In his debut story Rescue Party, Arthur C. Clarke tells a tale set in the near future: one day, an interstellar alliance of alien civilizations detects a catastrophic disaster brewing in the solar system. Out of humanitarian concern, the alliance dispatches a rescue team to Earth, hoping to save a few human lives. At the time, they know little about humans—only that an intelligent species exists on Earth with access to radio technology, as evidenced by radio signals received 200 years earlier. In the aliens’ understanding, it takes thousands of years for a civilization to progress from discovering radio waves to mastering space travel. However, upon landing on Earth, the rescue team finds the entire planet eerily silent and devoid of life. As it turns out, humankind had already developed spacefaring technology before the disaster and departed the solar system en masse, destination unknown.