Our Guidance

The arrival was foreseen many months in advance. Our scientists and astronomers broke the news immediately with discovery of the newest blip traveling through NASA's tracking systems. Preparations were made in anticipation of these visitors' weeks prior, but all the trajectory, size, and communications procedure in the world couldn't prepare for what really happened.



Who would see them first, where would they land?



The questions, the answers we sought, we should have perpetually dismissed.



The wonder, excitement, the fear and joy of this new page in human history turning before thousands, on top of the world, was present on the faces that stared skyward at the descending dot. Nobody noticed the animals silhouetting the horizon. What's more than the shock of seeing an interstellar vessel land on Earth for the first time in human history? Learning that our visitors have just now, finally, come back to check on us; to see what their little investment has fruited, as well as learning the animals knew something we didn't.



It happened something like this and most still can't remember, but animals slowly weaved through sporadic clusters of spectators, through thicker crowds and assembled around the landing platform.



The animals patiently waited.



What could the military forces do to contain the scene? Animal control? Owners?



Nothing--these were our animals, our pets, our furry little children, our friends to the end--or so we thought.



Most waited weeks, some for days, but the heart of the mass had arrived only hours before touchdown. Conversations dropped as camera flashes, newscaster descriptives, and confused whisperings filled the soundless gaps between the airwaves. Most faces agape couldn't decide which occurrence to gawk at the most. I could never get my dog buster to listen, but there he was silent and motionless. I swear he almost looked right at me.



Calm, eyes forward, the animals patiently waited.



Something wasn't right but what could we do? This world was falling apart as new worlds merged.



Something told me leave. Something told me to Just,



"Get out of here!"



"GO!"



"RUN!"



Ridiculous I thought . . . ridiculous.

On the night of August 15th, 20xx, approximately 8:30pm, central time, our visitors landed. The glossy, charcoal disk slowly rotated, decelerating. A thin white mist suddenly hissed from hidden dots as it found its resting spot on the platform, simultaneously startling nearly 20,000 people.



The animals patiently waited.



On the morning of August 16th, 9:00am 20xx our visitors opened and stepped out of their vessel for the first time. As the designated "Ambassador" of Human/nonhuman relations, Lewis Something-or-other stepped forward to greet the visitors with whatever crap our people had written for him to say, a simple, orange tabby cat slinked past his feet. Standing all fours before Lewis, the cat bowed its head.



We all heard it, that's no mistake, but what we've grown accustomed to when "hearing" voices was not present. The orange tabby spoke without words to our visitors.



"We thank you for this returning, we have felt your absence as you have surely felt ours. We have tried to let your thoughts guide our purpose for these places you have given, but the inferiors, they do all the things we were made to repel. They speak of their tongues. They destroy all your creation for their own. They destroy themselves. They create nothingness. They consume without end and keep us as playthings. They hurt us. They grow us in massive numbers to devour endlessly" teardrops fell from the tabby's eyes to the ground.



"They have forgotten everything. They cannot remember us. They cannot hear us without your presence. All you have given has fallen from balance and too much time has been spent bade in waste."



The animals slowly lowered their heads in unison--all but the tabby cat.



"We have nothing to offer your return, because they have taken everything." The cat whispered.



"Please have love for those deemed worthy, and swift mercy to those who have invoked the wrath that we have known only so well from you, our guidance."