[ IP ] Years from now a sentient alien race finds the Voyager spacecraft and the `` Golden Record '' A collection of photographs of Earth and Humanity .

Perhaps they built a better life than us. Perhaps. 
 
 Encountering the alien probe once and for all settled the question of whether or not others lived and breathed as we did in between the stardust. Bitterly, it came just as my species neared its quiet slip into tranquil oblivion; a base disease that worked over generations through our genes to close our eyes and still our hearts. Few of us, I among them, were sentenced to watch billions fall into a sleep from which there is no end. Spared is too optimistic a word. 
 
 My species had its share of problems. Devastating bigotry and malice consumed our cultures. But what the aliens sent was paradise, images and sounds of all manner of wondrous possibilities of which we will never truly know. I like to think that this is what they were like. What they *still are* like if hope prevailed. That they never slipped into the dark asunder of their natures. Maybe. 
 
 We drift now, composing final messages for the eons should anyone ever find us. We have pointed ourselves towards the presumed origin of the alien messenger, hearts twinkling that another species may know of our dreams and of our arts and of our motivations. Perhaps they will remember us when but even the stars fade. 
 

