Missing

One of our probes found an abandoned space station at the edge of our galaxy.

It took us some time to get there, and then some more to figure out how to get in and operate it.

Its technology was extremely advanced and there was just so much we could comprehend.

Traveling to this remote location was a one-way trip. Even so, volunteers agreed on going there to study an alien culture and technology, far away from everything.

It took us a while to adapt the station’s environment so we could live in it; it took hundreds of our best scientists to get it operational.

Scientists took years to decipher several of its systems. And still, they had no idea to what happened to the original crew. Who they were, where they had come from, and where they had gone to. We didn’t even know whether they had died or merely abandoned the station.

But the station, however, harnessed immense power, despite being far away from the nearest star.

One day, one team made a breakthrough. They figured out the alien language, got all the information from the drives and prepared the translation process.

After translation was done, the linguistics team analyzed the result, and shortly after the captain was called.

The head linguist looked pale, struck by the grave realization.

- So, did you figure out what happened to the aliens?

- We did, sir… But nothing… Nothing happened…

- What do you mean, “nothing”? Surely something must have happened to them! Did they just leave?

- No, sir… They didn’t leave…

- Well, they’re not here, are they? Where are they?

- Huh… Sir? They… Haven’t arrived yet… And they’re on their way…