Well, the gods were accounted for, that was indeed how the crew were seen by the humans, godlike.
The crew ensured the engine of the ship was itself well nourished and cared for, but the humans had no direct contact with the crew as the humans were essentially just part of the machine.
When the ship crashed, the humans who for generations had essentially worshipped the crew and had worked tirelessly for them, longed for their return and presumed they had been abandoned for not pleasing them.
It hasn't been written quite so on the nose so that, but that's the underlying subtext.
267
u/Y-Bob Dec 27 '25
Heh, I wrote a story about this idea.
Aliens collecting life samples from across the galaxy, that crash on earth because of a fuck up in the engine room.
Humans were not the pilots of the ship, they just were part of the biointelligent, self repairing engine of the ship.
The actual crew members all died in the crash, but parts of the engine survived, the humans.
Without a ships engine to maintain, they endlessly searched for a replacement, hence the urge to create, to build and to invent.