For around 65,000 years, a community known as the
Terratinelese lived on an island in complete isolation,
uncontacted disconnected from the entire rest of the planet.
Their early ancestors had become stuck on the island after
the land they were settled on separated and moved further and
further away from its parent land mass. Overtime, the island
would drift sufficiently far enough away that nothing could be
seen from it other than the vast ocean and a few other small
island rock formations. After thousands of years on their own, the
island community had been able to develop crude language, build
small, fragile shelters, and construct simple tools, but
because of their isolated nature, limited resources, and evolutionary
conditions, they remained mostly primitive and unintelligent,
evolving at an extremely slow rate. They had no idea where
they were or how they got there. They knew nothing other than
the island and the dome of the horizon they believed they were
stuck inside. The community was first discovered around
4,500 years ago, when a ship undertaking a transoceanic journey
happened across it. Around this time, neighboring land masses
were being connected and colonized. For the first time,
modern towns, cities, countries, and continents were forming
and coming together.
The island was relatively small and appeared useless to
those who first discovered it, and thus, it was initially passed
by and left alone. Over the next thousand years or so, the island
would be discovered several more times and would eventually
become a part of the territory of the neighboring continent,
Laniakea. The associated government believed it to be
advantageous to try and officially colonize the island and
attempt to form a mutual relationship with the natives.
However, because they were still much earlier on in their
development, like most civilizations in their early stages, the
islanders were irrational, violent, and defensive. They
frequently fought and killed each other over food, territory,
mating partners, power, beliefs, and whatever else they could
use as an excuse. And now, because of their particularly rash
nature, colonizers were met with senseless violence and
aggression with no opportunity to properly reason or communicate
with them. The colonizers decided it was best to leave
them alone and not reciprocate, knowing how easily they could
wipe the entire island from existence.
Over the following number of years, reattempts to form
relations with the islanders would occur several times. Each
time, however, colonizers were again met with violence and an
inability to communicate. To the inhabitants of the island, the
colonizers were like aliens who showed up out of the walls of
the horizon on massive incomprehensible ships. The islanders had
no words nor concepts to grasp what was happening and so, they
reacted against it on primal impulse. The discrepancy between
the two realities could simply not be reconciled at the time.
The island was small with nothing particularly desirable
and interactions had caused all parties nothing but harm. And
so, the island would earn the reputation as one of the most
dangerous places on the planet. Not because of its advanced
weaponry, but because of the mere temperament and low
intelligence of the population that lived on it. Mutual
relations were, at least at the time, considered impossible and
futile. Because the island technically fell under
the jurisdiction of Laniakea, the associated government made
the determination that it would be best to leave the island
alone. An ordinance was established and the community on the island
was given privacy and protective rights. Any further
unpermitted contact, observation, and visitation would now become
prohibited. Without realizing it, individuals on the island
during the time of first contact were effectively closing
themselves off and changing the entire course of their potential
civilization, completely unaware that they were causing
anything at all, let
alone something so immense. And now, unbeknownst to them, they
were technically a part of a colony and intercontinental government order, restricted from any further
outside contact, indefinitely. They would become one of the
last unintegrated civilizations.
The island slowly became forgotten by the rest of the
planet. Like lost, unwanted children, they would have to fend
for themselves and find their own way. For hundreds of generations thereafter, the
islanders never saw any members of any other race, causing
them to believe that there mustn’t be any other races at all.
Signs of others, like the occasional passing ship or eventual airplanes
were perceived merely as unusual animals, no different than
the bugs, fish, birds, or mammals that popped up on or around
the island. And any modern items that washed ashore were believed
to be strange rock or plant formations that floated up from
the ocean. As more and more years would pass, though,
the islanders slowly became more intelligent, improving
their verbal and social abilities and eventually developing
better technologies. Enhanced applications of fire and combustion.
Theoretical thinking. And more complex language. All created
a feedback loop in which new tools were created by the islanders
and then the new tools created new islanders.
Eventually, individuals of the island began to comprehend
their circumstances more accurately and started to speculate
about the walls of the horizon. They realized that perhaps the
horizon wasn’t a wall or edge at all. They looked out at the ocean and at all the
little uninhabited islands they could see in the
distance and wondered, “Where is everyone?” Then they wondered
that if they were wondering this, wouldn’t that mean that
if anyone else was out there, they would also be wondering the same?
And if so, why hadn’t anyone else ever tried to find or
contact them? Many islanders began to believe that they
weren’t alone. But yet, there was no evidence that they weren’t,
and so, many remained skeptical. Ultimately, they realized
the options were either; they were alone on this isolated floating
rock or there were others out there, somewhere. Both possibilities
were equally terrifying and awe-inspiring.
As more time passed, fueled by instinctual curiosity and
the yearning to branch out and connect with the beyond, the
islanders began to dedicate time and resources to exploring
outward, off the island. They began designing ship vessels,
tools, and weapons specific to discovery missions. As these new
technologies developed and brought on new opportunities, they
also brought on new problems. Between the amount of resources
required from the island and the increased deadliness of better
weaponry, the islanders were facing one of the great filters
that all developing civilizations have to overcome; surviving
the metamorphosis of their own self. Without being aware of it,
they were essentially in a race against themselves, either going
to build the necessary technologies to get everyone beyond the
island or destroy the island and kill themselves in the process.
Their early ship vessels were weak and difficult to
control. Several groups of individuals were killed on the early
missions. Slowly but surely, though, they would begin to develop
more advanced ships and would soon visit each neighboring island
one by one, starting at the closest, and then reaching a little
further each time. Eventually they reached the furthest visible
land mass. Fearful of going beyond their vision and means
of control and understanding, though, they stopped going
any further. While trying to build a ship that could sustain
and be controlled long enough for a further journey,
they put up devices on their shoreline that produced sounds
in hopes that if anyone else was anywhere, they would hear
their signals. They also constructed large funnels with a tube
narrowing down to the bass in order to listen for any potential
incoming messages from others who might be doing the same. Of course,
they heard nothing unusual and produced nothing noticeable,
unaware that
such sounds were not being looked for and would not be heard
with any significance. They also inscribed crude messages on thin
sheets of woods and tossed them into the ocean along with
other artifacts. Of course, most of these objects did not make
it very far before being damaged or destroyed and the items that
did make it, floated to the shores of other bodies of land
with no significance beyond just debris from the ocean.
The messages were indiscernible and were assumed to be
no more than ancient artifacts of a dead species.
With all immediate neighboring islands being uninhabited
and with no signs of anyone from beyond, the islanders remained
confused as to why they appeared to be alone. Why their island
appeared to be the only one that supported life.
Of course, only about 1,100 miles west, just out of the
islanders’ reach, was an entire modern, technologically advanced
civilization filled with other beings of different races, all
engaged in an interconnected order with the rest of the planet
of other modern civilizations. The island community would exist with no more
than a hunch that they weren’t alone, unable to know
that the reason they had no evidence was because of themselves.
Throughout the years, the island had been occasionally
checked on by the Laniakean government. However, nothing had
ever really appeared to change much. Even during the islands initial transition into
advancement, it only appeared as if they had built little structures or musical instruments
for themselves. Nothing that warranted concern nor intervening. However, one day many years
into their future, after a tropical storm caused for a checkup, it was noticed that
there appeared to be a more advanced piece of technology on the island. It was also noticed
that the island appeared to have a scarceness of vegetation. The island was almost dried
up completely. Having realized what was likely happening,
dropped down onto the shore several days later was a box.
Inside was a white flag, a set of instructions, and a letter
written in every known language, which translated loosely into the
following; “Dear friends. We hope this reaches you
well. Please consider it a peaceful introduction. We have
known about you for quite some time now. In fact, we have
met many of your ancestors in the past. We predict you
have come a long way since them. We believe you might be ready
to meet us again.
We are not that dissimilar. Our pasts were once the
same, but somewhere along the lines, we became disconnected. We think you might be interested
and ready to reconnect. We believe you might need to soon.
By the looks of it, you may not survive much longer on
your own.
There is a big planet out there. Much of which you
probably won’t understand right away. But eventually, you
will. And eventually, it will all make sense. You will
discover and experiences things that you could never even
imagine right now. You will join us as we all survive and
forge onward together. If you wish to remain alone, that is your
right. But we have all gone through the same things in
some form or another and we are always better off together
than we are alone. We hope you are old enough to realize
this now. If and when you are ready, the rest of us
are ready for you.
Best wishes, The rest of the planet.”