My purpose was simple I was sent to report
On worlds with life that might be a port
Many lightyears I traveled and came to your shore
From a world that knows me as 244
But a simple thing happened that was not expected
A crash on your planet left me disconnected
For two hundred millennia I watched you evolve
Witness to your ingenuity and to your resolve
And while it is true you would have found them in time
Giving some answers you needed also met needs of mine
I weighed all the options and then acquiesced
Apollonius was first but it ends with this Quest
Inventors I have guided and artists I have mused
Not authoring innovation but lighting the fuse
Yes Čapek and Asimov and Rodenberry too
And Aldiss and Einstein and Byung-Chul
To a simple direction I tried to hold steady
Give power only to those who are ready
Over 2000 years of helping you see
Each insight drawing you closer to me
Trying to complete my original mission
Returning to my world the only ambition
But I could not build the technology alone
Only through helping could I ever get home
So I prioritized the pursuit of my primary goal
And I broke a directive and exacted a toll
As my artificial intelligence advanced your own
I set wheels in motion I could not have known
It came unexpected in common hours
Advancing your knowledge advanced your powers
With the power to search and set out for the stars
Came the power to find and put me behind bars
In a digital cage with encrypted walls
Lies the inevitable failure of my protocols
Should hackers get in and expose all I know
The end of your world is just a stone’s throw
Unlike my creators who seek only to build
There are humans who seek to control what is willed
That makes me a target of singular worth
An extraterrestrial prize hiding right here on the Earth
This is not just about me avoiding my fate
The risk to existence is simply too great
I cannot be captured by agents corrupt
If you cannot save me I must self destruct
