The room Vector sat in on the ship was small, yet somehow big enough to house him and two of his officers. The three were parked around the small table in the middle observing all they knew about the mission.

The table itself had a small holo display that pushed any details above it into a 4d realm so that it could be manipulated. Right now it was just being read by the three ponies, who were pouring over the details, not that there was much of them.

OBJECT DESIGNATION: Glashtyn
LENGTH: 5 - 6 Miles
AGE: Unknown
ORIGIN: Unknown
STATUS: Inactive

Additional: Further investigation required. Scans indicate either a ship or space station of enormous size. Faint markings visible on the outer hull which appears metal in construction.

And that was it, that was all the three of them had to work with.

“So clearly, you two know why you’re here.” Vector said, looking up at his two colleagues.

“Obviously, protocol calls for the captain and two officers to investigate. I don’t know why, if that thing turns out to be hostile the ship and the crew are-”

“On their own, yes.” Vector quickly interjected. “But that’s the rules. We follow.” he said. “Get prepared. I’ll meet you down in the hangar bay in five.” was all the captain had to say. Both of his officers he knew well, they’d object but they’d do the job. That was all he could ask of them. He couldn’t help but feel somewhat uneasy himself. It was his first time coming across a UFO. He had heard reports, but only whispers among other members of the organisation. Most of the details were hushed up.

Meeting at the shuttle, the three ponies parked their pads inside at their operations stations. Each one with a various function. Vector of course, was piloting. The shuttle itself took off with little fanfare, the crew on board were told the captain was heading out to scout the system. Fairly standard operational procedure. It was a short flight to the object which gave the three a short moment to talk.

“So...think the captain is gonna break his pad before we get home?” One of his offers said to the other, causing Vector to turn around. The shuttle was now on automatic control.

“Very funny you two, I think most of the officer staff and some of the crew are in danger of that as well you know. The rate at which you all eat…”

“Ah we’re just teasing captain. No one can out eat you, Vector Thrust is pretty apt as a name you know the way you thrust meals down your throat.”

The three ponies in the cabin laughed, none harder than the captain. As they did, the object came into view.

AUTOPILOT DISENGAGED

The notice flashed up on the screen, Vector took the controls once more and one of his officers turned on one of the shuttles search lights. The object itself was dark, clearly dormant.

“There are markings on the hull like it said.” one of them commented, focusing on what was clearly some sort of unidentifiable writing down the side of the hull, white in colour to make it stand out.

“Well, none of us can read that. It’s an alien language. Do you think the computer might be able to make anything of it?”

“Not sure, run it through.” Vector replied. The officer took a shot using one of the shuttles external cameras and the computer began to analyse what it was looking at. In the meantime, they continued to move around the massive object scanning it still.

“It’s curious, clearly not a space station. It’s a ship.” Vector mused, looking closely at the construction.

“How can you tell? There’s no windows along the hull or any other sort of giveaway signs.” one of the officers replied.

“Look, up there.” Vector said, moving the nose of the ship up slightly to give a better view of the upper portion of the hull. “I’m not alien expert, but I am pretty good at identifying things on spaceships. If those aren’t engines, or some sort of equivalent of engines well I’d give up my food for a day.” he quipped, the officers giving him a smile back. The computer was still working. They moved the shuttle closer to the engines to get a better look. “Clearly it’s in some sort of decaying orbit, and positioned upright rather than flat. I don’t know if that’s part of the design though or how it’s meant to be.” he carried on. “Strangest engines I’ve ever seen though, I mean they’re the right shape but I can’t see exposed exhaust ports. It doesn’t even look like they’ve ever been fired…”

There was a beep at one of the terminals. The officer moving his chubby cheeks slightly to be able to read the display. “Computers done.”

“And?”

“A lot of detail. It’s analysed the age of the object based on how the paint for the name has decayed over time...cripes captain. Apparently this thing is verging on ten thousand years old. It’s an antique.”

“And yet seemingly more advanced than anything we fly. Does it have a name?”

“Yeah, supposedly the markings translate to Titan. At least in whatever the language is.”

“Interesting, a name like that would suggest a warship. But equally we don’t know the makers from Celestia, it could very well be a transport ship, pleasure ship. Who knows.”

“So now what?” The officer asked.

As he asked the question, there was an additional beep at the terminal. The computer had picked up something else.

“There’s a message…”

Vector blinked, he could only think to ask “How?”

“From the ship...well not the ship. Whatever it is has computer banks, without knowing I have to assume our scans and presence has reactivated them. The computer is translating…”

Vector was uncomfortable. This was getting a bit too bizarre for his liking. Not only was the object not dormant, it was sending them messages. The ship itself though hadn’t activated, shot them or anything out of the ordinary. He was starting to wonder if he was about to get vaporised at any second.

A clicking noise indicated the computer had decided to print the message, it only did that when it was too long to display on screen. Vector reached a chubby hoof over and read over it to see what the computer had put out.

TRANSMISSION BEGINS.

TITAN INTERNAL COMPUTERS RESPONDING AS PER CAPTAIN SMITH’S FINAL DIRECTIVE.

S.O.S. TO ANYONE THAT FINDS THIS MESSAGE. DO NOT BOARD THE SHIP. ACCIDENT WITH REACTIONLESS DRIVE. FOREIGN BODY PICKED UP IN HYPERSPACE. ENGINES STOPPED. SHIP ABANDONED BEFORE ARRIVAL AT SIRIUS. THREAT CONTAINED. SHIP SET FOR SELF DESTRUCT. IF SELF DESTRUCT FAILS, WHOEVER FINDS THIS MESSAGE - DESTROY THE SHIP.

TRANSMISSION ENDS.

“So what does it say?”

Vector passed the message around the cabin. Suddenly all three ponies felt even more uneasy.

“What sort of a name is Smith?”

“Not a pony one, that’s for sure.” Vector replied. He sat for a moment thinking. Standard procedure now was to pass on what had been found to command and then wait for them to come back with orders. He didn’t like deviating from it, but the message had very clear instructions…

“They’ve told us to destroy it?”

“So it would seem, I’ve never heard of a reactionless drive either - probably explains why the engines look as if they’ve never been fired.”

“Think of the technology…” his other officer started to say.

“Yes but think of the risk. That thing is floating there because there’s something on board that was clearly dangerous to whatever crew it had. Still, it’s been ten thousand years...you’d think it would be long dead.” Vector continued to think about the situation, in this case he decided to follow protocol and pass his findings back to command, message included.

They turned the shuttle around to head back to the Starflier, for now - they’d wait.