It was shortly after the dawn of the twenty-third century, and humanity had finally done it: we found out how to achieve near the speed of light in a man-made vehicle. The idea, of course, had been illustrated in science fiction for centuries, but it no longer remained in the realm of fantasy.

And so, in the year 2238, the first lightspeed expedition was launched. Its purpose was to, first of all, test this new power, and second, to embark on a voyage to the first planet outside of the solar system. The ship was the product of the second Space Race, which the Russians won. It was named International Pride and launched on May 14.

Naturally, the video transmissions relayed back to the planet from the shuttle took years to traverse the vacuum of space, but Earth was willing to wait.

So when pictures came back of unknown vessels flying silently back in the shuttle’s opposite direction, scientists realized we didn’t have much time left.