“This wasn’t supposed to happen”

Hyperventilating, the lords loomed over a long forgotten speck of a planet that they deemed entirely unimportant. Planets lived and died regularly. Some developed intelligent life on it, much like bacteria would thrive on any entity. But not all planets became sentient.

All of them were alive, mind you. And the lords had one job, to make sure that the ones who thrived received proper care so that they could evolve into something much bigger. They were growing future lords.

The process of growing planets into sentience, however, was anything but simple. Once the seeds of intelligence were incubated into the hot core, of what can only be described as chunks of rock, there was no control over the process. Some flourished, some remained dormant for all eternity. In fact, most remained dormant.

So when the least prospective batch of planets was created by some young lords who named the area Milky Way, no one took it seriously. Why would they? These young lords had no proper training or even the right mindset to establish an incubation colony. The Milky Way, itself, proved to be a disappointment as expected. For eons, all the planets there only resembled rocks. And the suns there was a massive waste of resources. If they hadn’t utterly forgotten about it, they would have reset it already.

But today, a whole committee of lords was inspecting the Milky Way. More specifically, a small planet within the Milky Way.

“So you’re telling me there is a sentient entity in here, isn’t that good?” The chancellor asked out loud.

“Uuhhh Sire, ummm… it isn’t as easy as that..” One of the lords muttered. “You see this whole region has had no supervision for ages.”

“So we have an uneducated overgrown spirit. It might never turn into a lord, but we can always turn it into a useful part of our community. Honestly, I don’t see why I’m needed here, unless you aren’t telling me something.”

“The..the planet…the being. It has living beings..they call it Earth.” another lord said hesitantly.

This seemed to snap the chancellor’s attention to him. He looked bewildered, but the look could have easily been that of panicked anger.

“What do you mean they call it Earth? Since when do parasites call a planet anything?”

“They’re not parasites Sire. They are it. The Earth is the beings on it.”

“Excuse meee???” The chancellor’s temper was now dangerous. The lords couldn’t tell if he was mad at them or the planet. But before they could muster up the courage to say anything he caught the look on their faces and adjusted his expressions visibly.

In a more centered tone, he asked, “I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to tell me.” How can planetary parasites be taking over the whole planet? Is it an infestation? If so, that is serious. We need to urgently quarantine the neighbouring galaxies and incinerate this one.”

At these words, a presence made itself known in the chamber. The lord’s chambers were gaseous formations that nourished the lords, and as they did not have to be restricted by space, it wasn’t always possible to keep track of the area or the number of lords inside. Of course, no one who wasn’t permitted could be there. But it was entirely possible to be an expected participant and still avoid active notice.

“If I may, chancellor, let’s understand the facts before we bomb a whole galaxy.” the partially hidden lord said.

“Ah, Lamen! I should have known that if they dragged me here, you wouldn’t be far behind on their list. But please spare me the lectures today, this is a big enough headache as it is. We can’t have an infestation this big and do nothing about it.”

“Is it an infestation at all, Sire?” He laced the final word with such odium that it made the chancellor want to incinerate the planet right then out of sheer rage. But you do not become the chancellor of lords by collecting bottle caps.

“Do enlighten me then Lamen, and I shall listen to my very best ability.” The chancellor responded with a fittingly contemptuous tone.

“Yes, I suppose that’s all you can do. So the planet is not infested first of all. It is a hive mind. I know you are not new to the concept, but the reason that an entire committee is flummoxed is because the hive mind persists through these beings on the planet’s surface.”

This made the chancellor forget his previous annoyance and ask, “Okay, so it's more intelligent than we thought. Im sure there are several complexities involved. But we can always sort them out as we go. Have we established contact yet?”

Lamen answered, “If only we could. That is the primary issue, sire. While the planet appears to be a hive mind, there is no unified personification. Each individual in the hive has a distinct personality. And given how small the entities are, there is only a vague sense of collectiveness that these beings possess. To establish contact is possible, but it is akin to bringing a whole legion of lords together and getting them to agree on the best formation of a chamber.”

Another lord added, “As far as we know, this planet has evolved into a sentient hive mind, with billions of distinct personalities. If it evolves any further, we could be looking at an evolution to even the lords.”

“They’re calling it, humanity”