For years the Earth had only been concerned with its own affairs, but that changed one day twenty years ago. A large ship, bigger than anything yet to turn up on Earth, suddenly appeared near Mars. It seemed unmanned, like a drone, but when one of our small scout ships made a flyby they were fired upon. In humanity’s infinite wisdom we attacked the derelict ship, completely destroying it. Little did we know that foolish act doomed our planet to extermination. I was one of the few who did not support our actions that day and I strived to ensure that we would survive an invasion of the masters of that ship, if it ever came.

Since one cannot change the past, yet, we continued blindly forward hoping that someone somewhere had a light to guide us. At the time I believed I was the light that people needed, but present circumstances have forced me reconsider my arrogance. The destruction of the strange ship caused people to finally wake up to the fact that we are not alone in the cosmos. However, the overall belief became that humans had to be the first to conquer the galaxy and ensure the resources would go to no other race but our own. None realized the danger that was before them, as evidenced by the ship we destroyed. No one, that is, besides my team and myself.

At the time of the ship’s appearance, I was lucky enough to be working for our leading government. The world had untied behind this cause, and of course every advantage had to be wrought from the opportunity. My team and I studied what information was provided from the fragments of the alien craft and the records of the fighter units that eventually destroyed it. Yet we were powerless to stop the foolishness of humanity even after we became aware of our peril.

There were only twenty of us who believed that the Earth was in danger from this other species. We, alone, saw that the imperialists were wrong. While they thought only of expanding the human race and taking the galaxy for ourselves, we were unconvinced this was a realistic pursuit. For how could we conquer a galaxy first if it is already clearly inhabited by a superior race? We cannot. So we devoted our lives to protecting the planet we loved from the apparent death wish of our fellow humans. My team went to the World Military leaders and presented our proposals for a complex space defense system to stop the invasion that was sure to come. The Military agreed to fund our project though I suspect they were hoping to use as a weapon during our expansion more than as a defense against a little thought of invasion.

My team was responsible for heading the project and designed the systems around everything we knew from the single alien ship that had been destroyed. We invented a new engine for spacecraft that made use of liquid hydrogen mixed with certain metals for fuel, and used fusion to produce more power than any space engine ever previously conceived. Also in that time, we finally came up with a reliable laser and communication system that could work beyond the antiquated line of sight models. Within ten years we had the basis for our defenses set up and were ready to expand to the next level, but our funding was pulled. No threat had materialized and the Military had long since realized our project had no aggressive applications, so we were cut off and left to work with whatever resources we still had. Even so we managed to complete our equatorial ring of orbital platforms, along with twenty squadrons of two man fighters, and three large capital ships. However, it was still only a fraction of our original parameters. Knowing that the danger was not over we pleaded for more resources, to fully complete our designs, but we were denied. Again and again we tried until we were banished from speaking on the floor of the World Government. We watched, helplessly, as our dreams fell apart while the rest of humanity looked to everything besides their survival. Of course, that was when they came.

Dozens of the alien’s small scout ships descended upon Earth disguised as meteorites. They had been watching us for years and knew exactly what they would need for a successful invasion. Their target was detailed information on the defenses of our planet so they captured me, along with other members of my team. We were taken to the alien fleet’s staging area a few hundreds of thousands of miles from Earth’s surface. In their command ship they tortured us to the brink of death only to heal us and do it again. We began breaking quickly and resorted to simply telling all they wanted to know. Exact details on the platforms. How our weapons worked and the range they had. What ground defenses they should expect to encounter. Anything and everything related to defending our planet they found out through our grueling hours of misery.

At first we resisted the breaking; myself quite fiercely. But during my interrogation I learned about the race that wanted to exterminate us, and became sympathetic to them. They called themselves the Hyuaetans and their code of honor required the complete eradication of anyone who attacked them. They were not mindless in their quest, for they were once ousted from their home world by another race after refusing to answer the warning destruction of a number of their colonies with force. In the fifteen years since we destroyed their ship they had been studying us, observing our actions. They were appalled at humanity’s apparent lack of will to live and could not comprehend a people that could face their lives with such an apathetic attitude as we. All humans cared about were their wants in the present and gave no thought to the future. Blinded by my own human emotions while on Earth I could not see what foolish a species we were. We would willingly sacrifice our dreams of the future for the pleasures of the present. Finally seeing this, I could not return to the planet of my birth and turned my full support to the Hyuaetans.

Needless to say the Earth was destroyed, though not by my new friends. My former fellows showed their passion for life only when they were immediately threatened and through their heightened brilliance and determination, drove off the invaders. However the battle left the planet so scarred that the World Leaders made plans to completely destroy the Earth and wipe out all evidence of its existence. I was happy that I was saved from that fate of watching my home waste away when it was so obvious how it could have been prevented. My life was better. The Hyuaetans, though not perfect, saw more clearly what humans were than we ourselves could. They possessed the wisdom and foresight we would have needed to maintain our home planet. Accordingly Earth was destroyed and humans now live as a drifter race never again able to call any planet their home. As for me, I journeyed to the Hyuaetan capital to expand my knowledge and expertise so that I might prevent others from making the same mistakes of the humans of Earth.