Vessel

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First, there was nothing.

Then, a single stellar body flickered in the night sky, and the nothingness ceased to be nothing.

It had arrived, silent and undetected.

It would change everything.

‘Hello TsUP, this is RS0ISS. Reporting unidentified vessel in our region, holding orbit approximately two hundred metres aft of our location. Please confirm.’

The heavy Russian accent, laden with radio static, fell silent. Sitting at his desk — row three of five in the cavernous cylindrical room — Mission Control Capsule Communicator Aleksandar Dezhurov touched his lips against the stiff microphone of his headset and considered his response.

‘Moscow TsUP, hello. Negative copy on your last transmission, please repeat.’

He gazed through the three gigantic screens at the front of the room, scratching his head through his greying hair as he waited for the reply. A slow stream of letters and numbers rolled down a smaller screen at his desk, disappearing at the bottom as if being swept along by a digital tide.

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