Thanks
to my parents and sister for everything

…

“How monotonous the snow would be
if god had not created crows.”
- Jules Renard

…
The frost caused the shards of window glass to become covered with a thin layer of hoarfrost, hiding the reflections of the destroyed city.
…
We always quietly observe and at some point remove risks that are unacceptable to us in our projects.
In fact, this time everything turned out not quite as usual.
Remote viewing was enough until the moment when they first came very close to creating a truly powerful weapon in that desert.
Several colleagues then flew to the area for the first time to find out the details - and also, of course, to take care of further discrediting everyone who would inevitably notice our visit.
…
A pile of light debris began to move, and two girls slowly crawled out from under the rubble.
…
A little later, these naive creatures decided to send signals about themselves.
It would be a fatal mistake if we had not already been watching them all these long thousands of years.
However, their culture and peace technologies in most of its manifestations are very attentive and I have always liked it.
But these some aggressive stupid individuals...
…
The couple slowly sat down, as if they had spent all their strength on it, and leaned against a large piece of the door, hugging and trembling, releasing clouds of steam and looking straight ahead at the old tree. A black cat appeared out of nowhere, ran a few meters and disappeared into the shadows.
…
Couple of hundred years after the visit, it became clear that the ecosystem of the planet of this project was gradually ceasing to cope with independent restoration.
We decided to localize the problem by removing these creatures from the equation in order to allow all other flora and fauna to recover and develop further.
The experiment required radical intervention - peaceful entertainment of this species always caused tenderness, sticks and stones - slight concern, but at some point we began to spend almost all the time recording what was happening without stopping - the gambling aggression of some individuals would sooner or later destroy their entire planet or would begin to threaten our existence.
…
On the branches, lightly dusted with snow, several black ravens sat motionless, intently studying the figures of the survivors, silently and without moving. A second black cat appeared out of nowhere, ran a few meters and disappeared into the shadows.
…
We prepared and took off on four ships - openly, without hiding this time and planning to cause an apocalypse for them.
Yes, you understood correctly - their ancient folklore in its diversity of forms was inspired and imbued with impressions from the awareness of our presence in the first moments of their creation.
Exit from the hyperspace jump - and now it’s a matter of days until our destination.
A rather routine situation is about to happen, in fact - we will destroy one of the species of one of our projects.
Interesting and the most advanced one - but still one of the species on one of many planets.
…
A few moments of silence were broken by a rumble coming from somewhere above. The surface vibrated.
…
So what unusual happened this time?
Having analyzed all the information received before landing, we realized that people had done all our work by killing each other over these few days – after they saw us coming and started decide who was to blame and what to do.
All other flora and fauna on Earth, of course, were fairly battered, but not completely - the aquatic ecosystem was almost undamaged.
We will try to restore everything - and this time I would bet on my beloved ravens.
…
The girls looked up, and the birds took off, soared into the air and began circling over the tree, cawing loudly.
…
My colleagues and I are united in one thought - it is obvious that a small number of people had a chance to survive and something needs to be decided.
Two contradictory theses hung in the air - to finish off all those who were lucky, or to extend the experiment, taking into account the fact that such a situation occurred for the first time, and there is at least scientific interest to understand for how long the imprint of everything happened will remain in the consciousness of this species.
We will vote.
…
Four circular flying objects of gigantic size emerged from the clouds, slowly approaching the surface.
…
April, 2024