Published Aug 18, 2005
Humans had gone to the stars, filled with hope, and colonized one planet, many light-years away from Earth. But, as we entered the universe, we made enemies, and one of these enemies attacked earth and rendered it uninhabitable.
Now, over a hundred years later, we’ve returned to the stars, determined to colonize yet another planet and give our civilization a chance to grow. I brought my family with me, on one of the gray, bulbous colony ships; my blonde wife was excited about the planet the fleet was headed for. But, when we arrived, three alien races had all begun to develop the planet for themselves. We had to turn around.
So I went to the council meeting with my crazy idea — I have always been good at crazy ideas. We met on the bridge of one of the transports, a wide-open, plexiglass-enclosed space, with a control panel, covered with blinking lights, standing on a pillar in the middle of the large, black room. Standing around the control panel with the few council members, I made my proposal. This many years after the attack on Earth we know that life on the planet has grown back; it’s a green planet, without animals, just waiting for civilization to return. And wouldn’t it be a triumph for us to return to our home planet?
The council bought it, and we turned the ships on a course for Earth. But boy was my pretty blonde wife angry! She had her heart set on the planet we were headed for, and she was quite irate to think of us heading nowhere. But where else could we go? The fleet headed for Earth.
Hum. You think anything that could render Earth “uninhabitable” would heal itself within just a hundred years?