My tinfoil two-cents:
The Rift Mystery is not the ship itself, or the audio. It's WHY it is there, who sent it and for what purpose. (Hence, not a POI)
The organization that sent the ship had to have incredible wealth in the time the ship was built, crewed, and launched over 30 years ago. In order to hire the crew for the ship, the organization would also have to have had the outward perception of wealth to offer each crewman "enough to retire on." Regardless if they ever intended to pay it, it had to look like they could or people would not have joined up. More on money in a min.
The organization had the plan of killing the crew and hiding the mission from the start using black medical practices which points to a spy/intelligence organization.
It was crewed by humans that we assume launched from the core worlds and is why "R" is going back that way.
An organization like this would need a motive to drop this much capital into a mission. Money is one: When it becomes necessary to evacuate the core, the organization with the route, plan, and safe room has something that could be sold at an incredible price. (ELWs, terraformed planets, beacons, etc)
What organization that was around 30+ years ago that had unlimited funds and stands to benefit the most from an event that would require evacuation on a mass scale?
Lastly, I doubt that the aliens have anything to do with this. They seem content with pulling me out of hyperspace 6 times in a row to say hi. If they wanted to they could have blasted me at any time. That does not seem to be their plan.
[takes off tin hat]
see you on the 29th...
![[VR] optimal_909](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/109/109067.jpg?1553781733){kind=avatar}