The Yield

The ground shook slightly as the humongous beast made its way lethargically towards the lake, pushing its heavy body through the sea of pre-historic tress, crushing them under its feet as if they were tiny insects. The beast took pride in the fact that it was the largest being in the world, with none to challenge it. It would take half a dozen of the world’s deadliest predators to bring it down, but these predators never worked together; for in this world full of scaly, pre-historic creatures of various shapes and sizes, it was a fight for survival. Each being on its own, either hunting or being hunted. A typical caricature of life.

The beast spotted the lake in the distance, for its eyes were 40 feet above the ground, safely resting within its head. The head, in turn was resting on a 30 feet long neck, the neck resting on a 30 ton body. All around it, the beast could see the other species of scaly descent in their own worlds. Big mothers feeding hatchlings, or children feeding on the dead carcasses of their parents.

The lake itself had a faint shade of red. A resident of the lake had died, or had been forced to die. Nevertheless, the beast lowered its head into the lake to quench its thirst, and it started to do so in big deep gulps.

After the fourth gulp, it heard the humming.

Curious, the beast looked skyward, toward the source of the sound. The other creatures had stopped in their tracks or in-between their meals and were looking toward the heavens as well. After a frantic search, the beast spotted something amiss. There was a new addition to the sky. A gigantic black orb was in front of the great fiery orb, but much smaller in size. It appeared to be even smaller than the white orb which shone during the night with the tiny twinkling dots. But the orb was now growing bigger, as if it was falling from the sky, the humming growing louder with its descent.

The orb’s centre began to emit a whitish glow-- the beast began to sense danger. It knew retreating to its shelter was of no use; perhaps running away from the scene would save its life from whatever this entity was.

A blinding flash of bright light hit the ground far away; the deafening roar which followed shook the ground, and a gigantic wave of hot dust covered the sky, blocking the light. The mighty beast, which was near to invincibility, was vaporized in an instant. The entire planet was killed.

***

The spaceship returned to the dead planet after it had rotated a thousand times. It landed in a crater not faraway from where their genocide causing weapon had landed. Two beings, much smaller than those that had previously walked this planet, stepped out of their vehicle on two legs; heavily armoured, to protect them selves from any of the lingering, devastating effects of their weapon. With them, they carried a device which took two pairs of hands to carry. They placed it on the ground, next to the now vaporized remains of a gigantic creature, its long neck pointing towards the crater. The device between their hands had already started to work before it touched the ground. A few moments after planting it to the ground, the device began to glow.

The one who was The Commander nodded to The Other.

The Other nodded, and removed a small capsule from within his armour, and placed it within the glowing device. After another approval from his Commander, he pulled a lever, and the machine responded by firing the capsule deep into the heart of the planet. the seed had been planted. Having accomplished their task, they carried the device back to their ship, ready to return to their planet and inform their people about their success.

The Commander stopped at the door’s entrance. He glanced back at the lifeless planet. A dead planet. He stared up at the sky and spotted its sun. The sun was young, still in its early years. The planet also had an accompanying satellite, with its own gravity. The conditions were ideal.

It had taken them countless cycles, debates and killings to hunt for a planet that would bear fruit to their research. And now they had found one; a planet which could harbor the form of life they wanted. Overtime, in roughly a few centuries, the planet would be reborn again, thanks to its sun, and also to its now differently composed atmosphere. But, their seed would yield the crop which they knew would hold the fate of the planet, and ultimately theirs. The beings which would sprout from the seed would change the planet’s atmosphere overtime because they have been given the intelligence to do so. They would terraform the planet, build complex structures and colonies, and just when they are about to reach their peak intelligence, their creators would return in large numbers, uprooting the crops they had sown, killing the beings or using them as slaves, and claim the planet as theirs, for their very own planet will have been destroyed, exploited to such an extent that it was no longer inhabitable. And should the same happen to this planet, they would just have to search for another one, because life is nothing but a fight for survival.