[snip]

As El and Aelef would enter the launch bay, they would find three NEs hastily preparing pod 1 for launch. “..What do you think they found?” One NE asked.

El and Aelef moved over and passed to the NE their things to be stowed away. It was also a good place to be to eavesdrop. The one satchel kit rattled. “Watch that one,” El said, fearing something might fall out. They were tools and sturdy. The feet under them, however, were not as sturdy.

“I don’t..” El began to answer then blushed as she realized that the question didn’t come to them.

”..I heard they found ancient ruins of something!” One of the other NEs answered tightening down a service panel.

Ummmm .. ruins would be cool .. but what would they need them for? El thought ..

”..I heard we found an ancient alien probe sending out a call for help..” the third said.

Lot of ‘ancient’ being tossed around. They stepped back out of the way. Lots of things going in there. Was it going to be a full house? Them two .. the Captain .. that pod was half full now before anyone else came. Was there anyone else? Surely the Captain wouldn’t go down without a security escort of some sort. Well, that was her call, and if it was just ruins. But an ancient ‘probe’? Whose?

”..Nah you’re all wrong!” a fourth NE that was in the launch bay control room going over system diagnostics said from behind El and Aelef, “..NE Lisa up on the bridge says we picked up a old Earth radio signal, seems it was or is from one of those old late 20th century early 21st century space shuttles.....Columbia I think she said? Also said they even found the damn thing crashed on the planet! Signs was its been there since back in 2003 and somehow the crew maybe even survived and built that whole thing, though obviously they’re all long dead by now..” he said.

Aelf scoffed in a strong Welsh accent. “Impossible. Copperfield couldn’t have pulled that off. The world was watching. You can’t have two of the same thing in the universe.”

”..True!” The fourth NE by the launch control room said, “..but then again if we got recorded proof on Earth back in 2003 of recovering the shuttle and the bodies and its complete break up, then how do we explain the intact shuttle on the planet and signs of survivors that built some jury rigged water wheel to power the shuttle’s radio every hour on the hour to transmit?..” he added

”..Wow one of those old things? My great grandfather was a historian of old Earth space flight, from pictures he showed me and the track record they all had in failures its a wonder we even got into space back then as we did! Still if I recall right that shuttle was lost with all hands in 2003 and its remains recovered shortly there after! So how did it wind up mostly intact on this planet with the crew??” the first proposed after securing emergency provisions in the pod.

GM CockRoach

“A hundred years from now they will be looking at our ship and saying the same thing,” El said under her breath, annoyed at them looking at their history that way. Everything built on another. She scratched at the back of her neck. Aelf was right. You can’t have two things of the same, and not this far out. “Unless it’s not from our universe,” El said, musing. “Some kind of one parallel to ours.” She shrugged. “It was big in science fiction for a while.” And no real fact to prove it. Unless this was it. A tingle went through her. But from the sounds of it it could as easily be old ruins. Rumors seemed rampant.

”..Well yeah obviously! But that’s half the fun of joking about older tech if you ask me..” the first NE said

“Who is Copperfield?” El asked.

“Old magician of the 20th Century. He was one of the first to do big scale tricks. Most just did little things like escape tricks or stage tricks. He made buildings disappear, walked through walls.” Evidently Aelef was into that as El could see him getting and sounding more excited which meant his accent became thicker, which was about as far off and alien as the ‘Bas’ dialect that she had learned, that mix of languages that was common around the Basilisk Strait amid the great floating cities that were on either side of that Strait. They had names for themselves, but the vernacular translated them to simply Flotsam and Jetsam.

“Could be that too,” El said. Any theory at the moment was equally sound, and, as equally ridiculous.

El, Eng with Aelf

While El and others were finishing storing things, the fourth NE by the launch control room poked his head out of the door. “..Hey can someone check the aft port thruster sensor? Diagnostics there just finished up for a third time and are giving me three different results of status, might be a faulty sensor but might not..” he said.

GM CockRoach