An Old Ship

Large buildings in old cities have been used by different civilizations for different purposes, e.g.:

The Great Mosque of Cordoba

Hagia Sophia

The Pantheon

In The Enemy Stars, Poul Anderson imagines a future technological equivalent. For centuries, a ship falls through space while wars, conquests, empires and a new religion cover the Earth. For all that time, men from Earth teleport to and from the Southern Cross, their successive allegiances displayed by their contrasting uniforms:

peaked caps and comets;

steel helmets;

grey cowls;

blue berets with winged stars.

Through all that time, the Southern Cross endures, its interior marred by partly erased graffiti. Other ships making shorter journeys have landed on planets. Thus, Anderson presents yet another interstellar civilization different from those described in World Without Stars, After Doomsday, The Long Way Home etc.