Does a Bee Care?
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Does a Bee Care is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov. It was publishd in If: Worlds of Science Fiction in June 1957.
An ovum is deposited on pre-human Earth by an alien race and in due course gives birth to a creature that takes the form of a human. Over the centuries, the creature lives amongst humans and mentally influences certain of them to advance the development of civilisation. In particular, it works on scientists and eventually it causes the development of space travel.
As the first spaceship to reach the moon in being built, the creature, now known as Kane, causes the creation of a small space in the ship, which he enters, unknown to the builders.
The ship leaves Earth and at the appropriate point, Kane departs from the ship and, now fully developed, travels unaided to its home planet.
The author draws an analogy between Kane and a bee that visits and thereby pollinates flowers at random, with no real knowledge of what it has done.
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