On the day the ships came, humanity’s numbers had grown to a thriving twelve billion. After the Burning of Mars, and the destruction of any other habitat in the system, Earth alone held ten billion terrified souls. When the ships left a week later, barely three remained, ninety percent of them children. The Shiplords demanded almost every man and woman over the age of seventeen, for what purpose we still do not know. They did not destroy the technology that sustained our civilisation, but for all that had been made to study the Void, and they left behind enough adults to care for the billions of children left behind. Most chilling of all, their manner made it clear that they were not without practice in committing the atrocity they inflicted upon us.