Centaurus Relic

The Centaurus Relic is an ancient, alien contact probe found in the Alpha Centauri system. The originating species has been named the tlorai, mainly because that's what the insignia over a plaque believed to represent their species seems to read like.

Dating isotopes and other breakdowns leads to an estimated age of twenty-five thousand solar cycles, or roughly three million years of age, much of it spent en route to its target system. It is estimated, though much less certain, that the artifact arrived at Alpha Centauri a bit over a million years ago.

Despite the advanced data storage methods they possess, too many micrometeorite impacts, too much radiation, and too much decay has rendered the relic almost worthless for recovering much valuable information - it was only intended to last a few millennia after its journey finished, and even that was a stretch.

Preempting this, a set of oxygenated titanium plaques try to convey visual information, including star charts, a brief overview of the physical structure of their species, a map of their star system and homeworld, and a triad of stellar maps that pinpoint the location of pulsars.

Perhaps most disconcerting, in all of the starmaps, is the presence of a small hole in the sheets. Its position is always quite precise, and, looking in their direction, it is possible to resolve the gravitational lensing around a rogue black hole.