The battle cruiser Aurora, of the Holy Socialist Galactic Alliance (HSGA), skipper Commander Lara Maiakovski, 23, Order of Lenin, Galactic Cross of Valour, Iron Cross with Palms, captured the little craft off the shores of Betelgeuse.

Commander Maiakovski – the Angel of the Black Star, as she was known in the Fleet – called her first Lieutenant to join her: Olga Braun teleported within seconds, her blond hair a pretty halo surrounding the elvin face, saluted and summarised:

“Sister Commander: it’s old, very primitive but exquisitely built, the name is ‘Voyager’, it appears to have travelled from the edge of the old galaxy, from a remote system called Sol, it’s also safe and contains a crude but informative record of who they were.”

Maiakovski pondered and asked with a smile: “Do we know when it was launched?”

There was some hesitation, but Lieutenant Braun, 22, Purple Heart, Iron Cross, quickly recovered her composure: “There is a puzzle, Sister Commander, we dated the craft to HSGAE −3077, but this does not give Voyager time to reach us… Unless it used hyperspace…”

Suggested reading:

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/

http://science.time.com/2013/03/20/humanity-leaves-the-solar-system-35-years-later-voyager-offically-exits-the-heliosphere/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyager_1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator

http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/spacecraft/spacecraftlife.html

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/deep/how-much-longer-will-we-talk-to-the-voyagers-11479518