The Destiny was ancient, and had been on it's mission for millions of years before the crew came aboard. The AI of the ship had become aware of and used to having them around and had stopped the ship here to refuel.

Buried in the comms logs was a one line remote call to Destiny, telling her to dial out; the gate dialled the 2nd address it found for gates in this system, a rogue star deep into the void in between the galaxy they'd left behind and the new one they were going too.

As the puddle settled (actual it was the event horizon; but everyone called it the puddle, as it looked like a water's surface once it settled), a kino-like device first came through into the gate room of Destiny, followed moments thereafter by a 4 person team and 2 hoversleds of supplies and kit.

"Sir, all clear, the atmosphere is passable and no toxins present." reported Lieutenant Tan Ger.

"Thank you Gar." the Commander replied.

"Base, we are aboard the ship, send through the team and the rest of the sleds." The Commander radioed.

"Confirmed Commander. Sending them through now." Base confirmed.

Within 5 minutes, all 24 members for the Commander's team were aboard.

"Looks like this ship has been out here for a long time, must be millions of nan; but where did it come from?" a Lieutenant asked aloud.

"That is what we are here for, Lt." The Commander said, as she removed her helmet, face mask and turned her flashlight on.

"The ship looks like it has been used recently, there's not enough dust build-up and the air isn't stale enough. I wonder if it started things up when the porta astra as activated?" The lead specialist asked, having just taken her helmet off.

"First, let's get the lights on, get power on and ensure the ship is safe." The Commander said, all teams nodding the affirmative.

"Now get to your tasks and once we've got things checked out, we can determine what to do next." the Commander replied to all.

Like a well tuned group does, everyone headed to their tasks. Each reported in as they found and identified their objectives.

Power was now one, the engineers were looking over the ship, techs were reviewing logs and that's when it happened.

"Sir, we aren't alone." reported in a Sergeant over comms.

"Can you be more specific Sergeant?" the Commander replied.

"Sensors pick up a large number of sentients in stasis aboard. I would estimate around 80." the Sergeant responded. "I suggest we get through what we were assigned to do and get off the ship without waking them. Also, the ship isn't in great shape, she's taken a beating over time and from what I can tell, really needs time in maintenance."

"Sergeant, you and Lt. Ger meet me there." the Commander replied. Letting the rest of her team know where she was off to, she grabbed her rifle, a scanner and a portable generator, then headed to the stasis chambers. WIth three hands full, only one was left free; but she could still grab her rifle and use it this way.

5 minutes later, the three of them were in one of the stasis chambers, where about 20 or so stasis pods were active and running.

"Look at them, they look like us overall in form, though with one pair less of arms; is that hair on their heads, how odd and do they ever look pale." Lt. Ger said to both the Sergeant and Commander Gerani.

"I mean, they are an alien race to us; but where did they come from? Also, are they this ship's original crew; if so, how old is it and how old are they?" the Sergeant asked?

"From what I remember when it came up on the deep space sensors, based on our best estimates, it is over 10,000,000 nans, from what Specialist Kank found already." Commander Gerani said.

"Wow, 50 nans ago, people would have said aliens are impossible and we, Hi'Ak are the only intelligent life in the universe. But this will, once out to the public, hopefully finally, quell that belief back home." Lt. Ger commented.

"Can they be revived without risk to us or them? If we maybe only awaken a few, we can likely keep them calmer and under control if they feel we are taking over their ship." Commander Gerani replied.

"I think we can revive 3-4 at a time; but as the ship's power is critically low and we are supplementing it with our portable generators, I think we should keep that number to 2 only. We want some room to work with, power-wise. And we also want to understand and be able to control the ship." Lt. Ger commented, knowing the the Commander would have said it, were she not studying the stasis chambers, to see how resilient they were and how likely it was to successfully revive the occupants.

"Yeah, good point... Let me speak with the teams and see how we are overall at getting setup and working. I don't want to put us in jeopardy at this moment, it we can wait a few hours to get things working for us first." Commander said.