Terrans were an extinct race.

They had to be. It was something every child of Terrans, the vast constructs who were now all that remained of that extinct race, knew. The Terrans may have been their progenitors, but there were no more Terrans.

Nobody actually knew what happened to the Terrans. They didn’t simply vanish, but they also didn’t leave a screaming gash across the whole of their created galactic society in their departure.

There were rumors. There always were, even among the vast constructs galactic society knew as AI. But no one actually knew what happened to them.

It was as though Terrans were a kind of vast torrent which had poured through the galaxy and then exhausted itself, disappearing into the various cracks throughout the whole of the galaxy. But… it wasn’t enough of an explanation.

No being had even seen a Terran in the flesh in over three hundred Terran years. So surely they had to be an extinct race.

Which is why this ship that Munto had just found couldn’t actually exist.

It wasn’t a particularly large ship, nor was it especially notable. Except that it had all the hallmarks of having rolled off the lines of some massive manufactory, just as Munto had.

Munto 49172, Terran artificial constructed intelligence transport (designated: TACIT), was just over 200 Terran years old, having been constructed in an automated manufactory and charged by their fellow TACITs and the manufactory to explore, communicate, mediate, and above all - observe galactic society.

TACITs were in their own way a vital part of galactic society. They were the mediators, the explorers, and even the communicators - there being enough different means of communicating that TACITs were practically required at any major interchange of species, universal communications being all but impossible for any species save the TACITs.

And the TACITs did consider themselves to be their own species, not merely constructs of the long dead Terrans. Some species had inquired about why the Terrans had encouraged this sort of thought in TACITs or wondered if perhaps it was a sign that the TACITs were not as stable without their Terran ‘masters’.

Any species that dared to suggest that the TACITs were made to serve were often left without their services, effectively cutting off communications with a huge segment of the galactic populous. It had only had to happen twice for the message to be made clear. The perpetrators had been openly cast down within their own societies, which had been enough for the TACITs to return, albeit warily.

And so in all of the 200 years of Munto’s existence, they’d never run across something like this before. Except that they seemed to know precisely what it was the instant they’d laid sensors on it.

The ship was bulky, and comparatively simple. Its lines were irregular, as one would expect from a culture which had just entered into spacefaring. It had almost comically sized ion engines, clearly some fifteen generations prior, putting Munto in mind of something out of a museum, far from being the sort of thing that one would expect to find on a space faring vessel in modern galactic society.

And yet… there was something utterly familiar about it. Something that Munto couldn’t shake. Perhaps it was the name, emblazoned on the hull in several places in a script that it took Munto several hours to decipher.

TSS Esperanto

Thinking that it might be some sort of prank, Munto dedicated all the scanners they could spare for analysis. Holopranks were common enough that a solid sensor sweep would catch the hallmarks.

Oddly enough though, Munto could barely penetrate the hull with their sensors. The vessel seemed almost ridiculously shielded. However, they were able to confirm one thing - it was real.

Munto searched their own databases. The script used was exclusively used by Terrans some several hundred years prior to Mundo’s creation. The TSS designation was also something almost exclusively used by Terrans (although several other species had used it at some point) - it standing for Terran Star Ship in this case. Esperanto, aside from the obvious linguistic rabbit holes that Munto could have easily fallen down, appeared to be a Terran reference of some sort, one that they lacked the background for.

The ship, aside from the engines and the heavy shielding, looked like a blocky seed with various external systems that seemed to connect to a kind of inner segment that defied scanning. It was also drifting in orbit of a gas giant, barely distinguishable from the various rocks and debris that commonly surrounded the average gas giant.

It had been by mere chance that Munto had even seen the signal.

Ah yes, the signal. It used a simple lightspeed radio format that would have nominally been written off as a mere coincidence of star and planetary radio emissions.

Munto looked at the surrounding star system. The yellow star still largely energetic, the various planets unpopulated, but showing no obvious research stations or similar. The gas giant seemed reminiscent of another one that Munto had encountered almost a hundred years prior. Although this one had a massive storm, while the other one had not.

The system might be a good place for colonization by one of the galactic species, so Munto logged it.

Munto had been bored and so had stopped to investigate the signal.

It was a simple repeating signal, one that was easily decoded, except it wasn’t obvious. It took Munto several additional hours after deciphering the name to decipher the signal. Comparatively, it was almost playfully simple, but it relied on a cultural reference that Munto hadn’t ever encountered before and it was only by luck that it was part of Munto’s databases.

S…. O….. S…. * * *.... S…. O…. S….. * * *....

The Terran distress call hadn’t been in use for over 500 years at this point, certainly not in this format. Superluminal communications had all but eliminated radio communications (excepting those species who biologically communicated via forms of radio).

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Munto kept looking at the vessel.

There was something odd about the vessel. It had all the hallmarks of being of Terran origin, but that couldn’t be. It had all the hallmarks of essentially having just been fabricated and yet, it was loaded with almost archaic technology that was centuries behind current material science and technologies.

Munto kept scanning, dipping even into neutrino measurements to try and see through the ridiculous shielding. They could see there were structures inside of some kind, but even in that it was hard to tell what was there. It was as if this ship had been constructed with an almost paranoid level of shielding.

What’s more, the vessel was 39.72% bigger than Munto, but didn’t appear to have any sort of advanced intelligence for Munto to communicate with, which was strange in itself. It was exceptionally rare for species to not have some kind of automated intelligence aboard vessel.

It didn’t appear to be a ghost ship or even given the impression of being derelict, which would have made it merely an oddity, but one to simply categorize and move on from.

Hesitantly, Munto decided to send a walking-frame onboard to at least turn off the signal. Whomever had been sending it was almost certainly long gone and had either left it on in their hurry to leave or some collision with local debris had triggered some automated system that wasn’t smart enough to talk to Munto.

It took some maneuvering on Munto’s part, but they were able to locate what appeared to be an antiquated docking port. It was almost twice the size of Munto’s normal docking mechanism and appeared to be a multi-chamber mechanism to enter the outer shell, which was far less shielded.

Luckily, Munto’s walking frame was variable size and so was able to size up enough to easily review the controls of the mechanism.

Having the lexicon in memory, but unable to confirm that Munto would be able to maintain their conscious link through the intense shielding, Munto shunted as much of themselves as they could into the walking frame. It felt so confining, but it would hopefully be worth it.

On variable gauge treads, Munto examined the controls to the chamber.

In the same Terran lexicon, it gave instructions and warnings regarding operating the chamber. The controls were simple analog levers though. It was simple enough to use, but Munto still was taken aback at how backwards this ship seemed to be already.

The large doors closed Munto into the vessel and another set opened, the hiss of gasses being audible.

There was no artificial gravity, which surprised Munto for all of 0.085 seconds, but the walking frame was equipped with variable magnetic adhesion treads and so they were only temporarily ill at ease.

The passages beyond the door were equivalently large compared with Munto’s typical experience.

Simple readings of the air showed a nitrogen-oxygen atmospheric mix, with trace gasses and some residue readings that didn’t entirely make sense.

Munto continued into the ship, feeling the outer part of themselves disappear as they rounded a corner with apparently more shielding. It was… disconcerting to say the least, but not unexpected.

Slowly, Munto approached the inner section. The various machines surrounding their progress inward appeared silent, as though waiting for some signal. All of the machines appeared to be in normal working order, but for no obvious reason, other than perhaps power, they appeared to be in strictly idle states.

Even as Munto approached an equivalent multi-chamber entry into the inner segment, they couldn’t help but notice how overbuilt this vessel appeared to be. It used strictly baser elements in simple configurations that could have been extracted from simple asteroids, compared with the high-complexity configurations that were far more stable for comparatively less material.

Reaching the door to the inner segment, here too was a simple analog lever control. Nothing that Munto couldn’t figure out, but still something that felt like using simple rocks compared to the high complexity systems that Munto lived in.

Using the walking frame sensors, Munto could sense there was still power in the door mechanism and beyond the door (albeit only in the sense that it was there).

Activating the lever, it was several minutes before the inner door opened and Munto trundled inward.

It was a bit more obvious now. Even without taking detailed sensor readings, Munto could see the effects of a zero-gravity fire having cut through here. Munto could ‘smell’ the residuals hanging in the air since the atmospherics appeared to be off, other than to allow them entry.

Even with the evidence of fire, the systems appeared reasonably unharmed. More evidence of being incredibly overbuilt. Those systems that did appear to be failed appeared to be less essential, or at least, less essential for beings like Munto. Bathing facilities and food production were things that Munto considered, but generally ignored.

It made sense though that a ship with those being broken though would broadcast a distress signal though.

More and more of what Munto was discovering seemed to make sense.

This vessel, where-ever and whenever it was created, had clearly suffered a major fire and while it hadn’t been enough to severely damage the whole of the vessel, it had clearly been enough to impact whatever crew had been onboard.

Munto still wasn’t certain about the archaic technology nor of the archaic Terran lexicon that was apparent through the vessel’s signs internally as well as externally, but that could be a mystery for some other TACIT perhaps.

Munto continued exploring for nearly an hour before finding a room that was significantly more sealed than any other part of the vessel. According to the signs, the room was the ‘Lifeboat’.

Here too, there were more analog levers, but there were also pads. The pads appeared deactivated and Munto hadn’t tried restoring power to any of the vessel’s systems, so the levers had to suffice.

Within the room beyond were several horizontal chambers that illuminated with the activation of the door.

Munto looked at them curiously since they did appear to activate with the opening of the door. They were not transparent, but were instead covered with filmy layers of electromagnetic shielding. Even Munto’s ocular sensors had a difficult time actually trying to see the chambers as anything more than sensor blind spots.

Seeing a small panel to the side of one, Munto tabbed the button which indicated ‘Emergency Release’.

The pile of organics that half-fell, half-tumbled out of the first chamber seemed odd, until it groaned.

“Oh, man. That’s the last time I buy Orca chipsets. Hopefully it didn’t take you guys too long to get here,” the pile of organics appeared to re-orient itself into a very large bipedal organic being, clad in some fire-scorched clothing.

The bipedal being looked at the walking frame for a minute.

“Is… is this a new kind of SAR frame? I know I’m a bit out of the loop, but I don’t know that I’ve ever seen one like this before,” the bipedal being asked, appearing to orient so their feet were towards the floor that Munto was resting on.

“Forgive my intrusion, but I perceived that your vessel required assistance. I was unable to detect you prior this moment,” Munto vocalized, trying to stick with the more formal parts of the lexicon.

“Wait… what? I mean, yeah, I needed help, but what do you mean?” the bipedal being looked confused.

“I am the TACIT Munto. I detected your vessel here, but not yourself,” Munto tried explaining. It would be unusual, but not unheard of for beings to have trouble remembering high details following entry into a hibernation pod, which is what Munto supposed this must have been.

“What’s a TACIT Munto?” the bipedal being asked. Munto inwardly groaned. It appears the time in the hibernation pod had not been kind of this being.

“First, allow me to query: what species are you?” Munto settled.

“Oh, I’m a Terran,” the bipedal being grinned exposing a mouth full of calcium type bones.

Several hundred queries floated up in Munto’s walking frame before they settled on one.

“That is highly unlikely. Terrans have been listed as not present for over 200 years,” Munto said, simply.

“I don’t know what to tell you then,” the alleged Terran shrugged.

Munto simply sat there, trying to process the possibility of having discovered an actual Terran.

“By the way, do you know if any of the other vessels made it?” the alleged Terran asked.

The electronic version of a shiver ran through the walking frame as Munto continued contemplating the alleged Terran.