Chapter 7 – Return to the Light

For years it had floated – the pride of an alliance of all nations – as a giant carcass through space. Cold and in the dark, no longer able to navigate, to receive data or to send it. Forgotten by the world, it looked down upon it and circled it in silent, abandoned loneliness.

Once, it had been a giant among human-built technology. Today: a useless, outdated colossus. An idea of yesterday, as weathered as the alliance that had once created it in shared hope and sent it out. The forgotten symbol of unity and peaceful cooperation.

But suddenly, something disturbed the cold at its back. Light. Warmth. But not from the sun – that lay far ahead. It was something else. A new, unfamiliar attention. Was it finally getting the notice it had once deserved?

On Earth, warning lights suddenly flashed in control centres. The enemy from space had been sighted. Only a few hours remained. And everyone understood: if they did nothing, that was it for Earth as they knew it. No more collecting bottle deposits, no more returning them – nothing would stay as it was. Perhaps… no life either.

Old, dusty telephone lines crackled again. Networks of long-forgotten alliances were reactivated to find an answer to the looming catastrophe. In stuffy, windowless rooms, generals, ministers and scientists searched for a plan that had to be more than a last spark of hope.

It soon became clear: if they wanted any chance at all, every country had to act together. Every nation, every army, every still-functional warhead – everything had to be deployed to stop this one onrushing enemy. Not just for Earth. Not just for humanity. But, as one sober situation report put it, "in defence of the can deposit".