[ WP ] In search of life on Mars , NASA 's newest rover has stumbled upon a badly eroded monument . The almost unintelligible inscription reads : `` What you are , I once was ; what I am , you will become '' .

The team stared at the still image on the screen, grappling, trying to understand. 
 
 It came from the rover's forward camera, closed in on the strange formation. Its original shape indistinguishable from time, its base still held a square, rigid shape, protected from the elements by a high rock ridge behind it. 
 
 Upon the base, eroded, but still legible, were roman letters, formed into words, legible even in the grainy photograph: 
 
 `` Quae sunt, Quondam fuit. Quae gesturus sum, Eritis.'' Latin, thought the grammar seemed poor, improper... like the maker did n't really know the language, at least according to the team's retired catholic. It read something like'What you are, I once was. What I am, You will Become.' 
 
 There was silence for a long time, as they drunk it in, absorbing the hasty translation provided. 
 
 `` A message.'' Someone finally said. `` A goodbye?'' 
 
 `` A warning?'' someone else responded. 
 
 `` A hope that we might do better.'' Someone else said, steel in their voice. She started connecting dots faster than the rest could keep up. `` That's Latin, meaning this was made in the last 2000 years, more or less?'' 
 
 `` A little longer, maybe, but-'' 
 
 `` That's too recently for anything to have been *native* to Mars. *Whomever* made this was in our solar system by inter-solar travel.'' and she looked back to the screen. `` And now they're gone, able to leave us a warning that *something* out there was about to bring low a civilization that spanned entire solar systems'' she turned toward the rest of them, still catching up. `` And they expect us to face the same.''
