Book excerpt: From where had it come? The first ever space junk elimination mission encounters a badly damaged object not manufactured on planet earth. Who could have made it? What was its purpose? The mission changes. Secrecy is suddenly imposed. Is this the first alien object found or are the rumours about previous encounters true after all? The chance of our civilisation making contact with another is unimaginably tiny. If we sent a message to a neighbour today it could take years to arrive. Would the neighbour be home to receive it? Their civilisation may not begin for millions of years or might have died a billion years previously. For us to make contact, not only does the neighbour have to be intelligent and technologically advanced, already a remote possibility, but they also need to have a civilisation at the same time as us. The window of opportunity is tiny. This story tells of just one such attempted communication.