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[WillowLuman]

(What response to send?)

[armach]

Tell them we are a peaceful scientific research and exploratory team and then ask them to identify themselves.

[WillowLuman]

It takes about another four hours to get a response. As usual, it comes in several languages at once:

We are confused/We request for clarification: You are a team? You are a ship with crew/organics/multiple?

Joy! Your stated purpose brings joy. To explore and understand. We are the same. We are those who came before.

You must come to us/Please come to us/We invite you. There is much to discuss. Come to our home/Monastery

PRAISE THEM

The last word of the main message was strange. It referred to a specific concept present in only two of the dialects. The use of "home" in the others seemed like an approximation, to those versed in comparative linguistics.

During the four hours before it arrived, the telescope began scanning across a complete arc aligned with the orbital plane of the first planet (which was easily measured from watching the transition). A few minutes before the message arrived, they spotted another planet, which would enable them to begin to derive many other measurements from the data on the other objects they'd seen so far.

[EuropeanDorf]

"'We are those who came before.' Do they mean it in the meaning of..." She does something along of happy clapping.

Pause beat, the glee disappears.

"...but it only raises more questions. Do they just reside in hiding here, or something?"

[WillowLuman]

(You can derive a lot of measurements from what you know now, let me know if you want more specifics)

The derived measurements were very revealing. They now saw that they were much further from the star than the other two planets, the one they were headed towards now being about 54.84 Spans from the star, and almost 2 light-hours away from their current position. The other two were about .31 Spans and .58 Spans, respectively, the outer one being about twice the size of the inner, and both with very similar orbital inclinations. The planet they were heading towards was much smaller than either, and somewhat more inclined.

[WillowLuman]

(Any further exchange of messages, or skip straight to arrival? At fastest, you can reach the planet in two weeks, provided you want to slow down and orbit it.)

[EuropeanDorf]

(We could try more messages if anyone wants.

Myself I was kinda busy with real life right now, there's now about a week of holidays)

[armach]

"We should ask them to clarify "those who came before"? What could they mean by that?"

[~Neri]

"Likely one or several of the numerous ships, drones, and crews that fell into the event horizon."

[Dorsidwarf]

"I respectfully wish to present an opposition of opinion, Thinker. As far as the briefings of our mission deemed fit to say, a handful of 'dumb' probes were sent in. We are the manned exploration mission, and it seems unlikely that a ship came through unnoticed and un monitored, knowing none of their probes had returned and in all likelihood were destroyed. I feel required to question where this authoritative and definite knowledge sprang from the well."

[WillowLuman]

(People have fallen in unintentionally, but that hasn't happened in a very long time and is pretty rare besides due to the remoteness/known danger of the system. There isn't much reason to go to the system other than science (or maybe fleeing from space police) since as a stopover it's pretty crappy: giant dangerous space oddity and no fuel around to harvest. But there might be a handful of recorded crewed ships falling in on record, depending on extent of historical research. They wouldn't necessarily be well-known.)

[~Neri]

"Officially a handful of probes have been sent over the course of space exploration, several handfuls. Unofficially, a number of manned ships have gone missing in this region of space, it is somewhat difficult to not crash into the event horizon if you're aimed at a star near it, judging by how large it is and how a simple miscalculation often ends up lightyears away from the intended position."

[WillowLuman]

(Sorry, meant to do this all weekend but never got around to it.)
(More details on the objects spotted available on asking, just too late to write them up right now.)

Two weeks of radio silence passed as the ship approached the small planet, the telescopes continuing their arc-sweep in that time. This gave them a much better look at the system, and in that time they spotted several objects. The system contained five inner, rocky planets (thought the fifth was tiny), the first two they'd spotted being the innermost. These were followed much further out by two gas giants, then two ice giants, then finally three tiny, icy planets, including the one which they raced now.

At last they came within 10 light-minutes of their destination, enough distance to reverse direction and slow down to enter orbit. At this distance, the cameras could serve well enough to observe (as the main scope was currently pointed elsewhere), and at last they received another transmission:

Joy! We welcome you to our congregation! We will be with you/be visible soon!

PRAISE THEM

[Insanegame27]

((Are we sending a shuttle down? if so I have one word to call: Shotgun!))

[heydude6]

Wait, what's an ice giant?