Conscientious

“Shall I bother?” thought Zakowski. “It’s a long, long way to go
And germination prob’ly won’t take place.
If I just go on back home, chances are they’ll never know –
It’s only fifteen parsecs back to base.

“If just one in a thousand will accept the DNA,
The odds are quite against this trip’s success.
I must have done ten thousand since the scheme got underway,
And only five have taken, maybe less.

“My wife is waiting for me, now the mission’s near its end.
I’ve missed her in the months we’ve been apart.
Her hologram’s quite faded and, besides, it doesn’t lend
Itself to any matters of the heart.”

But Zakowski was an honest man who worked hard for his pay
And he fully understood the mission’s worth.
So, with crate-loads of amoeba piled up in the holding bay,
He turned the spaceship round to planet Earth.