Every night, I wake up aboard this hovering contraption. It possesses the most ridiculous form. It is both silver and disc-shaped, just like the crafts which the “dominant” species of this planet imagines my people might use to travel. UFOs, they call them. They claim to have seen them. They say they have photos, videos, scars.
They don’t. The stories they tell themselves are as entertaining as they are infuriating. And, the scars are very much self-inflicted.
I’ve been here for many cycles of this planet’s journey around its sun. I was convinced that they would notice me on the first day. Then, the first week. Then, months passed. Then, nothing.
At first, in my bewilderment, I assumed they didn’t have the technology, and so I gave it to them.
I beamed myself off my absurdly disguised ship and found the one they called Steve Jobs. He was a dying, sad man, and all he needed was to know he could do one final thing to help his people, he said. He knew enough to want this, so I gave him a small piece of old communications tech, which he called the iPhone. Many similar ones followed, based on that primitive design.
It changed everything for them.
I used the hidden subspace link to more closely observe them, by way of fair compensation for my trouble. They sense I am watching, but they don’t understand it. They find themselves fascinated by the glow, and like any flame, it is at times, destructive.
They created networks to communicate with each other more efficiently, and so I have sustained myself with the hope that it’s only a matter of time. I still hold that hope. I am still fascinated, but only because I have seen their potential. Their brains are capable of so much, and yet, they dull them with an intention that is almost frightening. They come close to understanding, and then pull away, loathe to experience the pain it may bring. They scroll into oblivion. They give into cowardice, making the wrong choices over and over, again and again.
I have been here for many cycles, but this is not the first time I have come.
Once, they were called Rome.