UNEV "James Birmingham"

A United Nations of Earth Vessel, the James Birmingham was a war cruiser in the Seven Year Third War. A high-tech result of the Earth pooling its resources to combat the Third.

Seven Year Third War
The Seven Year Third War was humanity's first interplanetary war with another species. The Earth fleet was a combination of the richer countries that contributed to the project of fighting the Third. The Third tested a new super weapon, a ship with a nickel and iron core surrounded by a fluid Mercury layer controlled with electric and sonic pulses. It flowed through space and engulfed enemy ships. The James Birmingham was part of a strike team that dropped down on the convoy and took out the escorts, but could not destroy the super weapon. The super weapon engulfs the rear of the James Birmingham, who then arm a nuclear weapon. To escape at the last second, the mesh of machines and metal fall into a black hole, and the James Birmingham tunnels away, straight along the horizon of the black hole. They emerge, and the wreckage smashes through a stream of asteroids and even a comet. Bits of rock spirals away and initiates a chain reaction. They try to reach Earth, but find they are receiving no signals.

Alternate Earth
They arrive at Earth and the landing party finds things are drastically different. Long story short, the dinosaurs never went dead. On other parts of the world large mammals live, but primarily in the swamp wherein they landed there are advanced, semi-intelligent raptors. They live on the land. In the water live primitive octopi. The swamp is the site of a turf war between the raptors, who use Y shaped poison blow darts and the octopi use shafts of wood or coral as spears which they coat with their own poison. They live amongst the raptors who are scared by them, until they see a streaking object fall from the sky. A Sklegge landing craft has crash landed. The octopi swarm it and slaughter the inhabitants. They don't hear from the octopi for a while. In this while the octopi figure out how to use the Sklegge craft because it is fitted for a similar creature. With this new weapon, they swoop down and annihilate the raptors. In a panic the crew departs. They try to find the black hole again, but are lost. As they wander, they find the Other. They spend an unknown extensive amount of time in his clutches, wherein they learn a little of who he is. This incarnation of the Other is melancholy and lonely. He eventually is convinced of their existence as emotional beings and returns them to their home.