Fiction Fragment Friday
I wish I could tell you what motivated this weeks story? I was looking for a good idea after a stressful week and this one just came to me. I am sure I have been influenced by some of the books I have recently read involving intelligent extraterrestrial life and it’s interactions with humanity. The idea of doing this story as an excerpt from a report though is something that I can’t really point at the origins to. In the end I enjoyed this story and I suppose that is the best I can hope for.
Humans have no idea of the dangers that await them in the galaxy at large. At their current technology level this is to be expected. If they did that would mean that I had failed in my mission. The people of Earth have continued to search for life in the universe by both listening and broadcasting signals. This will be a fruitless effort so long as my technology continues to block these transmissions at the edge of their solar system. The best way to keep humans protected from the dangers they face is to keep them hidden from those dangers.
The technological leaps that have occurred in the past few decades have made keeping humans hidden a very difficult task for several reasons. They have probes that have now left their own solar system. I need to make sure they can communicate with these probes so simply blocking all transmissions no longer works. They also are getting more advanced with their signal detections, so I need to block actual communications while still allowing the background noise of the universe. If I fail in any way, I could set back their scientific advancement by years while I fix it. Blocking communications has gone from a base blanket rule to a complicated mesh of five hundred interconnected policies.
Remote viewing no longer proves to be adequate to keep up with human developments. We have found that much of their news and information is transferred via a computer network they refer to as the internet. While this network does connect their entire planet their individual nation states do not share all information with each other. We have had to setup listening posts in five major countries to ensure proper coverage. Each of these has required resources to blend into society, physical modifications to pass as human, and the creation of fake identities. This has caused the Earth operation to expand from a team of ten individuals to a crew of three hundred. Each operative on the planet presents an additional risk of discovery and replacing them as they rotate out of the project further complicates matters.
At this time there is still a considerable leap in technology needed for humans to physically expand past their own solar system. They are reaching a point where colonization of their moon and neighboring planet is within their grasp. Our teams suspect that this effort will generate innovations that will drive them to unexpected advancements as the initial efforts to reach their moon did. This is an area being closely monitored to ensure that we are not caught unprepared. The largest concern remains in their finding extraterrestrial relics within their solar system and reverse engineering them. The humans have shown a remarkable talent at adapting discoveries without their population at large knowing the source.
The recovery of a crashed Razorian probe in the area known as Roswell New Mexico seventy-five Earth years ago kickstarted the computer industry and advanced the humans far faster than we could have ever anticipated. A similar incident with their current level of technology could very well propel them outside of their solar system and prematurely into the sights of hostile species. This program was initiated after that event and thus far has prevent a repeat, but it is getting exceedingly difficult to do so. The Earth government shave programs actively looking for extraterrestrial crafts and despite our best efforts to shield the planet from the larger galaxy no less than seven species have knowledge of the planet and have sent their own expeditionary programs.
We cannot directly act against any of these extraterrestrial programs without causing a potential political event that would lead to interstellar war. As a mitigating factor we have used a focused campaign of misinformation with the humans. Their own media and entertainment have been a much-needed resource in our efforts to convince the populace that any sighting are instead hoaxes or easily explained. Perhaps our most effective campaign of misdirection is to present obviously false claims of alien visitation to their planet shaping early humanity. The more these ideas are debunked by those more learned the more the populace is hesitant to accept actual evidence. This has had the unintended consequence of creating a network of vast believers among those most at the fringes of human society. While we are monitoring these individuals, they do not pose a significant threat as they lack the political power to influence policy.
I cannot understate the danger to my operatives undercover with the humans. As their technology grows their privacy and the ability to hide becomes limited. Surveillance technology has grown even more exponentially than other technology. This might be because of the nature of the Razorian probe, but I suspect it has more to do with the nature of humanity. They are an inherently distrustful species and if their media is any indication our discovery would go quite poorly. Interrogation and dissection would only be the beginning. If they ever had any indication of our existence among them, they would dedicate more resources to hunting us than we currently can bring to bear on remaining hidden.
At the risk of overstepping the bounds of my report I must conclude that our current mission is untenable. This project needs to be reevaluated at the highest levels. We either need vastly more resources or preferably a better plan on how to proceed. We simply cannot continue to keep the humans separate from the rest of the galaxy without endangering our people and resources. They are not advanced enough to protect themselves from invasion or conscription, but if we continue our current path, we will likely be the source of their next great technological leap. It is only a matter of time before they discover us and once that occurs it will be too late.
Earth will fit in nicely with the unstable galactic stage, but only if they are able to develop naturally. Elevation based on taking technology from other species will only lead them to continue doing so. They could very well be the greatest of future mediators or the worst of tyrants. The people in general are capable of great things, but power corrupts them very easily. We will continue to do our duty and stay hidden from them to the best of our abilities. I must implore you though to address my concerns in a timely manor or we may be forced to take preemptive actions that could jeopardize the long-term success of this mission.
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