The sleek, silvery ship approached a pale-blue planet orbiting a yellow star in the Milky Way’s Orion–Cygnus spiral arm. It analyzed its preliminary readings and assessed the potential of what it observed from orbit. Initial results were promising, so it released atmospheric drones to obtain more data.
Animal life flourished in and around the forest below. Trees waved their leaf-filled branches in a mild summer breeze. Songbirds vocally proclaimed their existence or greeted one another hopefully in their quests for mates, while predators eyed them as possible meals. Plants and wildflowers beyond the trees painted the landscape in a multitude of colors. Butterflies fluttered through the air spreading pollen and life to fulfill their part in the complex dance of the biosphere. Small fish splashed in a clear stream babbling nearby while the water flowed on to join one of nature’s arteries.
A short, hairy biped was pissing in it.
The ship shifted its focus to a spot nearby where several of the creatures gathered. Twenty or so males, females, and offspring mingled around a fire. They grunted short words in a limited vocabulary and made exaggerated gestures, clearly communicating, sharing information, and possibly even telling stories. Some sat quietly, deep in thought, or at least something resembling it. A couple carnivorous quadrupeds roamed among them, sharing food and parasites like part of the family.
The bipeds were definitely tool-makers, and the ship noted their skills at creating useful and artistic things out of stones, sticks, and select body parts from various dead animals. Perhaps some day the descendants of this group of odoriferous vermin collectors might build something like the ship watching them from orbit. It wasted no time estimating the odds of this happening. The question of what they might achieve on their own in the future did not matter, other than as a mild, speculative diversion. Only their current achievements held any relevance to the decision it must make, and now their technology appeared limited to stone tools and fire. The ship decided they warranted a closer look.
It recalled its tiny drones and prepared devices with additional capabilities to complete an extended survey. The small dark spheres dropped like seeds from the silent craft and went about their business collecting the required data.
For a year, the probes gathered samples and information. The ship needed to understand all it could about the sentient primitives. It must know how they behaved, how they bred, what they ate, and how they interacted with their environment. It must learn how they learned. Only then could it make its final determination.
Complex algorithms evaluated sensor readings of the atmosphere, soil, water, flora, and fauna. Specialized equipment conducted tests on a wide array of biological samples. Once satisfied with the quality of the data and the results of its analysis, the ship made a decision and released additional probes. These were even more complex than those that preceded them. One might consider them intelligent if not sentient. They all possessed the ability to forecast likely outcomes and to cope with new and changing situations. Some might call this imagination or creativity. Neither the probes nor the ship that spawned them dwelled on the issue. They did not care how others might regard them. They existed for a purpose, and their only goal in life was to fulfill that purpose. Unquestioning devotion to duty such as theirs would be the envy of any military officer and most political, religious, and business leaders.
One of the most sophisticated probes glided silently in the darkness. Its flat black surface reflected nothing under the single large moon and crisp starlight. A few nocturnal animals noted the whisper of its landing but did not betray its arrival to the sleeping bipeds now huddled in a cave behind a small, smoldering fire for warmth and protection.
The device, about the size and general shape of a small modern refrigerator lying on its back, settled on the ground. From inside came a faint whirring sound and then a series of clicks. A moment of silence followed and then a soft scraping sound as several small sliding doors opened on its surface. They clicked into place simultaneously, and an assortment of devices and gadgets emerged and froze in place from two dozen compartments. Now the device resembled, to some extent, a very large and possibly pregnant Swiss Army knife showing off all of its attachments.
It began to move, slowly rising until it hovered no more than fifteen centimeters from the ground with a distinct impression of readiness. A faint hush of air accompanied its purposeful progress toward the cave where the slumbering bipeds kept wildlife at bay with the glowing embers of their fire and their fearsome snoring. The probe paid neither any mind and went inside.
After a snakelike hiss of escaping gas from one of the probe’s attachments, the snoring abruptly stopped. Little more than a darker image among the shadows, it hovered over one of the females. She lay on her back, seemingly sound asleep, her chest gently rising and falling with her breath. The probe extended some of its more delicate attachments to examine her quite intimately.
It went from sleeping form to sleeping form, touching, probing, examining, and gathering tissues and data until it subjected each individual to its scrutiny. The sleeping canines received the same close examination.
Once it collected all it came here to get, it exited the cave entrance and drew its assorted devices and tools back into its shell. With a startling snap, the compartment doors on the device shut in unison and the probe accelerated skyward. The subjects of its scrutiny would wake the next morning unaware that anything out of the ordinary occurred.
The spaceship in orbit circled silent and majestic while black probe after black probe queued beside it like supplicants to their sovereign, awaiting their turn to add the fruits of their individual efforts to the grand project. Several days passed before it retrieved the last of the devices. The additional data added to its already massive stores, and it processed, categorized, analyzed, and made decisions to further its assigned objective. It found the work challenging and enjoyable.
Within the ship, cryogenic storage units clicked into operation. Mindless automated devices filled them with organic material obtained from the planet below. Manufacturing centers began disassembling the willing probes while computers worked on designs for the next incarnation of their components. Other devices began synthesizing chemicals and compounds that would be accumulated and stored for later use.
Satisfied with all it achieved so far, the ship left Earth orbit. It looked forward to the next step of this new project and felt confident of its ultimate success.