Restricted-distribution arrival log from UNS Tsiolkovsky, following the bearing Commander Jakub Novák received during the cognitive event at Pluto’s subsurface facility in December 2131. Timestamps in Mission Elapsed Time (MET), continued from Pluto departure. Site designation withheld from this excerpt per Directorate classification.
MET 419:11:33 — ASTROMETRICS: Contact confirmed at the reported bearing. Visual resolving now — Commander, this matches what you described. Vessel, artificial, considerably larger than anything in the Pluto wreckage field, and it’s not derelict in the sense of drifting. It’s holding position.
MET 419:14:02 — SENSOR OFFICER: Multiple small contacts departing the site at high burn. Reading as corvette-class, four total, already accelerating away from our approach vector. They saw us coming before we saw them.
MET 419:14:20 — NOVÁK: Do not pursue. Our objective is the site, not four ships running for open space. Let them go.
MET 419:16:45 — SENSOR OFFICER: Confirmed, all four contacts breaking off, no weapons fire, no attempt to engage. They’re not defending this site. They’re leaving it.
MET 419:22:10 — TACTICAL OFFICER: Additional contacts on the hull itself, Commander. Multiple individuals conducting extravehicular activity directly on the derelict’s surface — no visible weapons, no defensive posture. They’re not suited.
MET 419:22:38 — NOVÁK: Same as Pluto’s surface guard, then.
MET 419:23:04 — TACTICAL OFFICER: Confirmed non-human, consistent profile with the units encountered at Pluto. Difference this time — they’re not engaging us at all. No hostile action, no repositioning toward the ship, nothing. They’re continuing whatever task they were doing when the corvettes broke off.
MET 419:24:51 — NOVÁK: Understood. Hold fire unless they act first. Whoever was running this site left in a hurry and left the help behind. I want to know if that’s because the help isn’t armed, or because the help wasn’t worth the extra weight leaving.
MET 419:31:17 — TEAM LEAD: Boarding party ready, Commander. Recommend minimal-contact approach given the units aren’t responding to our presence at all.
MET 419:32:03 — NOVÁK: Approved. Non-lethal posture unless directly engaged. I don’t want a second Pluto out here if we don’t need one. Document everything, touch nothing without imaging first, and get me a count on how many personnel Argus actually had running this before they ran themselves.
[End of arrival excerpt. Boarding survey logged separately; site placed under long-term UN study, personnel rotation beginning 2132.]