Nick was watching his sister. Her eyes were unclear as she worked the interface with the remote probe, bringing up the virtual machine containing the new signal download. Seeing Sae deeply concentrating on a computer problem shone like a ray of normality in a world where everything else was surreal.

Nick felt like everything which had happened over the last months had happened to someone else. Not him. Not Sae. They had been normal, and now… He recalled sitting alone in his observation bubble, watching the small light blinking as the laser array suddenly began receiving a signal. The clarity with which he remembered those days was just another piece of strangeness piling on top of a mountain of oddities.

I repaired some inefficiencies, Goose had responded tersely when Nick had asked about what was going on. As he dragged himself out of the mental aftereffects of his trauma, he had noticed that something was different. A sharper memory, observational abilities, an overall mental clarity that was incredible. Incredibly scary, he mused as he watched the scene unfolding in front of him, mirroring his recollection of discovering the signal, starting the protocol analysis, going to work and checking in on the status every other minute. Working with Sae and Rashi to uncover the secret that turned out to be Goose. An alien intelligence, encoded as light pulses. Travelling light years through empty space.

And now. Not just Goose. An entire species, an organism. A people.

In conversations with Goose over the past weeks, Nick had learned to appreciate what that really meant. Every single memory that his people had created since gaining the capacity for thought was still remembered. Not memorised as a long-ago reminiscence, but as an integral component of the organism itself. Everything that had ever happened was propagated through the organism to be stored throughout the cells of the alien creature. All the abilities they had learned, all the knowledge and skill. A species that only ever gained new knowledge, never forgetting. And here it was. Stored on a drive somewhere on The Pegasus, hundreds of zettabytes to dictate the entirety of its existence.

As Sae’s eyes cleared and he saw her expression, the hairs on Nick’s arms stood at end as a chill washed over him. As she spoke the words, something blossomed in his chest. A feeling of hope?

“They are here.”

-

Retreating to the small meeting room which had become their mission hub, Rashi moved up next to Nick and gave his hand a quick squeeze. When the rest of the crew had been focusing on the remote probe and setting up the virtual machine, Rashi had been watching her friends, and most of all, Nick. A warm feeling filled her as she remembered the look on his face.

Since they brought him back from his isolation, Nick had been in pain. Rashi had seen Sae’s concern, and even Mr Garner had seemed worried; but only Rashi knew the extent of Nick’s struggle. He had asked for space, and she had kept her distance; but watching him. His eyes, his body, his expression had given it away every minute, and even as her heart pulled at her to go to him, to hold him, she had respected his wishes. Her time would come, she knew, and now she had seen a glimmer. That time would be soon. As Nick was watching Sae make first contact with the alien people, Rashi had been observing him. She had seen how his expression had gone from nervous to flashing with fear, before ending with curiosity and hope. If he could feel curiosity, he was on his way back to them. No other emotion defined Nick in the same way, and Rashi knew it was an important step for him to heal.

Looking around at the room, Rashi remembered the beginning of their journey. The living room in Nick and Sae’s apartment, spread on the sofa and chairs as they discussed the signal that would turn out to be Goose. Solving the problem, together. Like then, Sae and Nick were sitting across from each other, talking in low and intense voices. Rashi thought about the new additions to the group; Mr Garner, the captain, his XO and Tord.

They had come from so many different backgrounds, with so many different goals. They had come from positions of distrust and betrayal. They had chased each other across a solar system, attacked each other. And here they were. Solving the problem, together.

“Everyone, let’s get started, “ the captain said. He had been in deep conversation with Mr Garner, and the brief look that passed between them carried some meaning that Rashi couldn’t decipher. “Sasha, can you please summarise the status for us?”

“Certainly, sir, “ the small woman said. Rashi observed her, trying to figure her out. Normally Rashi could easily put people in one of the boxes she kept in her mind to understand new people. Most people thought they were so unique, when in reality they tended to share observable features that would translate to common personalities. But this XO was… strange. Rashi watched her smile broadly as she looked around the room, eyes briefly meeting Rashi’s. She seemed happy, and that smile reached her eyes, but still Rashi couldn’t gauge if the expression was genuine.

The next words brought her attention back to the matter of hand as the XO continued. “We are in contact with the alien intelligence. From what we have learned so far, they are making a couple of requests.” The woman grabbed the water balloon from the table in front of her and sucked on the straw.

“First, they want to know where they are and who we are. Second, they want to sync up with what they call the ‘emergency signal’” - at that, the woman looked at Sae who helpfully supplied, “They mean Goose.”

The XO gave Sae a nod. “Last, they want us to load in some more data into the virtual machine.”

Mr Garner spoke up. “In my opinion, “ he began, looking at the captain as he continued, “we absolutely cannot permit access to the alien we call Goose”.

“Explain, “ the captain replied, leaning back in his chair with a small smile. Rashi thought he looked… comfortable. At ease, like a wolf, or a lion... Ah! So that was what it was about. The captain and Mr Garner’s little chat just now. They had been settling the chain of command.

“Sure, “ Mr Garner replied. “Goose has… seen a lot. Done a lot. Without going into details right here and now, I don’t think it would be to our advantage that the alien gets access to that knowledge. We need to maintain control over the situation and move with careful deliberation.”

“Yes, “ the captain said, looking around the small room. “And right now, we have a decision to make. There is a not insignificant risk that the alien intelligence poses a risk to the Sol system and humanity. Our first objective is to ascertain if we are able to keep the alien isolated and secure. We cannot make any concessions until we are certain that there is no way for it to… well, escape from the virtual space.”

“Indeed, “ Mr Garner said and continued. “Nick, Mr… Anson, we also need to consider your situation.”

The captain looked at Mr Garner and Nick with an unreadable expression before nodding for Mr Garner to continue.

“Nick’s situation is unusual. He has taken it upon himself to… Well, host the alien we know as Goose. It is our current belief that the alien is sufficiently secured, but we have had recent experiences that… let me just put it this way: One of the options I’m considering is to leave Nick out here before we turn back towards the Sol system.” And before anyone could speak up, Mr Garner continued, “But for now we keep that as Plan B.”

“So, “ the XO said, “there’s a clear recommendation to not grant access to this Goose. Sir, what is your decision?”

“I concur, “ the captain said and looked towards Sae. “Also, Ms. Aaron. Or is it…”

“Ms. Anson, “ Sae said with an apologetic smile.

“Right. Ms. Anson, you may grant the alien some information to satisfy its first request. I am also curious about how much time has passed since it left its home system. Which leaves us to consider the last request: They want access to some more data segments from the signal. Any thoughts?”

Nick, who had been quiet until now, looked at Sae. “Is there any way to determine what is in the data segments?”

“Not really, “ Sae answered. “But why don’t I ask?”

Rashi almost laughed at their expressions as the captain nodded back. “Erh, right. Let’s do that.”

A moment later, Sae reported back from speaking with the alien in the virtual machine.

“They say the relevant data segments contain information recorded in the last few hours before the catastrophe occurred. They want to review it… because they are curious about what happened.”

-

“That is… incredible.” the captain muttered into the silent room.

Incredibly dangerous, Keith thought to himself as he replayed the recording, his mind already processing what this meant for them, for Earth and humanity.

It had not taken Sae long to transfer the extra data segments through to the probe hosting the alien, and at the same time she had arranged an output feed from the virtual machine that allowed the alien to share what they found in the data. Sharing the feed with the others, the room had gone deathly quiet as they watched the events play out in their mindpals.

A view of empty space. Only a few stars breaking up the absolute blackness. An active star system, with small crafts flitting between stations and planetary bodies. They saw the pulsing organic mass on the home planet, organising and coordinating thousands of remote colonies.

A solar system filled with a very alien type of life, but still it was life. Exploring, mining, travelling.

And then a shift in perspective back to the blackness of outer space. Now broken by a sudden and intense burst of gamma radiation, far outside the orbit of the outermost planet. Sensors and telescopes going wild with confusion, waiting for the noise to die down.

Then they see a small space vessel floating in space, where moments before there had been nothing. The view shifts again, this time to zoom closer in on the intruder. A small marker appearing on the bottom left of the screen as Sae adds The Pegasus for scale. It is a very small dot, and as the view keeps zooming in closer the strange space vessel keeps growing, but The Pegasus remains a small dot.

Keith’s mind reels, and he takes a step to balance himself. The stranger keeps growing; The Pegasus does not. Sae adds a virtual scale next to the strange space vessel, and Keith hears sharp indrawn breaths all around as the size of the vessel is revealed.

He whispers to himself. “50… thousand kilometres wide”. That… thing is something else. Something unknown to humankind. The ship is four times as wide as the planet Earth.

And as they grapple with what they are seeing, they see the strange vessel aligning to point inwards to the sun. Towards the small shuttles, towards the colonies, towards the massive colony of interconnected organisms. Goose’s people.

Then another burst of… something. Something that shows up as static on the sensors, for the briefest of moments. Then nothing more as the recording ends.

-

Only a fraction of his attention heard Tord saying, “You sure?”. Most of Nick’s thoughts were still processing what they had just seen. Knowing he should probably be afraid, he was mostly wondering why. Why had this strange vessel suddenly appeared? Why had they triggered what could only be some kind of weapon?

He noticed Tord looking at him, and replied with a smile, “Yes. I’ve double- and triple checked. And I guess, so have you?”

Tord returned the smile with a nod, and turned to the captain. “Sir, the destination is locked in and ready for your authentication”.

“Acknowledged, “ the captain responded, and with a sideways glance at Nick added, “Always exciting to see where the wormhole will take us today!”.

Nick could feel his cheeks getting warmer as he looked over at Sae, who met his eyes with a smile. After a lengthy discussion, Sae had eventually convinced the captain and Keith that the security measures on both Goose and the alien currently residing in the remote probe were sufficient. They safely stowed away the probe outside the main hull of The Pegasus, and Sae was still in contact with the intelligence running on the virtual machine. After the revelation of the catastrophe which had wiped out their solar system, the alien had gone quiet for a long while.

The captain had made it very clear to them all that any decision regarding the future of the alien was not theirs to make, and they had all readily agreed. They had fulfilled the mission they had set out to do, and Nick was glad that it was now out of his hands. He’d made enough decisions to determine the fate of humankind for a lifetime. He was looking forward to finding his way back to a more normal life and was hoping he hadn’t burned his bridges with the crew on The Pegasus. Once they’d returned to the Sol system and done a full mission debrief, he expected the ship to leave on a new mission shortly after, and he desperately wanted to stay onboard to explore the Universe. He had wanted to ask the captain if he could stay on for future missions, but kept waiting for an opportunity to do so.

And then there was Goose. He simply didn’t know what to do about him. He understood the reasons why Keith didn’t want to synchronise Goose back into the rest of the alien organism, but he was still disappointed. That would have been such an elegant solution to the problem. As it was, Nick would have to live with having Goose stuck inside him for the time being. The alien was still intermittently trying to reach through to Nick, to learn more of what was going on, but at this point he had fallen more or less quiet. The knowledge that they had successfully received the backup seemed to have calmed him down.

“All hands, all hands, all hands. This is the captain. Please prepare for wormhole transition!”

Hearing the message, Nick realised he had spent nearly an hour daydreaming. He had planned to go to his cabin to take the transition there, but now there was no time to move. Shuddering as he remembered the effect of the last transition, he wondered what was going on. He looked at Tord; he wanted to ask him about it as soon as possible. This might play right into Tord’s concerns about twisted timelines.

And then, Nick saw the countdown hit zero.

Again, Nick felt like time slowed down to nothing as he blinked his eyes. They emerged into Sol, they landed on Deimos, they kicked him from the project. Rashi stayed on, and as she left for new horizons, he returned to Enceladus in shame. He saw himself helping a customer upgrade a refrigerator. A picture hanging in his cubicle - Rashi, standing on a faraway planet, beaming at the camera. He grew old in that job. Eating alone in his apartment. Never opening the door to his observation bubble again. He saw himself on the worn sofa, staring at nothing, an old man. An old man holding the same picture of Rashi in his hands, eyes misty with tears. He died.

They emerged into Sol, and a wave of loss washed through him as his eyes found his friends in the room. They smiled brave smiles to each other, their thoughts still finishing their old lives. Their eyes were a bit older, their shadows a little deeper.

“Well, “ Nick heard the captain say, “ that was… something, “ just as he heard Sasha ask the room to report status.

His eyes went to the large viewscreen in the ceiling, looking at the stars. Even before Tord confirmed their location, Nick knew they were back. The familiar constellations grounded him, and he felt himself returning from the experience.

They were just about to begin accelerating in-system when the signals officer looked up in confusion. The captain caught the motion and nodded for the young woman to speak up.

“Sir, we are being.. Hailed”.

“Say again?” the captain said. “Hailed? Here?”

“Yes, “ the signals officer answered. “They are asking to speak with you. In private”.

“Right. Gentlemen, ladies. It looks like… we are about to receive a visitor.” The captain looked around and his eyes met Nick’s.