‘Michel, 1 350 000 years ago precisely, on the planet Bakaratini of the constellation Centaur, a decision was made by the leaders of that planet, following numerous conferences and reconnaissance expeditions, to send inhabited vessels to the planets Mars and Earth.
‘There was a very simple reason for this: their planet was cooling down internally and would become uninhabitable within 500 years. They thought, with good reason, that it was preferable to evacuate their people to a younger planet of the same category...’
‘I will explain later, to do so now would be premature. Going back to these people, I must tell you that these beings were human - very intelligent and highly evolved. A black race, they had thick lips, flattened noses and frizzy hair - resembling, in these ways, the blacks now living on Earth.
‘To be precise, this was what you call on Earth, the Chinese race and they had inhabited Bakaratini for about 400 years prior to the blacks. The two races witnessed numerous revolutions during their time on the planet. We tried to provide relief, assistance and guidance but, in spite of our intervention, wars broke out periodically. These, along with the natural disasters occurring on the planet, served to thin the ranks in both races.
‘Finally, a nuclear war broke out on such a grand scale that the entire planet was plunged into darkness and temperatures fell to minus 40 of your degrees Celsius. Not only did atomic radiation destroy the population, but cold and lack of food accomplished the rest.
‘It is a recorded fact that a mere 150 black people and 85 yellow people survived the catastrophe, from a population of seven billion black and four billion yellow humans. A register of survivors was taken just before they began to reproduce and when they had stopped killing each other.’
“First of all, it is important to explain that those who remained were not, as you might expect, the leaders, well protected in specially equipped shelters.
‘The survivors, comprising three groups of blacks and five groups of yellows, had come, some from private shelters and others from large public shelters. Of course, at the time of the war, there were many more than 235 people in shelters: indeed it is believed there were over 800 000 in all. Following months of confinement in the darkness and intense cold, they were eventually able to risk going outside.
‘The blacks ventured out first, finding almost no trees, no plants and no animals to speak of, on their continent. It was a group, isolated from their shelter in the mountains, who first knew cannibalism. Because of the lack of food, when the weakest died, they were eaten; then, in order to eat, they had to kill each other - and that was the worst catastrophe on their planet.
‘Another group, near the ocean, managed to survive by eating the only living things left on the planet, which were not too contaminated, that is, the molluscs, some fish and crustaceans. They still had unpolluted drinking water thanks to very ingenious installations enabling them to obtain water from incredible depths.
‘Much the same course of events occurred in the yellows’ territory; so that, as I have said, 150 blacks and 85 yellows remained, then finally, deaths resulting from the war ceased and reproduction began again.
‘All of this occurred, in spite of all the warnings they had received. It should be said that before this almost total decimation, both the black race and the yellow race had attained a very high level of technological advance. The people lived in great comfort. They worked in factories, private and government enterprises, offices - just as happens now on your planet.