"Captain, you're needed on the bridge."

Captain Morgan, engrossed in a riveting adventure story in his quarters, looked up with a frown and sighed. His second-in-command, Chief Officer Blackford, stood in the door with a serious expression on his face.

With a grunt, Morgan swung his legs over the edge of his bed, stepped into his shoes and put down his reading tablet. "What is it now? Surely you can handle the preparations for our jump to the next system without me."

"That's just it, Captain. I don't think we're ready to jump."

Morgan turned to look at Blackford while he put on his uniform jacket, his brows furrowed. "What do you mean? We've explored this godforsaken system for weeks now. We haven't found anything worth our while."

Blackford shrugged. "Maybe not, but our scanners picked something up half an hour ago."

"You found something, huh?" Morgan grumbled. "Well, lead the way then. Let's see what's so important that you have to disturb me even when I explicitly told you to leave me alone until we're ready to jump."

Blackford turned and led the way back to the bridge. As the commanding officer of the ship Agatha, Captain Morgan's quarters were close to the bridge. This was by design to allow him to quickly respond in the case of an emergency. Of course, it also meant that he was disturbed more often than he wished to be. He had cursed the designers of the Agatha on countless occasions for the many nights of interrupted sleep he had experienced because of of non-critical issues.

The bridge was buzzing with activity. A group of officers huddled around the scanner station, gesturing and arguing as Morgan approached.

"Captain on the bridge," someone called. Everyone snapped to attention and saluted. Morgan grumbled a mumble in response and headed straight for the scanner.

"What do we have here that's so important?" he said and turned to Comms Officer Radon.

Radon smirked uncomfortably and pointed to the screen. "Captain, we've found an anomaly around Epsilon H43A."

Morgan looked at Radon and squinted. "I thought we scanned the whole planet and found nothing."

Radon nodded vigorously. "That is correct. We found it to be habitable in a pinch, but likely not on a long-term basis. I found that the scans of the area immediately beyond the exosphere were incomplete. We found this during our standard preparations for departure," he said and pointed to a blip on the screen.

Morgan leaned closer. "What is it?"

Radon looked at Blackford, then back at Morgan and cleared his throat. "The object has the signature of a ship."

Morgan looked at Blackford, his eyebrows raised. "A ship? That's impossible!"

Blackford cleared his throat and shrugged. "Perhaps, perhaps not. According to our data, this system has not been visited by anyone in known history. But, that doesn't mean it never was."

Morgan straightened up and rubbed his chin. "Known history, you say. Well, gentlemen, whatever it is, I think it deserves a closer look, don't you think? If nothing else, we might find a nice payday in this system after all."

Blackford nodded. "Agreed, Captain."

"How long until we approach?"

"12 hours, give or take a few minutes," Blackford said.

"Very well. Wake me up when we're two hours out," Morgan said and retreated to his cabin.

After closing the door, he sat down at his desk and open his work station. He found it hard to believe that the object his crew had found was a ship. Based on the system manifests provided to him prior to the departure of the Agatha, all systems they were tasked to explore were supposed to be unexplored. Could it really be that this one had been discovered before?

He spent several hours scouring through reports of other Captains, as well as historical records. Nothing indicated this system had ever been explored before. There just wasn't anything there of value and therefore no reason to bother.

Finally, he closed his work station down and stepped over to his bed. He sighed deeply and rubbed his eyes with his fingers. Whatever it was they found, it would still be there when he woke up. He knew he'd need the rest now.

As soon as he lay his head on the pillow, he was fast asleep.

~~~

He was woken up by a knock on the door. Moments later, the door slid open and Blackford entered.

"We're approaching the object, Captain."

Morgan sat up and took a few deep breaths as he dismissed Blackford with a wave. "I'll be right there, just give me a minute."

"Roger that, sir," Blackford said and disappeared.

Morgan washed off his face, took a few deep breaths and then proceeded to the bridge.

"What do we have?" Morgan said as he sat down in his chair.

"Pulling it up on screen now," Blackford said and tapped a few buttons on the console.

The distinct features of a space ship appeared on screen. The crew gasped as Blackford increased the magnification until it filled the screen.

The ship on screen was quiet. All lights were turned off and the hull was covered with dust and dirt, evidence of prolonged exposure to space rocks and small asteroids. The length of the ship was many times that of the Agatha, Morgan realized as he walked up to the screen and pointed.

"Is that the name, right there?" he said.

"It's not readable, Captain," Blackford said, stating the obvious. The paint had peeled away from the exposure to space. It was impossible to tell the name of the ship.

"What are you doing here," Morgan said quietly to himself as he rubbed his chin. "CO, any evidence of life, of any kind?"

"Negative, Captain," Blackford replied. "We have detected no heat signatures indicative of active life forms. Whatever propulsion systems used by the ship appear to be inactive, although I can detect a faint radiation source consistent with the use of nuclear technology."

Morgan furrowed his brow as he leaned closer towards the screen. "A nuke, eh? They don't make them anymore, do they? Is it safe to approach?"

"Affirmative. The radiation is faint and within acceptable levels for human exposure."

"Very well. Organize a landing party. Let's see what we got here."

While the crew prepared the shuttle in their hangar for the quick hop over to the mystery ship, Morgan couldn't take his eyes off the screen. There was something fascinating about seeing a ship, especially one as old as this one, in a system no-one had supposedly ever visited. What was it doing there, so far away from populated systems?

Another mystery was the planet it was orbiting. Epsilon H43A wasn't your typical habitable planet. Yes, humans could survive on its surface, but it was unlikely to be a pleasant experience in the long run. Surface temperatures were much colder than humans found comfortable, which would require special habitations to be built just to withstand the elements.

Maybe there was no connection between the two? The reason for the ship being at that very location could be completely random. A crippling breakdown of some sort, far beyond where help was possible?

Morgan spent several hours going over plausible scenarios. The ship might appear dead, but he wanted his crew to be prepared. Unfortunately, based on what they could observe, there was no way of know exactly what to expect.

"Captain, the shuttle is ready," Blackford reported over the intercom four hours later. "Permission to depart."

"Affirmative. Please stand by, I'll be joining you."

"Very well, Captain."

Half an hour later, the shuttle departed the Agatha with Captain Morgan and a dozen other men. They approached an area of the ship that seemed to have served as a hangar area. The external gates had been left wide open, allowing them to enter the hangar and land safely in a protected area.

The hangar itself was mostly empty. Morgan noted a few derelict shuttles that had suffered from what must have been centuries of exposure to the vacuum of space. It was clear, however, that hangar could hold many more, which raised a question in Morgan's mind: where were they?

Since the ship appeared to have no power, they had to cut the door into the ship with a torch. Although Morgan had anticipated this might happen, it still created a delay that made him impatient. Had he been at the table in his cabin, he would be tapping his foot on the floor and his fingers would be dancing a steady rhythm across his office desk.

Once they gained access to the inside of the hull, Morgan pushed through to the front and insisted on leading the way.

The inside of the ship wasn't unlike his own ship. Corridors stretched out in all directions. He was surprised to see that the language of the sign was one that he understood, even though it was old. That in itself was a clue, he knew.

Once inside, they split into two teams. Blackford took six men, while Morgan took another six men on a mission to find the bridge. As they ventured further into the ship, Morgan couldn't help but feel a bit of a chill. Their path forward was illuminated only by the white cones of their flashlights as the proceeded further into the ship with caution.

Eventually, the dark corridors gave way to a large, open circular space. The center of the room was occupied by a large globe that was attached to both the floor and the ceiling. Murals painted on the walls around the room depicted imagery of humans leaving a planet on a ship destined for a distant planet.

Morgan approached the globe in the center. It had to be the home planet of the inhabitants of the ship. He touched the surface of the planet gently and tried to imagine what it must have been like to leave the planet they had called home and set out on an adventure to a foreign place. It seemed unlikely they had known the condition of their planetary destination. They wouldn't have left if they did.

"Captain, over here," one of the men said over the radio and gestured towards a plaque on the other side of the display. Morgan made his way over there. He gasped as he read the inscription.

Terram nostram domum. The display on his helmet flashed a translation of Earth Our Home.

Morgan felt a chill run down his spine. Earth? Was it possible that this ship came from the cradle of civilization, long ago lost to the confines of history, its location disputed among scholars and historians?

He took a deep breath as he considered the implications of their discovery. The history books would have to be rewritten at a minimum.

"Captain, are you there?" Blackford called over the radio.

"I'm here. You're not going to believe what I've found."

"With all due respect, sir, you are not going to believe what I've found."

Morgan wasted little time. He rounded up his men, and they retraced their steps and then followed the route Blackford had taken from the hangar door. They met up with Blackford and his team in a control room a few floors further down into the ship. At this point, Morgan was sweating in his suit.

"In here, Captain," Blackford said, and led him through a side door. A light blueish glow illuminated the hall they entered. Oval pods were spaced around the room at regular intervals, each glowing a faint blue.

Morgan took a deep breath. "These are cryo pods, aren't they?"

Blackford nodded. "It would appear so. And they're working."

"Do you know what this means?" Morgan said and gestured towards the pods. We have just found the last remnant of planet Earth, the birthplace of the human race."

~~~

1913 words, written for the @BeyondSol "Undiscovered" prompt.