Beep-beep-beep-beep. Beeeeeeep!
Calm yourself, Z72XY. There, I have you under control again. Now, what have you discovered in your survey of the surrounding area?
Beep-beep. What a relief! I was starting to get hot under the circuits searching for you.
I understand – but your report please?
Beep-beep. Is it OK to give my report in front of these grotes . . . er . . . earthlings?
Certainly. Clara and Eliot are our friends.
Beep-beep. Well, nothing to report except sand, sand, and more sand. Sand in every direction as far as my sensors could scan. But, a strange sight I did see. A giant hand holding a torch sticking right out of the ground. It was made out of a metallic substance.
Um, Mr. Controller, if I might interrupt?
Yes, Clara?
The area we are standing in used to be called New York City. That hand is a remnant of the Statue of Liberty. But that was thousands of years ago . . . when humans were still alive.
Interesting. Tell me, Clara, what sort of place was this New York City?
Towards the end, it was a place where no humans actually lived but apartments were sold for obscene amounts of money. Buildings reached higher and higher into the sky . . . and the higher they reached, the more valuable the living space.
Why would they spend so much money and NOT live there?
You forget . . . these were humans . . . with all their strange thoughts and desires . . . and egos.
Well, we have no more time to waste on their history. A rare case of a species becoming extinct from their own activities. Now it is time for us to move on and complete our survey of your sister planets. Farewell, Clara and Eliot! I doubt we’ll meet again.
Goodbye, contro . . . . Yipes! Clara, where did they go?
I guess they simply activated their thought waves to leave us.
Wow! Thought waves! I never realized the true power of thinking. Let’s see if I can do that! Ommmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
Eliot, you’re still here.
Oh well, perhaps thinking is overrated.
That was also the decision of humans just before they vanished from the face of this earth.