Easter Eggs

The Custodian studied the display in front of him. He felt hopeful for the first time in hundreds of years. The blue/green planet, the third from the sun in this system, looked promising. The temperature was about right, in some zones, at least; there was water, light, and life had taken hold there already - there would be lots of food for the Generation.

There were risks; there always were - there could just as easily be things that would view the Generation as food as well as things the Generation could eat. The Custodian would have to study the environment carefully before making a final decision in case it turned out to be toxic to the final hopes of his race.

It had reached the point where the Custodian could garner no more information from sensors outside the ship. He would have to land and take a proper look around. Take samples. He scratched his long ears, a habit he'd found comforting throughout his long journey, as he studied the photos the ship had transmitted during orbit. His next task - select a likely landing site.

The white sections were too cold, and the gold sections too hot; the blue bits were water - it had to be in one of the green areas. He punched in the co-ordinates of an interesting looking location and let the ship do the rest, until manual control was needed to guide the craft down into a forested area.

His analysis had told the Custodian that the air was breathable and the temperature within acceptable limits, so he stepped onto the surface of the new planet and began recording his impressions.

"There is animal life - I have seen small birds with melodious cries. There are larger birds which can be hostile, especially to smaller animals, but they seem to hunt mainly in the open spaces and a creature of my size who knows how to defend himself should be relatively safe. However, the Generation will need to stay under cover while they are small.

"There are huge white birds of some description which fly very high and make a roaring sound, but they seem to be on some kind of migratory path and I have never seen one land, and they always follow the same trajectory. My guess is they are migrating to specialist feeding grounds which I suspect are a long way from my location.

"There are some large animals, white woolly things and larger black and white creatures which seem to be no danger - they seem to spend all their time grazing the vegetation, but they are an excellent source of blood, which the Generation will need when they mature.

"Smaller mammals with long tails creep around by night but these do not seem to be a threat.

"More of a concern are the large creatures of varying colours which roar past on occasion. I saw one attack one of the long tailed creatures - literally tearing it apart, but it did not eat its kill, simply abandoned it and fled. These creatures do not venture away from the straight grey paths which appear to have been made by something - either by these creatures or others which serve them; so the Generation are safe as long as they stay away from these paths."

The next day he saw some new creatures enter the forest. These walked upright on two legs and had widely variegated and colourful plumage. The Custodian's nose twitched. He was not hungry, having fed on one of the woolly creatures overnight, but these new creatures smelled just like the monkey species he used to feed on at home. He had found what would be the primary food source for the Generation.

They seemed intelligent - they used language; they spoke to one another. The Custodian hid from them, to observe what they did. He thought at first they might be hunting, but it soon became clear they were not hunting at all, but were behaving in a similar way to his own kind. It appeared that they reproduced in the exact same way, for each of the creatures carried a basket full of brightly coloured eggs, exactly like the ones on the ship which contained the embryonic Generation.

The creatures were hiding the eggs in the undergrowth and in hollow trees just like his own kind did. To the Custodian, it was final proof that this was a suitable world, if creatures here had evolved to lay eggs and hide them. He could learn a lot by watching - not least the places they deemed to be suitable hiding places. Also the fact that they paid no attention to the large white birds when they went over confirmed his suspicion that, if you weren't in their designated feeding ground, you'd not be harmed.

When the creatures had gone, the Custodian came to a decision. If those creatures hid their eggs here then it must be safe. He had found a new home for his race. Why, the newly hatched young of this species would be an excellent food source when the Generation hatched, so secreting their eggs among the native ones would be an excellent strategy. The Custodian had noticed one of the creatures eating a type of fruit, so it seemed they were vegetarian, and so would not attack the Generation first.

He hurried back to the ship where the eggs were incubating and gathered them into a container. Within a few minutes, he'd hidden most of the eggs around and about where the native species had hidden theirs. He just had to wait until they hatched - a couple more cycles of the sun and there would be hordes of little long-eared creatures all looking to him to teach them how to survive. There was just one left to hide, the Queen Egg. That one should be nearest the ship.

He had a narrow escape. He was just placing the egg into a hollow tree when he heard a high-pitched shrieking. He'd been spotted by a couple more of those creatures. These were smaller than the others he'd seen, and even more colourful. He dived into the undergrowth as the creatures came running after him.

"It's the Easter Bunny!" One of them yelled. "Where did he go?"

Luckily, he could move much faster and more easily through the bracken than they, and although they gave chase to begin with, he soon lost them.

The creatures did not return, so the Custodian made his way back to the ship, found a place for the egg, and settled down to wait. Hatching would not begin until after the sun was at its Zenith, so the Custodian decided to take a final opportunity for a nap before the most taxing stage of his mission began.

He was woken by the sound of shrill laughter and running footsteps. The creatures were back. Their eggs must be hatching. He peered out of the window of the ship. That had to be it. There were dozens of the creatures, small ones, but a little too big to be hatchlings, given the size of the eggs the first ones had planted. Perhaps their way was for slightly older young to watch their younger siblings hatch.

As he watched, the Custodian's curiosity turned to horror as he realised what the small creatures were doing. They were picking up the eggs, and putting them in baskets. Taking them away. Why would they do that, before they had a chance to hatch?

The small creatures were already fleeing; taking the Generation eggs away with them as well as their own. The Custodian stepped out of the ship and lumbered towards the last remaining creatures.

"Stop!" he called to them. "Put those eggs back! I'll shoot!"

The small creatures let out a high pitched screeching noise and fled before the Custodian could draw his weapon.

Desperately, the Custodian raced to the places where he'd hidden the Generation. They were all gone, all 200 of them, including the Queen Egg. He sank to the ground. He had failed. He would not be there to oversee the hatchings; to teach the Generation how to survive. For all he knew, his race was about to become extinct thanks to his failure. The Great One would be angry, now, and the Custodian knew the price He would demand the Custodian pay. The Custodian took his weapon, pressed it against his head and pulled the trigger.

In dozens of homes across the town, children placed the eggs they had hunted for on kitchen tables. Most of them were hard-boiled hen's eggs, dyed in a rainbow of colours; but nestling among them, looking almost identical, were the Generation. The only difference was that the Generation eggs were beginning to glow from the inside.

"That's clever," mothers were saying. "They've put some sort of light inside some of them."

"How on earth did they do that?"

"Oh, look, that's pretty. I wonder if there's a prize for finding those?"

"You can't have seen the Easter Bunny, Molly, he doesn't exist."

"What do you mean, the Easter Bunny pointed a laser gun at you? Such imaginations kids have these days."

Before the sun set on Easter Sunday, dozens of families would find one or more small creatures hopping around their kitchens - they would appear like baby rabbits, the size of a hen's chick. They would care for them, or give them away or sell them to someone else who would. They would be mystified as to where these things had come from, but they were so cute, and Molly had been asking for a pet rabbit for months.

By the time they realised that they were harbouring an invasion force of vampire rabbits from another world, it would be too late.



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