The last free people. A memorial to them. They existed. And here in the museum, we see their relics.

They were a sacrifice for the good of everyone. We needed order. They represented disunity, unrest, discord.

So they were obliterated. One by one, or in scores. Whatever it took, we destroyed them.

But they were preserved here, as a fly in amber. In this single monument they live and breathe still.

It is their rock. A meteor, an object which they venerated for countless generations, which they said spoke to them, and left them closer to their god. They thronged around it to touch it, to commune with it, to leave their sin and take its purity.

How did we take it from them? We demoralized them. Bit by bit, we took their resolve, their strongest, their most sacred people and we made them ours or we killed them.

We depend on people who have had their devotion crushed from them. People who have been molded to us, who have been made to follow our imperatives, leaving family and faith, obeying without question.

At the end, they gave it to us willingly. A donation by a grateful people. We considered desecrating it in front of them to reinforce their obeisance, to ensure their passivity and trust in us. But we chose not to, as we are evolved, we are higher life forms. We revered it in front of them and cheered them. We gave them a gift back by honoring their artifact, here in this museum.

Can you not feel the power of the stone, the holiness which radiates from it? Consider the countless generations which sacrificed themselves to keep it safe. The faith required to safeguard it at the cost of all loved ones, against every instinct to protect oneself and one’s kin.

Now, we own it just like we own them. We do it respectfully, as befits a higher order of humanity. Individuality, ethnicity, other lesser drives have given way to the graceful cooperation which we enjoy. Bask in the glow of our goodness, our magnanimous nature. It has come at the highest cost, but it is worth everything for peace and harmony, is it not?

Something has changed. The rock is glowing; it never has before. Can you feel the heat it’s generating? Perhaps the myths and stories the people told have some basis in fact - could it be a power source, or a communication device with another intelligence far beyond ours? Our scientists will have to examine this; we had no idea there was more to this than a simple artifact.

Can you hear a sharp whine, a ticking clock? It had to be coming from the artifact; there’s nothing else in this room. It’s so loud! We should evacuate … but the exits are blocked. We are locked in.

The people are here, the ones we thought we conquered. They’re taking control of the museum and the government ministry in which it sits. There are so many of them! It’s impossible!

Oh God. It’s not just a sacred rock. It’s a bomb. Get down!