As all the world now knows, a few months after the interview, a ten year long global conflict erupted on Earth. The multiple long-standing grievances of its various factions and conflicts had finally and irrevocably proven too much, engulfing the planet in the most barbarous warfare to the dismay of the appalled Energians. After a useless year of advice, pleas for sanity and imploring of all sides to sit down and resolve the conflict, the Energians recalled all their ambassadors and citizens to their fleet. Soon after, communications with Energian command went ominously silent. All attempts to hail them via official channels went unanswered. Their official web presence, provided for the Energians free, at energiancentral.org was taken down and a placeholder page put up with this message in several languages:
'We are mining your neighboring planets until such time as we have acquired enough resources to move on to the next star. There are no planets in your system with environments habitable to Energians. The sole reason left for remaining was our discovery of your species, which is now locked in bitter conflict with itself. We wish we could have cooperated with you. This will be our last message. A trillion good orbits to you.'
There was nothing to be done. Just as the people of Earth had made an unfathomable and miraculous connection from across the void that erased their fears of perpetual solitude in an unforgiving Universe, the obsessive compulsion for conflict and war had thrown them right back into the abyss.
Earth was alone again. Alone with themselves, their fighting, their petty hatreds born from centuries of vanity and bruised egos. It was during a break in the fighting that the news of the Energian departure spread. The entire globe was thrown into a deep funk. The human race never imagined the collective self-esteem of a planet could plummet all at once but there they were. No group or faction was spared from the insult. As embroiled in conflict as they were with each other, they all shared in responsibility for their abandonment. The Energians didn't want to interact with such a stubbornly violent and competitive species anymore. The Energians had just chose to unfriend the only contact they had in the Universe. The Earthlings began to collectively ponder over what it took to try the patience of an extraterrestrial civilization badly enough for them to resort to such an action. The pitiful objects of such a cosmic rebuff, the people of Earth were exhausted and disgusted with themselves and questioning what the hell they were. They were ashamed of their violence and yet seemed like an addict unable to give it up. For the first time they saw their own primitiveness through the eyes of and compared to the Energians. Were Earthlings an intelligent species or just a bunch of animals? It appeared they were so sick, the desperate Energians had scorned their company and the life-sustaining rays of their star to take their chances alone again in the vast expanse of the Universe.
(Author's Note: The reader of a suitably similar cynical philosophical view of humanity may stop here and consider this the conclusion of this novella. Those readers who visualize a more hopeful fate for humanity, are welcome to read on for an alternate conclusion.)