Call it the Grand Skylon445Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtm9DHutstS
For three million years it had circled Saturn, waiting for a moment of truth that might never come. In its making, a moon had been shattered, and the debris of its creation still orbited.
Now the long wait was ending. On yet another planet, intelligence had been born and was crawling out of its planetary cradle. An ancient experiment was about to reach its climax.
Those who had begun that experiment, so long ago, had not been men--or even remotely human.
They were the Altrusians, a sophisticated race of telepathic reptilian humanoids which thrived for many, many eras. When these Altrusians looked out across the depths of space, had felt awe, wonder, and loneliness. As soon as they possessed the power, they set forth for the stars.
In their explorations, they encountered life in many forms, and watched the workings of evolution on a thousand planets. They saw how often the first faint sparks of intelligence flickered and died in the cosmic night.
And because, in all the galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than the Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. They became farmers in the fields of stars; they planted, they sowed, and sometimes they harvested.
And sometimes, dispassionately, they had to weed.
The great dinosaurs had long since perished when the gigantic Altrusian transport ship entered the Solar System after a voyage that had already lasted for a thousand years. It swept past the frozen outer planets, paused briefly above the deserts of dying Mars, and presently looked down on Earth.
Spread out beneath them, the Altrusian cosmonauts saw a world teeming with life. For years they studied, collected, catalogued. When they had learned all that they could, they started to modify. They tinkered with the destiny of many species, on land and in the ocean. But which of their experiments would succeed they could not know for at least a million years.
They were patient, but they were not yet immortal. There was so much to do in this universe of a hundred billion suns, and other worlds were calling. So they set out once gain into the abyss, knowing that they would never come this way again. Not that they would ever need to; the servants they left behind would do the rest.
On Earth, the glaciers came and went, while above them the unchanging Moon still carried its secret. With a yet slower rhythm than the polar ice, the tides of civilization ebbed and flowed across the galaxy. Strange, beautiful and terrible empires rose and fell, and passed on their knowledge to their successors. Earth was not forgotten, but another visit would serve little purpose. It was one of a million silent worlds, few of which would ever speak.
And now, out among the stars, evolution was driving toward new goals. The first explorers of Earth had long since come to the limits of flesh and blood; as soon as their machines were better than their bodies, it was time to move. First their brains, and then their thoughts alone, they transferred into shining new homes of metal and plastic.
In these, they roamed the stars. The Altrusians no longer built spaceships. The Altrusians were spaceships.
But the age of the Machine-entities swiftly passed. In their never-ending experimenting, they had learned to store knowledge in the structure of space itself, and to preserve their thoughts for eternity in glowing crystals of light. They could become creatures of radiation, free at last from the oppression of matter.445Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡclDDSq3V6r
Into pure energy, therefore, they presently transformed themselves, and on a thousand planets, the empty shells they had discarded twitched for a while in a mindless dance of death, then crumbled into rust.445Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdEmrFC3oTk
Now the Altrusians were the lords of the galaxy, and beyond time's reach. They could rove at will among the stars, and sink like a subtle mist through the very interstices of space. But despite their godlike powers, they had not completely forgotten their origin, in the warm slime of a vanished sea.445Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSkuyXVHScf
And they still watched over the experiments their ancestors had begun, so long ago.445Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1pJqZzTcTC
