Well beyond the Orion Arm We shut the engines down at the first alarm And we’re drifting helplessly The cause of failure yet to be declared Was it hardware or software, can it be repaired? Is the mission in jeopardy? Our forward momentum will persist unimpeded But there are no maneuvers that we know will be needed for now There are no stars in the vicinity Between the arms of the Galaxy Just a dark and empty void Before a rescue mission could hope to arrive We’ll be long gone, no one left alive at all

Our long-range sensors are picking up an anomaly It’s too far out to identify, save for trajectory At its course and speed it will intercept us in nineteen hours The only thing that’s for certain: it’s not one of ours It’s a welcome distraction from the situation in the engine room At least a temporary reprieve from all the gloom and doom Excitement infused with a dash of fear of unknown powers As we race toward an encounter in less than nineteen hours There’s no good news in the latest update from the engineers In their dire report is the confirmation of our worst of fears The FTL drive malfunction is beyond repair We can’t escape the encounter and we’re almost there

We’ve got new data coming in This inbound object of unknown origin It seems to be a hollow sphere Means of propulsion as yet remains unclear It has its own magnetic field As it draws nearer more detail is revealed Its hulk is many times our size Attempts to hail it have gone without reply So we’re watching, waiting, speculating Pacing, bracing, our minds are racing Some are praying, hoping, barely coping Guessing, testing, the will to survive

As our pursuer drew alongside A gap in its hull was opening wide We felt a mild vibration begin Some kind of force was pulling us in An equatorial recess It swallowed us whole Darkness to darkness The aperture closed

From the darkness of deepest space Into an even darker place Deathly silence, emptiness Stealth of purpose, no egress What’s out there? Are we here alone? Obeisance Fear of the unknown Inside the sphere we’re crippled and blind Who brought this here and what’s on their minds? If we’re ever to understand Who built this thing and what they’ve planned We just can’t sit here and hide away We’ll send a team on EVA Explorers, well that is what we are No danger has come to light so far Inside the sphere we’re crippled and blind Who brought this here and what’s on their minds? Inside the sphere we’re crippled and blind Who brought this here and what’s on their minds?

The lander was loaded up with a five-man crew and gear The pilot completed pre-flight and then signaled the all clear We lifted gently up from the hangar floor with ease Retracted stabilizers and nosed up ten degrees Cautiously forward, steady she goes What we might find out there, nobody knows Recon team away! All systems A-OK Recon team away! We set to the task of mapping and measuring the sphere Our ship now a point of light steadily fading to the rear We’d flown more than ten kilometers before we reached the wall Replete with plethora structures unidentifiable And bathed in our floodlights, the landscape exposed Detecting no life forms we advanced unopposed Recon team away! On this historic day Recon team away!

Cold and dark and inhospitable So far from home and incompatible We searched for something to explain it all Among the structures on the inner wall Divided into geographic zones We mapped the surface with surveillance drones By the seventh orbit of the recon flight We’d reached consensus on a landing site Deeper and deeper immersed in this alien dream What minds conceived this alien dream? The sphere’s rotational velocity Produced an artificial gravity So once we’d safely set the lander down We took a rover out to go and look around Deeper and deeper immersed in this alien dream What minds conceived this alien dream? We sat in silence buckled in our seats As we drove along what looked like city streets And tracking us aboard the mother ship We appeared as just a tiny radar blip Deeper and deeper immersed in this alien dream What minds conceived this alien dream? Ah, ah – this alien dream Ah, ah – this alien dream Light years from home in an alien dream Structures like buildings in this alien dream These look like buildings, windowless buildings in an alien city Can’t find a door, no way to get into these alien buildings What hides inside behind the walls? It’s an alien dream

Return to the lander Called the Commander There’s something happening But not near where we were The opposite hemisphere A signal, they’ve found a signal On we go! The ship was picking up a signal of sorts Sent us coordinates and data reports Not much to go on to help us prepare Except the fact that it’s there We stowed the rover and laid in the new course Across the chasm to the signal’s source Dissimilar buildings to where we’d just been Maybe this time we’ll get in One to another Us and the mother ship Elation, anticipation And within an hour The transmission tower Came into view, ahead we flew On we go! The spire’s base looked like a ziggurat A most intriguing shape, to us, was that Big as a football field and ten stories high No logic we could apply Ah, ah, on we go! Ah, ah, on we go! Ah, ah, on we go! Ah, ah We found an airlock on the nearest side Led to a chamber twenty meters wide And as we entered we could see some light Hovering shapes floating into sight Confronted by a holographic display Alien symbols in a wide array Then we saw something we could understand One of the symbols was a human hand After some confusion We reached a conclusion This was an interface A starting place The first mate stepped forward While raising his palm toward The hologram Of a human hand On we go! On we go! On we go!

As the mate held up his hand He didn’t know but he was scanned By machinery of alien design When it confirmed he was a man An information dump began He turned and told us their intentions were benign He couldn’t tell us how he knew But he was certain it was true And very soon we would all understand And no sooner had he spoken As if they’d been awoken The chamber walls began to expand We could do no more than guess As we attempted to assess What this mechanical activity implies And then slowly lights came on Like an artificial dawn And we watched the scene unfold before our eyes

In the ziggurat we’d found the key One simple gesture with the right anatomy Those other symbols we came to agree Were meant for other species from around the galaxy Human identity matched (Authentication code received) Sentient systems dispatched (Accordant data banks retrieved) Detecting oxygen, breathable air When we first got here it simply wasn’t there A transformation, right before our eyes We found food and water and basic supplies Human environment matched (Using advanced technology) Sentient systems dispatched (Initiated by the key) In the mother ship instruments show Power and life support all running low Evacuation, must now begin Down to the ziggurat, welcome them in Human invention surpassed (By an intelligence unknown) Sentient systems amassed (The key unlocked this human zone)

Layers of symbols A language base Learning to navigate the interface A simulacrum At our command The more we see the more we understand On the verge of discovery the answers are near What was shrouded in mystery becoming so clear On the verge of discovery no longer concealed The unlocking of knowledge and the truth revealed Exquisite science Nano machines Performing primary and sub routines Interrogation Responsiveness An open door to unrestricted access On the verge of discovery the answers are near What was shrouded in mystery becoming so clear On the verge of discovery no longer concealed The unlocking of knowledge and the truth revealed to us all With rapid progress The data flows It’s like we’re drinking from a fire hose An ancient wisdom Projecting through Explaining everything we ask it to On the verge of discovery the answers are near What was shrouded in mystery becoming so clear On the verge of discovery no longer concealed The unlocking of knowledge and the truth revealed to us all

Struggling to adapt to this reality Hold on, hold on The crew has sunk into a state of melancholy Hold on, hold on In the base camp, a somber mood Low expectations Unaware of our breakthrough Wait ‘til we tell them what we know! ‘Cause we can tell them everything will be OK Hold on, hold on And we were actually rescued from a far worse fate Hold on, hold on Nothing to do with the breakdown Coincidental The sphere was already inbound A programmed reactive response Had we continued our original course We'd have come to a violent end The sphere came to block us from the danger beyond Like a paladin prepared to defend And now the team has found a holographic orrery Mmm A three dimensional projection of the galaxy Mmm It might reveal where we’re going Hold on, hold on There’d be some comfort in knowing Hold on, hold on

The sphere has altered course since yesterday The star alignment vector is not the same We see a different sky, recalibrate The view from forward sensors on our display The sphere is a lifeboat, one of a fleet Deployment all over the galaxy They traveled the stars for thousands of years Without encountering any peers It seems that spacefaring species are extremely rare They never found any anywhere, until now And even now they’re not here, not in the sphere, yet somehow We have a feeling they know, will they come say hello, could it be We’re being taken to them, a place in their memory Recorded in their prime, preserved for all time They discovered Earth during the critical stage When mankind was entering the industrial age Their prime directive not to interfere They left us alone until we came out here on our own The farthest we’ve yet to roam And then ready or not we find that we’re not alone An alien race in deepest space, the unknown But when we get here there’s no one home They witnessed many wonders and phenomena From the Milky Way to Andromeda They came this way a long time ago If they’re still out there somewhere we may never know, but we see Enough to get the gist, a glimpse of their history But what could have unfolded in the time untold, maybe An extinction event that they could not prevent, or foresee Or did they simply move on and now they’re too long gone The sphere has altered course since yesterday The star alignment vector is not the same We see a different sky, recalibrate The view from forward sensors on our display

Back inside the Orion Spur Familiar stars on the monitor We calculate the sphere’s trajectory Back along the way we came it seems to be Taking us back The engineers aboard our mother ship Have devised a plan for a return trip They’ve restored full power to the thrusters now They can limp us home if we get out somehow Taking us back Going home, going home, going home We’ve replenished all supplies and life support Completing our flight readiness report We’ll break the base camp and bring back the crew There’ll be some issues but we’ll work them through Taking us back Going home, going home, going home At well below the speed of light it’s going to be a long, long flight No FTL drive, but we’ll get there alive, we just have to get the ship outside All at once, around the circumference of the sphere There appeared a bright ring of light A small section of which pulsed rhythmically for a while Before blinking out of sight An adjacent section began to do exactly the same And that’s when we realized This is a pattern, a warning of some kind A counting down of time At the same time, all of the monitors were displaying An animation of the sphere as seen from outside It showed the gap in its hull slowly opening And the sequence repeated over and over again It’s time to get everyone back onboard - now! Now!   When the landing party was safely onboard And everybody was settling in We could see the sphere’s hull opening up And felt that strange vibration again That mysterious force tugging on our ship Pulled us toward the wall And without a sound we were outward bound No complications at all Our inherited speed, that of the sphere Much faster than we thought This is just what we needed, to get home from here We’ve got a decent shot The sphere released us and then veered away Receding deep into the Milky Way Its makers’ whereabouts a mystery The missing chapters of their history Sending us back Going home, going home, going home