It had been years since ze had been seen last, though not nearly as long as had been estimated, wagered or theorised. When a derelict, cobbled together ship limped into The Blackstump research station. it had seemed to come from come from beyond what was known and explored space, and from the entirely the wrong direction from which the occupant was last seen.
The Return of Andi the Undying
https://steemit.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02156-e327-they-ll-be-back -- Adam in Darwin
The ship was limping along through space. Parts of it were bleeding smoky atmosphere, and the rest of it looked like it had been hurriedly patched together out of at least ten different vessels. It was, as Humans were wont to say, one good sneeze away from falling apart altogether.
According to all sensors, it had come from the relatively nearby Galactic Core. In fact, they had traced it exiting at high velocity and gradually slowing as it used both velocity engines and gravity slingshot maneuvers to escape from the enormous gravity well from whence they had came. As soon as visual confirmation of the vessel's identity was possible, the configuration didn't match any recent records. More alarming, it didn't easily match any historical records.
Naturally, the people at Blackstump Research Station attempted every known means of communication, including flashing lights and semaphore. The reply came in through standard comms. The voiceprint was of a cogniscent identified as deceased with a question mark. Human Andi, better known as Andi the undying.
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