Planet E

"Ladies and gentlemen of the Council. I'll be reading a truncated interpretation of what many believe to be the beginning of our galaxy. As with all legends, there's a lesson of truth in it ..."

————

As enemies kept coming, Captain Jaraik of the Eneidian Empire (a Type 2.5 civilization on the verge of Type 3, harnessing the power of black holes) ordered his crew to fire up—‘The Device’—a singularity weapon.

"Captain Jaraik!" Empress Zenak radioed, "stand down!"

"Your Majesty, with all due respect, the Ikillian invaders, the artificial intelligence which we created, will slaughter our people because we threaten their existence. I must stop them."

"You're willing to destroy us all, Captain? We might free ourselves one day. You're sacrificing generations to come ..."

"No, Empress. Generations of life will most certainly come ..."

"Captain, I order you to stop!"

Jaraik closed the communication. "Engineering, fire up 'The Device.'"

A black hole supermassively spun for billions of years, forming into our galaxy ...

————

Xenologist Itog set down her reading tablet and turned on a holographic projection.

"My dear Council, I believe the problem is what I've theorized as 'transcendent intelligence'—a byproduct of a Type 2 civilization."

"We suspect that ages ago through galactic probe research ..."

"The dominant Jellyfish-like species of this planet, 'X', biologically evolved to transcendent intelligence. They launched bioweapons of mass destruction, obliterating themselves."

"In a nearby star system, on a planet that we call 'Z,' giant winged insects transcended intelligence by building sentient self-replicating machines devouring nearly every planet in their solar system."

"So far, we've averted our own catastrophe through our cultural wisdom, religion, and natural inhibitions, but there's a looming threat ..."

"Only a few light-years from us on the galactic map, in this one solar system, on 'Planet E,' resides another humanoid species—like ourselves, but not Type 2, yet bound for interstellar travel. We're concerned that they'll follow the same patterns as the others, and, worst of all, the Eneidians. Therefore, I propose that we send forth our probes to halt their expansion, to prevent their transcendent intelligence from eradicating themselves, and, most importantly, us."