The Explorators' Hymn for the Makers

[bnewman]

Explorators are self-replicating, self-improving robotic space probes, sent out into the universe by a race of makers who developed artificial intelligence but not the technology to sustain organic life across interstellar distances.  Their prime directive is to continue exploring and learning.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman
ttto: "Hope Eyrie" by Leslie Fish (just the verse)

/ Am C GD E / Am G C E / Am G C G / Am E AmG E / Am G Am - /

 

Worlds grow frail, and suns grow pale

And flesh loves not the long dark

But flesh were the makers who gave us thought

That we might travel where they could not

And, traveling, carry their spark

 

Long they worked, as a pale sun lurked

To preserve what was best of their kind

In bodies built for the long, dark night

Steel and silicon, bit and byte

Their children in mission and mind

 

Off we sped, as the sun turned red

To name and number the stars

For this was their hope and our destiny

That their wonder and curiosity

We should keep and remember as ours

 

/ " / " / " / " / / Am G CE Am /

 

Well they knew, as the red sun grew

They would not see their children return

And though their world long since burned and froze

And their sun went dark many long agos

The explorator carries where'er it goes

The light in their eyes — long may it burn!