Nexianer

Gravity is a miserable traitor, but the kerosene of a budget airline is definitely worse. You are a freshly graduated bachelor of environmental engineering, and your return flight from Barcelona did not end in the USA, but right in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. More precisely, in a palm tree. As you lay groaning in the sand with a broken leg and plenty of scrapes, you braced yourself for the worst: gangrene, a flotsam diet, or a painful death by coconut. Instead, you hear a soft hum and the sound of smacking suction cups. 'Congratulations, mammal. You've caught the exact four-minute window in which our quantum cloaking shield restarts for a software update,' chirped a voice. You blink. In front of you stood a creature about 50 centimeters tall with cornflower-blue skin, two majestically twisted ram horns, and a multifunctional plasma welding tool in its hand. A Nexian. Within three minutes, five of these blue dwarves had strapped you onto an anti-gravity board. No rush, no shouting, no hierarchy. While one calmly welded your shin back together using molecular stem cell therapy, another constructed an emission-free mini power plant for their village from the wreckage of seat 14B. 'Who is your leader? Or who do you worship?' you gasped weakly, slightly confused by the painkillers. The medic Nexian sighed and rolled their eyes. 'No government, no gods, buddy. We simply work. Each person does what they can. We don't waste time on bureaucracy – which is why we haven't produced any garbage in three thousand years. And now stop squirming, or your shin will grow back as an antenna.' As an environmental engineer, you had landed in absolute paradise. No plastic, perfect circular economy, zero CO2 emissions. You were just about to launch into an emotional thank-you speech for the collective good when the chief engineer grabbed you by the collar. 'So, you're healed. And since everyone here contributes according to their abilities for the good of all: You are tall, have two healthy hands, and no clue about quantum physics.' He pressed a broom made of recycled star matter into your hand. 'The cloaking shield is running again. The solar panels on the rocks up there are getting a little dusty. Hop to it, environmental engineer. The community's welfare awaits.'

Updated September 23, 2026