[ WP ] Humans , along with a few other species , were the first intelligent life in the Milky Way . Over time , each of these races built an interstellar empire and eventually came into armed conflict with one another . You are an alien archaeologist trying to find information on these ancient legends .

*This is n't exactly what the prompt asked for, but I had n't got any ideas for interstellar wars. Instead, enjoy the beginning of a lecture at an alien university! * 
 
 *** 
 
 A pseudopedicle extended outwards, fluids flushing through xylematic channels under its greyish-white flesh, and it delicately began to manipulate the complex dashboard of buttons upon the lectern before it. The screen above it's head flickered noisily into life, making a sound humans would describe as deafening as its many thousands of vacuum-powered actuators flew into life. A small eyelike device popped out from the lectern, and another greyish grasper positioned it squarely before the bluish-purple mass of gelatinous flesh in the centre of it's body. The orbit emitted a flash of green light, and the jelly quivered briefly as a small wave of calcium ions lanced across its aqueous matrix, washing out the detritus of former biological activities. 
 
 In an answering flash of red light, patterns and lines began to appear within the gelatinous core of the strange organism, transmitted to the screen above whereupon the many hundreds of other such organisms in the audience could view the patterns and interpret them. 
 
 `` Hello class, and welcome to your first period of Ancient Xenohistory. In this class, we will study the history of the three primary species who dominated the first period of galactic history. These are...'' 
 
 *An image of a small, brass plaque, depicting a figure of a humanoid organism, appeared on the screen, accompanied by a vial of reddish-brown residue and a collection of data storage devices. * 
 
 ``... The Humans, originally of the Sol System, who dominated the first era of the Archaic period; secondarily, we will examine...'' 
 
 *A complex woven structure, like a spider's web with a butterfly at its core, appearing to be constructed from the finest of silks hardened into something resembling fine porcelain, was displayed on the overhead. * 
 
 ``... The Olivarns, originally of Proxima Centauri, who dominated the second era of the Archaic period; finally, we will investigate...'' 
 
 *A block of purest silicon, apparently unmarked, was shown on the high-resolution display. To the extremely acute vision of the audience, however, it was etched with hundreds of thousands of exceptionally complex patterns and grooves, not a single one repeating and yet all perfectly interwoven. * 
 
 ``... The Siliran and Telluan races, both of the Tau Ceti system, who dominated the third and final era of the Archaic period.'' 
 
 The gelatinous orb paused in its relaying of patterns, and another wash of calcium ions charged the aqueous substance within the orb and caused biological waste to be purged from its volume. 
 
 `` These races are, as we all know, now long dead. The Humans, despite dominating the galactic stage for longer than any other race in known history and leaving more artefacts across more of space than any other species prior to our own, are most unfortunately the race about which we know the least. Therefore, we will discuss their civilisation first, in the hopes that you may deliberate upon its history as we study others, and perhaps unlock new understanding through comparison with other races.'' 
 
 The pseudopedicle, propelled by its arcane system of hydraulic pumpings and noisy, gushing reservoirs of fluid, stretched out for the panel once again. A series of buttons were pressed, each apparently unmarked to the human eye, and a high-pitched whine began to fill the room, adding to the earsplitting din of the vacuum-powered televisualiser. Not a single member of the audience so much as gushed. 
 
 An artefact resting on a raised dais before the lectern began to float skywards, propelled by the waves of sonic energy that levitated it before the audience. Their jelly sacs flickered appreciatively, and they leaned closer for a clearer view. 
 
 `` This curious device was recovered from one of their first colonies in interstellar space. Note the meshing present on the front of the device; though the electrical components within are now vacuum-welded together, we suspect this may have been to allow air pressures of variable magnitudes to emanate from the device. Paleoxenobiologists have examined human fossils and several cryostatically preserved specimens, and have concluded that the first interstellar race, the first sapient species in galactic history... may have used sonic vibrations to communicate.'' 
 
 A sudden brightness in the room indicated the rapid flickering of many hundreds of jelly sacs patterning with furious speed, the visual equivalent of the word `` hubbub''. They all knew that some of the more ancient races used variable air pressures to communicate... but surely no race could reach spacefaring capabilities whilst still relying on sonics? After all, sound could n't travel through space - how were they to communicate over the interstellar gulfs? 
 
 A series of flickering flashes ( `` settle down, settle down, please, we will get to that later'' ) from the televisualiser quieted the audience. They returned to their hollows, and continued to examine the artefacts with renewed interest. 
 `` It was indeed a great surprise. Sonic-visual interface devices were deployed on their home world, and it was discovered that even modern-day organisms on Earth appear to utilise this system of communications. Though we previously believed it to be primitive, however, it has been revealed that humans `` speech'' was capable of relaying vast quantities of information in a comparatively compact fashion.'' It's flicker-patterning grew slower, a mark of respect and admiration for the subject matter, and it continued. 
 
 `` Analysis of some of the data devices we recovered from their colonies and several from their home planet, rather ironically stored using advanced, light-based methodologies, contained high-density information which we decoded into sonic vibrations. Using sonic-visual interfacers, we discovered that it is actually a complex series of mathematical equations, with an apparently random element that we can only suspect is true human `` speech''. The mathematical components follow a complex but logically repeating pattern; I will display an interpretation of them onscreen.'' 
 
 A mass of swirling, writhing symbols appeared on the screen, though every jelly orb continued to watch it as easily as we would read a book. Its patterns looped and swirled, but nevertheless had some kind of... beautiful underlying logic, that appealed greatly to the highly pattern-oriented nature of the watchers. 
 
 `` We have also deciphered just a small snippet of their language from this dataset. Its translation is... puzzling, but we do not doubt we have it correctly.'' It's jelly orb cleansed itself once more, before continuing. 
 
 `` We believe it says... `` never gon na give you up'', though what this means we may never know. So little human speech is intelligible to us, even now, but historians suspect that these may be quotations from some religious text of some kind. It appears to praise the reader- sorry, *listener*, of the word, and implies that there is some guiding deity that watches over them, caring for them. The deity, whom we believe is referred to as `` Asterly Rick'', implies they will `` never let down'' the *listener* - we suspect this is referring to some kind of sacrificial or funerary rite, as Humans were known to bury their dead rather than consuming them.'' 
 
 The artefacts were lowered slowly to the dais, the sound dying down slightly as the tractor beams were disengaged. 
 
 `` A very mysterious people, the humans. Anyway, now, we continue onto our next artefact, from the...''
