Arrival

A fragment adapted from a college-writing exercise.

My scientific team and I had been searching for habitable planets. We wanted to establish a relationship and learn something new about the universe.

The planet we found seemed to be struggling with intelligent, yet foolish, living organisms. We planned to visit, speak to their leader, and find out how to help them. We would stay for at least five human years, pretending to be among them so we could understand their behaviour.

Today we arrived. Their planet looks like ours did thousands of years ago.

We come from DF-456. In the past, we fought over power and resources. We now have a safe, clean environment for ourselves and the generations that will follow us.

The war that preceded it lasted 1,025 years.

Ten per cent of us survived.