A team of archaeologists - standing beside one of the large buildings - looked disturbed. A pair of drones had disappeared. Now it was obvious that the city wasn't a peaceful place, ready for a carefree exploration.

"Perhaps, we have encountered a strange phenomenon?" Cristii'ian - a male assistant - suggested, but even he knew that it was unlikely.

"Possibility is low." the professor answered.

"Agree." Lii'inda - a female assistant - supported her mentor's words.

"The local life form?" Cristii'ian suggested again.

"Unsure. Probability is about 20%."

"Agree." the female abrai said.

"Some intruders? A young race?"

"Unsure. Possibility is over 40%. Possibility is lower than 20%."

"Agree. No data. Need to withdraw. Can be dangerous. Probability is over 50%." the female abrai said.

"Agree."

"Agree."

As one, the three abrai turned into the direction of their base and began to walk there. Drones flew around them. The expedition had seven of them now, plus two military drones in the base.

+++

Crunch..! Crunch..!

Seed was devouring a pair of drones. The black ball wasn't in a hurry. He did it gradually. He wanted to squeeze every piece of knowledge from the machines. Sadly but Seed hadn't got a lot. As a result, his understanding of drones improved but just a bit.

I think it's no sense to hunt more tasty things down. The black ball concluded, watching the humanoid group.

Um? Where are you going now? He noticed as they began to move.

Seed decided to follow them. It turned out that the humanoids had come to their base. Every part of the base looked tasty.

Eating it will give me a lot of knowledge, Seed realized. I can't even imagine how many interesting and useful things I will be able to create.

As well, the black ball wasn't against the idea of getting those aliens' DNA.

Their genes may come in handy.

Seed hid in the jungle close to the base and began to observe it. Careful observing could help to find weak and strong sides of their base.

+++

A night had passed. No one disturbed the abrai's expedition.

The abrai analyzed all their information and sent it to the ship's AI. They had even consulted with some specialists. But no one could tell what had caused the disappearance of their drones.

In the morning the expedition's members decided to continue their mission and gather more information about their missing drones. They left their base and moved to the city. The archaeologists took one of the military drones with them. It was armed and armored much better than the rest of the civilian drones.

That day passed peacefully. The expedition hadn't found anything new about their missing drones, but at least they could concentrate their attention on their work again. They discovered some samples of writing of the former inhabitants of the city. Their language hadn't been found in the database. It meant that the race, which lived here, wasn't known to the rest of the galaxy.

And never would, it seems. The professor thought, studying those samples.

With sophisticated AI - and numerous data from many other languages of other races - it wasn't difficult to begin to read this language. Yes, a translation wasn't correct sometimes, but it was a normal working process.

Soon we will read their texts without any mistakes.

The acquired text samples were as follows: a part from an account book, a registration of ownership of a vessel, and a trade agreement.

Late in the night the archaeologists had returned to the base. They needed to analyze the gathered data and have some rest.

+++

All the long night Seed was busy. He crawled around the base on his tentacles. He had realized that its monitoring and defensive system was superb. It was difficult to fool it.

Now Seed knew the base quite well. Hence, the black ball withdrew in the jungle. He had a plan.

Seed found and killed an animal. From its biomass he created some tiny bugs - which weighed a little - and added to their structure a pair of wings and a small cluster of psy-cells. It turned them into perfect puppets.

Seed brought his creatures to the abrai's base and a long series of experiments began. At first the shield generator was repelling the little intruders, then - when the Seed had strengthened their disguise and added some modifications - the bugs got in.

Finally!

As a life form these bugs were pathetic. A short-living fragile creatures, which spent a lot of energy in a second just to maintain their life. Their system was a complete mess. But only these ugly monsters with metallic and mineral augmentation over their bodies could fool the base's AI.

Seed watched as a small number of the insects hid in the park. It was too risky to send many.

A little later the black ball moved deeper in the jungle.

Okay, let's wait.

+++

In the morning the abrai left their houses. The drones began to gather a supply that could be useful for their masters.

As usual, all archaeologists wore their space suits, but - being under the protection of the base - they didn't put on their helmets. It was comfortable to breathe some fresh air in a safety zone.

No one noticed as some tiny insects left the park and landed on abrai's open skin gently. Each bug took a sample of its victim's DNA.

Good. No one noticed anything.

Seed brimmed with joy. Everything had happened according to his plan.

Now I need to wait when my bugs get out.

Seed wanted to study their DNA as soon as possible. Because Seed had an idea to capture one of the expedition's members to disguise himself as one of them later. Seed doubted that even a good medical scanner would find the truth. For this purpose he needed the abrai's DNA samples. Besides, knowing their biology means knowing all their race's weaknesses.

Soon the bugs had brought the abrai's blood to Seed, but it turned out that the DNA's code was encrypted. It wasn't possible to read it. All Seed's abilities helped him to crack it partially. As a result, he got almost nothing.

And what am I going to do now?

+++

Several days passed peacefully for the expedition. No drone had disappeared and anything strange had happened. The abrai continued their work. Every day they got more data about the ancient inhabitants of the city. Gradually the perished primitive civilization was coming to life in their mind. It was an interesting time for each archaeologist.

An alarm disturbed the expedition again when the abrai worked in the city, close to each other. It was a safe measure. No one knew what had happened to the missing drones yet.

A source of alarm was a group of alive beings which were coming to the expedition's members fast.

Give me a picture. The professor commanded his implant.

A moment later he watched as a group of armed primitives headed toward the abrai. His assistants watched the same transmission.

"Intelligent form of life. Unexpected." the professor commented.

"Agree."

"Agree."

"They know we are here," Cristii'ian said.

"Possibility is high."

"Agree." Lii'inda nodded.

"Should talk with them," the professor suggested.

"Agree."

"Agree."

The abrai stood shoulder to shoulder with the drones behind them. They weren't afraid of the primitives. As representatives of Hegemony - and as members of the elder race - it was their duty to handle such situations with dignity, and preferably peacefully.

+++

Seed - hidden in one of the buildings - observed a historical moment, a moment of the first contact between the abrai and the mouchi races.

Several days ago Seed thought over what he should do with the humanoids. The idea of disguising himself as one of them looked pretty bad without the abrai's cracked DNA. Besides, Seed realized that the possibility of failure was very high, even if he had DNA. He didn't know anything about a potential victim. Taking the base by force was also out of the question. The defensive system could detonate it.

Therefore, Seed was going to play the first contact card. A few days back he had ordered - with the help of the psy-cells - a group of mouchi to come to the city.

The abrai didn't look like a bloodthirsty race. It was a chance that the abrai would share some knowledge with the mouchi on their good will, or even would help the hamsters to become a young space civilization.

Now Seed waited for that fateful historical moment with great anticipation.