NOVEL NEXT The Spores
A highly advanced alien species cyborg ambassador who downloaded the complete contents of the publicly available 'Earth Wiki' represented their last surviving generational refuge ship trying to convince One Earth's government to permit them sanctuary.
"We can also teach you many great things, including how to prevent the spores," said the alien ambassador.
"The spores?" asked an AI-based One Earth translator.
"Indeed, it happened several millennia ago when we discovered that the advent of our hover technology had triggered the spawning of dormant ancient spores. They once devastated our planet, causing a mass extinction on a global scale, rewinding our homeworld's entire evolutionary clock."
"How do you know the spores existed to cause such a mass extinction?"
"Trace fossils deep underground, though many denied or interpreted them as something entirely different in fact …" The cyborg ambassador paused for a moment.
"In fact, what?"
"My apologies. I had to await approval for full disclosure; it's an embarrassing admission for us … As I was saying, in fact, that's why we fled our planet. The spore deniers religiously believed it had never happened, so here we are. We presume they're extinct now."
"Oh, I see, we have a similar situation, not exactly spores, but …"