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Ontar hadn’t expected to survive the crash. Which was an odd expectation, considering beings such as he never expected to die, either.
The crash happened during what humans would later call the Upper Paleolithic age on Earth. And though he had been to Earth not long before the crash, he was far from there when his ship failed him.
But not as far as had been planned.
Now he could do nothing but watch. And listen. And monitor. The specimens in the hold of his ship had mostly been killed. Those who weren’t were quickly preyed upon by the fierce animals from a planet with no name. But the Seeders had already done their job. The genetic altering was complete.
These fierce animals would now develop a great civilization. They’d been destined for extinction on their native world. On this world, where Ontar now watched their progress, they would dominate both physically and mentally.
That was the plan, after all. Just not on this particular world.
And Ontar had a front row seat to watch and monitor and record it all. Most of his sensory programs still worked, and his energy unit was intact. To save himself from sheer boredom, he set his sleep cycles to wake him every five hundred years so he could review what had happened and decide when, if ever, to reveal himself to this planet’s new masters.
If something interesting happened, of course he would awaken sooner.
And so it was for 20 cycles, but in the 21st, when he was awakened after only 324 years, he knew something of significance must be happening.
And so it was. His crashed ship had been found. And his monitors told him the new masters of this planet were no longer alone, but had been joined by the very species they had been saved from on their planet of origin.
Now, this was interesting!