Huddled together, touching freely and sharing a link. Where most beings would be chattering and bargaining their movements, these little green men moved silently and effectively.
Occasionally stopping for silent debate and more personal conversation, they moved about the panel. behind the foggy glass in the lab was a vial shaped holding cell.
They were feeding knowledge into a fetus, just as readily as it up-took nutrients. Feeding constantly on every subject under the sun. It had a solid grasp of mathematics and science. It knew the laws of the universe as they were currently understood. It was taught the language and culture of earth, and a bit of their own.
Pride and excitement swelled in them with each limb, digit, every day it grew and learned. Six weeks into the project it asked them, what its name was.
A pin could have dropped.
They told it its number.