thing about the new ship appears to be another piece of equipment identified as the Alderson Drive. The chief engineer is given technical details on the care and maintenance of the new drive and the Astrogator has specifications on how to plot and determine an “Alderson Point” which are areas of gravitational synchronicity between two nearby stellar objects that allow for the Jump Drive to instantaneously transport a ship from one point to the other.

The report talks about how the first Alderson Point between Sol and Sirius was determined from data found onboard the “discovery”. However, scientists believe there is a second point within the solar system that connects with Alpha Centauri. Mission reports from unmanned probes and the first Jump capable space craft (the Alderson Explorer) show that the new Jump Drive seems to operate as intended but to date no craft has return jumped back to Sol. UN and Martian scientists are theorizing about time distortions and other possibilities but nothing has been proven yet. The Endeavor is to proceed to a spot 51.37 au away from the sun at a right angle from the line between Sol and Alpha Centauri and 22.5 degrees above the stellar plane. There it is to use its sensors to determine local gravitational fields and thus find the adjusted location of the Alderson Point. Success in finding the point can be determined by spinning up the Alderson Drive (it will only power up fully if the ship is in the right spot) but the crew is not to engage the drive without authorization from Alderson Corp HQ. There is also a linguistics file attached to the report which shows symbols and diagrams found onboard the “discovery” and a rudimentary attempt at cracking the language that UN scientists are calling “Galactic”.

Note: ''Nate and Buzzy however know more than the official report on the "Discovery". The passenger section of the ship was not completely destroyed. In the wreckage you found the bodies of the crew (decay does not happen in a vacuum) and some memorabilia. The crew was comprised of 4 humans and a 5 foot tall wolf-like man. The writing on the computers was all in Galactic like the report says but the names on the uniforms on the bodies were spelled in English letters. The humans were "Anderson", "Aarlott", "Laney", and "O'Brian". The wolf-like man was "Coop'rrr". There was also a flag on the wall in one of the crew cabins. It had stars and stripes like the American flag. But instead of the normal 56 stars like there are today, it only had 35 stars. The governments of Mars and the UN swore you both to secrecy about the bodies when you were initially debriefed.''