Oh wow, this picture is absolutely stunning! I love space. I really like a relatively bright red dot more to the low right.

After all the government-mandated small-talk - you know, 'are your intentions hostile', 'will you trade us your spaceship', 'are you now or have you ever been a supporter of the Communist party' - one of the scientists piped up: "Where are you from?"

The alien spokesbeing pointed up at the night sky, picking out a hazy light. "We believe your people call our galaxy 'Andromeda'."

"We know that," the scientist said, "we've been tracking you." She reached into her bag and pulled out a roll of paper, black and speckled with gold and white. "I meant, which star?"

~hS