The Fermi paradox, […], is the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence for extraterrestrial life and various high estimates for their probability.

— Fermi paradox on Wikipedia

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Captain Bayarsaikhan liked to see the planet herself through the thick windows of what was generally referred to as "the Bridge". While sensors, antennas and cameras had picked up even the most minute detail about their target just hours after entering the system, she was a strong proponent of seeing each one up close.

So, now that they had reached an orbit comparable in distance to that between a common space station and earth, she stood there, with that statuesque exalted posture she called her own. An immovable rock inside the professional bee hive that was her vessel.

Without turning, she asked the Ensign she knew was there just a few paces over her left shoulder: "Another one?" There was suddenly a pause to the rustling and bustling about, as everyone in the compartment halted in place, as if the disturbing of the Answer was Sacrilege. The crew member addressed reflected in one of the glass panels, and she saw him trying to formulate an answer in his head while nervously trying to swallow from an unexpectedly dry mouth.

Of course, he had had time to prepare, as she knew that he had an answer the moment the automated survey had completed hours earlier, but as with every new system, she had ordered this information to be kept a secret until they had closed to the planet as a grieving person would step towards a corpse laying in state.

"Another one, mux." he said, the emotions hidden behind a brave facade. Bayarsaikhan didn't want to add anything to the silence. She stood there, as the Statue of Prowess and composure she ought to be, bathed in the reflected light of the surface.

No one spoke until the Ensign added, unable to endure the soundlessness any longer, almost quivering from second-hand sadness: "I am sorry, mux." 

About 400 kilometers beneath them, ruins of another intelligent species drifted by. Roads and Networks of Buildings looked like gray veins on a dead body, interspersed by greenish streaks of where the fauna had been already successful in reclaiming the surface. On a galactic timescale, they had just missed the demise of this unknown Civilization.

Whatever had been competent and intelligent enough to build Cities, Transport Systems, to Improve the Land, and even to begin to explore their local Star system, was gone.

Bayarsaikhan turned, looked a handful of officers and staff members in the eyes, then moved slowly, elegantly, to her seat in the center of the room while no one else dared to move.

Placing both hands on the side of her face, she felt the heat of rage boiling inside her cheeks. She placed them on her temples, trying to force her forehead to relax. As she removed the hairband from the plait she liked to wear to reform it with an endlessly trained rhythm of movements, she said more to herself than to anyone else: "This is the twenty-first this week, the two hundred and second this month. Each one as dead as the previous."

The small elastic band slipped from around her hand and tumbled down her back, then, like an electrostatic charge, her pent-up fury grounded itself as she back handed the small porcelain tea cup she liked to use, from the tray beside her chair. The clatter of the object, breaking of fine pottery and splashing of cold beverage caused a faint scream from one of her crew, but no one moved.

Now again able to compose herself, she sunk back into the chair, years of service and months of travel taking its toll in the same moment. The statue crumbled as she bent to rest her elbows on her knees, pressed the flats of her hands in her face and sounded a weak sob of frustration.

A small shute opened beside the cupola to allow an equally small robot to enter. It beelined towards the mess on the floor and dutifully removed the remains of the cup with tiny pincers on long arms. As it followed its preprogrammed patterns, each single piece was lifted and placed on a tray on the top, before a rake could move it into its bowel, to safely transport them.

The inefficient and repetitive manner in which it worked, made Bayarsaikhan chuckle, and for a moment the crew saw not Captain Bayarsaikhan, always on duty, never relaxed, but Mungun Bayarsaikhan the Human. Someone who liked to sing children rhymes under the shower and loved to take her partner's children on long trips through earths forests inside her motorcycle's side-car.

Weren't they just the same? Inefficiently repeating the same movements in a hope to finish a task that never seemed to be finished, just with pauses of different lengths between each step to a goal that was out of reach by design.

The secured door to the command center opened, and the second captain entered as an actor would enter a stage. Despite Kahale being Bayarsaikhan Junior by more than ten years, she had the air of a Matriarch, head strong, passionate and wise.

"Mux Bayarsaikhan, I will take over your shift. Please find yourself a warm shower and a comfy bed." Kahale ordered with a strict tone, and a glance at the last remains of the teacup betrayed the deep concern for her friend and comrade. "The hell you will." mumbled Bayarsaikhan with a weary side glance and a weak smile, which prompted Kahale to draw nearer.

"It smells like bored Personnel in here" Kahale noted to the Room, as she made it clear that it was in everyone's interest to at least look preoccupied. The customary sound of movement and dozens of people working filled the space again as Bayarsaikhan and Kahale stepped nearer to the Cupola.

"Unpack the Mining Drones and get the Printers going." Bayarsaikhan ordered and then turned to her fellow Captain: "Every time we are too late."

As the crew sprang into action, Bayarsaikhan thought about their mission and their history. What was it all for? Humanity had broken free of the solar system just a few decades ago when the plane drive was developed. Now it was as simple as calculating the two-dimensional shadows of three-dimensional bodies on the plane of your drive, and eliminate virtually all distance by a trip through a lower dimension. All it took was being a bit creative with your perspective on space.

The only limiting factor was really just the required survey you had to do to be sure there wasn't an object hiding in a larger object's shadow right where you wanted to return to the third dimension.

So, Humanity set out to make contact, to find the Aliens and perhaps to find a Connection, we were always destined to find. And, to everyone's surprise, we found the Aliens immediately. Or, at least, what was remaining of them.

We started to build Monuments called Headstones in Orbit of their System after we had rescued every bit of Information we could retrieve from their planets. Ancient Databases, Tablets of barely legible Claw marks, DNA or local Equivalents, and stored it for Eternity.

At first, we thought it as a Courtesy, then it became a Duty, now, it was our Occupation. Humanity had become the Universe's cemetery keeper. Spreading ourselves thinner and thinner while we wanted to find an Answer. Why had they gone?

It was always like an abrupt cut if they hadn't destroyed themselves long before, a seemingly arbitrary point in their development at which they just seized to exist.

On earth and her colonies, banks upon banks of supercomputers tried to calculate models which could generate themselves new models which perhaps would one day find similarities and if one could utter a wish, an answer.

An answer to human's question that we cried into the night of the universe, like a small newborn creature abandoned in a cold and empty basement: "Why were we left alone?"

The first squadron of drones passed the cupola and thundered towards the planet, startling Bayarsaikhan enough to rip her out of her dark thoughts. Perhaps this was why Humanity was left or perhaps spared, perhaps we were the last ones to turn off the light and bring the garbage bag to the large dumpster behind the building.

Maybe there were other Graveyard keepers just waiting for us to discover them. For some reason, that mental image made the Captain chuckle, and her peer's concerned expression made her smile. Without a further word she nodded to Kahale and turned to find a hot shower and perhaps a comfy bed.