The radio crackles and struggles as the young man Aleksandr hears the broadcast. Aleksandr smacks the aged and poorly made radio several times and swears at it when it begins to work. "Today is 26 December 2026, marking the 35th anniversary of the Day of the Liberation of the Peoples when capitalism fell. " Says the broadcaster in a monotone and tired voice. The Internationale begins to play when Aleksandr turns it off and leaves his tenement to walk to work; his shivers begin instantly as winter clothing has not been a priority ever since the Department of Needs was relocated to the tropics decades ago.
As Aleksandr trudges through a mix of fresh and old snow in the city, he hears a woman shout in excitement and point up to the sky. He stops and looks up with a large crowd of others doing the same, the collective gasp. Aleksandr in a moment of shock has his own guard weaken as he shouts a word of surprise in his old and now banned language ever since mandatory Russification, he covers his mouth expecting everyone to be looking at him as would normally be the case, understanding his fate will be at least a few years of "reeducation" through hard manual labor. But no one even acknowledges his grand transgression of being different. Instead, their eyes still focus on the sky, which is occupied by a large silver saucer hovering in the air as it slowly descends down further and further on an open, snow covered field.
Aleksandr and the others encircle the saucer, still stunned, wondering what this could be. As it begins to open, three beings exit the craft. They are 1.2 meters tall with grey skin and large dark eyes, wearing jumpsuits. One woman screams as everyone collectively takes several steps back. But they hear in their heads, "Do not be afraid; we would never harm another intelligent and civilized species. We ask that you take us to your representative leader here, so..." but the alien being was cut off by none other than Aleksandr. "Leader? "Aleksandr scoffs. Aleksandr steps forward; he always was braver than most. "We do not have "leaders," comrade; we are one people, a collective where all are cared for equally. " Aleksandr shouts, pointing his finger aggressively at the alien, trying to establish peaceful relations, with frostbite forming on the tip of the finger. Aleksandr moves in closer and shoves the alien, his mind boiling with anger. "How dare these beings be so different and clearly have such 'barbaric' and outdated ways compared to the progressivism of humanity?"
"I am sorry I did not mean to cause any offense. Perhaps I could speak to you in front of your people." The alien being says telepathically in a soft and calming tone. Aleksandr with a snarl on his face was just about to speak no doubt with words of hostility and advocation of violence against these beings but just before his mouth opens another man shouts "How dare you step forward alone and address these creatures and with such posture? You are clearly putting yourself before us!" The large crowd begins to scream in agreement, and Aleksandr's face, once filled with disdain and hate for these strangers, is now struck with fear of his own people. The aliens take this moment to quickly run back onto their ship and watch what happens on their monitors as the crowd beats Aleksandr to death then and there. Horrified, the aliens quickly take off back up into space.
They send a report to the mothership that is following the dark side of the moon. More and more reports begin to flood in from all the diplomatic ships sent around the globe, echoing similar stories and other horrors. Many cases of this contact lead to human-on-human violence, some directed at these aliens causing casualties when none were expected. One report states that people were already gathered in a mass before arrival in their designated zone and thought the local representative must surely be there only to find the event was an execution of two of the woman type humans for being different by 'bonding' with each other.
The head emissary within the mothership speaks to his entire fleet telepathically after getting all the reports. They are baffled and cannot comprehend how the scouting party 80 Earth years ago deemed this Earth species intelligent and civilized even with its flaws. The main emissary expresses a deep sadness not only for their fallen but also for the failure of the mission, which has never occurred before. They are asked by another alien being, "What do we do? We lack any protocol for an event like this," the head emissary responds. "I don't know if for the first time ever our scouts made an error or if somehow these Earthlings regressed in a way we have never seen before in any other civilization in the galaxy, let alone so quickly. We must isolate them in a way that does no harm, as we are ethical and not like them.
The aliens and their massive diplomatic fleet create a controlled debris field around Earth, ensuring nothing can possibly get out of the quarantine. Humanity was just moments away from being given gifts that would see them travel among the countless stars instead of finding themselves forever trapped.
The radio crackles and struggles as Nina shivers as a cold breeze easily blows through the poorly constructed sole window of her apartment. "Today is 26 December 2027, marking the 36th anniversary of the Day of the Liberation of the Peoples, when capitalism fell, and the first anniversary of defeating the anti-progressive alien invaders. " Says the broadcaster in a monotone and tired voice.