[This story is an homage to one originally crafted by the late, great Isaac Asimov (1920-1992). The idea was his, but the words are mine. This account has been translated into English for readability.]
Their craft was small but incredibly powerful. Cramped quarters did not overly disturb the occupants. They were serene beings of extraordinary intelligence and infinite endurance. The two had become accustomed to traveling vast distances and suffering interminable spans of time in the lonely vacuum of deep space. They had not seen "home" in so long that their memories of that place had become stylized and suspect.
The elder, and leader of the team, was Sthon-ghta. Her name could be roughly translated as "Master Gardener." Her teammate, eternal partner, and pilot was called Gsainmht. Even he was not completely sure what that moniker signified, but it rolled off the tongue well and conveyed a feeling of trust and safety. He was a superb navigator who displayed an almost uncanny calm in the face of the most calamitous situations. Sthon-ghta could hardly have invented a better companion for their journey. They traveled enormous distances together, stopping only infrequently at pre-arranged destinations.
The duo maneuvered their nimble vehicle along a series of waypoints highlighted in an immersive, interactive map of sorts. Colors defined distances and orientation within the craft extrapolated direction based upon incredibly complicated calculations involving time and relative motion. Neither wayfarer had any idea how that worked, nor did they need to have any such knowledge. They were travelers and surveyors, not astrophysicists.
Much of the time aboard was spent in a dreamlike state which they shared by something akin to telepathy. This sharing allowed them to interact in a physical world that did not actually exist, based upon their memories or the inventions of one another's fertile minds. What they experienced as the passage of time was actually an artifice developed by other great thinkers of their home world to compensate for the nearly incomprehensible velocity of their small ship.
On their current tour the pair had already made several fruitful layovers at interesting planets scattered many light-years apart throughout the region of space assigned to them. The team's next contact was just ahead, relatively speaking.
After traversing a vast section of featureless space they entered a familiar region. Familiar because others had passed this way before and those recollections had been shared with both travelers. Sthon-ghta smiled as she picked out a few marker stars within their map. Gsainmht had noticed them much earlier but waited patiently for his soul mate to catch on. He touched her briefly and affectionately as he made minor corrections to their course.
"We're getting close now, my love," he offered.
She returned his touch and said, "We'll be free of this container soon, darling, at least for a short while."
He nodded his reply and tried to empathize with her desire for a change of scenery. Personally, he didn't mind the voyage nearly so much as she did. But then, his mission was to get there, and hers was to analyze and adjust things once they arrived. Understandable differences in their personalities, he mused.
"What do you think we'll find, Gsai?" she asked with renewed enthusiasm.
"I'm sure I cannot even imagine, sweetheart," he said. "No doubt you will find whatever awaits us to be intriguing and worthy of a long report for our Administrator." This last was in a teasing tone that always made her giggle at his mock seriousness.
The voyagers entered what could be described as a long, spiral arm extending from the center of a large-size galaxy. They would remain safely distant from the engulfing black hole that formed the center of every galaxy. Out here, the stars were well-spaced and varied immensely in density, composition, and magnitude. Navigating this sparsely-populated sector was relatively simple. After a few more minor corrections Gsainmht managed a smile of his own.
"There, just ahead, Sthon. Do you see it?" She squeezed her response, and he felt her straighten in anticipation of their arrival.
Their waypoint now was a smallish yellow star of moderate brilliance. Their name for it was Rsgahg. The word appeared as a floating label as their target grew larger and assumed its natural color. As they neared, tiny spheres popped into view with superimposed trails of light to indicate these planets' orbits around their star.
The pair ignored the two closest-in satellites, both far too infernal for them to land upon. Gsainmht shifted slightly to lock their craft onto the exact course needed to make rendezvous with the third world from the nearby sun. As they made their approach the viewing area appeared to become immersed in the shimmering trail "behind" this small planet. Both knew it was a helpful illusion, designed to reassure the team of their impending arrival.
"It's quite beautiful," the pilot noted, with uncharacteristic levity.
"Oh, yes," the Gardener responded. She beamed with joy at this lonely and lovely jewel. It looked much as she had imagined, swirled in brilliant shades of blue and white with smudges of gray and brown and green. She pointed out a large, revolving storm hovering over an ocean area just off the coast of one of the larger landmasses.
"It looks positively vibrant," she observed.
Her pilot concurred silently as he directed the ship with more careful attention now. He had obtained complete control of the vehicle and focused most of his concentration on the feedback system that would guide them to the planet's surface. Their relative motion was now so slow that even his partner could easily follow their progress.
The planet's dense atmosphere put the craft's protective shell to the test it had endured several times during the sojourn. The travelers' previous stop was now long behind them. As the ship descended, amazing details clarified and delighted the pair. Each pointed out interesting features formed of water and rock and organic compounds. The Gardener was busy stockpiling a great quantity of mental notes when the Pilot suddenly muttered a foul oath.
"What is it?" Sthon-ghta asked, alarmed.
Gsainmht tried to control his anger. "Sthon, don't you see? Look there," he pointed, "and there. The whole damn place is infested, overrun!" His eyesight was keener than hers, but she soon agreed.
The planet's surface bore the unmistakable scars of unnatural straight lines and tiny cubic structures in clusters of varying density. Automatic chemical analysis of the lower atmosphere raised several alarms for dangerous contaminants.
"Oh, Gsai!" she sighed. "It's ruined! Our beautiful garden has been destroyed." She was near tears now.
He touched her again now in sympathy. "Unsalvageable?" he asked her.
"I'm afraid so, love. There's nothing to be saved here. How sad, how sad," she said. "I wonder what happened to all those wonderful giant reptiles we expected to see here?" she added.
The pair shared a moment of silence as the evidence of the terrible scourge became all too clear. Endless patches of abnormal features were now clearly visible wherever land interrupted the great blue oceans. Even the spectacular azure waters showed signs of coastal contamination. Sthon-ghta was stunned at extent of the encroaching infection. Both were struck speechless.
When a squadron of tiny metallic winged creatures appeared in the distance, the Pilot knew they now had no choice at all. He blinked a command, and the approaching disturbance was vaporized. He took little satisfaction in his successful response to the minor threat.
He turned to face her for a moment. "Regenerate the whole planet?" he asked, just to be sure.
She sighed again, well aware of the gravity of her responsibility. "Yes, our duty to preserve this garden is clear. Regenerate."
Their agreement was enough to initiate the sequence. A short series of pulses emanated from their ship, and the planet beneath them began to glow a soft orange hue. Soon the entire landscape, now far below , was engulfed in a conflagration. Sthon-ghta and Gsainmht knew that no remnant of the infestation could survive the inferno. Although they understood this was necessary, it still pained them to see this lovely jewel shrouded in gray and black.
They circled the slowly cooling world for a time, watching for patches of blue and brown to emerge from the dense cloud cover. When Sthon-ghta judged the conditions favorable she released the seed pods. Both watched in respectful silence as hundreds of regeneration capsules, filled with myriad strains of DNA, descended to the surface and disappeared.
At some distant point in the future another team would return in a newer craft to survey the results of this planting. Sthon-ghta and Gsainmht quietly settled back into their interstellar routine as they prepared to journey on to discover what awaited their inspection at the next garden, some light-years distant in that same galaxy.