[ WP ] On the eve of Earth 's annihilation by aliens , you learn that the planet 's most intelligent being is the potted plant in your living room .

It was a fairly innocuous plant, as far as plants go. I had picked it up a couple weeks prior at a giant farmer's market held in one of the sprawling empty parks now scattered throughout the city. This was before the first transmission had been received, of course. They were at the outer edges of our solar system when they first contacted us. A lot of initial outrage had been directed at a scientific community that most believed had failed in not detecting them sooner. Being a scientist myself, however, I was not surprised that an alien race capable of traveling light years had also managed to avoid whatever paltry RADAR humans had scanning skywards. 
 
 But I digress. The content of their message had been pretty straight forward. Most suspect they did n't speak our language, or maybe had n't the time nor care to decipher it. That's to say their message contained no words. Rather, they simply replayed all the various iterations of the Earth being blown up that had appeared in countless movies, all across the globe, all at once. And it has n't stopped. They have been hailed, pleaded with, bargained with, threatened, aggressed against; we have tried everything. All we've gotten in return is this endless loop of Earth's annihilation. That, and total radio silence. 
 
 Back to the plant: It is a snap pea plant. Aside from the fact that it turned out to not only be sentient, but the smartest sentient being on our planet, it's fairly unremarkable. It first spoke - maybe I should say `` communicated instead'' - when the loop first began playing on TV. It asked to be moved within view of the screen. I was stunned, and was immediately convinced I was suffering from a psychotic break. I quickly succumbed to a wave of understanding next in what I know was my plant and my first conversation. 
 
 It explained to me what was happening, that our planet was doomed, that they'd be here soon. I did n't take the news well, exactly, but the novelty of the telepathic plant in my living room managed to somewhat blunt the edge of my impending doom. 
 
 They have always been able to communicate, it explained, but found the linear way in which our logic progressed, the necessity of our thoughts on a series of words, entirely dull. Even more, it explained, they understood that human's would react poorly to the presence of a superior intelligence, and would act out of fear and misunderstanding as we are wont to do. This alien race was here to liberate them, it explained, and besides, humans are well overdue a dose of our own medicine.
