Something is very wrong on Wolfe IV

(Below is a transcript of the final transmission from the expedition investigating the ancient civilization on Wolfe IV. Analysis of the recording indicates the speaker is Dr. Alan Tate, an exobiologist assigned to the team.)

I'm sending a blip now with all of the data we've collected. Please analyse it carefully.

We were wrong about what happened here. All this time we thought the stellar irregularities are responsible for the death of this world. It was so long ago, and the eruption from the local star was so intense, who could blame us? But we were wrong.

They were all long dead before it happened, maybe even thousands of years before. Something else wiped them out. We know what it was. What they were. Please be advised that they are still here.

We opened a chamber deep underground, and in it we found . . . things. We took a few of them back to be examined in detail. Our activities awakened them. They studied us and we didn't even know it. They learn, they adapt, very quickly. It seems to be programmed into their very nature. They knew everything about us before they struck.

Everyone else is dead. Everyone. Soon I will be, too. The reactor will go supercritical in minutes. Hopefully before . . . before they find me. I'd rather die that way than . . . oh, my god . . .

These things are parasites. They have evolved, or maybe they were created, to attack space-faring species. We managed to kill a few but there are so many, and they reproduce exponentially, as well. There were only a few of us left before we even realized what we were up against.

I know a distress call went out. Please be advised--we didn't send it. I've only now managed to gain access to the communications room. Perhaps that's part of their plan, as well . . . if they are intelligent enough to plan. Rossy (probably Dr. Melanie Ross, senior mission specialist, archeologist) thought they might just be very sophisticated animals, creatures who watch and imitate behaviours they observe in the species they infect. Maybe she was right. Now I'm not so sure.

They want you to come and try to rescue us.. That's how they''ll spread. Soon they will be everywhere and mankind will join the ranks of those who lived here before--a dead race. We won't be able to stop them.

So, please, stay away. Do not come here. Honor the names of those who died here, but leave them here. For the sake of humanity.

Goodbye. Tell Daniel (Daniel Tate, Dr. Tate's son) and Pam (Dr. Pamela Tasso, Dr. Tate's ex-wife) I love them.

(Long range sensor scans of Wolfe IV indicate areas of high radioactivity in the area where the expedition was based, consistent with a super-critical event. The decision of the Ad Hoc committee created to investigate this situation is for a team to be sent to the site for a forensic evaluation  Dr. Tate's psychological profile indicates that he was not as stable emotionally as once thought and he perhaps suffered a psycholgical break and destroyed the expedition as the result of a delusion. An on-site team will gather evidence. Analysis of the compressed data file transmitted is still pending. Any specimens found are to be gathered and returned for analysis.)