A Visit to a Sad Planet

[Spoken word]
Stardate 2434.2, First Officer’s log:

On a routine patrol flight in the Milky Way galaxy, I discovered on our space sensors an unidentified planet, careening wildly in an eccentric solar orbit. I ordered an immediate investigation and, with much difficulty, maneuvered our ship for a temporary orbit

Upon beaming down to the planet's surface, all I could see were ruins. Ruins of some type of civilization; crumbled buildings, deserted streets, charred vegetation, all covered with a thick layer of dust which our scanners indicated as intensely radioactive

I proceeded to make a through survey of the area. According to my calculations, I could tell that some recent phenomenon or holocaust had occurred and destroyed whatever advanced civilization had existed on the planet. I found no sign of life

As I made my way back to the ship, I heard a sound. It came from a cellar, in one of the nearby buildings. Carefully and slowly, I found my way to the source and discovered a human being. Or rather, what once was a human being; a scarred, disfigured man lying in the rubble

When I questioned him, he told me this had once been a great world. They had abundance and plenty, intelligence, beauty, love; there was enough for everyone who lived there. But the inhabitants were never satisfied. They wanted more; they wanted everything. And they started to quarrel amongst themselves. They could not live in peace and they tried to destroy each other. In doing this they destroyed everything; their abundance, their plenty, their own intelligence, their beauty, their love

He told me that, so far as he knew, he was the only living thing left, but that he knew he was dying. When I asked him the name of the planet, he replied, "We called it Earth."