Humanity looked on in awe as the spaceship touched down. The contact before was minimal, simply a transmission saying they would come to assess them. The world’s leaders all gathered around as the hatch opened and alien life touched down on Earth for the first time. It’s shiny green skin seemed to flow and jiggle as it looked around, it’s deep purple eyes assessing the crowd gathered around it. One of the human leaders stepped forward. “Welcome to our planet, we are overjoyed to have you here.”
The alien did not respond. A tenseness started to form in the atmosphere as it continued to scan everything around it. After a while longer, it let out something that seemed approximate to a sigh, turned around, and re-entered it’s ship. A short sentence escaped under its breath, “There is no Keeneetaa…” And with that, it left, returning to the stars from whence it came.
And no one knew why.
20 Years Later
The fallout from the event seemed worrisome at first. What went wrong? What was a Keeneetaa? Would they ever return? But from that panic, inspiration started to develop. Clearly, if humanity lacked this “Keeneetaa”, they would need to acquire it. And so, a new golden age for the world arrived, seeing progress in science, art, philosophy, and more. All in search of the nebulous “Keeneetaa”. If the aliens returned, no, when they returned, humanity would show that they had what they needed to join the rest of the universe.
And so that day came. And it played out much the same. The alien arrived, assessed them all, then left muttering the same words, “No Keeneetaa…” But surely they had tried their hardest? Who was there to blame?
50 Years Later
Surely they must be to blame! The thought reverberated in the head of every world leader. The aliens must have been offended by them, something in their culture or appearance, something that made the aliens think worse of the rest of them, the better parts of humanity! And so the tension started to boil over. It started with small political disagreements, a rejection of a proposal here, a denial of a trade agreement there. But it did not take that long to turn to war. Soon the entire world was engulfed, a never-ending climate of death and destruction.
It only ceased when the transmission came again. The “peace” came quick, as countries rushed to make themselves more presentable for the coming assessment. But it again played out the same, with the phrase passing the visitor’s lips once more, “No Keeneetaa…” It took even shorter for the “peace” to end.
100 Years Later
Joshua did not know if he was the last of humanity. He had not seen another living human since his mother died some 12 years ago, but the world is a big place, thought Joshua, emptily optimistic. However, whether he was the last one or not, he knew he was dying, if not from his sickness, from his lack of food and water. But then in the sky, he saw it. The ship landed right in front of him, and out stepped the alien, the one from the stories his mother told.
He stumbled up to it. “Please…” he begged, “Please help me, take me away from here!” As that false hope he carried all this time fell away. The alien stared at him, saying nothing. Then it turned around, went back into it’s ship, and muttered once again, “No Keeneetaa…” The ship flew away, and Joshua wouldn’t have been surprised if the alien hadn’t even actually noticed him.
An Unknown Time Later
The Idira thrived on earth, their precursors, humans, had left much technology behind, which let the Idira evolve societally at a rapid pace. And they had reached what they believed to be the next step. A transmission from deep space arrived, saying they were to be assessed. Surely not even humanity, as great as they were, had had this chance.
The day finally came, the space ship landed in front of the gathered world leaders, and the hatch opened. The alien stepped out and and looked around. A world leader stepped forward, giving a customary Idira welcome. The alien stayed silent. Then, it turned around, seemed to sigh, said “No Keeneetaa…”, and left.
Snowydragoon t1_j9xok72 wrote
Reply to [WP] The aliens, it seems, do not consider us a sentient species because we are unable to 'keeneetaa'. We still haven't figured out what that means. by limbodog
Humanity looked on in awe as the spaceship touched down. The contact before was minimal, simply a transmission saying they would come to assess them. The world’s leaders all gathered around as the hatch opened and alien life touched down on Earth for the first time. It’s shiny green skin seemed to flow and jiggle as it looked around, it’s deep purple eyes assessing the crowd gathered around it. One of the human leaders stepped forward. “Welcome to our planet, we are overjoyed to have you here.”
The alien did not respond. A tenseness started to form in the atmosphere as it continued to scan everything around it. After a while longer, it let out something that seemed approximate to a sigh, turned around, and re-entered it’s ship. A short sentence escaped under its breath, “There is no Keeneetaa…” And with that, it left, returning to the stars from whence it came.
And no one knew why.
20 Years Later
The fallout from the event seemed worrisome at first. What went wrong? What was a Keeneetaa? Would they ever return? But from that panic, inspiration started to develop. Clearly, if humanity lacked this “Keeneetaa”, they would need to acquire it. And so, a new golden age for the world arrived, seeing progress in science, art, philosophy, and more. All in search of the nebulous “Keeneetaa”. If the aliens returned, no, when they returned, humanity would show that they had what they needed to join the rest of the universe.
And so that day came. And it played out much the same. The alien arrived, assessed them all, then left muttering the same words, “No Keeneetaa…” But surely they had tried their hardest? Who was there to blame?
50 Years Later
Surely they must be to blame! The thought reverberated in the head of every world leader. The aliens must have been offended by them, something in their culture or appearance, something that made the aliens think worse of the rest of them, the better parts of humanity! And so the tension started to boil over. It started with small political disagreements, a rejection of a proposal here, a denial of a trade agreement there. But it did not take that long to turn to war. Soon the entire world was engulfed, a never-ending climate of death and destruction.
It only ceased when the transmission came again. The “peace” came quick, as countries rushed to make themselves more presentable for the coming assessment. But it again played out the same, with the phrase passing the visitor’s lips once more, “No Keeneetaa…” It took even shorter for the “peace” to end.
100 Years Later
Joshua did not know if he was the last of humanity. He had not seen another living human since his mother died some 12 years ago, but the world is a big place, thought Joshua, emptily optimistic. However, whether he was the last one or not, he knew he was dying, if not from his sickness, from his lack of food and water. But then in the sky, he saw it. The ship landed right in front of him, and out stepped the alien, the one from the stories his mother told.
He stumbled up to it. “Please…” he begged, “Please help me, take me away from here!” As that false hope he carried all this time fell away. The alien stared at him, saying nothing. Then it turned around, went back into it’s ship, and muttered once again, “No Keeneetaa…” The ship flew away, and Joshua wouldn’t have been surprised if the alien hadn’t even actually noticed him.
An Unknown Time Later
The Idira thrived on earth, their precursors, humans, had left much technology behind, which let the Idira evolve societally at a rapid pace. And they had reached what they believed to be the next step. A transmission from deep space arrived, saying they were to be assessed. Surely not even humanity, as great as they were, had had this chance.
The day finally came, the space ship landed in front of the gathered world leaders, and the hatch opened. The alien stepped out and and looked around. A world leader stepped forward, giving a customary Idira welcome. The alien stayed silent. Then, it turned around, seemed to sigh, said “No Keeneetaa…”, and left.