On a routine patrol flight In the Milky Way Galaxy I discovered on our space-sensors An unidentified planet careening wildly In an eccentric solar orbit I ordered an immediate investigation And with much difficulty Manoeuvred our ship for a temporary orbit
Upon beaming down to the planet's surface All I could see were ruins Ruins of some type of civilisation Crumbled buildings Deserted streets Charred vegetation All covered with a thick layer of dust Which our scanners indicated as intensely radioactive
I proceeded to make a through survey of the area According to my calculations I could tell that some recent phenomenon or holocaust had occurred And destroyed whatever advanced civilisation had existed on the planet I found no sign of life
As I made my way back to the ship I heard a sound It came from a cellar, in one of the nearby buildings Carefully and slowly I found my way to the source And discovered a human being Or rather what once was a human being A scarred, disfigured man lying in the rubble When I questioned him He told me this had once been a great world They had abundance and plenty Intelligence Beauty Love There was enough for everyone who lived there But the inhabitants were never satisfied They wanted more They wanted everything And they started to quarrel amongst themselves They could not live in peace And they tried to destroy each other In doing this they destroyed everything Their abundance Their plenty Their own intelligence Their beauty Their love
He told me that So far as he knew He was the only living thing left But that he knew he was dying When I asked him the name of the planet He replied 'We called it Earth'