The Armstrong came huffing and groaning out of the space/time tunnel and emerged into realspace.
The large physical viewing screen on the bridge showed the local space, of which only a small nearby brown dwarf star was of any note. Captain Littlecrow had been anxiously standing since they had emerged.
"How close are we to the source of the distress signal?" she asked.
"Less than 100 clicks," said Ensign Marceaux "We're looking at it."
Whatever it was, it didn't look like much.
"Scan the area," said the Captain "Use everything we have."
Marceaux worked his console for a few moments.
"There's gamma radiation everywhere," he said "There's also something else I'm trying to get a proper resolution on."
"That's exactly what you would expect in the aftermath of a matter/antimatter reaction. 100% conversion. Nothing left but radiation," said Commander Gibson.
"That would certainly explain why the distress signal was such a short burst," said Lieutenant-Commander Mitzner.
"But why would the crew of the Jofuku set their matter/antimatter reactor to self-destruct?" asked the Captain "They would have had to have had a good reason. Is there any evidence of a battle in the area?"
"Nothing," said Marceaux "Although hypothetically there could be some laser fire lost in all this energy."
"Something about all of this isn't adding up," said the Captain.
She sat back down so she could focus all of her attention on glowering.
"There's something else here, Captain," said Marceaux "I can't get any readings on it, but there's a noticeable gap in the data. It's like a void in the sensor input. There has to be something there actively skewing my sensors."
"Anything able to mess with our sensors on that level is probably doing it on purpose," said the Captain "Even if we can't see it lets see if we can communicate with the thing. Commander Gibson, page the Science Department. Ensign Marceaux, get ready to open communications in the general direction of the void on my order. Full spectrum, everything we have."
"There might be issues with all the gamma radiation," said Marceaux.
"Do what you can," said the Captain.
Marceaux prepped for a full spectrum hail while Commander Gibson paged Dr. Kang. The Captain stared out into space.
"Armstrong," she said "Visualize gamma radiation on the main screen."
The space being shown on the main screen immediately lit up. The swirling, fuzzy energy pattern had a strange beauty to it. It also looked very much like the aftermath of a Foundation self-destruct protocol.
"Ready and awaiting your order, Captain," said Marceaux.
"Open it now," said the Captain "This is Captain Alexandria Littlecrow of the Huxley Foundation Starship Armstrong. We come in peace. Does anyone read this message?"
There wasn't much of a wait before Marceaux spoke again.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, quite pleased with himself "There's a signal burst emanating from the void. It looks like we're getting a reply."
"Splendid. If you get anything we can resolve on the main screen throw it up there," said the Captain.
"I'm not recognizing any of this," said Marceaux, frantically working his console "It's not any known communication protocol, that's for sure."
"Well, what else could it be?" asked Mitzner.