Fossils

- This is the right planet, isn’t it?

- Yes, sir, it is.

- But I thought we were supposed to find large quantities of fossil fuel that we’d be able to extract…

- Something’s not right, sir. There’s still fuel on the planet, but it seems to be scattered around, and available in very small quantities inside… machines…

- You’re not saying…

- I’m afraid so, sir. Some form of wildlife seems to have evolved to stage 1 and has been harvesting fuel for combustion engines. It’s nearly all gone…

- Don’t they know how dangerous that thing is? Or is it one of those species that are immune to it?

- I wouldn’t know about immunity, sir, but they’re only at stage 1, so it’s likely they don’t have full grasp over the matter yet.

- Oh, well… How many of these creatures are there?

- Billions, sir.

- Very well, then… Track down the nearest class C asteroid and bring it in; we’ll start everything again. We’ll come back to this one in a few hundred million years.