A/N

Based on Sunken Scroll 22, in case you're wondering.

The Stars, Our Destination

From the depths of the sea we emerged long ago, seeking the light of the surface. In search of still greater lights, we now send this message into outer space, sealed in a disc. Perhaps one day, we will encounter other intelligent life...

The Guardian went over the record again. A golden disc, shining brightly in the dark between the stars. It showed two bi-pedal creatures, accompanied by a crude sketch that indicated that the probe had been launched from the third planet of their star system. Always the same message, it reflected. The same blind thrust out into the dark, in the hope that the creatures of Sol 3 were not alone. That had been 10,038 solar cycles ago. It had long since accepted that it would receive no further messages from these creatures. As long range scans of Sol 3 indicated that it had entered an ice age, and its oceans lower than they'd been for hundreds of thousands of years, it doubted that the creatures that sent this message were even still alive.

So it joined the catalogue kept by the machine. One of far too many messages sent out into the dark. This one, showing creatures of the sea. The one before, showing similar bi-pedal creatures of the land, doomed to extinction as the oceans of their world rose. Ones before that, bi-pedal, reptilian, ones who had looked to the heavens before the heavens had seen fit to smite them. Always the golden disc. Always the third planet. Always nine planets, despite the Sol system only having eight.

It was always events beyond the planet's control that saw fit to end them, but from what it had seen, they seemed intent on ending their existence regardless. The Guardian was aware of the "Turf Wars" of the last species to dominate Sol 3. Tame, by the standards of the conflicts that had come before, but not less pointless. Maybe, one day, if intelligent life rose on the planet again, it would escape the self-destruction that had plagued all those that came before it. Maybe it would reach the stars before it destroyed itself. Maybe it would escape the boundaries of its system, and find the Guardian awaiting them. Maybe when the next disc was sent, it would only contain eight planets on it. Maybe that was the piece of intelligence that all previous sapients had lacked.

But for now, the Guardian would wait.