Earth is almost out of water. You must help, or all life on Earth will cease.

We used a somewhat temperamental time machine to send you this letter, so we do not know exactly when you will be reading it. A small device attached to the envelope will return it to us one hour after you opened it. Please attach a small note to the original informing us of the year you received it and whether you will help us. It is imperative that you read this letter. We wanted to send a person, but the time-space signature left when sending a living being is easily detectable, and resistance to our efforts has grown.

The life forms we’ve found would astound you; they are like nothing you’ve ever seen. Now that we know exactly what to look for, we have discovered life on all the planets in Earth’s solar system. Your contemporaries’ one-track minds will take hundreds of years to get off the notion that the existence of life depends on water.

Unfortunately, however, water was sought after for another reason. When other sentient beings learned Earth had it readily available in liquid form, the planet you now call home was doomed.

Back before the new millennium arrived, a small, remote-controlled National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) vehicle called Sojourner ventured out from the primitive Pathfinder spacecraft and started opening the minds of scholars all over the world. Its data hinted that among all that ice was life similar to what we see in the coldest reaches of Earth, and this gave the dreamers hope.

It was a time when people everywhere wanted something new in which to place their faith. Religious and racial tensions were on the rise, often sparking violence. Humans needed a common goal, some reason to come together cooperatively. Even to those who historically had perceived the space program as a waste of time and money, it had become an inspiration.

All their efforts wouldn’t matter.

At first Mars supplied its colonists with an abundance of water from both ice and underground water sources. As time wore on, however, the shipments from Earth began. Some frightened by Cadillac Desert, the story of the dampening of the US desert cities like Los Angeles and Phoenix, were concerned Mars would drain Earth just as those cities drained lakes and rivers of the American West.

That prophecy came true as Earth’s people tossed aside their newfound altruism. There was a new place to go and those who could afford it fled Earth just as they had the urban areas. Soon this mass exodus of those with power and wealth put a strain on Earth. The water was pumped away from the most sparsely populated areas first, but eventually that source ran dry, and people began illegally rerouting water from open-air aqueducts and underwater pipelines into large tanker rockets aimed at the red planet.

Then the ocean levels started dropping.

Around the year 2050, humans made contact with life on three of Jupiter’s moons, and the water on Earth became more sought-after than all its other natural resources combined. Although these new life forms did not require water, it somehow affected their bodies so that they quickly became addicted to it. Humans began dealing in the lucrative world of black market water sales. It rivaled every drug and weapon smuggling scheme in history, but money was not the motivating factor. Earthly dollars and cents meant nothing to our new-found neighbors, nor theirs to us.

The currency was information. Those with the most information could keep themselves on the leading edge of Earth’s interplanetary diplomacy. Leaders of every Earth government saw their roles dwindle as NASA’s Planetary Relations Committee (PRC) grew. With each discovery, with every tiny bit of information given by the new life forms, the PRC became increasingly powerful until every newscast was filled with stories of its activities.

We believe that U.S. President John F. Kennedy was the turning point in the space program of the United States. We have sent many letters back in time to him in hopes that he would help, but he has ignored us thus far. We cannot continue spending time and money trying to convince him. If we did, those in power surely would detect and stop us. We had hoped that someone with his charisma and influence could either stop the space program until Society was better prepared for it, or inspire your era’s most powerful minds to create a way to save Earth.

When he did not respond, we took our biggest risk yet and sent two time travelers to negotiate. Unfortunately, they arrived 20 years apart and, worse than that, their minds were affected by the transfer. Instead of merely talking, they took horribly misguided actions. They caused the failure of two of the United States’ space shuttles, re-usable planes that can go into space and back. As awful as they were, their actions might have deterred the U.S. from space travel had the world not had 20 years to heal between disasters.

This may be the last transmission we can make. It is our belief that whoever reads this will be the key to our success. You must somehow prevail over President Kennedy where we have failed. As soon as we see you have succeeded, we will reward you handsomely. Besides that, you will help ensure a safer future.

Please help us.

Be aware, however, that our detractors have superior technology, and may send a man who has been brainwashed to stop at nothing to stop our efforts. We tell you this to be fair and to help you succeed. He is programmed to kill, if necessary, and his name is Jack Ruby.