THE UNITED NATIONS

The aliens showed up and made war with the citizens of planet Earth, and in doing so killed billions, either with the explosives fired from their space ships or the death rays from the weapons of their armoured shock troopers or from one of the many ways people find their way to unhappiness in a war, like ebola outbreak, starved in a camp, trafficked, disappeared. And that's not to say we didn't give those alien bastards hell. We did. Nuclear warheads, shooting pistols at them as they swooped overhead, commando teams landing on their hulls under cover of darkness and drilling in to insert a payload of lab grown viruses and so on. They were from an ancient race that spanned the stars. They expected resistance. A weakened but freshly unified humanity rallied to defend our home. Borders were abandoned. Religious differences receded. Anyone professionally bound to muse about god came up with a theory. Were they god's children too? Were we brethren? Had god hidden them from us deliberately? Had he hidden us from them, and if he had, how had they found us? What other knowledge had god forbidden us? The consensus hardened: a race so violent, so ruthless, so ungiven to mercy, so unstoppably warlike, so demonstrably counter to divine teachings could not possibly have been created by our creator. We, who were made in his image. The general of the alien invasion force appeared at the United Nations to accept Earth's surrender. He took off his helmet. His alien face was brooding and craggy. From his chin dangled a baleen that looked like a long white beard. He wore white robes. He glowed. His entourage took off their helmets. They all glowed. They took what they needed and returned to the stars. They're still up there. And we're still down here.