The Star

Arthur C. Clarke "The Star." The Other Side of the Sky. 1958

"They were not an evil people: I do not know what gods they worshiped, if indeed they worshiped any. But I have looked back at the across the centuries, and have watched while the loveliness they used their last strength to preserve was brought forth again into the light of their shrunken sun. They could have taught us much: why were they destroyed?"