The last hope of humanity was in the cruel hands of nature. It was hoping against hope, a probability so small that it was mathematically inconceivable; a tiny space probe- an insignificant chunk of metal. As it seems, cosmos had an odd sense of humor.
The probe moved on and on through space, with a velocity of thousands of meter per second, yet comparable to a snail. It continued its journey through infinite darkness, for millions of years, yet covering only a fraction of a second of cosmic evolution. How much distance it covered? How many traps it dodged? How many hungry stars it avoided? No one knows, no one can tell. But one day it reached where it was supposed to be, an unknown destination.
"Sir, we have spotted an unknown probe reaching our planet."
"Is it manned?"
"Probably not, Sir."
"Where has it come from?"
"Unknown, Sir."
"Send a shuttle to bring it safely back here."
"Yes, Sir."
"What does it contain?"
"Sir, it contains a lot of information encoded in electromagnetic pulses."
"What kind of information?"
"It contains the precise coordinates of a planet, named Earth, with a large number of pictures of its atmosphere, oceans, surface, geographical features and some kind of a vertebral carbon-based life. In it are also present the pictures and information of its primary star, a yellow dwarf, along with certain other information about the planet such as its annual, seasonal and average temperature."
"Anything more?"
"Yes Sir, the genetic sequence of a male and a female from a race, called 'humans' or 'Homo sapiens', and certain other vital biological, chemical and physical data, along with a request."
"A request?"
"The humans, now extinct, beg us for a favor- to find a planet similar to Earth, and then recreate humans using that data, and then allow them to evolve on that planet."
A long pause followed. An important decision was being made, a decision that would shape the future.
"Have you ever wondered why we are here? What is the purpose of our presence? What did we evolve for? Did we evolve just to extinguish like a weak flame, but in the process relight another? Were we made for this very moment? Do you think it were our efforts which led us to the discovery of how to reproduce life? It was a chance observation, a mere accident. We were meant to learn that, it had already been decided. We are nothing but toys in the hands of nature. Were we created just to give life back to an extinct race and then die? We may never know, but I am not going to interfere with the work of cosmos. Call the top biologists of our planet and tell them to work on this code. I want to fulfill their request. I will give them the gift of life. Let us then wait and observe. Perhaps these humans would be destined to return our gift, one day."
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