warping mirror.

Unknow ships.

The computer was in panic looking for references.

There were no unknown ships in this universe. There were the slim shapes of the UTF ships, the hulking reptilian demeanour of the Draykchin armada and the weird colorless slick forms of the Grey fleet.

These ships were clearly superbly functional as they maneuvered into formation to defend their solar system, but you are intrigued by the colorful ships with their sculptures and decorations that had no place in this world and no record in your databases.

Yet they were there, orbiting the fourth world of the Verdana system and clearly forming a line of battle. Did Fleet Command know that these ships would be here or was the admiral as surprised as you to find what should have been a simple exercise in fleet movement and logistics had turned dangerous?

And the thing that was shocking was the technology, it was neither Drayconian nor Grey, if anything ... you double-checked the computer's initial reports in surprise.

It was human.

References on old ships, pre first-contact showed similarities, and the writing on the flagship was clearly in Terran lettering although the shapes seemed distorted, like those out of old -

You were all looking in the wrong database.

Early colonial history. Second generation hyperdrive had a success rate of 23% and required cryogenic hibernation to keep people sane, it was slow and inefficient sending ships on decade longs journeys. After the near-destruction of humanity on Earth it was decided that in order to ensure the continuation of the human race, distant planets would have to be located, traveled to, terraformed and settled.

Operation Dandelion sent 30 colonization ships into the cold deadness of empty space on experimental one-century flights. Needless to say, there were few volunteers for a mission like this and the great colonization ships were filled with an odd mixture of idealistic dreamers, cults of fanatics, and outcasts and revolutionaries fleeing from the newly formed political blocks of Asia, Africa and South America. (The other continent's ship all failed and the middle east was an irradiated wastleland at the time.)

Twelve of these massive ships blew up on the activation of their experimental hyperdrives, but the other eighteen disappeared into deep space on schedule. Only after the development of third and forth generation hyperdrive technology, were these Dandelion ships gradually discovered as the UTF expanded to fill their corner of the galactic arm. Two of the colonization ships found M-class worlds and were able to fulfill their intended mission. Six of the remaining ships were found drifting cold and dead in space their crews still lying in their cryogenic tubes; those were the lucky ones. Five others were found a spectacle of horror as the crew, upon waking up far from any inhabitable planet, fought over the limited resources available and in the end turned to eating each other to survive.

Five of these great ships were still unaccounted for.

Until today.