"THEY"
No one remembered the exact moment when they appeared. Not because it was subtle — but because it was not frightening. One day, humanity simply knew it was not alone. No sirens, no ultimatums, no sky torn apart by fire. Just a quiet, calm: “We are here.”
They did not come to take. They came to give.
Their gift, however, had no name. It was not a machine, it was not an equation, it was not a technology that could be patented. It was neither a cure nor a weapon. It was nothing that could be locked in a vault.
It was — a shift.
Suddenly, people understood connections they had previously only sensed vaguely. They did not become wiser overnight; they simply slowed down from the frantic pace of consumer life and stopped fearing the silence behind their thoughts. That sacred space of the universe that offers a person not only rest, but a literal merging with their own essence. People also stopped treating the world as prey. Many of them, for the first time, began to see themselves as part of something greater — something that transcended the individual and yet was a state that connected them.
The gift they received was not held in their hands; it was literally between them.
Cities did not change, but the way people lived in them did. Conversations sounded different. Gazes lingered a second longer. Words like “we” and “together” ceased to be empty notions and became truth again.
And They — our guests — stood among us without pride. They did not seem superior, even though even the smallest of them were over two meters tall. To people, they appeared like those who arrived late to the party, but everyone was glad they showed up at all.
Children sat beside them without fear. The elderly told them their life stories. Artists found a new breath. Scientists a new humility. Politicians — cleared the field — because they were no longer needed.
And the world began to be beautiful. Very beautiful. Planet Earth became a planet where it was a joy to live. Hand in hand, one with another — neighbor with neighbor.
Gratitude toward THEM was not loud. But it was deep.
And so, when the end of borders and states came, no one really noticed. For some time already, these forms of coexistence had been little more than a formality.
Soon, monuments of the past also faded away; there were no holidays either — mandatory joy on a precisely scheduled day. Only millions of small gestures: open doors, shared meals, silent thanks in a glance. People realized that the greatest gift was not what came from the stars — but what returned between them.
And then came the question everyone was afraid to ask:
“When will you leave?”
The answer was simple. And it changed everything.
“We are not leaving.”
They stayed. Not as overseers. Not as gods. But as friends who chose Earth as their home. They learned our languages. They laughed at our jokes. They grew accustomed to rain, to bread, to nights without two moons.
Gradually, they ceased to be “They”. They became us. New Earthlings.
And the planet, which under the weight of wars had so many times feared the end of the world, came to understand something simple and beautiful: that what arrives from space does not have to bring a threat to humanity — but instead its beautiful, new beginning.
