To many, the discovery of the Artifact is the single most important event in human history.  It proved to everyone that there is life outside the Solar System.  It demonstrated that humanity is not the pinnacle of evolution.  It created a mystery that shaped the imagination and ambition of several generations.  It represented the unknowns of our universe.

For all its significance, the Artifact was just a pile of junk.  It was a ruined spacecraft thrusting into the Solar System from the emptiness beyond the Oort Cloud.  Its crew, if there ever was one, was long gone: either escaped or vaporized by the rogue space debris that collided with and all but ruined the Artifact.  But despite the destruction of the forward decks of the craft, the heavily shielded engine module was built like a battleship and continued to push the shredded vessel to its destination.  But was Sol the true destination?  Was our home just an emergency detour for the damaged spaceship?  Were they coming to meet us or were we just a desert isle for an interstellar shipwreck?

The Artifact made astronomer Henrietta Gaylor as famous as Christopher Columbus.  As part of her Kuiper Belt survey, she discovered a bright blue object possibly coming from outside the solar system.  Initially, it was thought to be a hyperbolic comet and was named C/2022 J5 or Comet Gaylor.  However, further observations demonstrated that it was following a non-Keplerian trajectory.  Initially, the claims of non-Keplerian motion were not believed and were blamed on astrometric errors and short time baselines (after all, a distant comet moves on almost a straight course).   Calculations soon showed that instead of falling in towards the Sun, Comet Gaylor was actually decelerating into our system.
 

The Discovery Era
2022	Gaylor discovers the Artifact.
2023	Various methods of communication with the Artifact are attempted by astronomers, governments and even private citizens on all frequencies, radio to X-ray.  Despite the effort there is no response to any of the hails.  Many take the silence as a bad omen and there is panic in many large cities as people react to what they believe is impending doom.  A crackpot cult claims to have made telepathic contact with the Aliens.
2023	The trajectory of the ruined ship is traced back to roughly the vicinity of Groombridge 34, an insignificant M star just over 3.5 parsecs away.  The star is commonly called the origin star, or just "Origin."  Its current course seems to be pointing towards an orbit near Jupiter.
2024	After considerable debate, a series of radio signals are broadcast at Origin.  No return signal is ever detected.  Meanwhile, the Artifact parks in orbit around Jupiter.  Although the engines are clearly turned off, no change is actually detected in the ship, so the method of propulsion remains a mystery.
2025	The first of many robot spacecraft reaches the Artifact after a fast trip from Earth.  The robot reveals that the Artifact is quite large, but much of it is tattered or missing.  Speculation on interstellar warfare spreads, but the destruction seems more consistent with a collision with a large, inert mass.
2027	A human mission reaches Jupiter.  Five years earlier, a manned Jupiter mission would have been an engineering triumph.  But instead, all people care about is learning about the Artifact.  "Yeah, yeah, best ion engine ever.  So what.  Send us Artifact pictures!"  No remains of the Artifact crew are discovered, but the damage is so extensive, that there is no way to tell if it had a crew or not.
2033	Over the years, manned and robot missions have sent back pictures and schematics of the only intact, functional portion of the ship: the engine.  It is huge and complicated.  They can't start it, so it seems to be a loss.  But new technologies are invented and scientists/engineers announce that they have figured it out and that we can build one just like it.  At its heart is a fusion-powered particle accelerator that doesn't seem to do much of anything useful.  The popular consensus, however, says just build one and find out!
2035	A prototype ship is built at great expense based on Artifact technology.  The collider/accelerator seems to work fine (particle physicists drool after it).  On its trial run, it shudders and seems to move erratically.  The accelerator is shut down from the remote observing station, but the engine explodes.  The fireball destroys the observing station and creates the greatest aurora of all time on the Earth. The last picture of the prototype starship before it exploded.
The late 20's and early 30's were a time of emotional ups and downs.  We discovered we weren't alone, but we still hadn't met the neighbors.  We reached amazing new levels of technology, while being struck by how far behind the aliens we might be.  We built the machine that would take us to the stars, but instead it disintegrated in the largest fireworks show of all time.  What would the aliens be like?  Have they already visited?  Will they ever come again?  Should we go look for them?  New cults became more common than spam mail for a while.  Everyone seemed to claim some special insight into the nature of the aliens.  They were either a message from God or an assault by Satan (barely stopped in time by the forces of good).  The ship was powered by the love of all living things.  Visitors to "The THING" increased tenfold.  All the PCs have a grandparent or two who did something crazy during this time.
The Plague and the Exploration Years
2037	The engine design is revised and downgraded as much as possible.  New ships with a weaker, intra-system version of the Engine are built.  This engine is popularly called the MiniDrive.  These ships make record time to Mars and the Belt., but the engines and powerplant are very finicky.  With improvements, they will make good cargo ships.
2038	Using one of the new MiniDrive ships, the Artifact is towed from Jupiter to Earth orbit.
2038	A vast plague sweeps across the Earth.  The disease is almost uniformly non-fatal, but victims are sapped of energy and cannot care for themselves.  Conversations show that the sufferers are lucid, however.  About 15% percent of the worlds population succumbs to the illness, which shows no preference for/against any obvious groups.  The obvious conclusion, drawn from the nature and timing of the Plague, is that the disease came from the Artifact.  The alien spacecraft is declared off-limits, but a proposal to destroy it is rejected.
2040	A space-based interferometry mission detects a terrestrial planet around Origin.  The planet, popularly called Origin World, renews the fervor surrounding the mystery of the Artifact's owners.
2043	Researchers fabricate a counter-virus which seeks out and disrupts the virus which causes the Plague.  While it takes time for the disease victims to recover to their former selves, it seems that the cure is a success.
2044	A time of scientists publish results that confirm what everyone has suspected for the past six years: the virus is not of Earthly origin.  In fact, it shows signs of being an artificial construct.  As it turns out, the virus aggressively invaded the cartilage of its host, causing little harm except the nutrients it drew from the victim's bloodstream.  Thus, all agree that this virus, malicious or not, was not intended for us.
2046-2048	After years of steady Engine improvement, a small fleet of interstellar robot ships is constructed with so-called SuperDrives and sent to nearby systems believed to contain terrestrial planets.  Among them, in 2047, one ship is sent to Origin World.  Naturally, there is fear and controversy surrounding this decision, since none know what the robots will find there.  Should we instead send human diplomats to meet the aliens?  Or should we stay home and avoid Origin entirely?
2052-2062	The ships arrive at their various destinations, revealing no sign of intelligent life.  However, they do find many excellent worlds ripe for colonization and signal this information back to Earth.
2055	Based on hints from traveling at near C on SuperDrive ships, physicists find a new effect of quantum relativity.  It seems that in two seemingly identical experiments, two identical electrons will behave a bit differently in different rest frames.  This is seen as a violation of GR.  First-author publisher of this effect, experimental physicist Einar Hochless is quoted in a newspaper interview "This is quantum funkiness, Dude!" and the appellation stuck.  Many investigate the so-called funky field over the years that follow.
2056-2074  and beyond	As Earth receives signals back from the explorer vessels, plans are made to send colony ships to the most suitable worlds.  See the list of colonized worlds on the player background page for details of the colonization of each world.	The colony ship sent to Tau Ceti in 2080

See also:  Solar System colonization