Com uma grande diferença, sua descrição parece muito com "Todo o caminho de volta" , um conto de Michael Shaara, o vencedor do prêmio Pulitzer de Os Anjos Assassinos . "All the Way Back", de Shaara, publicado pela primeira vez em Astounding Science Fiction , Julho de 1952 (disponível no Internet Archive ), foi a resposta para esta velha pergunta e esta e esta . O texto da história está disponível aqui .
Se essa é a história que você está procurando, o livro em que você leu poderia ser a coleção de Shaara < em> Soldier Boy , ou a antologia Impérios Galácticos ou Império Galáctico Volume Um (editado por Brian W. Aldiss), ou Encontros ou Monstros (editado por Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg e Charles G. Waugh ), ou O mundo virou de cabeça para baixo (editado por Eric Flint , Jim Baen e David Drake).
No conto, alguns astronautas humanos no espaço encontram alienígenas.
Sim.
Os alienígenas perguntam-lhes de onde vêm, e os astronautas lhes dizem alegremente da Terra e, em seguida, onde está a Terra, na Galáxia da Via Láctea.
Essa é a parte que você lembra errado, se estamos falando da mesma história:
"It is surprising," Roymer went on, "that your home world is in the desert. We had thought that there were no habitable worlds—"
"The desert?"
"Yes. The region of the galaxy from which you have come is that which we call the desert. It is an area almost entirely devoid of planets. Would you mind telling me which star is your home?"
Cohn stiffened.
"I'm afraid our government would not permit us to disclose any information concerning our race."
Os alienígenas então contam uma história, sobre há quanto tempo havia uma enorme guerra intergaláctica, onde todas as raças tinham que se unir para derrotar uma raça que era incrivelmente brilhante, mas também sanguinária e cruel.
Sim, exceto que não era inter galáctico:
"The news of what happened to the Apectans set the Galactic peoples up in arms, but it was not until the Antha attacked a Federation world that we finally moved against them. It was the greatest war in the history of Life.
"You will perhaps understand how great a people the Antha were when I tell you that they alone, unaided, dependent entirely upon their own resources, fought the rest of the Galactics, and fought them to a standstill. As the terrible years went by we lost whole races and planets—like this one, which was one the Antha destroyed—and yet we could not defeat them.
A raça sanguinária acabou por ser derrotada
"It was only after many years, when a Galactic invented the most dangerous weapon of all, that we won. That invention—of which only the Galactic Council has knowledge—enabled us to turn the suns of the Antha into novae, at long range. One by one we destroyed the Antha worlds. We hunted them through all the planets of the desert; for the first time in history the edict of the Federation was death, death for an entire race. At last there were no longer any habitable worlds where the Antha had been. We burned their worlds, and ran them down in space. Thirty thousand years ago, the civilization of the Antha perished."
mas um dos seus navios fugiu e os alienígenas têm caçado o universo para seus descendentes por milhares de anos. E esses descendentes são nós, humanos.
"Are you sure you got all of them?"
"No. Some surely must have escaped. There were too many in space, and space is without limits."
Jansen wanted to know: "Have any of them been heard of since?"
Roymer's smile left him as the truth came out. "No. Not until now."
Os alienígenas dizem aos astronautas que sentem muito, mas eles precisam matá-los,
There were only a few more seconds. He gave them time to understand. He could not help telling them he was sorry, he even apologized. And then he sent the order with his mind.
The Antha died quickly and silently, without pain.
e, em seguida, eles estão indo para a Terra para acabar com a gente.
Eles o fariam se pudessem, mas:
The reports were on his desk and he regarded them with a wry smile. There was indeed no way to trace them back. They had no charts, only a regular series of course-check coordinates which were pre-set on their home planet and which were not decipherable. Even at this stage of their civilization they had already anticipated the consequences of having their ship fall into alien hands. And this although they lived in the desert.
[. . . .]
We can wait, he thought. Gradually, one by one, they will come out of the desert, and when they come we will be waiting. Perhaps one day we will follow one back and destroy their world, and perhaps before then we will find a way to save them.