Maybe I was not as smart as I think, but on a starry night when I looked up at the sky from this tiny rock in this desolate universe, the only two questions that hit me and my species were, “Are we the only ones in this universe?” and “Where is everyone else?” These questions didn’t escape me and those of my species for hundreds and thousands of years of our existence.

The biggest thing we see from here is Jupiter and it is really huge. There is an unnamed blue object in the sky too, and it is far off. A few hours every day it shines so bright that I have to shut my eyes. At that time, me and my friends just put our heads down and crawl searching for food.

The days are awfully long and dark here on 253 Mathilde, the place I call home. It is somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. I am an ant on asteroid 253 Mathilde, and this is my message from space to anyone who finds it and cares to read it.

In fact, if at all someone reads this, this is meant to be the story of the most dominant species that inhabited this universe – the Ants of 253 Mathilde, and the story of their search for someone else.

I don’t know who you are and what you think of yourself, but before you dismiss me as some unimportant animal on some insignificant asteroid, let me tell you I count for something.

For starters, I am the strongest person I know. I can lift at least 20 times my own weight with ease, and much more than that if I decide to. And that’s better than most people I know. In my friend circle, they know me as the strongest and stay away from me. You know, they keep a safe distance.

But that’s just physical. My and my species’ real strength is mental. We are more hardworking, more disciplined, and more intelligent than anyone we know. There aren’t many we know, honestly.

253 Mathilde is a fairly lonely place. There are very few animals out here, most of whom we eat. Because they are either smaller than us, or dumber than us, and often both. Hence, it turns out that we are the dominant species of 253 Mathilde. But we aren’t satisfied with ruling one asteroid, though some of our clan, the wiser ones, think we should stick to it.

But the ones who matter, the ones in power, the ones who drive what our species does, they want to know if we are just the emperors of this world or are we the emperors of the universe? I am one of them. Hence I come back to the questions that have been tearing us apart for millennia.

Are we the only ones in the universe? Where is everybody else?

The intelligent folks of my clan can’t believe that whoever made this entire huge universe also made ants (and our food) as the only primary living beings in this universe. While we are a fairly evolved species, how pointless would it be if we were the only ones, the epitome of life?

It is a bit difficult to believe. Though I must say it is flattering. We, the Ants of 253 Mathilde, the chosen one in this universe, it’s a nice thought.

Some of the ants believe that we, indeed and truly, are the only ones, because we are the best. They believe that if at all there was anyone else, and they knew we existed, they must be a fairly unambitious and incompetent lot to have not reached us yet.

Hell, if we knew there was someone else, by now, we would have captured them. Because we have captured everything we have been able to. Which species that is truly superior wouldn’t?

So the ants who believe this theory say that maybe there truly is no one else like us ants.

Some other groups of ants in my species believe that maybe there are others, and they know we exist, but they are a backward bunch. They can see us, but they can’t reach us. They just can’t travel the kind of distances we are able to. They live alone in their wretched existence on their wretched asteroid or whatever. They don’t matter.

You know, this 253 Mathilde itself is an astronomical 52 kilometres long. No one other than ants is able to travel those kind of distances. Even if some of our miniscule food species wanted to, they wouldn’t be able to. So maybe there are others, but a backward bunch with no means to reach us.

Some other groups believe that maybe there are others, and they can reach us, but they choose not to. Why? The most likely reason these ants believe is that they are afraid of us.

That might sound far-fetched but that’s what most inferior species on our asteroid do when they see us. Whenever we encroach on their homes to spread our fiefdom, they go further and further away from us fearing for their life.

Poor souls, I don’t envy them. After all, the ant life is not an ordinary one. You get it after years and years of evolution. So maybe these other life forms on other planets are similar – faint-hearted.

If you are a being on any part of the spectrum above and get this note, don’t feel bad. Life isn’t always fair. Let us know where you are, and we might still be able to reach you.

That brings me to the groups of ants in my species who believe that the answer to the twin questions of ‘are we the only ones in the universe?’ and ‘where is everyone else?’ lies on the other side of the spectrum. That means that there is someone else somewhere, but they are better than us. A rare possibility, but a possibility, nevertheless.

But then why would that better species not reach us? A scholarly ant told me about three distinct, possible reasons last night. Those possibilities didn’t make sense at first. But when I entertained them, it sent a shiver down my spine.

The good possibility is that there are others, but they are so advanced that we don’t understand their language. They speak in such advanced language that even ants of 253 Mathilde don’t get it.

I didn’t discount this possibility, but then I asked him, what do I do with such species other than wish them good luck and a good life? You to yourself and us to ourselves. A harmless coexistence.

But the other two possibilities were a bit unsettling. Those are the reasons I wrote this message.

The first was that the ‘everyone else’ is so advanced that they deliberately don’t contact us. They want to preserve us. They want to let us live, but we aren’t helping ourselves. They know our days are numbered. They know that with our kind of infighting and limited abilities; we are sure to perish.

It is a bit like we do with some endangered species right here on our asteroid. We keep them in their natural habitat and conduct experiments and then hope that they somehow survive. But most don’t make it. Partly because of us, partly because they just don’t have it in them.

That scholar said that it is possible that we are one such species and the 253 Mathilde is one such asteroid. Both with a limited life left. And the advanced life form elsewhere is just letting us reach our end. They are giving us enough rope so that we hang ourselves and become extinct.

I must admit that this was a disturbing thought. I never thought that the ants of Mathilde had other formidable, more intelligent superiors someplace else.

But if I dispassionately look at the behaviour of the past few generations of our species, we haven’t made ourselves proud. We have definitely not made it easy for ourselves and others on our asteroid. I started entertaining this possibility and it sent a shiver down my spine. Time was limited.

But that scholar didn’t stop at that. He envisaged another possibility that sounded not just dim but outright morbid. He said that there is someone else and they are already here. We just don’t know it. But then, why should they be here? And what he said was chilling.

They are here because their experiments with us are over, he said. They have reached the final conclusion after all observations that we are irredeemable, incorrigible, and irreparable. In some instances, they have concluded that we are dangerous to the universe. They have had enough of us and are getting back to us. To protect themselves and the universe.

It is a bit like we ants do with predators when they start attacking us? We get rid of those predators to protect ourselves, isn’t it? Maybe the advanced life form is doing it to us. Maybe we, the ants of 253 Mathilde, are the predators on this universe that they want to finish.

They are doing it, they are going about their job of finishing us systematically, by being here already.

That’s when I got apprehensive, nervous. antsy; and started writing this message in a state of panic.

Because if this is truly going to happen, then it’s not good news for us. Maybe it is good news for the universe, but not for the ants of 253 Mathilde. Time is truly limited.

I felt I should urgently send a note into space to the universe before we perish.

I must emphatically mention that a species like the ants did live on the famous asteroid of 253 Mathilde and both mattered, before both the species and their home got destroyed because they got too ahead of themselves. Let there be some record of our existence on the sands of time. Let someone know that we did exist many millions and billions of years earlier.

I don’t know who you are and how you found this note. It must have been floating in the universe for a few million years. Distances are long and receiving (and understanding) messages sent in space take time, I know.

But if you find it and don’t find us and our home, remember that it is from your old, incredibly old, ancient friend from the 253 Mathilde asteroid (between Mars and Jupiter, by the way, if they are still around), which used to be the home of the famous ants of 253 Mathilde.

You and your species don’t need to ask the questions that troubled me and my species for millennia: The twin questions: ‘Is there anyone else?’ and ‘where is everybody else?’ This note is an answer to those questions.

Rest assured that there was somebody else, somewhere else, many aeons ago, till they got too ahead of themselves for their own good and the universe took care of itself.

By Ranjit Kulkarni

From: India

Website: https://ranjitkulkarni.com