[ CW ] And then she whispered , `` No . '' The story ends with this line .

She looked me in the eye and then she whispered, `` No.'' 
 
 `` No what?'' 
 
 `` That's the end.'' 
 
 `` The end of what?'' 
 
 `` The end of the humans. They wo n't be coming back.'' 
 
 `` I never asked if they would come back. I never asked anything. You just said'no' as if I asked some profound question about this entire race of beings we just slaughtered but I did n't say a thing. I was just enjoying this hamburger thing. It's quite nice. We should keep these cow creatures.'' 
 
 She let out an exasperated sigh and turned away from me to look over the burning horizon. 
 
 `` What's wrong?'' 
 
 `` You have no gift for drama, you know that?'' 
 
 `` What's that supposed to mean?'' I wiped grease from my mouth with a free tentacle while packing cow creatures into the teleporter. 
 
 `` It means you have no... this is a historical moment. The last of the human virus has finally been extinguished from the galaxy. We destroyed the source and now all our people can live in peace and you do n't care one iota that everything we've done and said has been recorded and transcribed. That ever moment of the past hundred thousand years of our existence is in the annals of our peoples history, and not one damned profound thought has come from it. You have no predilection for drama and now we look like simpleton war machines to all our kind.'' 
 
 `` Well what should I say then.'' 
 
 `` I do n't know. Something... grandiose. Make it quotable... and... not pithy. Something about the arrogance of life or some nonsense. 
 
 `` Alright then... I'll give it a shot. 
 
 *ahem* 
 
 `` Oh what great arrogance is life? That which seeks only to exist when it's mere existence causes others to... um... be mildly inconvenienced. How as that. 
 
 `` Terrible.'' 
 
 `` Well I'm sorry. I have n't much practice in speech writing, what with all the wanton destruction and exterminating I've been busy with all this time.'' 
 
 We moved away and watched the atmosphere burn over the blue pearl. 
 
 `` Is it so hard to say, what was done was right? That it was not so terrible?'' 
 
 `` Perhaps.'' 
 
 `` Then let me ask you this. If there's truly something to be said about the humans, then you must regret eliminating them, correct?'' 
 
 `` Yes.'' 
 
 `` Then do you regret exterminating them?'' 
 
 `` No.''
