Post by Random Panther on May 18, 2012 16:51:01 GMT -5
Reunion
People of Earth,do not be afraid. We come in peace-
and why not? For we are your cousins; We have been here before.
You will recognise us when we meet,a few hours from
now. We are approaching the solar system almost as swiftly as this radio message. Already,your sun dominates the sky ahead
of us. It is the sun our ancestors and yours shared ten million years ago. We are men,as you are; but you have forgotten
your history,while we have remembered ours.
We colonized Earth,in the reign of the great reptiles,who
were dying when we came and whom we could not save. Your
world was a tropical planet then and we felt it would
make a fair home for our people. We were wrong. Though we were masters of space,we knew so little about climate,about
evolution,about genetics...
For millions of summers-there were no winters in those
ancient days-the colony flourished. Isolated though it had to
be,in a universe where the journey from one star to the next
takes years,it kept in touch with its parent civilization. Three
or four times in every century,starships would call and bring news of the galaxy.
But two million years ago,Earth began to change. For
ages it had been a tropical paradise; then the temperature fell,
and the ice began to creep down from the poles. As the climate
altered so did the colonists. We realize now that it was a natural adaptation to the end of the long summer,but those
who had made Earth their home for so many generations
believed that they had been attacked by a strange and repulsive disease. A disease that did not kill,that did no physical harm
-but merely disfigured.
Yet some were immune; the change spared them and their children. And so,within a few thousand years,the colony had split into two seperate groups-almost two seperate species-suspicious and jealous of eachother.
The division brought envy,discord,and,ultimately,con-
flict. As the colony disintegrated and the climate steadily
worsened,those who could do so withdrew from Earth. The
rest sank into barbarism.
We could have kept in touch but there is so much to do
in a universe of a hundred trillion stars. Untill a few years ago,
we did not know that any of you survived. Then we picked up your first radio signals,learned your simple lan-
guages,and discovered that you had made the long climb
back from savagery. We come to greet you,our long lost
relatives-and to help you.
We have discovered much in the eons since we abandoned
Earth. If you wish us to bring back the eternal summer that
ruled before the Ice Ages,we can do so. Above all,we have
a simple remedy for the offensive yet harmless genetic plague
that inflicted so many of the colonists.
Perhaps it has run its course-but if not,we have good
news for you. People of Earth,you can rejoin the society of the universe without shame,without embarrasment.
If any of you are still white,we can cure you.
November 1963.
First published in Infinity #2,1971. Collected in The Wind from the Sun.
Made me laugh out loud on the bus.
People of Earth,do not be afraid. We come in peace-
and why not? For we are your cousins; We have been here before.
You will recognise us when we meet,a few hours from
now. We are approaching the solar system almost as swiftly as this radio message. Already,your sun dominates the sky ahead
of us. It is the sun our ancestors and yours shared ten million years ago. We are men,as you are; but you have forgotten
your history,while we have remembered ours.
We colonized Earth,in the reign of the great reptiles,who
were dying when we came and whom we could not save. Your
world was a tropical planet then and we felt it would
make a fair home for our people. We were wrong. Though we were masters of space,we knew so little about climate,about
evolution,about genetics...
For millions of summers-there were no winters in those
ancient days-the colony flourished. Isolated though it had to
be,in a universe where the journey from one star to the next
takes years,it kept in touch with its parent civilization. Three
or four times in every century,starships would call and bring news of the galaxy.
But two million years ago,Earth began to change. For
ages it had been a tropical paradise; then the temperature fell,
and the ice began to creep down from the poles. As the climate
altered so did the colonists. We realize now that it was a natural adaptation to the end of the long summer,but those
who had made Earth their home for so many generations
believed that they had been attacked by a strange and repulsive disease. A disease that did not kill,that did no physical harm
-but merely disfigured.
Yet some were immune; the change spared them and their children. And so,within a few thousand years,the colony had split into two seperate groups-almost two seperate species-suspicious and jealous of eachother.
The division brought envy,discord,and,ultimately,con-
flict. As the colony disintegrated and the climate steadily
worsened,those who could do so withdrew from Earth. The
rest sank into barbarism.
We could have kept in touch but there is so much to do
in a universe of a hundred trillion stars. Untill a few years ago,
we did not know that any of you survived. Then we picked up your first radio signals,learned your simple lan-
guages,and discovered that you had made the long climb
back from savagery. We come to greet you,our long lost
relatives-and to help you.
We have discovered much in the eons since we abandoned
Earth. If you wish us to bring back the eternal summer that
ruled before the Ice Ages,we can do so. Above all,we have
a simple remedy for the offensive yet harmless genetic plague
that inflicted so many of the colonists.
Perhaps it has run its course-but if not,we have good
news for you. People of Earth,you can rejoin the society of the universe without shame,without embarrasment.
If any of you are still white,we can cure you.
November 1963.
First published in Infinity #2,1971. Collected in The Wind from the Sun.
Made me laugh out loud on the bus.
