The United Nations engaged Fangs in several further meetings. Even though no one else was eaten, the verdict on humanity’s fate remained unchanged.
A meeting was scheduled to take place at a meticulously prepared archaeological excavation site in Africa.
Fangs’ ship landed right on schedule, about fifty feet away from the dig site. The deafening explosion and storm of debris that accompanied the craft’s arrival had, by this point, become all too familiar.
The girl from Eridanus had advised them that the vessel’s engine was powered by a miniature fusion reactor. The concept,like most of the information she had provided on the Devourers,was easy enough for the human scientists to understand;the things she told them about the technology of Eridanians, on the other hand, never failed to baffle the people of Earth. Her crystal, for example,began to melt in Earth’s atmosphere. In the end, the entire section containing its propulsion system dissolved, leaving nothing but a thin slice of crystal floating gracefully through the air.
As Fangs arrived at the excavation site, two UN staffers presented him with a large album, a full square yard in size. It had been meticulously designed to accommodate the Devourer’s huge stature. The album’s hundreds of beautifully wrought pages revealed all aspects of human culture in brilliantly coloured detail. In some ways, it resembled an opulent primer for children.
Inside the large pit of the excavation site itself, an archaeologist vividly described the glorious history of Earth’s civilizations.He threw all his passion into his desperate attempt to make this alien understand, to comprehend that there was so much on this blue planet worth cherishing. As he spoke, his fervour moved him to tears. It was a pitiable spectacle.
Finally, he pointed to the excavation and intoned: ‘Honourable emissary, what you see here are the newly discovered remains of a town. This fifty-thousand-year-old site is the oldest human settlement discovered to date. Could the hearts of your people truly be hard enough to destroy this magnificent civilization of ours? A civilization that has developed, step by slow step, over fifty thousand years?’