Submitted by Wrooof t3_zyvfq7 in WritingPrompts
Zak_The_Slack t1_j29kj5d wrote
I stared at the aliens, confused. “How did you get here? We’ve proven that traveling faster than light is impossible.”
Correct, the voice in my head responded. These creatures spoke with their minds instead of mouths. It still creeped me out a bit. We got here by slowly traveling through space. What concerns us, however, is you.
“Wait, us?” I exclaimed.
We did not expect there to be anything left on this planet. When we left, it was devoid of all life, the voice calmly said.
“So,” I started to say, “You’ve been traveling for…”
Around 65 million years, give or take.
I whistled. “Your species lasts this long?”
If the creature could laugh, it would have. Instead it made some sort of wheezing sound. No, we are descendants of those who left our home. Be glad you did not meet those who originally left.
“Why?” I asked.
They… it paused. They had some, let’s say, radical views. They wouldn’t hesitate to repeat what they did before. You see, it was them who sent the missile.
My eyebrows furrowed. “What missile? And how do we not know about this.”
The alien sighed in my mind. Because that missile wiped out all life on this planet 130 million years ago.
Edit: thanks for the typo u/braoutchmeuh! Completely missed them when writing it.
Graoutchmeuh t1_j29soab wrote
Two things :
>Be glad you did meet those who originally left.
Didn't you mean "Be glad you did NOT meet..."?
And the missile the wiped out the dinosaurs fell 65 millions years ago, not 165.
S1eepyZ t1_j2b4ikt wrote
Could take place in the far future
Zak_The_Slack t1_j2dmyuq wrote
Thanks for the improvements! Just fixed the numbers and the typo
Far_Assistant_4315 t1_j2brxe7 wrote
Yeah, and also-
>Because that missile wiped out all life on this planet 165 million years ago.
and
>“So,” I started to say, “You’ve been traveling for…”
>
>Around 165 million years, give or take.
Why would they wait 165 million years to start traveling to Earth, (assuming the missile goes the same speed as the the ship) to colonize the place?
Maybe they wanted to let Earth "cool down" after a total extinction event, but I doubt that 165 million years is even enough.
akeean t1_j2c17cs wrote
The missle accelerated faster to a fraction of c while the generational ship ramped it's speed up (and then down) slowly in comparison, since it was humungus in size?
That wouldn't make much of a difference over 65m years, since even at 1g acceleration you get to 10% of c in a few decades.
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