Chapter 1

First the great planet cooled.

The molten rock bubbled and spat out foul-smelling gases. Slowly, a crust began to form. The lava was still moving below the crust and frequently pressure built up until an explosion fractured the fragile rock skin, sending spectacular jets of bright yellow up into the atmosphere.

Chemical reactions were taking place everywhere, fuelled by the unimaginable heat emanating from the planet's core. The most reactive elements made a grab for each other and, as compounds formed, more gas and something else were released - water.

Over millions and millions of years, as the cooling continued, the moisture began to gather in the skies ringing the planet until at last, the air could hold it all no longer and the first rains fell.

Not a single drop made it far enough to land on the surface, the heat being still intense enough to evaporate each one long before then. It was enough however; the water cycle had begun.

The planet had neighbours, five of them, and they were all orbiting a healthy star, between them creating a medium sized solar system. The combination of the pull of the planet's moon, the forces created by its spinning rotation, friction and the increasing disparity of temperatures on the surface caused the air to be pushed and pulled - creating winds.

Already the winds were eroding the cooled rock and small particles were being blown hither and thither.

Eventually the surface of the planet was cool enough for the rain to fall all the way to the ground. The water accelerated the cooling process a little, but not much. Millions more years passed before the surface was cool enough for some of the water to remain upon it. The water cycle adjusted to the new rate of evaporation, now mainly powered by the heat from the star.

As the rains ran off of the high ground, they leached the salt compounds from the eroded rocks and when lakes and seas began to form, the standing water soaked up the sodium from the seabed.

Huge fractures in the layers of rock appeared, as gases built up below the surface until they exploded, erupting as spectacular volcanoes.

The volcanoes spewed out ash, hydrochloric acid and other caustic compounds, which quickly formed dense clouds. The clouds stopped the heat from the planet's star penetrating sufficiently to evaporate the water or to warm the ground. Temperatures plummeted and the seas, rivers and eventually the ground itself froze over. Everything turned to ice.

Meteor and asteroid showers continued to batter the planet, flaring dramatically as they burned through the layers of the atmosphere. Some were consumed by the heat, but others crashed into the planet's surface where they exploded and caused massive damage.

Over time the volcanic dust and ash settled and the star was able to slowly begin to thaw the ice. Giant glaciers had continued to 'flow', tearing the rock asunder to create a variety of impressive mountain ranges.

The chlorine from the hydrochloric acid began to mix with the sodium in the existing water to help create the first salt-water lakes and seas.

Continued movement of the plates of relatively young rock, ongoing shrinkage, erosion and the glacial damage helped create the space for vast oceans of salty seawater to form. Four distinct continents emerged from the chaos and millions of years of planetary 'growing up'.

The temperature at the planet's equator grew hotter and at its poles, colder. The differential temperatures added to the power of the winds and that in turn increased the erosion of the rock.

The planet was a seething mass of the 'stuff' necessary to sustain life - but that's the one thing that was missing. The rich 'primordial soup' had progressed to the point of creating simple organic compounds, but nothing more.

Then, after millions upon millions of years of lifeless existence, the planet's readiness to nurture life appeared on the sensitive instruments of a passing spacecraft.

It was the responsibility of the pilot of this particular craft to search for planets just like this one and to 'seed' it. Seeding fertile planets in this way created rich potential for future harvests that would sustain the people of the pilot's home planet - the people of Woden.

"This one looks absolutely perfect. Everything required seems to be there in abundance, all I need to do is launch a standard seeding pattern and let the planet do the rest," the pilot thought.

"Computer, designate this planet with the next available reference number and log its coordinates."

"As you wish Simeon. The planet is designated as P73197," the computer responded.

Simeon was already up and heading towards the cargo bay to load the particular seeding pods that would be needed. He was around six-foot tall and in most respects he was built and looked just like a human male. Indeed, Woden as a planet and its population had developed very much like the Earth developed - only they were thousands of years ahead in their evolution and that made a difference.

Appearances were misleading and there were a number of things about Simeon that were distinctly un-human. For one, the Wodenites were now streets ahead of humans in intelligence and capable of processing information at incredible speeds. They used much more of their available brain capacity too, making them exponentially more efficient than humans.

A second major difference was that the Wodenites had advanced far beyond anything that humans had so far managed to achieve. One particular field of development was in understanding the basic building blocks of life - DNA.

Wodenites had eradicated all known diseases and had altered their DNA so that it continuously repaired and regenerated itself. As a result, life expectancy for a Wodenite was over one thousand of Earth's years. This wasn't immortality - Wodenites were still susceptible to injury - but it was close.

Another technological advance in modifying DNA was the Wodenites' breakthrough in 'splicing' an addition to the basic genome (the hereditary information encoded into the DNA) that gave each new life the instant memory of everything that was known on Woden.

Each Woden child was therefore born completely aware and there was no need for the many years that humans wasted in attending school and university. Instead, each Woden child was nurtured in the bosom of its family so that it grew emotionally until it could eventually make a valuable contribution to society.

Simeon reached the cargo bay and quickly identified the pods that he wanted to seed this new planet with. His selection covered the entire range of flora and fauna that would eventually multiply and become a resource that could be harvested to help sustain Simeon's home planet.

He thoroughly checked each pod to make sure it was in perfect working order, but failed to feel the minute scratch from one pod that tore a tiny fragment of the skin from his fingertip.

Satisfied with the pods, he loaded them into his craft's deployment system and returned to the cockpit to launch.

Simeon paused for a moment, looking down at the surface of the planet before he pressed the launch key.

"I remember my very first seeding. I was excited, high on the feeling of power, the feeling that I was creating life on a new planet. Where has that gone? It's all become routine, almost like planting a garden."

He sighed and his right hand stabbed forward to press the launch button. Once he was satisfied that everything had gone as planned, Simeon turned his attention to his instruments in the search for the next likely planet upon which to continue his mission.

The Woden spacecraft hurtled off into space, leaving the pods to head for the surface of the great planet below. If Simeon had known what he had set in train he would have been appalled, but he flew on, oblivious to the events about to unfold.

Each pod was protected by a powerful force field that completely surrounded it so that entry through the planet's atmosphere did no damage. They were already scanning the planet's surface and computing the optimum pattern that would 'seed' everything just right.

The pods carrying the flora - the plant-life - sensed the planet's geography and climate and proceeded to 'drop' their seeds into the skies above the spots where they would do best.

The pods carrying the fauna - the animal-life - were programmed differently. They too sensed the geography and the climate, as well as the details of where the flora was being seeded. Instead of dropping seeds, these pods fired out thousands and thousands of tiny metallic balls.

Chapter 2 »