civilization. Perhaps a civilization which is totally computerized and mechanical. A race of super-robots even. They wanted to find out if there was life of their kind anywhere else in the galaxy, so what did they do? They made thousands, or millions of these things, these, er, probes - call them what you will. They sent them out across the stars, like seeds, and some landed on planets and waited.

"Along comes an intelligent creature, like ourselves. We remove the covering to the seed, by using highly complex movements with our hands, and the seed begins to grow. So far so good. There is now a fairly good chance that the plant will be able to complete its life cycle. The next stage is to set up the lure, and see if a creature can reach the top of the seed-head."

"What would have happened if someone had come here wouldn't it Dad? Good think you didn't tell anyone!"

"And maybe," continued Brad, "Once the plant was pollinated, it might have sent a signal to whoever sent it, to tell them it had found a planet suitable for them to live on!"

"Cool Dad! Maybe it was a race of super robots!"

"I doubt it," said Brad, "Man has never managed to design anything cleverer than his own body, so it's pretty unlikely that a robot could make something this far ahead of it's own structure!"

"Oh, yeah," said Terran, not really understanding.

"I think the plant would have transmitted a signal to it's makers, to let them know that a possible threat to their civilization existed. You see those rods sticking out at the top? The stalk is a transmitter as well as a lure. Just as in Nature, design can have many different functions.

"So the transmitter sends a signal to the inventors, and what do they do? They immediately dispatch ships to investigate. They reach our planet and do a survey, then, probably, they remove the intelligent life which may one day be a threat. Having rid the galaxy of a potential threat, they populate the planet themselves."

"You don't know though Dad, they might have been friendly?" said Turran.

"Nature has little compassion, son" said Brad, "It tends to kill what it wants to kill and never apologizes. Survival is Nature's main reason for life. Do you think machines would be any different?"

Turran didn't answer. He didn't know.