16 years have passed

[Strichev]

Sixteen years ago Sirius was a different place. How fast the time passes. How old was I? Thirty seven. Professor Franz Maister. Why is this surname written in such an unusual way? Who would know. Xenoarchaeology. The one thing he couldn't admit in present times. Professor Franz Maister, field representative of the Rheinland's xenoarchaeological institute. Another institution that is long lost under the veil of time. Heinrich Selb was there too, now missing for almost fifteen years. And Karl Henkel and Jutta Selk and Friedrich and oh, many many others he hadn't seen for so long. Perhaps he walked past them every day, perhaps they were all dead, floating around in the darkness of space.

He slowly stood up, encompassed his flat, the white walls, wooden desk, leather armchair...

Neural net storage card asked for a password.

One by one nine letters were fed to the device.


A file appeared on a display, a file that hasn't been opened for over a decade.