Anniversary Email 41

Congratulations, <NAME>! A prominent theory holds that any species advanced enough to colonize the stars would also be wary enough of potential challenges to their superiority to eradicate any other intelligent life before it could become a threat. This civilization would seek any traces of complex life in the galaxy and stomp it out before it could learn the secrets of interstellar travel or harnessing the power of a star. Massive extermination fleets would ply the void, bringing ruin and death to worlds.

As it turns out, our own planet has been visited by them in the past, during the last great extinction, where they wiped out life and forced an ice age in attempt to freeze anything that remained. For the last several decades, we have been blaring our existence into space, sending every possible signal that earth still harbors life.

These termination vessels have heard our signals. Two days ago they slipped into high orbit and began a series of scans. As we awaited our doom, only a single message came. One sentence from this fiendish alien intelligence that had eradicated the dinosaurs and attempted to kill our world. It said, simply, “Scan complete: Not a threat.” The ships then engaged their engines and left our orbit.