They came from somewhere beyond Pluto.
“You affix metal and wires to your teeth…use needles to inject portraits into your skin…stab your flesh with shards of metal…remove your hair with lasers…cut patterns into your faces…burn yourselves…remove fat and break your noses and inject diseases into yourselves willingly. Why?”
And we answered “For beauty.”
Fireworks confused them. “These horrible explosions, with their colors and patterns? Is this an act of war, or is it in worship of some god?”
We answered, “No. It is in celebration.”
Explaining vaccines was difficult. “You give yourself disease on purpose? You force it into your blood with needles? Why?”
We answered, “To teach our bodies to resist it.”
They felt awe at our true wars. At our missiles that harnessed the power found in stars, at our weapons that spread poison and disease, at our flying machines that destroyed thousands while we flew them from continents away. They asked, “For what reasons do you go to war?”
We answered, “To gain money and resources, to exact revenge, to impose and uphold faith and ideology, and, now and then, on our best days, to answer a cry for help.”
They asked us, “The moon is barren, and yet you went. Mount Everest is a deadly place, and yet you go. The ocean is vast and frightful and travel to its depths is near impossible, and yet you are trying to dive. Why?”
We answered, “To show that we could, to show that we can, to show that we will.”
We answered, “Because how dare there be questions unanswered, realms unexplored, lands unconquered. How dare this reality not fall under our command. We will rule this universe or we will die trying.”
They didn’t come back, and no others dare visit.
