JCC What if... New Horizons were to find something... unexpected...

Not really sure if this belongs here or in one of the dedicated SW forums, it kinda crosses over everything. It's spun off from an idea that came up in the New Horizons / Pluto thread on one of the boards in my sig. Anyway, moving on...

New Horizons closes in on the Plutonian system. In the last days of its approach, it scans ahead for any minor as-yet undiscovered moons of Pluto that might lie in the vicinity of its path.

It discovers one. The first, distant obersvations indicate that it is approximately one statute mile along its longest dimension, and irregularly shaped. It has an unusually high, lustrous albedo, more suggestive of worked metal than a normal planetary or asteroid type surface. The probe sends back a photo but at this range not much detail can yet be made out:

Spoiler

Some of the scientists scrutinizing the grainy image get the funny feeling it almost seems... artificial, rather than a natural object. Not wishing to be labelled kooks, they keep these thoughts to themselves. The internet, as with all weird stuff, produces a bunch of conspiracy theorizing, like they did with the spots on Ceres, the "plank" on Mars etc. But as it soon transpires, even a broken clock is right twice a day...

..because... flyby day comes and goes... New Horizons races through the Pluto system, snapping close range, high res images of Pluto and the various moons around it as it goes. Then, clear and out the other side, it begins transmitting the data stream to earth.

And before long, at NASA, the mission director suddenly orders the doors locked. The scientists and officials stand around open mouthed. The thoughts of Plutonian science observations are suddenly almost forgotten. For the probe has just returned a close range, high res image of that small Plutonian "moon":

Spoiler

It is abandoned, but otherwise in perfect working order, with a full load of fuel, ordnance etc. Mary Celeste style.

So... yeah. What happens now?

 

No.

 

Why would you use a Star Destroyer over the Death Star as a fake moon?

 

I was expecting to see a picture of a mass relay under those spoiler tags.

 

Are you one of those aliens from Galaxy Quest?

 

Lots of **** is flipped. NASA is given a blank check and a mandate to send astronauts to Pluto. I wonder how quickly they get them there.

 

What the...

 

What happens is we don't discuss Star Wars in Community. SWC might be a better fit.