I awoke last night pinned to my bed. I was paralyzed. I felt a presence at the end of my bed. I could not raise my head to look, but somehow felt her big eyes on me. I say “her”. Although I was given no indication that she had a sex, her presence was undeniably female. I tried kicking my legs to free them from paralysis but felt even more held down the more I struggled.
With no conscious passage of time at all, I found myself sitting in a chair in a small metal room. I was able to move, but felt no desire to. Grey, hairless humanoid beings stood around me. One addressed me directly. She didn’t speak, but I understood her inquiry: Was this planet worth saving? A disease called Wetiko had spread to nearly every region of the planet. As human science was advancing to the point that humans had begun exploring other parts of their solar system, it would not be long before they discovered their neighbors. If humans were allowed to make contact with their neighbors, Wetiko may spread. She wanted to know if there was anything redeeming enough about our species to risk the spread of Wetiko and protect the Earth from the threat of Apophis.
I insisted the human species was a valuable one, that, although we obviously weren’t as advanced as her race, we were capable of so much good. Her tone turned from inquisitive to patronizing. She showed me symptoms of Wetiko all over the Earth – humans fighting over resources, hoarding, war, McMansions, deforestation – in a word, selfishness. “Oh no. I see now.”, I calmly conceded, “You are right. Wetiko has spread too far for us to come back from it now.”
A door opened in the wall to my right and downward stairs formed. She escorted me off their ship. When I was “safe” back on Earth, she reached out with two long fingers and pressed them against my forehead. A white light filled my consciousness.
“Wait!?”, I asked, “Don’t we have more time? Humans, I mean. If we can cleanse ourselves of Wetiko, will you help us?”
She paused and then gave me a timeline – eleven years to turn it all around. Then she and the others were gone.
–END–
