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Paper Mache, sunglasses, acrylic paint, wire, other space-age material.

These traditional ceremonial masks tell the story of the humans, their arrival, and the war.

On Earth, 3000 years ago, climate collapse and global pandemics began the end of human civilization. When scientists first recognized the signs of The End, some claimed that they could mitigate the impact of the coming disasters, others were convinced they could prevent it – they all failed. When the disasters came, the destruction was total. After the First Extinction the scraps of human civilization could only think of one solution: Exodus.

By the time Exodus was the solution, most of their civilization was already in ruins. Countries and governments had been reduced to nomadic tribes led by warlords. The best tribes could scavenge, protect resources, and maintain technology. However most tribes succumbed to Fear, a pandemic of psychosis and cannibalism. Humans’ time on Earth was coming to an end and they needed a new place to live. We were surprised that a handful of tribes worked together to build the space rafts that carried their species to our system.

The space rafts were primitive but well built. Humans lacked the skills to engineer hyper fast space engines and they were not advanced enough to take the short cuts offered by tricky physics. They found that space hibernation could compensate for subpar engineering and slow speed. However, hibernation would require humans to gain over 800 pounds to travel. Energy dense hydrocarbons were readily available thanks to a scientist’s prescience regarding the collapse of agriculture. Under induced hibernation the human body could maintain homeostasis while only drawing upon nanocalories from fat reserves. Those fortunate enough to fatten up would survive the long, cold Thousand Year Sleep.

We noticed the human Exodus and offered help in their journey. There was no way they could have made it here on their own. However, they didn’t know that; they were all asleep. We wanted to acknowledge their will for survival and to forgive them for the wrongs they committed against us. Some of our people felt that the humans should not be helped, especially after the destruction they wrought on our ancestral burial grounds. In the end, we helped as best we could. Unfortunately, the humans brought us the same naïve destruction that they brought to our ancestors’ remains. Humans did not wake from the Sleep with memories of our assistance and they arrived with hostile hearts. Perhaps it was the extended exposure to space nightmares or the remnants of Fear. Perhaps something else happened to them in their travels. As the War continues I’m certain we will find out more. In the meantime, we are all trying to survive.

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