Sarah and her young daughter Julie stood at the top of a hill to show their respects at a Monument of Souls. One of several hundreds of thousands of monuments placed all over the planet.

“What’s it mean on that writing, sacrificial lambs, Mama?”

“It means they gave up their lives to save us.”

“You mean, Papa?”

Stolen novel; please report.

Sarah nodded with tears welling up in her eyes.

“But, Mama, the scientists say … “

“Yes, that’s true. They said the aliens fooled us when they blew up the moon. It was a scare tactic.”

“So why did all the boys go, Mama?”

“Well, honey, at that time, we thought the threat was real. The aliens told us to give them all our men of fighting age for their galactic war, or they’d kill us all. They blew up the moon as a demonstration, but our scientists soon afterwards realized we had the technological means to fight back.”

“You mean Papa didn’t have to …”

“Yes, Jules. Your father was a scientist too. He tried to warn everyone not to give in.”

Sarah placed flowers down and said a silent prayer.