[ WP ] In the near future , mankind explores the stars in search of life . Life indeed exists beyond Earth , but you , a researcher on a science ship , discover that all of the spacefaring alien civilizations died out . Curiously , their deaths seem directly linked to humanity reaching outer space .

They found it on Proxima Centauri. A stele six meters high by two meters wide, covered by an inscription obviously linguistic but totally foreign. They brought it home. 
 
 After six years, a team of MIT scientists announced the code was cracked. The world gathered to hear its meaning, to hear the words of extraterrestrials long extinct. 
 
 Geologists invented a new kind of carbon dating to test its age, a necessary task to probe the alien materials inside. They dated it at 4 billion years old. 
 
 What struck the explorers more than anything was the cleanliness of the ruins they kept finding. It appeared that the inhabitants disappeared only recently. Some pointed to self-cleaning materials. Others insisted that the'cities' were mere outposts left behind. The WHO's epidemiologists insisted it showed all he telltale signs of a massive plague. 
 
 Their theory gained credence when a high-resolution satellite photo of the arctic facility on Io revealed a chunk of space debris the size of a four door sedan embedded in a wall. The letters on the side were undeniably Soviet. A long lost relic of the Cold War, a century before. 
 
 The world gathered to hear the words of these ancients. A squirrelly looking man in a black suit and wire-framed glasses took the podium, and the earth held its breath. 
 
 `` The inscription reads,'' he started, ``'The contagion has been contained on a blue planet, third from the sun. Planet is devoid of life and inhospitable. The rebuilding must now begin.''
