Crusade (short story)
"Crusade" is a short story by English writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1968 and later reprinted in The Wind from the Sun as well as The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke.
It follows the extremely long life span of an artificial intelligence that exists on a frozen planet in the vast space between two galaxies. The intelligence sends out scouts into another galaxy to seek other life like themselves, only to discover biological intelligences, whose physique is very different from their own. Tens of thousands of years pass to collect data about them, before the intelligence decides to send a "crusade", which will reach planet Earth in the year 2050.
