Allegra Moon

Allegra Moon

Between sixty and forty thousand years ago the Founders placed survey markers at the north pole of largest planet of every system they visited. When that planet a gas giant, they placed the marker on the largest moon. That's where we found our first alien artifact, a marker at Ganymede's north pole.

Now, from what few records we have, we've determined that the Founders and their allies never made it much further rimward than our solar system. So it was a surprise to find a marker on the north pole of the largest moon of the gas giant we've named Allegra. The name comes from its four hour day, a fast spin that gives it a flattened appearance and a magnetic field stronger than any known world so far from its sun.

The marker at Allegra Prime was not some elaborate polygonal structure with intricate script in multiple languages. It was a simple seven meter tall block of stone etched with crude luminous symbols. A poor imitation of the great Founders, we thought.

But this monolith turns out to be a granite stone carved over three million years ago. There is no granite in this entire lifeless system. And the blue glow from those crude symbols comes from bioluminescent organisms that have survived for ages in that harsh environment. So who was imitating who, I start to wonder.

-- Grace Mattock, Chief Scientist, Second Orion Deep Survey, 2284-2287