Derelict

Derelicts are ships occasionally found, floating into a system from deep space. It is commonly believed that the majoroity of these are the results of miscalculated discontinuous transits, dropping out of an undiscovered discontinuity many years after they departed. It seems that in some rare cases, these can actually traverse the entire length of the universe, and may have experienced subjective time much greater than the time they have been away. In some cases, vermin or live cargo have been discovered which appear to be thousands of generations distant from the rest of their species.

Other derelicts may have been vessels sent into space before any kind of Warp Technology was discovered, trying to reach the other human worlds even if it takes several generations of crew to make contact. Or they may have been vessels jettisoned (for reasons of quarantine, or due to crew committing sins which disqualify them from entering the Vault of Heaven) from a temple ship between jumps.

When a derelict is found in deep space, if there is any reason a crew might want to re-visit it for research or salvage, it is normally assigned a Temple Code so that it can be listed on the temple ships' timetables.