Shoot for Earth: MedSci Missions 3

The telescope Walsh was straining to look through with his recovering eye suddenly revealed something very odd. He switched to his good eye, now that he remembered he should. On the surface of the nearby planet there was metal in motion everywhere he looked. From the vast cities to the remote tips of the poles, similar motile metal units shifted position almost continually. Reluctantly, he gave up on the scope and turned on the digital display. It gave more information, but was like watching a cartoon video instead of the real thing. There was no sign of organic particles relocating independently of the metallic units. Readings showed everything in motion had a small number of DNA molecules and a lot of iron, gold, copper, nickel, and trace elements.
Time to get onto the bridge, he thought. As much as he’d love to delve into the research on this in detail, what mission specialists needed right now was basic info that his crew was well qualified to give him. With an inner sigh, he left his sanctum under the stars to go direct all the action. Gone were the days when he could fly amongst the twinkling lights with only his instruments and samples of space debris. He was responsible now for a hundred and ninety-nine – no, they’d lost a couple, he remembered with a stab of pain – it was now ninety-seven lives.