Mirov and his crew were in the terrestrial past, in the region that corresponds to the current African continent. He began to put into practice the second phase of the operation, with the implantation of the extraterrestrial embryos. The scouting ships descended to Earth, carrying the genetic material. Mirov, Radof, Kirubi, and Croiff teleported to the solid ground and eagerly awaited the arrival of the future inhabitants of Earth.

The engineers carefully prepared the delicate genetic material for implantation in the terrestrial environment. Hundreds of incubators were used to promote embryo growth at the appropriate temperature and environment. After hours of work, all the embryos were positioned in several caves. It was time to select a group to stay there, taking care of them.

Among the elders of the mission, four crew members were selected to care for the new inhabitants of the planet and protect them until adulthood. One was an experienced doctor, and the other, a military officer. The other two were a couple who would look after the children and monitor their growth and development.

Mirov gave direct orders to the designated crew members to take care of the new beings that would grow in the planet. The extraterrestrials could live for many years, due to the advances achieved with genetics therapy, techniques of rejuvenation, not only in the aesthetic appearance, but in the whole body system. This way, they could accompany their children for several generations, accompanying the development of the Terran population.

"Dr. Yulla, you'll be the head of the group and will take care of the health of the implanted embryos. They should reach adulthood and reproduce themselves, thus perpetuating our species. Use the equipment we're leaving on the scout ships for exams and treatment.

"You may be unconcerned, sir, because we'll carry out this mission with all the knowledge we have acquired," said the doctor.

"Sergeant Ushipa, you'll be responsible for the military protection of the group and the survival of the children who'll grow on this land. They will evolve by their own means without our technology. I'll return in a distant future to teach them our education. I'll leave our best weapons for you to protect them. You'll have a scout ship for reconnaissance missions. If those giant reptiles that we used to extinguish humans appear, destroy them. Nothing should prevent the development of our race. From now on the planet Earth is totally ours."

"Yes, sir. I'll carry out my mission with my own life," said the soldier.

As for the couple who would care for the new inhabitants, Mirov ordered them to take care only and exclusively of the physical and psychic welfare of the beings implanted on the planet, as if they were their own children, as the lionesses defend their offspring. They couldn't have their own descendants; they should supervise and care for the new beings.

It was time to return to Earth's future and prove the success of that mission. Mirov needed to reap the fruits of those seeds and reign over the new inhabitants of the planet. In the future, he also needed to set a trap for when he had to face his worst enemy.

The group that stayed on Earth looked at the big battlecruiser Genesis taking off towards the cosmos. They knew they could never see their similar again. All that remained was for them to watch over the embryos as mothers take care of their offspring.

And so, the time passed and the designated people began to realize how different they were. At first, they thought it was some genetic mutation caused by manipulation, but then they observed that the beings developed differently from the inhabitants of the planet Life. Their bodies were full of fur, with elongated arms, strong jaws, and small skulls.

"Dr. Yulla, definitely, these embryos aren't from our planet. What could have happened? And how are we going to warn Mirov?"

She watched the growing babies and said, with emphasis:

"These are the Australopithecus! Relatives of homo sapiens, our ancestors. Our ruler Mirov's whole plan is compromised, thanks to this. Even if we can take care of these specimens, it will take hundreds of thousands of years for them to develop into our species."

The geneticist doctor raised a hologram from her bracelet and everyone watched as the image of an adult Australopithecus rotated, showing his characteristics. Nearby, a band of hominids jumped from branch to branch, jumping through the trees, as if sensing the presence of strangers in their habitat. An alert cut the air from the mini base where they stood, beeping intermittently.

"We're detecting the presence of other native beings, and in the speed, they move, they will arrive here quickly. What do you suggest we do with these specimens?"

"Sergeant Ushipa, by this time Captain Kirubi's ship is thousands of years into Earth's future. The beings we're caring for will be those that would develop into a new race of inhabitants of planet Earth. But we can't communicate with our ship or anyone else. We're stuck in the past, loners and proprietors of the decisions that can change the world. I'll think of the best way out." She replied, watched by the other couple who accompanied them.

"Wouldn't it be better to destroy these embryos?"

"Please, sergeant, do the security service for which you were assigned and let me make the decisions."

After they heard the sergeant's suggestion, the couple approached them to help and took all the babies to a safe place inside the base. The sergeant saw through the area's tracking hologram the Australopithecus jumping through the trees with great agility and they were already approaching.

"But how? At this point, the dinosaurs should have already annihilated all mammals on Earth. Something very strange is happening..." Ushipa thought.

He warned the doctor, who thought about what might be happening. The sergeant summoned two robots out of the scout craft and positioned themselves at his side. A rumble was heard as the iridium metal machines descended to the floor. The soldier pressed a button on his bracelet and lifted both arms as a full combat armor left the ship's hangar to fill his body. Finally, a helm covered his head, its visor raised.

The hominids made a big fuss as they flew in the treetops, preparing for the attack. Everyone was tense. On one side, the sergeant and the robots were ready to attack, while the rest of the team tried to protect the human ancestors they had brought.

Suddenly, the confrontation broke the silence. The beings fell from the forest on the ground armed with sharp spears. The soldier stood still with the robots. The doctor asked him, through a message, not to kill the creatures until they had a good reading of the facts. What could be happening? Where were the dinosaurs? The ancestral beings wore clothes made of animal hides and had their bodies covered with hair, archaic spears in their hands and fierce war cries bursting from all sides.

"If they attack, order the robots to create a sound waves force field for them to get away," Dr. Yulla ordered.

As the creatures approached, the sergeant tensed, feeling the hostile enemy ready to subdue them. He turned on the propellants of the metal boots and began to fly over them to protect himself.

Some threw spears at him, shouting, showing the poignant, threatening canines. But the weapons were archaic and incapable of causing damage to the well-equipped soldier in full combat armor. In addition, the costume computer was able to calculate all future attacks and help him dodge.

After realizing that the visitors offered no danger, Ushipa calmed down and his helmet's visor lowered, and he, at that moment, got confused with the robots because of his appearance. The Australopithecus surrounded the strange robots and smelled them like animals, trying to decipher that enigma. Two of them circled the hermetically sealed mini-base, and four others nudged the scouting ship with the tips of their spears. After they bullied the robots and stuck their spears in them to see the reaction, the tips of the primitive weapons broke when they touched the iridium. Sergeant Ushipa ordered the robots to use a sound-wave weapon, and the human ancestors were stunned for a few seconds, almost losing their balance. Then the robots' eyes lit up as if they were going to shoot the lethal laser beams. The hominids were amazed.

"Enough!" He ordered them to stop so they would not hurt them.

Frightened, the beings returned screaming into the trees, some running over the branches and jumping to win the other tree tops, others using vines to move. Some were still stunned.

A voice sounded inside the sergeant's head, echoing the doctor's message:

"Congratulations, Sergeant Ushipa, on your calm. I thought you were going to take your pistol out of its holster and kill them all... Or give a fatal order to the robots."

"Doctor, inertia is as good as action. Especially when we don't know who the enemy is."

"I know! In this case, it's us. The house is theirs and we are invading it..."

"You're right, Doctor. Maybe we made the best decision not to reacting."

The robots returned to the ship's hangar. The sergeant went back to the base and the four of them gathered to talk.

"I don't know if you know, but we are on Earth about three million years before the civilized man. The environment is hostile and we need to protect ourselves, as well as understand what went wrong in our original plan."

The furry babies were in their incubators in a special base room.

"Instead of bringing the biological materials of beings from planet Life, we brought Australopithecus' embryos, Homo sapiens' ancestral hominids. I think since we must fulfill our life cycle on this planet and we can't leave here with this ship, which can't sail out of the atmosphere, we'll take care of each other as a surviving group and also of the lives of these specimens we brought. At least until we can adapt them to their similar groups, who have visited us just now.

"I agree, Doctor. There's no alternative."

The couple shook their heads in line and, from that moment on, lived as an extraterrestrial group in a hostile environment, protecting each other until the moment of their deaths. They programmed the ship, base, and robots for self-destruction after the death of the last of them and nursed the hominids until their inclusion in primitive society.

They were surprised that the dinosaurs never showed up again. They had been extinguished. Everything they had planned changed. In the past, present and future...

Genesis ship returned to the space to make a new trip. From the constellation of the hunter Orion, they entered a new interstellar gate, towards a few thousand years in the future.

A short time later, they saw the Earth and entered its atmosphere.

"Sir, the coordinates are correct. We arrived at planet Earth at the time you determined. We're ready to continue the new mission."

"With the usual precision, Captain Kirubi. You can prepare our arrival on the planet," Mirov replied with satisfaction.

He believed that his plan had been concluded with perfection, that the evolved race he had created had already settled down on Earth, but quickly discovered that he was completely mistaken. As soon as the reconnaissance ships landed, a surprise awaited them. Everyone was astonished to see Homo sapiens populating the entire planet.

The drones confirmed the human presence, with real images being transmitted to the computers and helmet visors. Mirov's plan had failed and they didn't even know why. The ex-emperor was blinded by hatred, and this made him even more dangerous. His mind, filled with frustration, wanted to punish those guilty of that outrage.

"But how? What the hell, it cannot be! With the presence of the dinosaurs that I created; the survival of these miserable ones wouldn't be possible. Damn!" He shouted, making everyone startled.

"And now, master, how will you solve this problem? They have already begun to spread through the Earth."

"These creatures multiplied like weeds. I need to think of a way out," the master replied, his body tense, full of anger.

Mirov pressed his teleportation bracelet and returned to the command room's bridge for more information. His eyes couldn't fool him. Everything had gone downhill.

"But how?" He asked himself.

He couldn't imagine that again the enemies had interfered in his plans. He went into his bedroom and stayed locked inside for hours. He didn't want to see anyone. He wondered how he could solve the new situation he hadn't anticipated. After much thought, he returned to the command room and said:

"Let's go to the future, team. I have something in mind. Kirubi, take us to the area of ancient Mesopotamia, where the first human civilizations formed. I won't give up. Something strange has happened and I'll find out what it was. But now I'm the one who will call the shots."

Mirov, seeing the first stage of his plan failing, saw in the idea of contacting early civilizations a means of controlling the Earth's inhabitants. With technology, knowledge, and weapons, he would have enough power to govern mankind.

"I'll be a king again! I'll rule this inferior race. I will have power... The planet will be mine!"

He imagined that the fearless commander Merko and his friends would come after him like the sun rising on the horizon. He thought of finding a way to confront him, but he couldn't imagine that his persecutors were responsible for the mission's sabotage:

"How will I be able to neutralize my enemy? He's powerful! I'll consult with my officers and find a solution to defeat Merko in a new battle."

The spacecraft headed for the Earth's future, thousands of years before the epoch that Nicholas was born. It was time to take the next step.

Captain Kirubi looked through the bridge's hatch at the stars of the hunter Orion's system and imagined how distant the stars were from each other.

Mirov approached him in the command room and asked:

"What are you thinking, Captain?"

"Mr. Mirov. I was wondering how great the universe is and how easily we can travel long distances with our technologies."

"Stop thinking nonsense and focus on our new mission! Gather all the officers and let's elaborate a plan to dominate this planet and neutralize Merko and his friends. They'll certainly come after us."

Kirubi silenced and summoned the other officers. They all headed for the command bridge on the top floor of Genesis ship. They sat at the table and waited for their leader, who came with Radof.

Mirov went to the main hatch of the bridge, from where he could observe the stars around him. He stood there for a few minutes, and everyone silently watched him. He began to think of the best way to invade and dominate the planet.

"Let's gather the human tribes of North Africa. We'll create human societies, teaching them to unite and thrive to form the first organized nations. I don't know what happened, but the beings that should be there now were the planet Life's inhabitants. Something has failed in our plan and someday I'll find out where we have gone wrong."

"Captain Merko must be behind us. We need to find a way to defeat him," Radof said.

"Our competitive advantage was the gravity-forming weapon that was able to open space-time rifts. But there's a problem: there was a prototype of this weapon in the engineering sector of our planet. If they put their hands on it, they'll be here soon", said Captain Kirubi.

"Who else knew about that?" Mirov asked.

"Some space engineers and Counselor Kenan himself. As an advisor to the Queen, he was always conferring scientific research and technological innovations because these serve as leverage to improve the benefits to society," the commander replied.

"All right, Captain. You don't have to teach me politics and social development. I was the best Coundelor on the planet and even then, those secrets were hidden from me. Thank goodness I have my own secrets. Counselor Kenan should have died in that prison. If he has any chance of doing something against me, he'll certainly do it."

One of the officers, a specialist in electromagnetic engineering, suggested:

"I think I know a way to neutralize Merko's powers."

"You may speak, Lieutenant," said the tyrant Mirov, glancing coldly at the officer's insignia.

"Everyone says his powers are related to the mastery of gravitational forces. We can create a barrier of electromagnetic waves that won't allow him to interact with gravity. First, we'll let him penetrate the planet's gravity with his ships, and then we'll activate our antigravity weapon. We can use the same principles that guide the fabrication of the gravity-forming weapon. Once inside our electromagnetic field, the powerful Captain Merko won't be able to use his telekinesis and will be like any of us," the lieutenant continued.

"But we don't have a weapon that can create such electromagnetic waves," Kirubi said.

"I personally assisted in the construction of the gravity-forming weapon, and the principle is the same. It works with a system of electromagnetic waves, capable of deforming the gravitational field, creating artificial wormholes. To inactivate Commander Merko's power, we'll use these waves to create a force field that will prevent him from controlling gravity."

"Could you explain more clearly, Lieutenant?" Mirov asked.

"Yes, sir. We can create a force field around Earth that prevents Captain Merko from interacting with gravity. For this, we'll design architectural structures that I can draw with our engineers and install them all over the planet. And the best part is that we can use the humans as slaves, influencing them to work for us. We can say that the structures are tombs that will lead them to eternal life. When they see our technology, they'll easily believe us."

"Brilliant, Lieutenant. If it's really possible, I want you to do it," Mirov said.

Captain Kirubi had good knowledge of physics and asked:

"How will we build a weapon with such technology that it's capable of establishing an energy field around the whole planet? I mean thousands of square miles. We would need a lot of technicians and we don't have enough manpower."

"I need to meet with the other engineers and think of a way to create this technology. Please, Captain, give me some time and I'll come back with new answers."

Therefore, Mirov gave an order to the captain.

"Go down to the planet. There's no danger. We're in the epoch of the first human tribes. Their weapons are precarious and we'll think of a way to approach them to dominate them. There are no radars or technology or any political organization."

The aliens landed in the region of Mesopotamia, near the banks of the Tigris River. The people who lived there were frightened by the colossal size of the flying object, which landed slowly in front of them.

The lights of the ship dazzled their eyes. The humans placed their hands over their eyes to protect them. Immediately, they bowed in a sign of respect, haunted by that vision, and knelt with devotion. They imagined that the gods were coming...

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