Ficlets

Monument - Continued

Quickly, the nanomachines spread across the tortured lanscape. Those that fell on rock began to transform the minerals into soil, while others were carried aloft where they started to transform the air itself. Thus the process of terraforming the tortured planet began.

While their brethren started the task of changing the environment, the nanomachines that fell into the warm liquid began the task of bioformation. Following instructions that were as old as time, the nanomachines create the precursors to life, as they had done on countless worlds before. Perhaps, this time, they would be sucessful.

Millenia pass and the planet becomes filled with life which evolves following the plan laid down by the ancient nanomachines, which now number in the trillions.

Soon, one species rises to dominance, gains sentience, and starts to develop a society. As if on cue, the nanomachines disappear, their jobs finished. No trace of the nanomachines, the object, or the visitor remain—at least that was the plan.

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