First Contact, Betrayal

First contact with alien life was brief, unexpected, and devastating. Out of nowhere fragments of dense metals traveling at a decent percentage of light speed flickered through the atmosphere around Earth Colony 3, high in the atmosphere of Jupiter. Most of the colony "bubbles" and all of the orbiting stations were vaporized instantly.

Review and research afterward revealed the nature of the weaponry: flecks and fragments of the mass-drivers and the like. Analysis of the event, in retrospect, revealed the direction.

Was this an attack on Earth? An accident? A communication attempt gone wrong? The attempts of another species to eradicate competition proactively? These answers were unlikely to come soon, as the attack would have come from hundreds or thousands of light-years away; even at 25% of c, an insurmountable distance. The fragments left behind nevertheless leapt human sub-light engines forward, expanded scientific horizons, and unfortunately made humanity fearful.

Ninety years later was second contact, and the first peaceful communication. Radio communiques from far off, followed by more complex patterns, and finally a small probe. Then a single diplomatic vessel, then merchants, then tourists. Vessel after vessel arrived, each bearing new science, tech, literature, art that opened new vistas for humanity. Our new friends, the Sworari, were a font of blessings.

The shame and guilt buried beneath these otherwise great gifts from the Sworari was buried deep. Nevertheless, eventually it will come out. When the Sworari were a young species, and warlike, and prevented from exploring their local space by nebulae and darkness, they were at war among their own kind. In the war they used mass drivers, flinging clusters of hyper-dense material in "shotgun" bursts that decimated the enemy in moments, and the war was decided. Nevertheless, thousands of these clusters tore through space, to eventually meet an end... For the last thousand years the Sworari have followed in the path of their error, uplifting civilizations in penance for their mistake - so far they have found 3 civilizations that were affected, 1 that was barely affected, and 6 that did not survive...