Humanity
The council gathered every day, but it seldom received such news.
- We have completed our analysis and expect our intelligence to hold as new information comes in.
- And what do you have to report?
- It’s a type II civilization comprised of carbon-based lifeforms. They inhabit seven planets orbiting a yellow dwarf with an expected life of 4 billion years. They are located in a spiral galaxy at a distance of 4.4 billion parsecs from us. The rest of the information is in the report.
The members of the council consulted the report.
- We can imagine what your recommendation will be, based on the information we’re seeing, but still, we have to ask: do you have an advised course of action?
- Our initial recommendation would be to establish contact, but it is safe to say, based on our observations, that this species will be long gone before our communication reaches them.
- And do you have an alternate course of action?
- We do not. We would recommend a mission to analyze their ruins, but it is safe to say that all traces of their existence will have been erased by nature long gone before we can get there.
The council took some time to embrace this ill fate.
Another civilization found, another dead end.
There was nothing that could be done other than keep on receiving information. They would never establish contact, and they would never get the chance to explore this civilization properly.
The council member took another look at the strange symbols in the report, from one of those species’ languages.
It contained the name they had attributed to themselves: Humanity.
