He
had been sleeping for eons in his tiny body capsule, slipping
silently, ever forward through his galaxy and beyond, safe in
the belly of their great mother-ship. The noise of the great turbines
had been a throbbing lullaby for some time now.
He
stirred, sensing that his awakening time was finally nearing.
It
had been a long, long trip from his birth planet. He could never
have dreamed possible just how long it had been... nor did he
care.
His
dying planet had packed many spaceships with his kind and sent
them off before the terrible destruction caused by the ice...
ice freezing so very hard that the planet had finally burst apart
in tiny snowflake-like crystals and floated now, as just frigid
dust, in the timeless atmosphere of space.
He
was awake enough to hear the mighty engines that would thrust
his capsule to its final destination come roaring to life. Opening
his screens fully, he sensed that the landing would be on a lush
green well watered plant, the third one from the last sun.
He
knew that his kind would find substance at this place. There was
plenty of water and light. Water and warmth was the much needed
source of life for the things he required for his food sources,
such as green growing vegetation and various warm blooded organisms.
He
knew there were thousands of capsules like his about to be launched.
He would not be alone and there promised to be be nourishment
for all.
Suddenly
it was happening... It was finally happening. He closed his screens
and held tight with his tendrils and felt himself flying faster
than the speed of light to his desired destination.
His
body capsule burst apart, letting him float gently down through
the last few miles of his fantastic journey. He lit in the soft
upper branches of a tree high above the jungle floor. The first
leaves ingested were agreeable, as were several startled birds
and some small tasty monkeys.
He
felt himself growing stronger and with his renewed strength came
greater hunger. Oozing to the jungle floor, he found much bigger
and tastier organisms to eat.
After
several hours he was sated for a while, sated to the point of
being pregnant with thousands of him-selves... thousands even
hungrier than he was. For relief he began to moan and sweat and
send off his spores to reproduce their own spores even centuries
after his first coming and his eventual death.
This
planet would be a wonderful home where all his offspring could
eat and reproduce in the wonderful sunlight of this new world
and all of them would hail his name. Life was good once again.
He
closed his screens and with his compartments feeling totally filled,
he slept the sleep of peace.
