"What have you found?" the captain ordered as he entered the Astronomy lab.

"Not much I'm afraid," the Astronomer, Leon Gates, said with a frown, "None of these star configurations are familiar," he indicated several monitors with pictures of stars from various angles from the ship.

"We were apparently at maximum speed for thirteen minutes," Navigator Park added, "but we have no idea just how fast that was."

"What do you mean?" the captain demanded with a fearsome frown, "How can you not know?"

Navigator Mikasa jumped in, "We have incomplete information, Captain. First of all," he raised a finger, "the power surge threw the engines over the red line." Raising a second finger, he continued, "Secondly, the power surge also damaged our navigation instruments." A third finger rose, "And then something happened. We don't know exactly what, but it seems to have something to do with the EM drive; an unexpected effect I think. Either that or something external to the ship."

After a moment of expectant silence the captain said, "That's all you have?"

"Yes, sir," Gates answered without hesitation, "But remember; we've been at it for less than an hour."

"Can't we just turn around and go back the way we came?" The scowl still hadn't left his face.

"Uh, no sir," Park said with a nervous gulp.

"Why not?"

Park looked at Mikasa, her fear of the captain plainly written on her face. Mikasa once again took over the explanation, "Because of the power fluctuations during the surge, the maneuvering thrusters also fired, but at random. Our course changed probably twenty times or more while we were all unconscious."

"Fine," Jacks shot back, "You have one hour to give me more."

"Yes, sir," the three said in unison as the captain left the lab.

"Captain!" The excitement in Ted Baxter's voice brought him up short.

"What's wrong?" Jacks asked, immediately assuming that there was another system malfunction or damaged equipment.

"You won't believe it!" the geophysicist gesticulated wildly towards his laboratory.

"I'll send an engineering team to fix whatever it is," the captain said dismissively, turning away to continue his inventory of destruction throughout the ship.

"No Captain!" Baxter grabbed hold of his arm to keep him from leaving, "We've found something on the surface!" Dragging the captain into his lab, eyes wide with excitement like a kid on Christmas morning.

"On the surface?" The disbelief in Jacks' voice was matched by his furrowed brow, his flint eyes making a challenge to the scientist to repeat what he had said.

"Yes, Captain," Baxter calmed himself down somewhat with a visible effort, "We were examining the planet to make sure that there were no dangers to the ship. I saw a hex pattern in the mountains, so I took some telescopic images."

"And...?" 

With a shocked look, Baxter said, "It's a building! Didn't I say that?"

"No you didn't," he scowled some more, "Show me."

Following Baxter into the Geology Lab, Captain Jacks looked around curiously. There were several computer workstations scattered throughout a maze of machinery and equipment. Leading him to an active station, Baxter pointed past the other scientist seated there to the screen. To Jacks it looked like nothing more than a badly pixelated grayscale picture, reminiscent of the surface of the Earth's moon.

"What am I looking at?" he asked, squinting at the screen as if trying to pierce an optical illusion.

"You can see here," the other man said, pointing at an apparently random place on the screen, "that there are differentiations in the surface." He spoke with a very Russian accent.

"I'll take your word for it," the captain said, still trying to make sense of the image. The Russian man was Gregor Slavinski, the ship's Lead Scientist. When it came to anything science related, there was no use arguing with him; he was always right.

"Here, you can see it better on radar," he quickly typed a command into he computer, and the image shifted. Now he could see a vaguely hexagonal black spot near the center of the screen.

"Okay," he gave Gregor a piercing look, "and what exactly is it?"

"We're not sure," Baxter said giddily, as if that were good news.

Gregor picked up the explanation again, "Whatever it's made of isn't registering as any known substance," looking to the other man for confirmation he added, "It seems to be some kind of metal. We just can't determine what kind it is."

"So there's life down there?" his stomach fluttered at the thought. He hadn't expected to encounter another planet this quickly, and he certainly hadn't expected to come face to face with an alien civilization. How does one introduce themselves to aliens?

"Uh, no sir," Slavinski chimed in again, "not that we can tell."

"So... abandoned?"

"It looks that way, sir."

"Let me guess," he eyed the pair suspiciously, "you want to go down there."

They both nodded vigorously and in unison, elation on both of their faces, not looking very much like the accomplished scientists that they both were.

"Have you piloted one of these things before?" Gregor Slavinski eyed the shuttlecraft as if it might come to life and bite him.

"Relax," Billy-Bob Boorman scoffed dismissively, "You're in good hands. I can pilot anything."

Slavinski and Baxter gave each other doubtful looks, but began lugging their equipment aboard without further comment. Two assistants managed a majority of the scientific gear that was being packed for the trip down to the surface. 

Andy Redburn, one of two security officers accompanying them, followed them into the shuttle saying, "Now remember Doc; let us clear the building before you come in." He rolled his r's in typical Scottish fashion.

"Yes, yes," Slavinski said dismissively, "whatever you say."

Across the shuttle bay, the XO was talking quietly to the First Officer, "I don't like this," he repeated stiffly, "We are not prepared for this kind of thing."

"Really, Phillip?" Quinn sighed indulgently, "How much more prepared do you need to be? Besides, this is what we're here for; scientific exploration."

With a disapproving frown, Phillip said, "We've never deployed to an alien planet before, let alone one that might have alien life!"

"So you want to practice first?" Her verbal jab obviously hit home as Phillip winced. "Look, the air is breathable, there's no signs of intelligent life, and we're stuck here for a couple of days making repairs. What's the harm in letting the scientists do their jobs?"

Half an hour later the shuttle departed the Wandering Star's docking bay. The sleek winged craft maneuvered expertly from the hangar and headed directly for the dusty brown planet. The trip took only a few minutes, descending through the atmosphere like a fiery Phoenix towards one of the empty hexagonal plates that was thought to be a landing pad for the building.

As they came in towards the strange structure, its layout became apparent. It was built on six identical hexagonal plates surrounding a central hexagon that held the building. The tower was hex shaped as well, rising some 35 meters into the sky, tapering to a smaller size every ten meters or so.

Just ten meters above the landing pad, alarms started to scream their warning to the crew. The shuttle lurched to the side and began to wobble precariously.

"Are they firing at us?" Baxter's shrill, panicked voice screamed.

"Nah," Billy-Bob drawled calmly as he flipped switches and fought for control of the craft, "Nobody's firing nothin' at us."

Everyone grabbed onto something as the shuttle suddenly dropped in altitude. They all wore safety harnesses, but the unexpected drop caused even more panic. With a bone-jarring crash, the shuttle made its landing on the hexagonal pad. Sparks shot from everywhere and a small fire ignited behind one of the panels.

"That's it. Everybody out!" Billy-Bob hollered as he shooed them out the back of the shuttle and onto the landing pad. 

Andy and Alex, the two security officers, were first out the door. With weapons ready and pointing systematically at potential targets they rushed forward in a defensive screen as the others followed behind, not caring if the area was clear or not. 

"Well doc," the pilot drawled, sweeping off his dirty baseball cap, "Looks like we may be here for a spell." And with a disappointed grunt we set about unloading tools to repair the flightless shuttle, starting with a fire extinguisher.

"Clear," Alex called after he had taken a moment to quickly scan the interior of the building. The doorway into the tower was obvious; six meter tall arched openings, three meters wide, with impressive looking metal doors.

The massive doors had opened easily once they had figured out that they slid back into the wall instead of opening on hinges. They seemed well oiled (or whatever these people used for lubrication) and silently offered ingress to the visitors.

Alex crossed the metal grate that comprised the first three meters of floor, not even noticing the marvelous architecture around him. As he stepped on the grate, a strong current of air hit him from above, nearly knocking from his feet. At the same time, the lights in the main chamber came to life, illuminating the single expansive room that appeared to encompass the entirety of the ground floor. With military precision Alex checked corners and scouted out into the chamber to make sure it was safe for the scientists.

"My god!" Baxter exclaimed as he entered, "This place is amazing!"

"It certainly is," Slavinski agreed, gaping up at the ceiling six meters above their heads. The two research assistants, arms full of boxes and cases, silently stared at the grand edifice as if paralyzed.

Andrew came behind Alex, checking corners and identifying potential threats, but he was more taken in by the strangeness around him. He paused to examine a couch-like object that was attached to the floor in what appeared to be an oversized cubicle, wondering at its original purpose.

Alex never lost focus on his purpose. He continued around the perimeter of the single open chamber, then worked his way in towards the wide pillar at the center. To him there was no wonder, no curiosity. Everything was either safe, or dangerous, and dangerous things had to be pacified or rendered safe.

The wide column at the center of the structure appeared to be an open shaft that extended both upwards and down. It was also encircled by circular stairways with unusually large steps. As Alex began to ascend the stairs, the scientists could be heard muttering, "Amazing!" or, "Incredible!" every few seconds.

"These look like they may have been workstations," Baxter said as he stepped into one of the cubicles, "and these couches may have been chairs."

"They were obviously larger than Humans," Slavinski added, noting the exaggerated size of everything around them.

One of the research assistants, Peter, unfolded a ladder so that they could reach the 'desk' that was two meters high, roughly head height. "These may have been their computers," he noted as he reached the desktop.

"Indeed," Slavinski agreed, "I'll get started on this with Peter. Baxter, you and Paul keep looking around. See if you can find anything interesting; some writing perhaps."

"Yes, Doctor," Baxter acknowledged, grabbing two of the cases as he and Paul went in search of other treasures.

Two hours later, Billy-Bob came looking for them and found Slavinski and Peter elbow deep in circuitry from the open back of the computer terminal that was nearly as tall as they were. Peter yelped as sparks shot out of the machine.

"You gents doin' okay?" the pilot asked.

"Fine," Slavinski barked crossly, "What do you need?" He hated to be interrupted while he was working, especially on something as incredible as this.

"Well, I just thought you should know," Billy-Bob drawled, "that the shuttle may take me a mite longer to get goin' than I first figured on."

Slavinski's head came up as he had a thought, "Mister Boorman, you are familiar with electronics, no?"

"I got a bit o' schoolin' on it," he replied cautiously, "why?"

The scientist smiled and said, "Why don't you come up here and help us figure out how this computer works?"

"Well sure, Doc. Tho if I'm up there with you, then I won't be out fixin' the shuttle."

"Never mind that," a rare grin graced his face, "This is more important."