A New Home Among the Stars

Our people finally found another planet suitable for life. For nearly 200 years our people searched the never ending cosmos for a planet we could call home. Our scientist found a new home among the stars at last. This planet was abundant with water and minerals. The only catch was that this planet had life, intelligent life. I am Captain Griven and this is my account of our first contact with the people of planet 134-A.

We didn’t have time to do all the necessary research on planet 134-A. Our star was burning out and we needed to find a new home for our people before all was lost. We managed to send a few probes and do some fly by missions before the armada was completely built. We found the inhabitants of the planet to be explorers. They possessed some capability to explore the universe, though not as advanced as us. We noticed some signs that showed the start of a runaway greenhouse effect. Geothermal scans suggested that this species’ technological advances may be the cause but nothing solid had been established. It was not matter to us, as our technology would help bring about clean energy and greatly reduce the amount of resources needed for that energy. These people were about to have their world changed forever and we would have a home. It would be a great day for all.

We stayed in the orbit of the planet for three days while we did a few scans of the planet. We found that it didn’t take long for different signals to start hitting our ships. It would appear that they were aware of our presence. We settled on a location to make contact. It appeared that there were many seats of power all over this planet, so we chose one that seemed to be the most advanced technologically. Our thinking was that a technologically advanced society would be more open to meeting a new species from space. If things were not so desperate for our people perhaps we could have done this more slowly. This will be a shock to these people. Our linguist seemed to be able to interpret the language of these people from signals he intercepted from satellite transmissions from the planet. He was able to provide us with a script to read for when it came time to meet with these people. The script was given to our President. He would be the one to make first contact and the message was simple, “We come in Peace.” Those simple words would usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for our races.

The President made his way to the major seat of power we had settled on. I accompanied him as part of his guard. We were sure that no hostility would befall us with these explorers and scholars, but it was best to be safe. We took an air taxi from my ship and landed in front of the leader’s home. We were instantly surrounded. They had flying machines over head and guards came running out and surrounded us. They pointed what looked like laser guns at us. We hadn’t seen this kind of technology before so were uncertain as to what to expect. A black gate managed to keep a gathering crowd away from us. One of their people approached us and was surrounded by many other people. I knew at that moment that he must be important and probably their leader. Some people seemed amazed at our presence and others seemed to fear us. I knew in a few moments all those fears would be washed away. I can honestly say I was a little scared. We had so much riding on this. There was no backup plan if this failed. The moment had come and the leader of these people extended out an appendage to our President. The President looked nervous for a moment. I don’t think he knew what to do. Our President reached out his hand and grasped their leader’s appendage. Their hands moved up and down a few times and the grasp was released. Then our President spoke in their language and said, “We come in peace.” They seemed to understand it. The people started to make faces and sounds that comforted me some. It seemed like they were happy. It was all we had hoped for and we got in our taxi and returned to our ship.

There was celebration throughout the armada at our new friendship. We had established first contact and it was peaceful. What an amazing accomplishment to have come so far for all of this. There was much to be done though. Our scientists still worked on scanning the surface of the planet and collecting data on these people. Our linguists worked on understanding more of their language. Day and night we worked tirelessly to understand our new home and our new friends. Much of what we found showed a people not so different from ours many millennia ago. They seemed to still be a young species and hadn’t fully grasped the importance of their planet and life. This would change with our guidance.

We had decided to wait for a few days before going back down to the planet surface again. The President wanted to make sure that we were able to communicate a bit more with these people. He spent a great deal of time learning this new language. It was decided we would take a linguist with us on future trips to the surface. We also made plans for the ritual of friendship. This ritual had been used for thousands of years on our planet as a way to show a combined unity and strength. We were eager to share such an honor with them.

The day finally came for a second trip to the surface. We approached the same as before but this time we seemed to be escorted by some of their flying machines. I could see on our way in that the crowds of people stretched for a long distance. I could see our taxi on screens that were mounted on building around the city. It kind of reminded me of the sports events back home. We landed and were again approached by their leader. He once again extended and appendage and once again shook hands with our president. Our president said some words that I couldn’t understand and there came a delightful sound from the crowds. It was then that the President asked us to bow for the ritual of friendship. We bowed before him. Our linguist said something to their leader. I couldn’t understand what was being said but people started bowing. They seemed to understand the ritual. The President looked over all the people bowing. So many people were ready to give so much in the name of peace and friendship. I thought that these were truly great people at that moment. The President then picked one of the people from the crowd and devoured them. These people didn’t have the same jaw structure we did. They wouldn’t be able to eat us in one bite, but we were determined to follow through with this great honor. All of us waited for their leader to choose one of us for the same honor. A strange thing happened though. The crowd started to make awful sounds. They ran from us and shrieked.

The guards for their leader started to fire their laser guns but no laser came out. We ran to our taxi in fear. Two of our people were hit by their strange weapons. It seemed they shot metal at us instead of lasers. Our taxi shielded us from the damage of their weapons as we flew off. The flying machines that once escorted us safely were now firing strange weapons at us. Our shields on the taxi managed to keep them from ever hitting us but they did cause the ship to rock. After an anxiety filled few minutes and constant attack from the people of this planet, we made it back to the ship.

I sat in on many meetings trying to figure out what had happened. The linguist brought us messages deciphered from signals the people of this planet sent into space. It seemed they thought we came to take over their planet and use them for food. What kind of barbaric people would think such a thing? Our President only ate one of them as part of the ritual. It showed unity. They could have done the same. Why could they not understand we came in peace? It got worse from there though.

A strange object had traveled out of their atmosphere at us. It struck one of the other ships in the armada and exploded with extreme force. It was enough to destroy the whole ship and rock our ship. Communications were briefly knocked out. Several of the satellites belonging to the planet were knocked out of orbit or destroyed from the shockwave. There was an eerie silence for a few moments as we all took in the shock of what happened. Teams scrambled to restore communication. After a few moments communication was back up and we were able to determine we had been hit with a nuclear weapon. We had no defense against this. Nuclear weapons were banned from use millennia ago by our people. The power of a star was not meant to be wielded by any being. Its power was far too destructive and the fallout could last for a long time. What creatures would use such a horrible weapon? It seemed only reasonable that we should expect another soon. What was to be done?

The command has come down to me from the President. We are to engage the inhabitants of this planet in war. We are now forced into combat for the survival of our people. They also gave us a name for our new enemy. It seems they call themselves humans. This planet they call,” Earth”. These humans were not the peaceful explorers we had hoped for. They did not possess the ability to reason we had hoped for. Now we are forced to exterminate them so we may survive. Perhaps we shall see fit to spare some of them so they do not meet the same fate they would bestow on us, extinction. The fight for planet Earth has begun.


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