Ancient Wisdom

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2013/03/11/
astronomer-locates-previously-unseen-neighbor-to-the-sun/

It was centuries ago, long before the Empire began. Decades before Old Earth was destroyed by the venomous Mutain Queen, several ships of the First Diaspora had been launched towards Ancient Wisdom, the third closest solar system from Sol.

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/
observations/files/2013/03/2.jpg

The pair of Brown Dwarf stars known as The Wise Twins welcomed them. The Wise Twins' dim, deuterium-forged light bathed the Earth-ships in dun-colored sunbeams. The explorers found a few rocky worlds, devoid of life, that orbited the twin stars.

But the ships of the First Diaspora weren't drawn there with the hope that they would find habitable worlds to colonize; they came here following an alien signal.

The crews of the Earth vessels soon found the signal's source: a rambling, ramshackle, vast construct. The Agglomeration, as it came to be known by the Earthers, was to all appearances a melange of numerous different space vessels. Why had it come here? Had it "run out of gas?" Were there still crew aboard? Only time would tell.

First there would be a space battle, a war of all against all. The Star Captains of the First Diaspora had as a matter of course cooperated while crossing the deep interstellar void. This reciprocity was the best guarantee that at least most of their ships and crews would survive the journey between the stars.

But on these alien shores, all bets were off. They had all come for the same great Prize. None were willing to share.