Discoveries come quickly; page 55 was read, and soon understanding came; outside documents were consulted and names began to emerge from the fog, names unexpected, names not-to-be-repeated unless entirely certain that those were the names, that those names referenced the right people, that those names were not inserted later to distract, redirect, or mislead.
What was discovered was either a true report of what was found or the work of a jokester or madman: spaceships, ancient spaceships, had been found in various orbits around the sun, mostly outside of Earth’s orbit, all derelict. Similarly abandoned or dead stations were found on the Moon, on Mars, in a spot here and there in the outer Solar System, stations filled with water and the frozen bodies of ice-locked crew. Some crashed vessels had been found in the Antarctic, also frozen solid in and out, metal-jacketed ice cubes, filled with clear and solid ice, filled with crew caught without warning, all victims of drowning. Indeed, all crew of extra-Earth vessels and stations whose cause of death could be identified endured the same, awful death: drowning.
These were not aliens; these were human, tests had proven so (though the millennia of ice had made them nearly unrecognizable as human, much less once of this world), and they had clothing and writing (or so it seemed; none of it was related to any modern form, though some appeared to be at least related to the same basic ideas as those which lay behind cuneiform; none of it has been translated according to the documents secured from the archive) and toothbrush-like implements and all the sorts of things (personal things: things like photos, and drawings, and what can only be called child-molded paperweights) you would expect to find in the lockers and cabins of any contemporary sea-going vessel.
The ships and vessels investigated up until this point were identical in other ways: their computer systems were all of the same design, as were the engines, basic layout of the vessels, and foodstuffs found in the kitchens and (now-redundant) freezer units. Earth animals were also found on the bases (with the occasional mouse, spider, or other similar creature found in the smaller, mobile vessels), such as dogs, cats, and, surprisingly, a dodo or two (giving hope for future cloning efforts).
The control systems had been dissected and understood; the basic function of the computers was clear. The engine designs were excellent and easily adapted to currently-available spaceships. Much could be learned from these ships; much had already been learned. What was still unclear was what had happened: how had an entire spacefaring group of humans built up the technology to get into space, but not left a bolt or building behind? What happened to these ships — why were they filled with water? It was possible — though unlikely — that the main water tanks had a catastrophic failure on a moon base, managing to flood the entire base; it was impossible, however, for such a thing to happen to a lone ship navigating its way through the asteroid belt or amongst the rings of Saturn. What sort of threat was out there? And dare we send more ships out there — and crews — until we knew what was going on?
This was the secret hidden in the archive and now released; this was the dangerous secret which threatened lives, and caused people to hide themselves in backwater towns, hoping to escape death for at least a few more days. Thus the thought: this was the dangerous secret? Really?
