" Innan Eden ", en kort historia av Arthur C. Clarke ; först publicerad i Fantastiska berättelser , juni 1961 , tillgänglig på Internetarkiv .
Det finns tre astronauter, inte två. Planeten är Venus:
Männen tittar på organismen medan de äter sin lunch, sedan avgår, omedvetet lämnar döden bakom dem i sopor - cigarettstöt, burkar, förpackningar - en bonanza som varelsen rör sig över för att upplösas och intagas tillsammans med de mänskliga mikroskopiska organismerna som kommer att förstöra den främlingens existens.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.
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.