Leaving Murdork, I felt a sense of dread. Were they all going to be like this? After all, if the universe has many planets that are likely to harbor civilizations - and none have thrived – doesn’t that that my whole mission would be swimming in a sea of failed societies?

Well the next one certainly wasn’t about to make me feel any better.

The next planet I visited was very much like your own, but with a single solid land mass surrounded by ocean like your Pangea, crisscrossed with rivers and lakes. Upon approaching, I received a very clear transmission that my computer had little trouble translating:

“Welcome to the Great Liberator from across the stars. This is the planet of Tiando, we greet you with tremendous joy and we are ready to receive you at once. We are animals who wish to become more than animals, and are ready to receive your salvation. Please proceed according to these instructions:”

The instructions included a place to land, and instructions of how to land there and signal my arrival. I was stunned. How did they know I was coming? For them to be able to detect me on approach indicated that they had a technology superior to our own, for even my own planet would have no way of knowing of my arrival in advance.

Something didn’t add up – other than the strangely religious language. I checked the data – the message was not was it in a pictograph or mathematical language as one might expect to send to unknown aliens. It was in a strange language, which I suspected and would later turn out was their own. Sure, my computer with its quantum decoding capabilities was able to translate it. But why would they assume it could? I realized that the religious character of the message was probably part of the puzzle, but my people hadn’t dealt with truly faithful religion for a very long time.

Nevertheless it seemed proper that I should follow the instructions, although in accordance with my procedure I stayed in orbit of Tiando and dispatched my drones to the surface in my place. Once I figured out what the inhabitants looked like, I could have one of my drones take their appearance and act as my avatar on the surface.

It didn’t even occur to me until later on that I was potentially disobeying my orders by making first contact. After all, hadn’t they already made first contact with me?

Meanwhile, my computer was working on translating other Tiandoan transmissions. However, these seemed to use more obscure language and were giving it more trouble. One partial translation came in, apparently intended as a message among the Tiandoans:

“UNTIL OUR DEPARTURE WE MUST MAKE PREPARATIONS. INTERFERENCE FROM OTHERS WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.”

Departure? I hoped they didn’t think I had room for passengers. Even one would be quite uncomfortable in my cramped quarters.

As my avatar drone dropped to the location specified in the message, my other drones picked up that there seemed to be little evidence of an active space program. Like Murdork, I saw signs of a stagnated civilization, but one that stagnated a bit earlier, with mostly brick, wooden, and steel-reinforced concrete structures. There seemed to be a rudimentary internet that could be hacked into via mobile telephony networks - even your primitive internet on Earth is comparatively advanced. This one barely had images, and video was uncommon and poor quality, which made sense given the slow loading times. Clearly this was far from an advanced society.

At last my avatar drone had landed. The structure was rather ill-suited for an actual landing, made up not of steel or even concrete, but marble. It was quite ornate, with jewels and gold trim. The Tiandoans stood around the pad. They were mild-looking furry animals, much like your otters, but walking on two legs. They seemed to enjoy the water as much as the land, and were clothed in foam wetsuits of an identical grey color. They were standing around the pad, some seemed to be taking photos, but most were going about their day as if nothing were amiss. My drone was still cloaked, but nevertheless if they were aware of my arrival I’d expected more fanfare.

I ordered my drone to take the form of the Tiandoans and appear to them. As it did, it dropped a short distance to the pad and landed with an audible thud. Everyone stopped, and stared at it, totally shocked. Those standing further away started to approach, with a stunned look in their eyes. Some got out of the nearby river, not bothering to dry off.

At last one of the Tiandoans shouted “Welcome Father Liberator!” Others shouted the same. The first who shouted knelt down in front of the pad and made a ritualistic pose, with one hand outstretched to his side, and the other crossing the body in a downward-curving semicircle terminating at the shoulder of the outstretched arm. Everyone else in the area immediately did the same.

Shit. I thought. They think I’m a god. This is about when I began to wonder if I had broken my directives.

I admit I panicked a little. In hindsight I probably should’ve just ordered my avatar to disappear again and pretend the whole thing never happened. But that’s not what I did. Instead I ordered the avatar to try to communicate.

“Wait!” My avatar said. “I’m only here on a mission of knowledge. I wish to learn more about your society, that’s all.”

No one said anything. They stayed there in their ritualistic poses.

But then I spotted a Tiandoan running up from behind the crowd. It was wearing bright red robes instead of a wetsuit - clearly this was no ordinary Tiandoan.

“Come with me.” The red Tiandoan said. So I had my avatar follow. The red Tiandon invited my avatar on a hydrocarbon-powered motorboat, and off they went down the river.

Now, at this point, I still didn’t really know what was going on. This did not appear to be a civilization with advanced technology, yet they seemed to aware of my arrival in advance. Of course, the key was that phrase – seemed to be. But probably, they were not.

Obviously, I had to consider that I had accidentally wandered into some sort of religious prophecy. As my avatar traveled with the red Tiandoan, I had my other drones review what they could find about Tiando culture from the internet. What I could determine in a short period was that the vast majority of Tiandoans followed a specific religion that I’ll call the “Tiando religion” from now on, with a small minority of others believing in other religions or none at all.

Upon reading further I reached an explanation for what actually occurred on my arrival. Like many religions, Tiando religion is focused upon a prophecy of a future event of the type you would call “apocalyptic”. They believed that extraterrestrials had reached a god-like spiritual state, and would arrive on their planet at some point in the near future to remove any faithful Tiandoans from the planet on space ships. At this this time, the planet would undergo a “cleansing” - not survivable to non-believing Tiandoans left on the surface - converting the planet into a perfect utopia, free of all problems from disease to bad weather. The believers would then return, after having reached a higher, immortal plane of existence just like the extraterrestrials.

So they thought I was the extraterrestrial. The message I received wasn’t aimed at me, it was aimed at the mythical beings they were expecting me to be. They had been beaming it out for thousands of years before my arrival.

This religion spread rapidly thousands of Earth-years prior to my arrival, and since that time the religion was the primary focus of all economic activity on Tiando. Even the planet itself had been named after the religion’s founder, its original name long-forgotten and removed from all records. It seemed that the members of the religion were to spend their days studying the holy texts, and working on holy tasks, mostly consisting of making and doing things demanded by the leaders of the religion.

The head of the religion lived in a lavish palace, built by Tiandoist followers. A small number of lesser leaders were allowed to come and go, as were a small number of servants. There was also an exception for young Tiandoan virgins, who were allowed to enter temporarily for a secret ritual, for which they would be sworn to secrecy.

I checked on my avatar, and there ahead of the boat was the palace, fast approaching. I was going to be one of the few to see the inside. It was obvious at this point that I had far exceeded my mandate, but it was accidental after all, and the damage was done – or so I thought. Meeting the leaders of Tiando would help me learn a lot about what’s happening on the planet.

And perhaps, there was also something else pulling me there than rationalizing it as part of my mission. Having seen the miserable fate of the Murdorks, I wished I could do something about it, even if I wasn’t allowed to or able to help. But here...maybe I was at least able. My superiors wouldn’t look upon it kindly for sure – but they were a million light-years away and had no idea where I was or what I was doing. Perhaps I could worry about them later.

The red Tiandoan left my avatar at the gate, and rang a bell. Another, clothed in blue robes twice as elaborate as the red Tiandoan’s, came to replace him. “Come in,” he said. “You will be brought to see the Father.”

The external pictures of the palace I was able to see on the Tiandoan internet didn’t prepare me for how it looked inside. While my society is far more advanced than Tiando, there is something universally impressive about a building that shows thousands of years of slow effort by millions of hands. Detailed paintings and sculptures adorned every centimeter of vaulted ceilings hundreds of meters high, and the entire walls as well. The ceiling of the building displayed a massive depiction of the prophet Tiando, itself a collage made of smaller depictions of key events in the rise of Tiandoism.

The other images focused heavily on the arrival of the extraterrestrials and the removal of Tiandoan believers, with some depictions of the cleansing of the planet that was to follow, and the return of the Tiandoan believers. Somehow, if shown in fanciful religious imagery, mass execution looks less threatening. The depicted extraterrestrials looked nothing like my true form, and also not like my Tiandoan-mimicking avatar, but instead were depicted as rather skinny Tiandoans with weirdly long limbs and white fur – and with three mouths, next to each other, instead of the usual one.

The blue Tiandoan knocked on an absurdly large, perhaps 40 meter tall door. A deep knock reverberated across the palace. The doors began to open immediately – my arrival was expected. Through the growing crack in the doors I saw a Tiandoan seated cross-legged on a golden nest, clothed in a deep purple robe. The robe was so elaborately made and decorated that I would guess a handful of Tiandoans spent their whole lives working on it, tailored for this one individual. I could tell immediately that this was the Father.

As soon as we walked in, he spoke to the blue Tiandoan. “Thank you brother. Leave me in private with the extraterrestrial.”

With that, the doors closed behind my avatar. The Father seemed to loosen his manner slightly after they closed, and seemed somewhat unsure what to do.

“Hello, I…” my avatar began. But he haltingly cut me off.

“G-greetings. Welcome to Tiando. We – we have been awaiting your arrival for a long time.”

I was worried about how he would take the news. So I just launched into it.

“Listen, I’m not who you think I am. I’m not on any special plane of existence, I’m not immortal and I don’t know how to become immortal, and I’m not here to rescue anybody.

I’m just here on an expedition to learn about your planet. I don’t look like this, this is just an drone that I gave this form to make your people comfortable.”

He seemed surprisingly unaffected by this, but also unsure of how to react. “Yes...yes. Indeed.”

That having gone much more easily than I expected, I decided to move on. “So I would like to learn a bit about…”

But then he cut me off. “You see, there’s a problem. Our beliefs don’t include your existence.”

“Excuse me?”

“Our belief here on Tiando is that all interstellar beings are on a higher plane, immortal beings of pure spirituality. For millennia this was no problem because no interstellar beings arrived. But now you’ve arrived, and you’re not what our beliefs say you should be. You’re not supposed to exist. This is a problem.”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Now I’m not so naive as to think that what I was about to say would be received well. But it was the only thing to say.

“It’s not a problem really. Your beliefs just need to change.”

The Father looked uncomfortable, and exhibited signs of being slightly angry in a barely suppressed manner. “Yeah um...that’s not gonna work for us.”

That’s when it occurred to me. The Father knew it was a load of horseshit. He occupied the top post in Tiandoan society, he could get whatever information he wanted. Of course he knew that the founder of the Tiando religion was a liar, a psycho, or both. And the Father had to be a liar too, because if people found out how much of everyone’s time and effort he’d been wasting, they wouldn’t be happy.

“We need you to do us a favor.” He continued. “Our society cannot handle this kind of shock, there’s no telling how my followers would react. We would like you to leave, but before you do, tell them that you’re coming back later to save them. Of course you don’t need to actually come back and hopefully you won't, just don’t give a specific date, and we’ll figure out the rest.”

“I don’t want to do that.” I cut him off. “That’s not my problem. I did what your message asked, that’s all I did. I didn’t cause any of this.”

“So you’re not going to help us?”

“No. I don’t want to be part of this deception.”

“You’re not being reasonable. What will you accomplish with this? If you don’t do what we say, you’ll never leave this room and our religion – not a deception, mind you, but a faith – will continue anyway. We’ll come up with a story, that you were an imposter. We’ll invent something, perhaps a rogue faction among the extraterrestrials. Some may not buy it, but the vast majority will. So we’ll be just as before, but with a little more chaos thrown in. Is that what you want?”

“What do I care?” I said. “As I said, this is just an avatar. Completely disposable.”

This was a bit of a lie. Surface drones with avatar capabilities are no cheaper than lunar landers are to your society, and I only had one spare. And I was really not looking forward to filling out the lost inventory report on this one.

“Let’s make a deal. You give us what we want, we’ll give you what you want. We get you to give a speech, and we’ll give you whatever information on our society – from behind the scenes – that you want. You help us mind our business, and we’ll help you mind yours. That seems like the correct division of responsibilities here, interloper.”

“You can’t call me an interloper, I was invited here. By you, in fact.”

“But not intentionally. Surely if you accept an invitation meant for someone else, you’re still uninvited, are you not?”

I had little desire to get into a debate on interstellar etiquette, for which I had no sources to refer to. It occurred to me that it would take time to set up a speech. In that time, I could get a lot of answers. And had I forgotten my mission? I couldn’t give up my mission to do something that was contrary to my orders.

“Never mind that then. I’ll do what you ask, if you tell me what I want to know.”

“Good. I’m glad to see you understand. Our planet may seem strange to you, but we have our way of doing things here and it’s it’s not up to you, you understand.”

Upon agreeing, however, I felt a crippling sense of dread at what I had agreed to. My people pride ourselves on our independence, it’s a key part of how we were raised, and I feel it is a key part of why we have survived so much longer than others. My mind raced with all the dreams of a free society – like mine, like many of yours – that were being destroyed here. Self-determination, not just in work but in higher purposes, in love and family, in beliefs, in the innermost thoughts. I was to play a role, however small, in the elimination of all of that.

Was that truly my mission? To advance oppression for knowledge? And who gave me that mission? And does that mission subvert my own personal mission, to be who I want to be? I know some of you may see me as nosy for thinking this way, others may see me as appalling for agreeing in the first place. But I don’t need to justify myself to any of you, at the end of it all there’s only me, in my mind with myself.

So I hatched a plan. It was quite simple. I would get what knowledge I could, and then I would not give the speech I was supposed to. I was going to tell them who I really was, and what I knew.

But before that, there was information to be gathered.

My avatar was to remain at the palace until the following day. This gave me time to probe the Father and the other elites about what had led to the current state of affairs. It was quite clear to me that the Tiandoan religion had diverted the society’s efforts towards religious activities rather than advancement of society. But this society had developed some rudimentary technologies – why did they decide to stop and accept a totalitarian religion?

The offical Tiandoan history divides the growth of the religion into 5 distinct phases, which I’ll review here with my own interpretation of what probably actually happened.

In the first stage – the “Inception” - the Tiandoan religion, then known as Tiandoism, was started by the founder Tiando and a small group of followers. For a long time, they remained a small group, spreading through word of mouth in a small city, attracting followers through the exciting, extraterrestrial-based belief system and close-knit group structure. Early devotees loved the idea of being a party to secret and powerful knowledge, and being part of an elite club. Even if they may have known deep down, as I suspect, that it was all a delusion. However, at this stage they were not yet a noteworthy group for most of the society.

In the second stage – the “Awakening” - that changed when the introduction of their primitive internet provided a new means of spreading ideas of all kinds. The inhabitants of Tiando are highly social beings – even more sociable than Earth humans. Tiandoists exploited this trait by deliberately seeking attention, paying little heed to whether the attention was good or bad. In addition to appearing at seemingly inappropriate places like celebrity funerals or sites of tragic events, they would even do things like appear at funerals or march while chanting obscene messages or displaying obscene images. These actions would cause outrage, which led to spreading their message on the news. This strategy played into a second trend, a sort of epidemic of loneliness. This trend was brought on by the arrival of the internet, which meant more activity happening in homes and less out and about. The Tiandoists offered not just local friendships but interstellar communion – something that seemed particularly appealing to the science fiction community that also had high rates of loneliness. Despite this partial success, however, it also outraged many in society to oppose Tiando and his group.

But that opposition began to lose the fight in the third stage – the “Great Shift”. As the Tiandoists were starting to wear out their welcome, fortuitous timing of a severe financial crisis and a collapse of the global economy led many Tiandoans to distrust traditional political and economic structures. The prior democratic government responded to the collapse through inflationary measures, that ended up working a bit too well and led to runaway inflation. Tiando exploited these circumstances by offering a new currency, guaranteeing that Tiandoists would perform work for the currency at a set rate, which declined over time, meaning that the currency would deflate rather than inflate. The inhabitants of what was soon to be called Tiando rushed to buy this currency, which was issued freely by Tiando. This caused a financial windfall for Tiando, who soon became the wealthiest man on the planet. This success gave Tiando credibility even among prior doubters, and as he began to offer a bonus in Tiando currency for joining, people began to flock to the group. However, even as they began to find themselves in the minority, many others still doubted Tiando, noting that the currency scheme was not sustainable and would eventually collapse when people demanded labor in return for their own Tiando currency.

In the next phase, “The Establishment”, Tiando came up with a simple fix for that problem. He entered politics and became the leader of his own country. He won easily, as his own followers were a sure vote in his favor, and his opposition was discontented by the failures of their own leaders to prevent the crisis – not only the financial crisis, but also paradoxically the very rise of Tiando they were to vote against. As leader, with a majority of allies in the legislative body as well, he wasted no time in establishing Tiandoism as the official religion, and renamed the country Tiando after himself. Many Tiandoans opposed this privately, but were apathetic about trying to change it, seeing Tiando's rise as inevitable. The pull of Tiandoist society and the desire to avoid isolation also led many former opponents to join the religion – nominally at first, but as the pressure to be more involved in the religion continued, they gradually became more fervent in their beliefs.

Finally there was the “Great Kingdom”, the phase the country has been in for millennia. At this point, it was only a matter of expanding Tiando’s borders. A sort of Tiandoist crusade campaign was launched, singling out and absorbing other countries through military subjugation. Benefits would be conferred among those who joined the religion, and as years became centuries, even the most hostile populations eventually yielded and joined the religion. During this phase, Tiando himself died, passing the kingdom down to his children. To this day there remains a smattering of Tiandoist non-believers who live in isolation. When they get too numerous or too organized, authoritarian measures are taken as needed to remediate such problems.

But now, it was time for the great kingdom to fall.

The speech the Father told me to give was simple. I was to assure the audience that I was a mere scout, here to report back on what I found about Tiandoist society, to prepare for the Great Evacuation. However, I had not found them to be ready just yet – though they were close. I was to tell them to increase their faith just a bit more – give more to the Tiandoist cause, convert more of the remaining few doubters, and live more purely by the religion's tenets – and I would be back with a fleet of ships to bring them to the Next Level. I would be in contact with the Father, I told them, and would depend on him for my knowledge of Tiando.

Clearly I could not give this speech. To become a co-conspirator in a Tiandoist scam was more than I could bear. But that was ok – I had a different speech planned.

There was a massive crowd assembled in the plaza in front of the church. At least 100,000 and probably less than a million Tiandoans were present for the speech, with many more watching or listening at home.

“I have some good news and some bad news,” the Father was saying. “The good news is, the lifting and the cleansing are soon approaching. The bad news is, they are not happening today.”

A murmur broke out in the crowd, as the Father continued. “The extraterrestrial is here to speak to us. He wants to deliver an important message. I hope you’ll hear what he has to say.”

My avatar went out to the balcony. I looked through its eyes as the masses below, unaware of what was about to happen. I decided to start mostly giving the expected speech, albeit with some minor deviations, to put the Father at ease.

The crowd chirped excitedly as I took went to the balcony. I recognized that this was Tiando way of cheering.

“Hello Tiando! I wish to clarify who I am and what I’m doing here. As the Father said, I am indeed an extraterrestrial. Obviously I do not actually look like you, but I chose this form to be less visually threatening to you. I come from a different system, with technology far in advance of your own. However, I am here as a mere scout, not the one you call

“Father Liberator.” I’m not here to bring your society to the Next Level and I’m certainly not here to do any cleansing. I’m here only to learn about your society. And learn about your society I have! Through the materials provided to me by the Father, I have learned about Tiando’s people and how you follow your great religion, and how it guides everything that you do.”

There was a murmur in the crowd. I realized I’d made a mistake – the line was supposed to be “our great religion.” By saying “your”, I’d implied that I was not part of their religion. Which of course was true, but also meant that the whole Tiando religion was a lie.

But it also made a nice transition. I figured it was time to make my move. Everything I’d said so far was basically true, but the rest of what the Father wanted me to say would be lies – lies I wouldn’t tell.

“But I also learned that your religion is based on a lie – for as an interstellar being, I know that we are the only interstellar civilization in this galaxy and beyond. And we are not on any sort of higher plane. We aren’t gods, we’re just beings like you who developed the necessary technology to travel between the stars…”

But I was hearing something from the crowd. The sound was low, and bassy, seemingly the opposite of the high pitched chirp I heard before. Despite the interstellar cultural gap, I could see anger in their faces. They were booing me.

“Wait – undoubtedly I’m an interstellar being. I can prove it watch -” and with that I changed forms in front of the crowd. I converted my avatar to a Murdork, then an asteroid, then a star. Right in front of their eyes. The booing stopped, and a murmur started.

“If I have this sort of technology, you know I come from an advanced civilization, right? So you know I’m telling you the truth about what I’ve seen in the universe.”

The murmuring increased. I might be getting through to them. I continued.

“Can the Father do that? Can any part of the Tiandoist religion explain that? It’s a lie! It’s all a lie!”

Suddenly the booing began again, much more intense than before. Attacking their religion seems to have been a mistake. I realized they’ve been taught to be suspicious of anyone who questions Tiandoist beliefs or the leadership of the Father. They've been taught reject any questioners outright, no matter how convincing they may be. The anger was clear. Some had begun to push back the guards, trying to get up to the balcony to attack my avatar.

At that moment, I was pulled backward from the balcony. I was being dragged away by two Tiandoist guards. They brought me to the Father, who was standing in the room behind the balcony.

“You just couldn’t leave us alone, could you?

It was then that I realized that the Father used the Tiandoan equivalent of the terms “we” and “us” to refer to himself.

“For so long we’ve been doing just fine here. And then you came along, interfering in our affairs. We’ve had enough. Eliminate this...thing.”

The Father’s guards smashed my avatar with hammers until it was inoperable. My attempts at controlling it stopped working, and soon all the sensors were dead. However, I was not completely alone in my spaceship. I had other drones, without avatar capabilities, invisibly monitoring the situation. At this point, I understood that there was nothing I could do, and I really shouldn’t have done as much as I had. There was no justification for risking my final drone on more futile attempts to change the course of this society.

I thought the Father might need to prepare before addressing the crowd. But he spoke quite quickly, and quite naturally. Like he had it planned all along.

“We’ve been betrayed. We’ve been so terribly betrayed.”

The crowd was silent. Rapt in attention.

“I’ve tried my best to show you the way. To prepare you for the departure. In spite of all that I’ve tried, we have had an interloper enter out midst – a magician, a deceiver. I’ve told you that it’s essential for the future of our kind to reach the Next Level – and that’s why some seek to prevent us from getting there. The betrayers in our midst.”

“I recognized the interloper as one such betrayer. But I had to let him come here, to show you who he was. So that you can see for yourselves that he was a mere deceiver.

Sadly, not all have been free of his deception. But be not afraid. I have ordered my disciples to perform a culling of the nonbelievers.”

The crowd remained silent. There was no questioning as to whether this was a proper decision. The Father’s word was law.

“However, the culling is not only because of the visitor, but also because we must not allow nonbelievers to interfere with the crucial days ahead, which the mental disease of disbelief makes them unable to understand. For I have been in touch not only with the deceiver, but with the true Father Liberator himself. Father Liberator warned me of the deceiver, which was how I was able to so adeptly anticipate and defeat him. But he also gave me instructions. Yes, these are the instructions for the Departure. This is the time we have been waiting for.”

The crowd at once erupted in exclamations recognizable as joy, I could even tell it was exaggerated. A sort of mania ripped through the crowd, lasting for minutes, before the Father began tapping his microphone to get them to be silent.

“He instructed me that the only way to achieve the Departure is to engage in an ultimate expression of faith. This means you must leave everything of your mortal existence behind. This includes, of course, your mortal bodies. As you do so, you must call out the name of Tiando, our great founder. This will serve as a beacon for Father Liberator to find you. He will then take you to another world, to the next Level.”

“The time for the expression of faith shall be the last day of this month, when Father Liberator arrives to collect us for Departure. We shall distribute to all a holy potion, a recipe provided by Father Liberator himself, that shall separate you from your mortal body. Educate your loved ones about the need to take this potion, and if you have young ones who are unable to take it, you are permitted to sacrifice them by your own hand instead of using the potion.”

“I know this requires a leap of faith. But that’s deliberate – it is a test of whether you are ready for the Departure to the Next Level. Only the chosen will have the courage to act.”

And with that he left the balcony. The crowd erupted in manic fervor yet again.

I hung around in orbit of Tiando for the remainder of the month. The Father did as he promised. My drones helplessly watched as the nonbelievers of Tiando were chased down and executed. And soon thereafter, the followers had eliminated themselves as well. There were a few pockets of non-believers left who had escaped execution, but they were so few I had little hope that they’d repopulate the planet any time soon.

I wondered if the Father would avoid sacrificing himself – but he didn’t. Maybe it was the pull of avoiding hypocrisy, or maybe he had to some degree deceived himself. But whatever the case, he took the potion, and did not wake up again afterward.

I saw no sign of Father Liberator.

I could talk about my feelings on the matter. But that’s not the point of this work. I’m here to tell you what happened. Do I feel responsible for what happened? Am I filled with dread at watching a group of sentient beings so easily led astray?

What do you think?

Next planet.