" Antes do Éden ", um conto de Arthur C. Clarke ; publicado pela primeira vez em Amazing Stories , junho de 1961 , disponível em o Arquivo da Internet .
Existem três astronautas, não dois. O planeta é Vênus:
Yet for all this, it was a miracle—the first free water that men had ever found on Venus. Hutchins was already on his knees, almost in an attitude of prayer. But he was only collecting drops of the precious liquid to examine through his pocket microscope.
Os homens observam o organismo enquanto comem o almoço, partem, sem saber, deixando a morte atrás deles no lixo - pontas de cigarro, latas, embalagens - uma bonança que a criatura se move para dissolver e ingerir, junto com os organismos microscópicos baseados em humanos que destruirão o ser alienígena.
And then it feasted, on food more concentrated than any it had ever known. It absorbed the carbohydrates and the proteins and the phosphates, the nicotine from the cigarette ends, the cellulose from the paper cups and spoons. All these it broke down and assimilated into its strange body, without difficulty and without harm. Likewise it absorbed a whole microcosm of living creatures—the bacteria and viruses which, on an older planet, had evolved into a thousand deadly strains. Though only a very few could survive in this heat and this atmosphere, they were sufficient. As the carpet crawled back to the lake, it carried contagion to all its world.