All Tomorrows

A Billion Year Chronicle of the Myriad Species and Varying Fortunes of Man
Nemo Ramet
1
2
To Mars
After millennia of earth!ound foreplay" Man#ind$s achie%ements on a noteworthy
le%el !egan with its political unification and the gradual coloni&ation of Mars' (hile the
technology to coloni&e this world had e)isted for some time" political !ic#ering" shifting
agendas and the sheer inertia of comforta!le" terrestrial usurping had made this step
seem more distant than it actually was'
*nly when the ris#s clearly !egan to present themsel%es" only when +arth$s
en%ironment !egan to !uc#le under the strain of twel%e !illion industriali&ed souls" did
Man#ind finally ta#e up the momentous tas#'
All through the decades" tra%eling to" and later settling on Mars had !een
en%isioned as ,uic#" relati%ely easy affairs- complicated !ut feasi!le and managea!le in
short term' As the push finally came to a sho%e" it was reali&ed that this was not the
case'
.t had to go step !y step' Atmospheric !om!ardment !y genetically/tailored
micro!es slowly generated a !reatha!le atmosphere in a cycle that too# centuries' 0ater"
a few cometary fragments were #noc#ed off/course to !ring forth seas" oceans- water'
(hen the wait was finally o%er" remnants of +arth$s flora and fauna were introduced as
specially/modified Martian rema#es'
(hen e%erything was ready" people came from their crowded world' They came in
one/way ships- fusion roc#ets and atmospheric gliders" pac#ed to the !rim with colonists"
sleeping in dreams of a new !eginning'
The first steps on Mars were ta#en not !y astronauts" !ut !y !arefoot children on
synthetic grass'
3
A lander ferries the first people to the pre-terraformed eden of Mars.
4
The Martian Americans
For se%eral hundred years Mars remained as a !ac#water- prospering !ut still dim
compared to the splendor of +arth" which was glowing !righter than e%er !efore' Than#s
to the relocation of en%ironmentally demanding industries to Mars" +arth could usurp
everything" without ha%ing to damage its tired !iosphere' This was the Terrestrial
1eyday- the clima) of economic" cultural and social de%elopment on old +arth'
This" howe%er" was not to last' 0i#e the gradual separation of America from her
Colonial mother" the go%ernments of Mars adopted a new" Martian identity' They !ecame
the Martian Americans'
The difference !etween +arth and the Mars was not only political' A few
generations in the lighter gra%ity ga%e the new Americans a spindly" lithe frame that
would loo# surreal in their old home' This" com!ined with a certain amount of genetic
engineering" too# the Martians$ separation to a new le%el'
For a while the silent schism !etween the two planets was mutually accepted" and
the !alance of power hung in an edgy e,uili!rium' But the Terra/Martian standoff did not"
could not last fore%er' (ith limitless resources and an energetic population" Mars was
!ound to ta#e the lead'
5
6
Ci%il (ar
The Martian turno%er was e)pected to occur in two ways- either through long/term
economical gains or !y a much shorter !ut painful armed conflict' For almost two
hundred years" the former method seemed to ta#e effect" !ut this gradual stretch
e%entually did !rea# in a most destructi%e way'
Almost since its esta!lishment" Martian culture was suffused with an e)plicit
theme of re!ellion against +arth' Songs" motion pictures and daily pu!lications repeated
these notions again and again until they !ecame internali&ed' +arth was the old" ossified
home that held humanity !ac#" while Mars was new- dynamic" acti%e and in%enti%e' Mars
was the future'
This ideology e%entually reached its semi/paranoid" re%olutionary ape)' Roughly a
thousand years from now" the nations of Mars !anned all non/essential trade and tra%el
with +arth'
For +arth" it was a death sentence' (ithout the resources and industries of Mars"
the Terrestrial 1eyday would ,uic#ly de%ol%e into a pale shadow of its former glory' Since
a trade of essential goods continued" no!ody would star%e' But for e%ery citi&en of +arth"
the Martian !oycott meant the loss of up to three fourths of their yearly income'
+arth had no choice !ut to reclaim its former pri%ileges" !y force if necessary'
Centuries after her political unification" Terra geared up for war'
Most thin#ers 2and fantasists3 of pre%ious times had imagined interplanetary war
as a glorious" fast paced spectacle of massi%e spaceships" one/man fighters and last/
minute heroics' No fantasy could ha%e !een further from the truth' (ar !etween planets
was a slow" ner%e/wrac#ing series of precisely timed decisions that spelled destruction on
!i!lical scales'
Most of the time the com!atants ne%er saw each other' Most of the time the
com!atants were not there at all' (ar !ecame a duel !etween complicated" autonomous
machines programmed to ma)imi&e damage to the other side while trying to last a little
longer'
Such a conflict caused horrendous destruction on !oth sides' 4ho!os" one of Mars$
moons" was shattered" and rained down as meteorite hail' +arth recei%ed a polar impact
that #illed of one third of its population'
Barely escaping e)tinction" the peoples of +arth and Mars made peace and re/
forged a united solar system' .t had cost them more than eight billion souls'
7
Star 4eople
The sur%i%ors agreed that massi%e changes were necessary to ensure that such a
war ne%er occurred again' These reforms were so comprehensi%e that they entailed not
political" economical !ut !iological changes as well'
*ne of the greatest differences !etween the people of the two planets was that
o%er time" they had almost !ecome different species' .t was !elie%ed that the solar
system could ne%er completely unify until this discrepancy was o%ercome'
The answer was a new human su!species" e,ually and !etter adapted not only to
+arth and Mars" !ut to the conditions of most newly terraformed en%ironments as well'
Furthermore" these !eings were en%isioned with larger !rains and heightened talents"
ma#ing them greater than the sum of their predecessors'
Normally" it would !e hard to con%ince any population to ma#e a choice !etween
mandatory sterili&ation and parenting a newfangled race of superior !eings' 1owe%er"
memories of the war were still painfully fresh" and it was easier to implement these
radical procedures in the wa#e of such slaughter' Any resistance to the !irth of the new
species did not e)tend !eyond meager complaints and tri%ial stri#es'
.n only a few generations" the new race !egan to pro%e its worth' *rgani&ed as a
single state and aided !y the technological de%elopments of the war" they rapidly
terraformed and coloni&ed Venus" the Asteroids and the moons of 5upiter and Saturn'
Soon howe%er" e%en the domain of Sol grew too small' The new people who
inherited it wanted to go further" to new worlds under distant stars' They were to !ecome
the Star 4eople'
8

9
Coloni&ation and the Mechanical *edipi
+%en for the Star 4eople" interplanetary tra%el was a momentous tas#' +arly minds
had !oggled o%er the pro!lem and fantasies such as faster than light tra%el and
hyperspace emerged as the only 6solutions7'
Simply put" it was impossi!le to ta#e a large num!er of people with enough
supplies to e%en the closest star to ma#e coloni&ation feasi!le' The e)isting technologies
could only slug along at mere percentages of lightspeed" ma#ing the ourney an epoch/
spanning affair' +normous 6generation ships7 were concei%ed and e%en !uilt" !ut these
succum!ed to technical difficulties or on/!oard anarchy after a few cycles'
The solution was to first go there" and make the colonists later' To this end" fast
and small" automated ships were sent forth to the stars' *n !oard were semi/sentient
machines programmed to replicate and terraform the destination" and 6construct7 its
inha!itants from the genetic materials stored on !oard'
A !i&arre pro!lem plagued such attempts' The first generation of humans to !e
manufactured sometimes de%eloped a strange affection for the machines that made
them' They reected their own #ind and perished after the massi%e identity crisis that
followed' This technological *edipus comple) was not uncommon- nearly half of all the
colony/founding attempts were lost through it'
+%en then" howe%er" the remaining half was enough to fill 1umanity$s own spiral
arm of the gala)y'
10
The Summer of Man
Right after Man#ind$s coloni&ation of the gala)y came its first true golden age'
Reared !y machine prophets" the sur%i%ors of the *edipal plagues !uilt ci%ili&ations that
e,ualed and e%en surpassed their Solar for!ears'
This diffusion across the hea%ens did not mean a loss of unity' Across the s#ies"
steady flows of electromagnetic communication lin#ed Man#ind$s worlds with such
efficiency that there was no colony that did not #now a!out the goings on of her distant
si!lings' The free/flow of information meant" among other things- a %astly accelerated
pace of technological growth' (hat couldn$t !e figured out in one world was helped out
!y another" and any new de%elopments were ,uic#ly made #nown to all in a realm that
spanned centuries of light'
Not surprisingly" li%ing standards rose to pre%iously unimagina!le le%els' (hile
this did not e)actly mean a galactic utopia" it was safe to say that people of the coloni&ed
gala)y li%ed li%es in which la!or- !oth menial and mental" was purely compulsory'
Than#s to the richness of the hea%ens and the toil of machines" each person had access
to material and cultural wealth greater than that of some nations today'
8uring all this de%elopment" a curious phenomenon was o!ser%ed' (hile alien life
was a!undant in the stars" no one had encountered any signs of true intelligence' Some
attri!uted this to an o%erall rarity" while others went as far as di%ine influence-
resurrecting religion'
Regardless of the theori&ing" one ,uestion went truly and utterly unanswered'
(hat would really happen" if man#ind e%er ran into his e,uals or superiors in space9
11
Two star people watch a holographic movie as they lounge under the remnants of their
colonized worlds indigenous flora. For them it is a life of continual bliss.
12
An +arly (arning
8uring those times" a small disco%ery of immense implications warned humanity
that it might not !e alone'
*n a newly coloni&ed world" engineers had stum!led across the remains of a
pu&&ling creature" considered so !ecause it had e%ery hallmar# of terrestrial animals on
an alien planet' 5ustifia!ly named !anderavis pandora" the colossal fossil !elonged to a
!ird/li#e creature with enormous claws' 0ater research determined it to !e a highly
deri%ed therizinosaur" from a lineage of her!i%orous dinosaurs that died out millions of
years ago on +arth'
(hile e%ery other large land animal on that colony world had three lim!s" a
copper !ased s#eletal system and hydrostatically operated muscles- !anderavis was a
typical terrestrial %erte!rate with calcium/rich !ones and four e)tremities' Finding it there
was as unli#ely as finding an alien creature in +arth$s own strata'
For some" it was irrefuta!le proof of di%ine creation' The religious resurgence"
fueled at first !y man#ind$s apparent loneliness in the hea%ens" got e%en more
intensified'
*thers saw it differently' !anderavis had shown humans that entities- powerful
enough to %isit +arth" ta#e animals from there and adapt them to an alien world" were at
large in the gala)y' Considering the time gulf of the fossil itself" the mysterious !eings
were millennia older than humanity when they were capa!le of such things'
The warning was clear' There was no telling what would happen if man#ind
suddenly ran into this ci%ili&ation' A !ene%olent contact was o!%iously preferred and e%en
e)pected" !ut it paid to !e prepared'
Silently" humanity once again !egan to !uild and stoc#pile weapons" this time of
the interplanetary potency' There were terri!le de%ices" capa!le of no%a/ing stars and
wrec#ing entire solar systems' Sadly" e%en these preparations would pro%e to !e
ineffectual in time'
13
A reconstruction of !anderavis shows the creatures rake like claws with which it dug
furrows in the soil to find its food. "pportunistic local animals walk alongside !anderavis
looking for morsels left over from its feasting.
14
:u
The first contact was !ound to happen' The gala)y" let alone the ;ni%erse was
simply too !ig for ust a singular species to de%elop intelligence in' Any delay in contact
only meant a heightening of the e%entual culture shoc#' .n humanity$s case" this 6culture
shoc#7 meant the complete e#tinction of man#ind as it had come to !e #nown'
Almost a !illion years old" the alien species #nown as :u were galactic nomads"
tra%eling from one spiral arm to another in epoch/spanning migrations' 8uring their
tra%els they constantly impro%ed and changed themsel%es until they !ecame masters of
genetic and nanotechnological manipulation' (ith this a!ility to control the material
world" they assumed a religious" self/imposed mission to 6remake the universe as they
saw fit.7 4owerful as gods" :u saw themsel%es as the di%ine har!ingers of the future'
This dogma was rooted in what had !een a !ene%olent attempt to protect the race
from its own power' 1owe%er" !lind" un,uestioning o!edience had made monsters of the
:u'
To them humanity" with all of its relati%e glories" was nothing more than a
transmuta!le su!ect' (ithin less than a thousand years" e%ery human world was
destroyed" depopulated or e%en worse- changed' 8espite the fer%ent rearmament" the
colonies could achie%e nothing against its !illion/year/old foes" sa%e for a few flashes of
ephemeral resistance'
1umanity" once the ruler of the stars" was now e)tinct' 1owe%er" humans were
not'
15
$u triumphant in the fall of Man. To his left floats a nanotechnological drone to the right
a genetically modified tracing creature.
16
Man +)tinguished
The worlds of humanity" gardens of terraformed paradise" seemed strangely
empty to the :u' *ften there were no raw materials a%aila!le other than people" their
cities and a few !asic niches of ecology" populated !y genetically modified animals and
plants from +arth' This was !ecause humans had erased the original alien ecologies in
the first place'
*ffended !y another race trying to rema#e the uni%erse" the :u set forth to
punish these 6infidels7 !y using them as the !uilding materials of their %ision' (hile this
led to a complete e)tinguishment of human sentience" it also sa%ed the species !y
preser%ing its genetic heritage in a myriad of strange new forms'
4opulated !y ersat& humans" now in e%ery guise from wild animals to pets to
genetically modified tools" :u reigned supreme for forty million years on the worlds of
our gala)y' They erected #ilometer/high monuments and changed the surfaces of entire
worlds" apparently to whim'
*ne day" they departed as they had come' For theirs was a ne%er/ending ,uest
and they would not" could not stop until they had swept through the entire cosmos'
Behind them the :u left a thousand worlds" each filled with !i&arre creatures and
ecologies that had once !een men' Most of them perished right after their careta#ers left"
others lasted a little longer to succum! to long/term insta!ilities' *n a precious few
words" descendants of people actually managed to sur%i%e'
.n them lay the fate of the species" now di%ided and differentiated !eyond
recognition'
17
A mile high $u pyramid towers over the silent world that once housed four billion souls.
%uch structures are the hallmark of $u and they can be seen on every habitable world
they passed through.
18
(orms
Their world lay under a scorching sun" its intensity made monstrous through the
inter%entions of the !ygone :u' The surface lay littered with hus#s of dead cities" !a#ing
endlessly li#e shattered statues in a derelict o%en'
Yet life remained on this unforgi%ing place' Forests of crystalline 6plants7
!lan#eted the surface" recycling o)ygen for the animal life that teemed underground' *ne
such species" !arely longer than the arms of their ancestors" was the sole sur%i%ing
%erte!rate' Furthermore" it was that planet$s last heir of the star people'
8istorted !eyond recognition !y genetic modification" they loo#ed for all the word
li#e pale" o%ergrown worms' Tiny" fee!le feet and hands modified for digging were all
that !etrayed their no!le heritage' Aside from these organs" all was simplified for the life
underground' Their eyes were pinpric#s" they lac#ed teeth" e)ternal ears and the !etter
half of their ner%ous system'
The li%es of these ersat& people did not e)tend !eyond digging aimlessly' .f they
encountered food" they de%oured it' .f they encountered others of their #ind" they
sometimes de%oured them too' But mostly they mated and multiplied" and managed to
preser%e a single shred of their humanity in their genes' .n time" it would do them good'
19
Two &orm parents with their young.
20
Titans
*n the endless sa%annah of a long/e)tinguished colonial outpost" enormous !easts
roamed supreme' More than forty meters long !y terrestrial measurements" these
!ehemoths were actually the transmuted offspring of the Star 4eople'
Se%eral features !etrayed their human ancestry' They still retained stu!!y thum!s
on their elephantine front feet" now useless for any sort of precise manipulation e)cept
for uprooting trees' They compensated this loss !y de%eloping their lower lip into a
muscular" trun# li#e organ that echoed the elephants of +arth$s past'
As !estial as they seemed" the Titans were among the smartest of the reduced
su!/men that remained in the gala)y' Their hul#ing stance allowed for a de%eloped !rain
and gradually" sentience re/emerged' (ith their lip/trun#s they fashioned ornate wood
car%ings" erected hangar/li#e dwellings and e%en !egan a form of primiti%e agriculture'
(ith settled life came the ine%ita!le flood of language and literature- myths and legends
of the !ygone" half/remem!ered past were told in !ooming %oices across the %ast plains'
.t was easy to see that" within a few hundred thousand years" 1umanity could
start again with these titanic primiti%es' Sadly" as a catastrophic ice/age too# o%er the
Titans$ homeworld the gentle giants disappeared" ne%er to return'
21

22
4redators and 4rey
8e%ol%ed predators were common among humanity$s feral worlds' Most of the
time they resem!led the %ampires" werewol%es and go!lins of !ygone lore- hunting
e,ually su!/human prey with a com!ination of deri%ed weaponry' Some had enormous
heads with large" #illing teeth' *thers tore their %ictims apart with talon/li#e feet' But the
most common #inds !ore modified fingers and thum!s" !ristling with ra&or/sharp claws'
The most efficient of these predators li%ed on one of man#ind$s first off/world
colonies' .n addition to paw/li#e hands with switch!lade thum!s they also had gaping"
tooth studded aws on disproportionate heads with large" sensiti%e ears' All of these
ser%ed to ma#e them the dominant predators on their home planet'
They ran the prairies" stal#ed the forests and ranged through the mountains in
pursuit of different people- her!i%orous saltators with !ird/li#e legs' (hile their prey
lapsed into complete animosity" the hunters managed to #eep the spar# of intelligence
ali%e in their e%olutionary honing'
23
24
25
Mantelopes
Not all de%ol%ed people lapsed into complete !estiality' Some held on to their
minds" while losing all of their physiological ad%antages to the genetic meddling of the
:u'
A singular species was a prime e)emplar' They had !een !red as singers and
memory/retainers" acting much li#e li%ing recorders during the reign of :u' (hen their
masters left they !arely sur%i%ed" re%erting into a ,uadrupedal stance and occupying a
niche as gra&ing herd animals' This change was so a!rupt that the newly e%ol%ed
Mantelopes endured only due to the forgi%ing sterility of their artificial !iosphere'
The Mantelopes" e,uipped with full 2if slightly num!ed3 1uman minds and
completely disa!led animal !odies" li%ed agoni&ing li%es' They could see and understand
the world around them" !ut due to their !odies they could do nothing to change it' For
centuries" mournful herds roamed the plains" singing songs of desperation and loss'
+ntire religions and oral traditions were wo%en around this crippling racial disa!ility" as
dramatic and detailed as any on !ygone +arth'
Fortunately" the selecti%e forces of e%olution made their agony a short/li%ed one'
Simply put" a !rain was not ad%antageous to de%elop if it could not !e put into good use'
A dim/witted" half minded Mantelope grew up faster than a smart one" and gra&ed ust as
efficiently' The Mantelopes$ animal children o%ertoo# them in less than a hundred
thousand years" and their melancholic world fell silent for good' Nothing was sacred in
the e%olutionary process'
26
27
Swimmers
4erhaps !ecause their life cycle in%ol%ed an a,uatic lar%al stage" the :u had
transmuted a large num!er of their human su!ects into a !ewildering array of a,uatic
creatures' Ta#en care of !y specially/!red attendants" these post/human water !a!ies
came in e%ery shape and si&e imagina!le' There were lim!less" ri!!on li#e %arieties of
eel/people" huge" whale li#e !ehemoths" decorati%e people who swam !y s,uirting water
out of their hypertrophied mouths and horrifying multitudes of !rainless wallowers that
ser%ed as food stoc#'
All of them were perfectly domesticated' All of them went e)tinct when their
masters left' All sa%e a few lightly mutated" generali&ed forms' These swimmers still
resem!led their human ancestors to a large degree- they had no artificial gills" their
hands were still %isi!le through their front flippers" their feet were splayed affairs that
functioned li#e a pair of tail flu#es' Recogni&a!ly human eyes pee#ed through their
!lu!!ery eyelids and they spo#e to each other" though not in words and ne%er in sentient
understanding'
For millennia they swam the oceans of their ecologically stunted world" feeding on
di%ersifying #inds of fish and crustaceans- sur%i%ors of the food stoc# originally imported
from +arth' (ith the inter%ention of the :u gone" natural selection resumed' The
swimmers !ecame more streamlined to !etter catch their fast prey' The prey responded
!y getting e%en faster" or e%ol%ing defensi%e countermeasures such as armor" spi#es or
poison' Their e%olution !ac# on trac#" the swimmers drifted further and further away
from their sentient ancestry' They would wait for a long time indeed to taste that
!lessing again'
28
29
0i&ard 1erders
They were the luc#y ones' .nstead of unrecogni&a!ly distorting them as they had
done to most of their su!ects" the :u had merely erased their sentience and stunted the
de%elopment of their !rains'
8istantly resem!ling their ancient fore!ears on +arth" the primiti%es led feral li%es
for an unnaturally long time' They ne%er regained sentience after the :u left" despite
ha%ing e%ery incenti%e to do so' This was partially due to the total a!sence of predators
on their garden world" resulting in no ad%antage for intelligence' Furthermore" the :u
had made some small !ut integral changes to their !rains" twea#ing with the structure of
cere!ellum so that certain features associated with heuristic learning could ne%er emerge
again' *nce again" the reasons for these !affling changes remained #nown only to the
:u'
The dum! people e%entually settled in a sym!iosis with some of the other
creatures that inha!ited their planet' They !egan to instincti%ely 6farm7 some of the
large" her!i%orous reptiles" ancestors of which were !rought from +arth as pets'
Soon the !alance of this mutualism !egan to tip in the reptiles$ fa%or' The tropical
climate of the planet ga%e them an inherent ad%antage" and they underwent a
spectacular radiation of different species' They encountered no competition from the only
large mammals on the planet- the !rain/neutered descendants of the starfarers' Faced
with a reptilian turno%er" the only adaptation the su!/men could muster was to slip
,uietly into !estial o!li%ion'
30
A lizard herder scans the world with blank eyes as his stock grow stronger and smarter.
The future does not seem to belong to him.
31
Temptor
.n the Temptors$ case" the remodeling was done with an almost artistic
enthusiasm' 1ow they managed to sur%i%e in their !i&arre form was not clear- their
ancestors were used as sessile decoration and through some miracle of adaptation they
had endured'
No human would ha%e recogni&ed them as their descendants' The females were
!ea#ed cones of flesh some two meters tall" rooted in soil li#e grotes,ue carni%orous
plants' The males on the other hand" resem!led contorted" !ipedal mon#eys' ;nli#e their
mates they were perfectly am!ulatory- do&ens of them ran around the females$ mounds
li#e so many imps' Some would gather food" others would clean the females while others
would stand on guard for danger' Although their actions loo#ed purposeful" the males
had no will of their own'
.n Temptor society" females controlled e%erything' ;sing a com!ination of %ocal
and phermonal signals" they guided the masculine hordes into any num!er of menial
tas#s" while mating with the strongest" the most o!edient and the dum!est to produce
e%en !etter drones' *n certain periods they would also gi%e !irth to a few precious
females" who would !e carried away !y su!ser%ient males to root themsel%es'
.t was a terri!ly efficient hegemony that would certainly gi%e rise to ci%ili&ation in
a matter of centuries had fate not inter%ened' As a stray comet o!literated the Temptors$
mound forests" one of 1umanity$s !est chances for re/emergence was cruelly swept
away'
32
A male and female Temptor illustrate the se#ual discrepancy that is characteristic to their
species. 'ote the females elongated pit-like vagina. &hen mating the males descend
into it like subway commuters.
33
Bone Crusher
Through the deli!erate modifications of :u and the !lind molding of e%olution" the
hea%ens came to !e populated with creatures that would put the myths of their ancestors
to shame'
Their ancestors were pint/si&ed pets of :u that were !red for the da&&ling colors of
their tooth/deri%ed !ea#s' (hen their masters left" most of these pampered creatures
died" with no one or nothing left to ta#e care of them'
But some" !elonging to the hardiest !reeds" sur%i%ed' .n less than a geological
eye!lin# of a few million years" the descendants of such creatures radiated into the
e%olutionary %acuum of their garden world' *ne lineage led to a profusion of human
her!i%ores' These were preyed upon !y a %ariety of enamel/!ea#ed raptors" each e%ol%ed
to deal with a specific prey' Among these generali&ed niches were entire assem!lages of
speciali&ed animals" resem!ling anything from i!is/!illed swamp sifters to splendorous
forms with !i&arre crests that flared out of their toothy !ea#s'
There were e%en secondarily sentient forms" in the shape of the ogre/li#e !one
crushers' To an o!ser%er of today they would indeed !e the stuff of nightmares- three
meters tall and hairy" sporting %icious thum! claws and enormous !ea#s that suited their
sca%enging diet'
8espite their shortcomings" these corpse eating primiti%es were one of the first
species to attain intelligence and although primiti%e" a le%el of ci%ili&ation' All of this
pro%ed the fallacy of human preudice in the posthuman gala)y' A creature could feed on
putrefying meat" stin# li#e a gra%e and e)press its affection !y defecating on others" !ut
it might as well !e your own grandchild and the last hope of man#ind'
.n e%entuality" howe%er" not e%en the !one crushers fulfilled this promise' Their
dependency on carrion for food limited their population se%erely" and their mediae%al
ci%ili&ations crum!led after a few une%entful millennia'
34
35
Colonials
Their world had gi%en the toughest resistance against the :u onslaught' So tough"
in fact" that they had turned !ac# two successi%e wa%es of the in%aders" only to succum!
to the third'
The :u" with their twisted sense of ustice" wanted to ma#e them pay' +%en
e)tinction would !e too light a punishment for resisting the star gods' The humans of the
rogue world needed a sentence that would remind them of their humiliation for
generations to come'
So they were made into disem!odied cultures of s#in and muscle" connected !y a
s#impy networ# of the most !asic ner%es' They were employed as li%ing filtering de%ices"
su!sisting on the waste products of :u ci%ili&ation li#e mats of cancer cells' And ust to
witness and suffer their wretched fate" their eyes" together with their consciousness"
were retained'
For forty million years they suffered- generation after generation were !orn into
the most misera!le of li%es while a!sor!ing the pain of all that they were going through'
(hen the :u left" they hoped for a ,uic# e)tinction' But their lowliness had also
made them efficient sur%i%ors' ;nchec#ed !y the :u" the colonials spread across the
planet in ,uilt/li#e fields of human flesh' After an eternity of tortured li%es" the human
fields tasted something that could almost !e descri!ed as hope'
36
A section from a (olonial field shows the misery that compromises their entire lives. 'ote
that these disorganized creatures can reproduce through both ase#ual and more familiar
methods.
37
Flyers
They were not uncommon at all in the domain of :u' At least a do&en worlds
sported human/deri%ed flying species of one #ind or another' Most resem!led the !ats or
the pterosaurs of the !ygone past" dancing through the aether li#e angels' 2*r demons"
depending on the point of %iew'3 There were a few !i&arre #inds relied on swollen gas
glands for floatation as well'
Sadly" most of these creatures were already too speciali&ed to !e anything !ut
flyers' They had forsa#en their humanity for the con,uest of the s#y- they had little
potential for further radiation !eyond their limited roles'
The only e)ception pro%ed out to !e a mon#ey/li#e species that flew on wing
mem!ranes stretched across the last two fingers' Their ad%antage was a uni,ue" tur!ine
li#e heart" artificially de%eloped during the regime of :u' No other human flyer in the
gala)y had such an adaptation' The starfish shaped organ sat in the middle of their
chests" directly funneling o)ygen from the lungs to the !loodstream in a supremely
efficient way' This meant that the Flyers could de%elop energy/consuming adaptations
such as large !rains without ha%ing to gi%e up their power of flight'
Not that the flyers were going to reclaim their sentience right away' .nstead" they
literally e)ploded into s#ies" filling the hea%ens with anything from !om!er/si&ed sailors
to impossi!ly fast predators that raced with sound' Their world was pristine and there
were plenty of niches to play in' .ntelligence could wait a little more'
38
An ancestral Flyer in her native element. Although ungainly these creatures have an
artificial metabolic advantage that gives them tremendous evolutionary potential.
39
1and Flappers
Some flying posthumans re/approached sentience in an entirely different way'
(ithout the augmented meta!olisms or the gra%itational ad%antages of their si!lings on
distant planets" they had no choice !ut to gi%e up their power of flight in order to de%elop
further'
The 1and Flappers were one such species' Their wings" once used for !utterfly/li#e
flutters in the unearthly gardens of :u" had shrun#en and re%erted !ac# into their
manual condition' Their legs were li#ewise re/adapted" !ut they !ore a splayed
aw#wardness from their perching ancestry'
*nly a singular" and an almost sadistically simple flaw held them !ac# from
de%eloping ci%ili&ation' .n the course of their secondary atrophy" the wings of the 1and
Flappers had !ecome useless as hands as well' Their flag li#e appendages were %ery
useful in signaling and mating dances" !ut they couldn$t hurl missiles" construct shelter
or e%en manufacture !asic stone tools' All that they could do with their useless hands
was to display each others$ se)ual a%aila!ility" so the 1and Flappers did ust that-
flashing and dancing their way to o!li%ion'
40
A )and Flapper on the edge of his mating territory. *uring their almost comical
e#aggeration of se#ual display his kind has begun to lose their edge at adaptation.
Theirs will be a boisterous ecstatic but ultimately ephemeral e#istence.
41
Blind Fol#
(hen the :u came they dug in" and dug in deep' .nside se%eral continent/si&ed
shelters under their !esieged world" they waited for the in%aders to pass them !y' .t was
a futile gam!le' The :u located the shelter/ca%es and remade their inha!itants without
effort'
The shelters !ecame home to an entirely different ecology" a realm of perpetual
dar#ness" fueled !y the tric#le of water and nutrients from the world outside' A
surprisingly comple) ecology de%eloped on this scant resource- gigantic pale insects- the
descendants of common household pests" competed with 8ali/es,ue !irds and rodents
o%er fields of o%ergrown fungi' 4redators were not uncommon- almost crocodilian fish
patrolled the underground streams and %ast !lind !ats" echolocating with unner%ing
precision" too# their toll on the residents of the ca%e floor' The #ilometer/high ceilings of
the shelters glowed in the dar# with protean constellations of !ioluminescent fungi" and
in some cases" animals'
4eople were present here as well" al!eit in unfamiliar forms' They were more often
heard than seen" as they tried to find their way in the dar# with !anshee/li#e screams'
These al!ino troglodytes li%ed in a realm where sound and touch" not sight" was the
gateway of perception' They had de%eloped long" tactile fingers" enormous whis#ers and
mo!ile ears to li%e in the dar#' (here their eyes should ha%e !een" there was nothing !ut
a patch of haunting" flawlessly smooth s#in' Their perfect adaptation to the world of
dar#ness had erased the most !asic feature of human recognition'
As adapted as they were" they were doomed' Before the Blind Fol# could de%elop
any #ind of intelligence to crawl out of their geographical gra%es" the glacial constriction
of their (orld$s continental plates snuffed out the shelters one !y one'
42
A startled +lind father with his year-old daughter. Although he knows better to sit still in
order to confuse sonar-e,uipped predators the youngster screams and soils herself in
terror. Their attenuated fingers are hallmarks of a lifetime spent in darkness.
43
0opsiders
The :u were grotes,uely creati%e in their redesign of the human worlds' *ne
group of misfortunate souls they transported to a planet with thirty/si) times the amount
of 6normal7 gra%ity" and made them o%er for life in this !i&arrely inhospita!le realm'
The results of these e)periments resem!led nightmare s#etchings of Bosch" 8ali or
4icasso' They loo#ed li#e cripples s,uashed !etween sheets of glass' Three out of their
four lim!s had !ecome paddle/li#e organs for crawling- only one of their arms remained
as spindly tool of manipulation' This singular" wi&ened lim! also dou!led as an e)tra
sensor" li#e the antennae of an insect'
Their faces were different horrors altogether' All pretensions of symmetry- the
hallmar# of terrestrial animals from awless fish onwards" were completely and utterly
done away with' *ne !ulging eye stared directly upward while the other scanned ahead"
in the direction of the creature$s %ertically/opening aws' The ears were li#ewise
distorted'
Monstrous as they loo#ed" these e)/men thrived in their hea%y/gra%ity
en%ironment' *nce again there was the usual e)plosion of species into e%ery a%aila!le
niche" and the 0opsiders consolidated their chances for a renewed sentience'
44
A -opsider feeds some indigenous pets native to his high-gravity world. The
domestication of native fauna is the -opsiders first step on the long way towards
civilization.
45
Striders
(hile the 0opsiders were redesigned to li%e under e)treme gra%ity" another
species had !een adapted for life under the e)act opposite conditions- on a 5o%ian moon
with one fifth of +arth$s gra%ity'
.t was a world of wonders" where e%en the grass grew almost ten meters tall and
the trees were !eyond !elief" towering to si&es attained only !y the s#yscrapers of
anti,uity' .n these surreal forests li%ed e,ually spectacular fauna- the descendants of
pets" pests and li%estoc# of humans" who in turn had !een reduced to animosity as well'
*ne could see them in the league/tall forests" almost dancing among the trees as
they reared higher and higher to !rowse' Their arms" legs" and nec#s had !een stretched
impossi!ly thin" great flaps of s#in !lossomed throughout their !odies to dispense waste
heat' Sometimes they would e%en change their color in order to reflect light and #eep
cool' *%erheating was a great pro!lem for their grotes,uely tall" thin !odies'
Although imposing" these <iacomettian wraiths were o%er/de%eloped as to !e
sic#eningly fragile' +%en on their gra%itationally forgi%ing world" a fall could shatter their
!ones" and slipping down from a !ranch would pro%e to !e fatal' Sometimes" on the open
plains" e%en a strong wind could !ring them down li#e the toppling masts' They sur%i%ed
entirely due to the merciful conditions of their garden world" which were a!out to change
drastically'
A!out two million years after the :u left their towering wor#s of human art" a
lineage of fearsome predators e%ol%ed from the terrestrial poultry that had gone feral on
the planet' Resem!ling attenuated %ersions of their dinosaur ancestors" the predators
swept through the garden world li#e wildfires" e)tinguishing any species too fragile to
escape" or resist' The peaceful" delicate striders were among the first to go'
46
47
4arasites
1umanity had di%erged into two separate lineages on their world' *n one hand
there were se%eral races of almost Australopithecine cripples" degraded !y the :u for
managing to turn !ac# their initial wa%e of in%asion' Yet simple ata%ism was too light a
punishment for them' Their twisted relati%es" the parasites" made up the second part of
their sentence'
There were actually se%eral #inds of parasitic e)/people" ranging from tortoise/
si&ed am!ulatory %ampires to the more common fist/si&ed %ariety that li%ed attached to
their hosts' There was e%en a tiny" endoparasitic #ind that infested the wom!s of their
female %ictims li#e ghastly" li%ing a!ortions'
All of these e%olutionary tortures were played out under the careful scrutiny of the
:u for forty million years' The punishment was so !aro,ue" so ela!orate that most of the
artificial parasite/host relationships died out when the :u left' Some su!/men learnt to
cleanse their tic#/li#e relati%es !y drowning" !urning or e%en eating them' *thers" li#e
the %aginal parasites" died out as their aggressi%e method of parasitism effecti%ely
sterili&ed their hosts'
Yet one or two %arieties did manage to cling on to their hosts with a!dominal
suc#ers" muscular" gripping lim!s and sterile" pain/soothing sali%a' But their success did
not lie entirely in the strength of their parasitical ad%antages' They also learnt to regulate
their dum! hosts" not #illing them !y o%er/infestation and thus ensuring their own long/
term sur%i%al as well'
.n any case" totally single/sided relations were rare in any ecology" natural or
artificial' .n millennial cycles" the cousin species$ %icious parasitism !egan to gi%e way
into something more !eneficial for !oth sides'
48
A parasitic person shown real size. Although their fate seems inhumane in every aspect
to an observer of today their very survival shows that such sub.ective values are
ineffectual in matters of long-term survival.
49
Finger Fishers
Their ancestors were trapped on an archipelago world- a planet sprin#led with
many small continents and countless islands o%er interconnected networ#s of calm"
swallow seas' 0i#e a magnified Aegean" this place was a terrestrial paradise in many
respects' +)cept that after the :u" no minds were left to enoy it'
*n this %acant !iosphere" e%olution was ,uic# to !egin her !lind" unpredicta!le
dance' *nce feral" the descendants of degenerate humans adapted themsel%es to e%ery
a%aila!le niche" no matter how e)otic" how outlandish' *ne group learnt to pluc# fish
from the la&y shores' Millennia passed and they settled more into their piscatorial
lifestyle' +longated fingers !ecame am!ulatory fish/hoo#s" teeth modified for a
generali&ed diet !ecame needle/li#e affairs" lined up neatly in a long" thin mu&&le' .n less
than a few million years" the Finger Fishers esta!lished themsel%es as a prominent
lineage' There was scarcely a !each" an island or an estuary that was de%oid of their
pale" lan#y forms'
As prolific as they were" the Fishers were still no !etter than animals' Their
6humanity7 would come only after another spasm of outlandish adaptations'
50
51
1edonists
+%en the !lissful e)istence of the Finger Fishers would ha%e seemed !othersome
to the 1edonists- for their #ind was not e%ol%ed" !ut designed for a life of pleasure' The
:u had #ept them as pampered pets- set loose in a tropical island/world of succulent
fruits" !ountiful trees and calm" lapping la#es full of sweet" !acterial manna'
Furthermore" the 1edonists were left as the only animal life on this place' They had no
choice !ut to enoy it to the fullest'
.n normal conditions" any gi%en species would ,uic#ly crowd out such an utopian
en%ironment' But normal conditions had ne%er !een the point of the :u redesign' They
had altered their su!ects so that they could concei%e only after mating an enormous
num!er of potential suitors" continually o%er a period of decades' (hile this too# care of
the population pro!lem" it also made the species less adapta!le' (ithout any point in
se)ual competition" natural selection would progress only at a glacial pace' Fortunately"
their sta!le microcosm remained free of en%ironmental catastrophes e%en after the :u
left'
All these changes had also made the 1edonists$ day' Their li%es were u)taposed
routines of !rowsing" sleeping and mind/!lowing se)- trou!led neither !y the concerns of
disease or pregnancy' Aloof and carefree" they enoyed the most pleasura!le times of all
man#inds" al!eit with the intellectual capa!ilities of three/year/olds'
.t didn$t really matter" though' (ho needed to think when ha%ing such a nice
time" after all9
52
The favorites of the $u. A female )edonist lies alone on a beach contemplating
absolutely nothing. &ithout any pressure from the world their days make themselves as
they go along.
53
.nsectophagi
Nondescript" ,uaint human species a!ounded in the post/:u gala)y' 1undreds of
them li%ed out simple" unnoticed li%es" ne%er de%eloping to !ecome sentient" ne%er
learning their true heritage as star/!orn human !eings' Most of them went e)tinct" not to
!e missed or e%en remem!ered' Those that lingered on managed to sur%i%e in shady"
,uiet niches" ne%er again ma#ing any impact on the celestial scheme of things'
*ne such species was the .nsectophagi' They had ,uietly adapted themsel%es for
a diet of colonial insects and small animals- they had faces co%ered with leathery plates"
claw/li#e hands to dig out prey and worm/li#e tongues to scoop them up'
All in all" they weren$t special in any particular way' But a com!ination of galactic
in%asions" coincidence and pure luc# would later ma#e them the longest/enduring of all
ur/starmen'
The mee# would inherit the cosmos" though not ust yet' For now" the
.nsectophagi were concerned only with the location of insect colonies" and the onset of
the mating season'
54
55
Spacers
.t must !e remem!ered that the Star 4eople did not succum! entirely to the :u
in%asions' (hile their worlds fell away one !y one" some Star 4eople too# refuge in the
%oid of space' *ne after another" entire communities scram!led into generation ships and
cast themsel%es off into the dar#ness" hoping to go unnoticed !y the !eings that had
o%errun their gala)y'
8esperate times made for desperate measures' As the Star Men had o!ser%ed
during their initial coloni&ation of the gala)y" life in generation ships ine%ita!ly lead to
mass insanity and anarchy' This time howe%er" humans had to adapt themsel%es /or face
e)tinction'
+ntire asteroid fields were confiscated and hollowed out to ma#e space/ships of
unseen si&e' These hollow shells cradled !u!!les of precious air and water" !ut no
artificial gra%ity of any #ind' .t was disco%edred that a purely ethereal e)istence would
ease the stress of interstellar e)hile" pro%ided that its inha!itants were adapted for life
inside such an en%ironment'
Furthermore" people were forced to change themsel%es' .n an atmospherically
sealed" gra%ity/free en%ironment" their !ones were left free to grow longer" thinner"
spindlier' The circulatory and digesti%e systems were pressuri&ed to a%oid heart pro!lems
and congestion' The latter change had another ad%antageous side effect- humans could
na%igate through the %oid with ets of air /e)pelled from modified anuses'
Such e)periments were numerous" and usually plagued with failure' Yet they did
succeed in creating a future' Sealed tight in their moon si&ed" air filled" weightless
ha%ens" the descendants of the Star 4eople managed to e%ade the scourge of :u'
.t was an endless diaspora' +%en after the :u left" they would find themsel%es too
di%ergent to ha%e anything to do with their ancestral lifestyles' The sur%i%ors of the initial
hurdle would ne%er set foot on a planet again'
56
Forty million years from today %pacers like this individual are the only truly sentient
human beings that survive. They are so comfortable in their weightless refuges that the
fates of their bestial cousins elsewhere do not concern them. They are also painfully rare/
their entire population in the Milky &ay 0ala#y does not e#ceed a few dozen arks and a
hundred billion souls.
57
Ruin 1aunters
A particular human species" singled out !y its luc#y access to the heritage of its
stellar ancestors" would e%entually get to play a leading role in the shape of things to
come'
They had gotten through the :u in%asion with relati%ely little degradation- yes"
they had !een reduced to the le%el of apes" !ut their reco%ery had !een ,uic#'
Apparently" the :u had not wor#ed as hard at suppressing their intelligence' Nor had
they made a compara!le effort to wipe away the material traces of the Star Men' +%en
after millions of years" enormous ruins of the glo!al ur!an spaces littered the continents
of their world' Thus did the Ruin 1aunters earn their names'
(ith de%eloped minds and unrestricted access to the wisdom of the ancient cities"
the e)ponential pace of their de%elopment was only natural' *ne !y one they deciphered
and !uilt upon the secrets of the !ygone Star 4eople" until they almost e,ualed their
galactic ancestors in wisdom and s#ill'
All of this de%elopment happened in an unnaturally short period of time" and
sometimes the old technologies were not e%en understood as they were !lindly
replicated' Needless to say" such a pace of de%elopment put premature stresses on the
social and political structures of the Ruin 1aunters' They !arely sur%i%ed the fi%e
consecuti%e world wars that ra#ed their planet" two of which were thermonuclear
e)changes'
They made it through" their !aptism with fire had hardened and awa#ened them'
The wars united them politically and pushed their technological capa!ilities e%en !eyond
the le%el of the Star Men' Co/incidentally" they also de%eloped a dangerous form of
autochthonous madness' The Ruin 1aunters had come to !elie%e that they were the sole
descendants and the true heirs of the Star 4eople' And they were ready and willing to do
anything in order to claim their fictitious" !ygone <olden Age'
58
"nly a thousand years after the $u departure a 1uin )aunter wanders among the
shattered remains of a city of the %tar !eople. The dominating form of an even greater
$u pyramid can be seen in the background.
59
Sentience Re!orn
.f any sort of periodical arrangement can !e !rought to the history of man#ind"
the post/:u era of emerging human animals can !e li#ened to a series of millennial dar#
ages' 1owe%er" li#e any 6dar# age7 situation" these periods of silence had finite life
spans' *ne !y one" li#e stars emerging from the fog" new ci%ili&ations were !orn out of
the shattered remnants of man#ind'
.n some rare cases" the reco%ery was swift and straightforward' .n most other
situations" it came only after a lengthy series of adapti%e radiations" e)tinctions and
secondary di%ersifications' (ithin these lines of descent" there was as much distance
!etween the initial post/humans and their intelligent descendants as !etween the first
Cretaceous fu&&!alls and )omo sapiens'
Sooner or later" human intelligence returned to the cosmos' But e)cept from their
shared ancestry" these new people had nothing in common with 6people7 of today" or
e%en each other'
60
+)tinction
Not all human animals made it through' .n fact" it must !e reali&ed that the
ma.ority of post/:u humans died out during the eras of transition' +)tinction" the utter
and a!solute death of an entire family" entire community" entire species" was rampant in
the gala)y'
There was nothing cruel or dramatic in all of this' +)tinction was as common" and
as natural as speciation' Sometimes a species simply failed to adapt to competition" or
the a!rupt change of conditions' .n other occasions" their num!ers dwindled across
impercepti!le gulfs of time' This way or the other" human animals faded out'
.n all of this death" howe%er" there was new life' As one species %acated a certain
niche" others would soon step in to ta#e its place' Adapti%e radiations would follow" filling
in the !lan#s with myriads of di%erse and %aried forms' 8espite the fallen" the flow of life
would proceed" !la&ing in constant turno%er'
61
The fossil of an e#tinct a,uatic human from a forgotten colony world. 2nbeknownst to
the universe his kind adapted flourished and died out soon after the $u retreat. )is tale
serves to tell us that all that is alive will inevitably perish and it is the .ourney not the
conclusion that matters.
62
Sna#e 4eople 28escendants of the (orms3=
The scorching sun e%entually cooled down" and life flooded !ac# to the surface
from her su!terranean stronghold' As animals of all #inds e)ploded into the terrestrial
niches that had !een left %acant for millennia" so did the descendants of the worms' *n
the surface" they found new opportunities as entire assem!lages of serpentine gra&ers"
swimmers" predators>
>and people' *ne form" descended from tree/clim!ing mammalian sna#es" re/
e%ol%ed the human intelligence that had lain dormant for so long' They o!ser%ed"
contemplated and philosophi&ed with no%el" spirally coiled !rains and handled the world
with a singular pel%ic 6hand7" !orne out from the remnants of their ancestors$ feet'
They loo#ed nothing at all li#e their distant human ancestors" !ut their social
de%elopment followed a similar path- se%eral agricultural world empires" followed !y
industrial re%olutions" social e)periments" world wars" ci%il wars and glo!ali&ation' But
then again" socio/political parallelism in history did not necessarily imply a similar" or
e%en recogni&a!ly human world'
Modern cities of the glo!al Sna#e world were tangles of pipe li#e 6roads7"
!ranching" three dimensional railroads and windowless" hole/li#e !uildings' Though their
#notted architecture differed from region to region" these settlements generally loo#ed
li#e #ilometer/wide !alls of glass" metal" plastic and cloth" wrapped so tightly that a
human of today would find it impossi!le to mo%e inside them' 4la&as and open areas
were totally a!sent" as they presented na%igational o!stacles and areas of insecurity'
Their e%olutionary !ac#ground in the trees had made the Sna#e 4eople into !orderline
agorapho!es'
None of these" of course" was unusual to the Sna#es in any way' Their relati%ely
6alien7 lifestyle was as particular to them as ours is to us' All across their world" the
arterial cities thro!!ed with people each with their own oys" sorrows and chores" li%ing
out li%es as human as any other intelligent !eings$'
63
A %nake person at home en.oying a book while smoking and 3listening4 to vibrational
ground-music. Through the open door can be seen the chaotic tangle of the city.
64
?iller Fol# 28escendants of the 1uman 4redators3
The carni%ores also re!ounded into ci%ili&ation' Their ourney in%ol%ed a series of
changes during which they lost the adaptations that had allowed them to endure as the
top predators of their world' The sa!er teeth" once used for slashing through sinew and
trachea" !ecame fragile and thin" useful only as organs of social display' The hoo#/li#e
thum! claws were also reduced" !ut not deleted' .n their place" the last two digits rotated
perpendicularly to !ecome newfangled graspers' All this gracility" howe%er" did not mean
wea#ness' Although they were no longer speciali&ed for hunting" the ?iller Fol# could still
#ill with their !are hands" !ut only if they really wanted to' (hat enormous claws and
teeth could not do" they could easily achie%e with !ow" arrow" flintloc# repeater or gas
rifle'
Their descent from predators ga%e the ?iller Fol# a uni,ue social profile' Almost all
of their religions had rituals allowing for periods of completely natural" animalistic hunts
and duels' This necessity of %enting these ata%istic urges also led to the formation of
religious 6hunter no!ilities7- pri%ileged warriors who were s#illed in the arts of hunting"
war and murder' +ntire societies were assem!led underneath these ruling classes-
orderly communities that erupted once e%ery year into an orgy of death" se)" and prayer'
For thousands of years nomadic warriors" together with their %ast herds of once/human
li%estoc#" chased and !attled each other across a chess!oard of continents'
All of this chaos was to !e swept apart with the ad%ent of modernity' .n a
de%elopment compara!le to an industrial re%olution" one nation/pac# of ?illers de%ised
methods of settled" intensi%e factory farming' *rgani&ed state structure" secularism and
technological leap/frogging were ,uic# to follow'
Needless to say" such de%elopments polari&ed the world into !ands of progressi%e"
de%eloped 6factory herders7 and increasingly fanatical 6hunting states'7 (hile one side
condemned their old" animal ways" the other side em!raced them with !lind &ealotry'
This was their crisis of modernity- the !al#ani&ation of the progressi%e and conser%ati%e
factions on the road to glo!al unity' Fortunately" the ?illers managed to pull themsel%es
through" e%en after drifting dangerously close to glo!al conflict at certain points'
65
A young male 5iller tours one of the myriad ruined fortresses in his country testimony of
their species bloody protean history. The planet of the 5iller Folk is an archaeologists
paradise. 6t has more buried dark ages ruined cultures and fallen kingdoms than any
other world.
66
Tool Breeders 28escendants of the Swimmers3
They used to !e simple creatures" descendants of a !attered people that had
ta#en to the sea' Their remote sapiens ancestors would ha%e gi%en such !eings no
chance of a sentient come!ac#" for they thought that technological ad%ances were
impossi!le in the fluid medium of the oceans' But the Swimmers dispro%ed such
predictions !y founding one of the most ad%anced and most outrageously alien cultures
of the entire human lineage'
Fire" the cornerstone of industrial engineering" was almost impossi!le to sustain
and use underwater' But the Breeders simply choose another path when comple)
toolma#ing pro%ed impractica!le' They !egan to breed their tools and machines for them'
.t had started long !efore the species was e%en intelligent' .n the endless %ariety
of life in the seas" the Swimmers always adopted and controlled the organisms that were
useful in some way' *nce domesticated" these creatures were willingly or unintentionally
modified through artificial selection and conditioning' The process was slow" !ut once
underway" its effects were formida!le'
A modern city of the Breeders was a sight to !ehold' 1uge" heart/li#e creatures
pumped out nutritious fluids to a networ# of self/repairing" li%ing conduits' This was their
e,ui%alent of a power grid" and it reached e%ery single one of the Breeders$ huge"
e)os#eletal dwellings- 6powering7 !ioluminescent lights" flic#ering cephalopod s#in/
tele%isions" medicinal sea/s,uirts and countless other de%ices that had !een !red from
li%ing creatures' The ad%ances in !iology had risen e)ponentially" until genetic
engineering was completely mastered' Modern Breeders did not e%en need to use
animals- a simple manipulation of cultured tissues and stem/cells could gi%e solutions to
any pro!lem at hand'
The mastery of genetics had con,uered many o!stacles' The yawning ocean
depths" as well as the 4lanet$s few tiny landmasses were now firmly within the Breeders$
grasp' 1owe%er" they were not contempt with mere planetary dreams' New forms and
!i&arre creatures were still !eing de%eloped" in daring attempts to con,uer the one realm
that was most hostile to life'
Sealed in their li%ing ships" the Breeders wished to return to the stars'
67
A +reeder huntress on a garden reef. -iving tools are an indispensable part of these beings daily lives/ she
manages to breathe underwater through an o#ygen-filtering crustacean fitted over her blowhole. %he holds a
mollusk-derived rifle that shoots out specially-modified fish teeth and her companion is a brain-augmented
fish that has been hardwired to return kills. +uildings made from calcified shells glitter in the background
ablaze with bioluminescence.
68
Saurosapients 20i%estoc# of the 0i&ard 1erders3
*ne of humanity$s e%entual inheritors was not e%en human' They came from the
reptilian stoc# that had proliferated during the demise of the 0i&ard 1erders'
Theirs was a true case of a world turned upside down' As the humans degenerated
into witless animals" the cold/!looded reptiles prospered in the tropical climate of their
planet' Millennia passed and they !egan to produce increasingly smarter forms" one of
which" distantly resem!ling featherless %ersions of the predatory dinosaurs of the past"
actually crossed o%er the threshold of sentience and !uilt up a series ci%ili&ations'
These fledgling cultures were ,uic# to understand the true origin of the monstrous
ruins littering their planet" ruins that until then had !een considered natural a!errations
or timeless memora!ilia of gods' Now" howe%er" they saw the intermingled ruins of the
:u and the Star 4eople for what they really were' .t was through this understanding that
the !iologically unrelated Sauros$ too# up the cultural identity of humanity'
.n their archaeological efforts" the Sauros !egan to understand that the animals
they used for food and la!or were descended from the founders of their %ery e)istence'
And somewhere in the stars lur#ed the forces that malformed them" forces greater than
the Star 4eople" dar# forces that might someday return' The human animals ser%ed as a
remainder" ust as !anderavis had" that if the Saurosapients wanted to assure their
continued e)istence in the cosmos" they had to !e watchful'
The pressure of such a reality put their cultures under enormous stress' Some
factions turned to made/up religions and remained ignorant under an um!rella of
comforting fantasies' *thers ac#nowledged the threats of the gala)y" !ut re%erted to a
paranoid rhetoric of conser%ationism' The gala)y had scared them greatly' Finally" there
were those who saw the galactic redou!t and acted to face the odds" howe%er great they
might !e' Conflicts and e%en wars were not uncommon !etween these three factions'
.n the end" the centuries/long dispute !egan to resol%e in the progressi%e factions$
fa%or' As they e)panded their spheres of #nowledge" influence and acti%ity" the
Saurosapients !ecame as 6human7 as any other ci%ili&ation opening up to the gala)y'
69
70
Modular 4eople 28escendants of the Colonials3
The !lind wor#ings of e%olution followed the unli#eliest paths" made use of the
most fleeting opportunities' The %ery e)istence of the Modular 4eople was testimony to
this fact' Their ancestors" the Colonials" would$%e !een seen as hopeless cripples !y
almost any o!ser%er- they lac#ed coherent organs and their e)istence was limited to
carpeting water shores li#e mats of algae' But as degenerate as they were" the Colonials
were resilient sur%i%ors" a!le to hold on to life in the harshest of conditions'
As time passed" they !egan to organi&e themsel%es in differentiated colonies
instead of homogenous mats' .n the colonies" each human 6cell7 could perform a singular
function and !enefit from the union of others' Thus !egan the great age of organi&ation"
during which different colonies competed with each other !y de%eloping speciali&ed
human/cells that would gi%e them an edge in the struggle for life' Some colonies grew
enormous tap/roots that were a!le to siphon resources from far away' *thers a!andoned
roots altogether and !egan to mo%e themsel%es on starfish/li#e foot segments' Some
colonies came up with units e,uipped with claws and poisons" ta#ing competition to a
!rand/new" deadly le%el' *thers responded to the threat with armor/plating" or watcher/
cells e,uipped with enormous eyes'
The e%entual winner of this Colonial arms race was a sentient colony- organi&ed
around hyperspeciali&ed units whose entire purpose was to direct the others' These
colonies spread around the planet as they adapted the parts of their ri%als to function
within themsel%es' Thus were the Modular 4eople !orn'
0i%ing in fully/industriali&ed megalopoli" they came in an indescri!a!le %ariation of
shapes and si&es' Anything from castle/li#e guardian forests to diminuti%e" scuttling
couriers was a mem!er of the Modular whole' They could com!ine with each other and
split up" or e)change parts as needs presented themsel%es' The only thing constant in all
of their protean e)istence was their mental and cultural unity'
8ue to their !iological structure" these people had managed the impossi!le' They
were actually living in a world of peace and utopian e,uality" where e%ery!ody was happy
to !e parts of greater" united wholes'
71
A modular colony treats a specialized digester unit with sprays of anti-ulcer medication
produced by the medical drone held in its 3hands4. 'ote the differing segments each of
them mutated human beings in themselves.
72
4terosapiens 28escendants of the Flyers3
The flyers$ supercharged hearts had gi%en them an e%olutionary winning hand"
and they di%ersified to fill up the hea%ens' .t was only a time !efore the competition in
the s#ies got too intense" e%en for their souped/up meta!olisms'
Some lineages ga%e up their wings and returned to the ground" li%ing as differing
sorts of predators" her!i%ores and e%en swimmers' Their aerial adaptations ga%e them an
edge on the ground and they produced forms of stupendous si&e and agility' There were
wonderful !eings" !ut no sentience came out of the terrestrial s#y/!easts' .nstead"
ci%ili&ation flowered in the s#ies' *ne species" from a line of wading" stor#/li#e predators"
e%ol%ed a !rain that was large enough to imagine and act upon the world' Their feet"
already %ersatile to catch slippery" swamp/dwelling prey" got e%en more articulate and
assumed the role of hands' As a compensation they lost some of their aerial streamlining"
!ut what they could not do with their !odies" they were more than a!le to ma#e up with
their minds'
Their power of flight made the 4terosapiens a glo!al fol#" !efore they could in%ent
nations and !orders' (ith such an inherent ease of tra%el" ideas and indi%iduals diffused
too fast for social differences to ossify' Acting with a planetary awareness" they farmed
their gigantic" terrestrial relati%es" raised cities of perches and fluting towers" harnessed
the atom and !egan to ga&e up to the stars" without ha%ing to compensate 2too much3
from the a%erage indi%idual$s welfare" and without di%iding up into ,uarrelsome factions'
As egalitarian as their life seemed" they paid a stunting" ine%ita!le price' Their
hearts" e%en in their !oosted state" had trou!le supporting their power of flight and
grotes,uely large !rains at the same time' As a conse,uence" they had an ephemeral
lifespan' A 4terosapien was se)ually mature at two" middle/aged !y si)teen and usually
dead !y twenty/three years of our time' This grim cycle caused them to appreciate e%ery
moment of their e)istence dearly" and they pondered upon it with fe%erish intensity' A
shelf of scrolls !y 4terosapien philosophers would$%e !een the en%y of e%ery human
li!rary' .n their cities" life !la&ed away with unreal speed" rushing past to meet fleeting
deadlines'

As a species" the angelic flyers were %ictims of heart disease'
73
A !terosapien poses by the bizarre buildings of a seaside resort. At ten days long this
will be the only holiday in her ephemeral life.
74
Asymmetric 4eople 28escendants of the 0opsiders3
Although contorted !y gra%ity" the 0opsiders managed to regain their sentience"
and de%elop a ci%ili&ation in a short few million years' S,uat" panca#e/li#e !uildings
spread all o%er their planet' These constructs loo#ed li#e s,uashed !un#ers" and they
were ne%er more than a few meters high' They did not seem li#e much" !ut such
structures were entrances to underground homes" schools" hospitals" temples"
uni%ersities !ut also em!assies" prisons" asylums" command centers and arsenals' They
li%ed strange li%es" !ut the 0opsiders were human in all of their %irtues and e%ils' Thus" it
was only natural for them to e)pand outwards and loo# for new frontiers to coloni&e'
Fortunately" their solar system har!ored other planets" similar to the 0opsider homeworld
in almost all respects" all respects e)cept gra%ity' But they weren$t willing to let such
tri%ial details stop them'
Throughout their history" humans had always ris#ed changing themsel%es to
preser%e their future' .t was a ris#y gam!le" !ut it had paid off since the days of the
Martian/Americans' But re/engineering the flattened 0opsider !ody for a !enign gra%ity
was a monumental tas# indeed' Suffice it say that the e)periments too# millennia to
achie%e e%en limited success' After countless attempts" the Asymmetric 4eople were
!orn" or rather made' Their !odies were changed considera!ly- what had !een sho%el/
li#e toes to slither through the high/gra%ity dirt had !ecome centipedal legs" and the
singular" grasping hand was elongated to an e)treme degree' Their grotes,ue faces had
!een in%erted and turned upside/down after re%erting from a flounder/li#e e)istence'
Twisted as they were" mem!ers of this new race enoyed tremendous ad%antages o%er
their flattened forefathers'
Their social de%elopment also parallelled that of the !ygone Martian/Americans'
*nce again there was a golden age" followed !y increasing tensions and interplanetary
war' But unli#e the Martians" the Asymmetrics ruthlessly e)terminated their parent race
and went on to rule the solar system alone' *n the way" they stum!led across the
remains of the :u and the Star 4eople and ad%anced immensely' Triumphant on their
own realm" they turned to the hea%ens for further e)ploits'
75
An Asymmetric nobleman poses nude to reveal his bizarre anatomy. 'ormally these
creatures dress up in elaborate garments that resemble heaps of interconnected
enlarged stockings.
76
Sym!iotes 28escendants of the 4arasites3
As time passed" the relationships !etween the parasites and their hosts got
connected to such a degree that it !egan to in%ol%e a co-operation of the indi%iduals'
These were no longer single/sided relationships- in e)change for the hosts$ nutritious
!lood" the parasites offered their heightened senses as early warning against predators
and other ha&ards'
A great 6arms race7 of sym!iotic relationships thus commenced' Certain @parasites$
offered their hosts larger eyes" others sharper senses of smell" hearing or e%en additional
defensi%e weapons in the shape of %enomous sali%a" malodorant sprays or an e)tra !ite'
The hosts returned the fa%or with longer running legs" stronger !odies" and speciali&ed"
ergonomic nesting sites rich in !lood %essels and co%ered in insulating fur' 8ifferent
comple)es of parasite and host species e%ol%ed" compati!le only amongst themsel%es'
The de%elopment of such creatures was in a way reminiscent of the great Modular
colonies" thri%ing on their own world light/years away' But unli#e the Modulars" the
components of the Sym!iotes !elonged to different species" instead of modified
%ariations of the same !asic organism' .n e%entuality" !oth relationships led to the same
point= Sentience'
.n the secluded forests of a certain continent" a new parasitic species de%eloped'
They did not ha%e the !allistic poison sprays" infectious stings or the grossly
hypertrophied arm/claws of their relati%es' .nstead" these parasites offered a simpler
!argain- an a!ility to thin# in return of total su!mission' .nitially this relationship was
more li#e a horse and its rider" !ut after a few hundred thousand years the Sym!iotes
could manipulate their hosts li#e puppets through a com!ination of tactile and olfactory
signals'
A few more millennia and these com!ined !eings de%eloped an order not unli#e
our own" complete with countries" politics and e%en war" al!eit reduced in the newly
glo!ali&ing world/culture' .n this age technology filled most functions of the hosts" !ut a
thri%ing hus!andry of these creatures still remained due to tradition and simple
efficiency' An a%erage Sym!iote would !egin the day on his !usiness host" and mo%e
onto a more comforta!le domestic one when he returned home after wor#'
And perhaps" on the olfactory tele%ision" he would smell news of the e)ca%ations
of the million/year/old :u ruins" of the mar%elous disco%eries sal%aged from the Star Men
wrec#s" or of the enormous radio arrays that rose e%erywhere to listen to the stars'
.t was a pattern that was !eing repeated all o%er'
77
A %ymbiote poses on one of his several hosts. 6n the background can be seen some of
their rural housing with man-sized doors for the mindless hosts and the smaller holes
for their intelligent patrons
78
Sail 4eople 28escendants of the Finger Fishers3
The Finger Fishers were already among the most di%ergent of the post/human
races' (ith harpoon/li#e digits and almost crocodilian mu&&les" they loo#ed nothing li#e
their parental stoc#' But e%en this form would loo# conser%ati%e to their sentient
descendants' (ith many small" scattered islands" isolated su!/continents and
differentiated niches" their homeworld was an e%olutionary cauldron where isolated
mem!ers of certain species could" under the right circumstances" e%ol%e into wildly
different forms' This condition was similar to the island/realms of Madagascar"
<alapagos" or 1awaii on old +arth" e)cept that this time" it was on a glo!al scale'
Some descendants of the Fishers" trapped on lonely islands" grew smaller and
de%eloped their fishing claws into graceful wings' *thers too# directly to the sea and
!ecame the analogues of whales" dolphins and mosasaurs' (ithin this e%olutionary
!u!!ling" one particular lineage ga%e rise to the ancestral Sail 4eople'
They too elongated their fingers into wings" !ut these were not used for flight'
.nstead" they !ecame sails that dro%e them effortlessly across the oceans' (ith fingers
turned into sails" they used their mouths and e)tended tongues to catch their pelagic
prey' These organs e%entually assumed the role of the Fishers$ long atrophied" de)terous
hands' The need to !etter na%igate the endless seas put an ine%ita!le pressure on their
memories" and the Sailors$ !rains grew correspondingly' .t was only a matter of time
until one of these na%igators !ecame smart enough to thin#'
+%en when sentient" the Sail 4eople still needed a long time to achie%e any sort of
social sta!ility' Their scattered world made for a tremendous di%ersity of cultures" which
competed and fought ust as resiliently' Across generations" untold flotillas of tri!al
warriors !attled each other in epoch/spanning" pointless conflicts' Nomadic warriors and
pirate societies ine%ita!ly came into !eing" prolonging the uncontrolla!le cycle of
%iolence'
*nly when a certain warrior tri!e de%eloped warfare on an industrial scale" and
the state society needed to support it" and then" only when this notion of modernity ga%e
rise to an idea of peace did the Sail 4eople finally manage to unify' <enerations of !lood
had stained the oceans for far too long'
79
A %ailor goes hunting with his harpoon-wielding companion in the background. 7#tremely
violent by nature these people fre,uently resort to savage hunting campaigns to ,uell
their bloodlust in modern life. 'otice their tongue-derived 8hands and the accompanying
flying creature actually one of the %ail !eoples distant cousins.
80
Satyriacs 28escendants of the 1edonists3
Their pleasure/drenched e)istence" loc#ed !etween their static paradise world and
their inherently slow pace of e%olution" seemed immune to change' 4erhaps this was true
for a a million years or so' But on larger scales" complete stasis was a fa!le'
8uring a particular era" geologic uphea%als threw up huge masses of land o%er the
shallow oceans of their world' The 1edonists" until then trapped on a singular island no
!igger than today$s .celand" were not late to coloni&e these new pastures' This was more
of a necessary e)odus" since the e%ents that raised the new lands had also thrown up
enormous clouds of ash that smothered the atmosphere and !loc#ed out the sun' Their
innocence finally spoilt" most of the 1edonists died out" una!le to adapt' The only
sur%i%ors were fast/!reeding frea#s who had a!andoned the reproducti%e ,uir#s of their
ancestors' .t was these forms that coloni&ed the new!orn continent and ga%e rise to a
multitude of species which included the Satyriacs" sentient heirs to the 1edonists'
These !eings resem!led their ancestors to a great degree" e)cept that they now
sported enormous 6tails7- !oneless organs of !alance wo%en out of e)tended pel%ic
muscles and fat' Along this appendage" their entire !odies were re/oriented in hori&ontal"
almost dinosaurian postures' Although they had a!andoned the frantic reproducti%e
strategies of their ancestors" their social li%es still retained a delightful tint of casual
promiscuity'
The Satyriac ci%ili&ation was ,uic# to esta!lish itself glo!ally" for e%en with the
additional landmasses" the terrestrial domain of their world remained no larger than
Australia' For a while three and then two land empires competed each other" !efore
dissol%ing into a myriad smaller nations and finally re/unifying into a coherent world
order' From this point on" the Satyriac world once again !ecame a Valhalla of pleasure"
with festi%als" concerts and rituali&ed orgies punctuating e%ery wor#ing wee#' This time"
howe%er" it could all !e sa%ored !y true intelligence'
81
%atyriac audience goes wild as the performer hits the clima# of his song. %uch events are
an everyday part of the %atyriac life.
82
Bug Facers 28escendants of the .nsectophagi3
*%er time" their insecti%orous ancestors came to resem!le their prey' 1ardened"
leathery face/plates" once used for defense against stings and !ites" ossified and !ecame
integrated into the aw structure' Their hands and feet" with reduced num!ers of fingers
and toes" de%eloped into pincer/li#e affairs' +%en their meta!olism re%erted partially into
ectothermy in the !almy" la&y climate of their planet'
But it was none of those adaptations that ga%e them the edge in sur%i%al' Simply
put" a congenital defect allowed them to regain their sentience' +%en after the
smothering !y the :u" the genes of the Star 4eople remained dormant in their cells'
Through pure coincidence" one lineage of the .nsectophagi de%eloped an ata%istic
throw!ac#" resulting in larger !rains' (hich ust happened to !e useful in crac#ing open
insect nests with crude stone tools'
.t was easy ride from there on' Although millennia/long in itself" the de%elopment
from stone a) to spaceship was an eye!lin# in geological time' 0i#e many other species"
the Bug Facers passed through consecuti%e cycles as agrarian 2in their case hi%e/
farming3 empires" colonial endea%ors" industriali&ation" massi%e world wars and finally"
glo!ali&ed world/states' But there was one thing that set their de%elopment apart from all
other post/human species'
They faced another alien in%asion'
1istory does not record much a!out the in%aders" e)cept that unli#e the :u" theirs
was a singular effort and it was !eaten off in an intense cycle of or!ital and terrestrial
wars' Although %an,uished" the in%aders did succeed in lea%ing !ehind their traces' They
introduced their own flora and fauna" which flourished on the Bug Facer home planet long
after they departed' More importantly" they im!i!ed the poor Bug Facers with a
pathological inter/species )enopho!ia" to the point that they were fearful e%en of their
post/human cousins on other stars'
Through an ironic twist of fate" their fears would !e more than ustified" though
not ust yet' The Bug Facers still had time'
83
A +ug Face celebrity arguably the most beautiful girl on their planet poses before a
coastal village. 6n the distance can be seen gasbag-like tree creatures relics left over
from the mysterious alien invaders.
Asteromorphs 28escendants of the Spacers3
84
.nitially refugees" the Spacers were ,uic# to master the %astness of interstellar
space' Their isolated space ar#s oined together and multiplied to form a gigantic"
interloc#ed artifact that was large enough to contain entire worlds' But no planets lay
inside the Asteromorph capital- only ca%ernous" gra%ity/free !u!!les where the
inha!itants could finally de%elop to their fullest'
Freed from the constraints of weight" their !odies grew spindly and insectile" with
indi%idual digits e)tending into multitudes of thin" %ersatile lim!s' *ther than these" the
only de%eloped organs were their deri%ed et sphincters- which went on to !ecome the
principal means of locomotion' But a!o%e all were their !rains" their !ulging" swollen
!rains'
(ith no hindrance from gra%ity" the human !rain could grow into unprecedented
si&es' +ach generation de%ised e)periments that produced offspring with greater cranial
capacity" gi%ing rise to !eings who went through their e%eryday li%es thin#ing in concepts
and structures scarcely comprehensi!le to people of today' The physiological limitations
of the human mind had !een long since de!ated' Now" it was esta!lished that these
limits were indeed real" and indi%iduals who could !rea# them would li#ewise con,uer
new grounds in philosophy" art and science' +%erything changed'
Yet some aspects of humanity" such as the !asic desire to e)pand" remained' To
this end the Asteromorphs !uilt great fleets of glo!ular su!/ar#s and spread their
influence across the hea%ens" into e%ery stellar cluster and e%ery star system' (ithin less
than a thousand years" the gala)y was straddled !y a new and far more alien +mpire of
Man'
Strangely enough" its dominion included none of the newly emerging post/human
species" for its masters had completely lost interest in planets- those stunting" gra%ity/
chained !alls of dirt and ice' The new!orn ar#s settled comforta!ly in the outer rims of
star systems" ,uietly o!ser%ing the li%es of their struggling relati%es'
For the first time in history" there were actual <ods in the myriad human s#ies'
They were silent and weren$t e%en noticed for most of the time" !ut their watchfulness
was ultimately going to pay off'
85
86
Second <alactic +mpire
*%er time" the sentient post/humans !egan to reach out to the gala)y' They
ine%ita!ly stum!led across the ruins of the Star Men" and figured out their interstellar
ancestry' These disco%eries were followed !y a reali&ation- that there might !e others
li#e them" unimagina!le distances away' Thus" the fledgling ci%ili&ations set a!out to
pro!ing the s#ies'
The contacts" all esta!lished !y radio communication" were not spread out e%enly'
The +mpire !egan little more than a few million years after the :u left" with the first
dialogue !etween the earliest ?iller Fol# and the Satyriacs' A few thousand years later
they were oined !y the Tool Breeders" hailing out from the ocean depths through li%ing
radio arrays'
The second wa%e of sentient species oined in during the following ten million
years" as the Modular (hole" 4terosapiens and the fledgling Assymetrics contacted their
celestial cousins' Finally" in the ne)t twenty million years" newly e%ol%ing ci%ili&ations
such as the Sauros" Sna#e 4eople" 4arasiteASym!iotes and the Sail 4eople successi%ely
contacted the !urgeoning <alactic +mpire' The Bug Facers were aware of the whole
process" !ut due to their )enopho!ic e)perience" they only opened up after a staggering
forty million years of silence'
This union was an empire of speech" for actual tra%el !etween the stars was too
difficult to !e practical' 0i#e the !ygone colonies of the Star Men" the posthumans co/
operated through the unrestricted e)change of information and e)perience' Although
co%ering e%ery aspect of an astonishing %ariety of cultures" the +mpire$s efforts focused
on two main issues- political unification 2though not homogeni&ation3 and galactic
awareness- constant readiness for possi!le alien in%asions' +%ery!ody had come across
the remains of the mysterious :u' No!ody wanted a repeat of the same scenario'
(hen the Second +mpire ran into the Asteromorphs" 2who had silently saturated
the gala)y with their own +mpire of Man"3 they feared the worst' But luc#ily for them" the
godli#e !eings were not interested in the Second +mpire" nor any of its worlds' The
Asteromorphs were gi%en a wide !erth and accepted as they were- incomprehensi!le"
omnipotent forces of nature'
This coordinated effort lasted for almost eighty million years" during which its
mem!er species attained pre%iously unimagina!le le%els of culture" welfare and
technology' +ach species coloni&ed a few do&en worlds of their own- in which nations"
cultures and indi%iduals li%ed to the fullest potentials of their e)istence'
Needless to say" all of this was possi!le only through constant communication and
a total openness to the <ala)y' Most communities too# this for granted and dutifully
participated in the galactic dialogues' But there were others" silent" dar#ened !eings who
refused to oin in' Through them would come the ruin of the +mpire'
87
<ra%ital 28escendants of the Ruin 1aunters3
After the lesson of the :u" Second <alactic +mpire #ept a constant watch against
alien in%asion' .ronically" they neglected to loo# among themsel%es' The second great
in%asion of the gala)y came not from outside" !ut from within'
The Ruin 1aunters" who were luc#y enough to inherit the secrets of the Star Men
and :u when other species were mere animals" had e)perienced a tremendous ad%ance
in technological prowess' All in all they were as sophisticated as" if not more" than the
Asteromorphs of the %oid' But their ascendancy was not a sane one' Recall that most
Ruin 1aunters were already deranged with a twisted assumption of !eing the sole
inheritors of the Star Men' They refused to communicate with their relati%es on other
planets" and #ept to their own affairs' This neurotic hu!ris assumed truly dangerous
proportions after the Ruin 1aunters modified themsel%es'
The origin of this modification lay in an earlier catastrophe' The Ruin 1aunters$
sun was undergoing a rapid phase of e)pansion" and the species" ad%anced as it was"
could do nothing to stop the process' So the 1aunters did the ne)t !est thing" and
changed their !odies'
The infernal conditions of the solar e)pansion meant that a !iological
reconstruction was totally out of the ,uestion' Thus" the 1aunters replaced their !odies
with machines- floating spheres of metal that mo%ed and molded their en%ironment
through su!tle manipulations of gra%ity fields' .n earlier %ersions the spheres still cradled
the organic !rains of the last 1aunters' But in successi%e generations" ways of containing
the mind within ,uantum computers were de%ised" and the transformation !ecame
a!solute' The Ruin 1aunters were replaced !y the completely mechanical <ra%ital'
(hile not e%en organic" the <ra%ital still retained human dreams" human
am!itions and human delusions of grandeur' This" com!ined with mechanical !odies that
allowed them to cross space with ease" made interstellar war a frightening possi!ility'
88
89
Machine .n%asion
.t too# a long time for the <ra%ital to prepare' 4ropulsion systems were perfected
and new !odies capa!le of withstanding the interstellar umps were de%ised' But when
they finally decided that the time was nigh" nothing sur%i%ed the slaughter'
The in%asions followed a !rutally simple plan' The target worlds$ suns were
!loc#aded and their light was trapped !ehind specially/constructed" million/mile sails' .f
the dying worlds managed to resist" an asteroid of two finished them off' +normous
in%asion fleets were !uilt" !ut it was rarely necessary to deploy them' The Machines had
caught their cousins completely off/guard'
The great dyings" all of which occurred in a relati%ely ,uic#" ten/thousand year
period" stretched the !oundaries of genocide and horror' Almost all of the new human
species- uni,ue !eings who had endured mass e)tinctions" na%igated e%olutionary #nife/
edges and sur%i%ed to !uild worlds of their own" %anished without a trace'
+%en the :u had !een loyal to life" they had distorted and su!ugated their
%ictims" !ut in the end they had allowed them to sur%i%e' To the machines howe%er" life
was a lu)ury'
Such thorough ruthlessness was not" ironically" !orne out of any #ind of actual
hatred' The <ra%ital" long accustomed to their mechanical !odies" simply did not
ac#nowledge the life of their organic cousins' (hen this apathy was mi)ed with their un/
sane claims as the sole heirs of the Star Men" the e)tinctions were carried out with the
!anality of say" an engineer tearing down an a!andoned !uilding' ;nder the reign of the
Machines" the <ala)y entered a !rand/new dar# age'
90
A rare instance of a direct invasion by the Machines on one of the shore cities of the
5iller Folk. Most of the time the inhabitants of the %econd 7mpire were wiped out
globally without the necessity of such confrontations.
91
(hen Considering the .n%asion
The Machine .n%asion !rought on the greatest wa%e of e)tinctions the gala)y had
e%er seen- for it was not a simple act of war !y one species against another" !ut a
systemati&ed destruction of life itself'
(hen considering such a %ast e%ent" it is easy to get lost in romantic delusions' .t
is almost as easy to write off the <ra%ital as @e%il$ as it is to consider the entire episode as
a nihilistic" @end of e%erything$ #ind of scenario' Both of these approaches are" as they
would !e in any historical situation" monumental fallacies'
To !egin with" the <ra%ital were not e%il" at least not to their own perception'
These !eings" although mechanical" still li%ed their li%es as indi%iduals and operated
inside coherent societies' They had surrendered their organic heritage !ut their minds
were not the cold" calculating engines of true machines' +%en after gi%ing orders that
would destroy a !illion souls" a <ra%ital would ha%e a home to go to" and" as incredi!ly as
it might sound" a family and a circle of friends towards which it felt genuine affection'
8espite !eing endowed with compassion" their harsh treatment of the organics was the
result of" as mentioned !efore" a simple ina!ility to understand their right to li%e'
Furthermore" the <ra%ital did not constitute a singular" indi%isi!le whole whose
entire purpose was to wrec# the uni%erse' True" their technological ad%ancement had
allowed them to form a pan/galactic entity" !ut within itself the Machine +mpire was
di%ided into political factions" and e%en religious faiths' Superimposed o%er these fault
lines were the daily li%es and personal affairs of families and indi%iduals' 0i#e any
sentient !eing" they had a sense of identity and thus" differing agendas'
Nor did the Machine in%asion mean the end of e%erything' There certainly was a
widespread destruction of life" !ut what was lost was @only$ organic life' Consuming
energy" directing it for reproduction" thought and e%en e%olution" the machines were as
ali%e as any car!on/!ased organism' 8espite the turno%er" 0ife of a sort sur%i%ed" and as
would !e seen" e%en preser%ed some of its organic predecessors'
92
Su!ects 2Many descendants of the Bug Facers3
The Bug Facers- racially shy and )enopho!ic due to their !ac#ground of repeated
alien in%asions" !ecame the first species to face the <ra%ital onslaught' As ironic as their
fate seemed" the Bug Facers were the luc#iest of the post/humans' .nstead of !eing
e)terminated li#e the rest of their cousins" they sur%i%ed as the only organic !eings in the
Machine +mpire'
The precise reasons for their retention remain un#nown to this day' 4erhaps the
Machines hadn$t perfected their ruthless apathy !y then' *r perhaps they pitied the poor
organics" and allowed them to maintain a stunted parody of an e)istence'
(hate%er the reason" the Bug Facers endured' But they hardly resem!led their
original ancestors anymore' <enetic engineering" the lost art of the gala)y/threading :u"
2and later" the Tool Breeders as well"3 was mastered almost as comprehensi%ely !y the
Machines' Not hesitating to warp the !eings which they did not really consider to !e
ali%e" they spliced their way into the Bug Facer 8NA" producing generations of literal
a!ominations' (ould a woman or man of today show any apprehension towards re/
assem!ling a computer" or e%en recycling trash9 Such was the attitude of the triumphant
<ra%ital'
Thus" multitudes of Su!ects were produced" distorted to such an e)tent that e%en
the meddling of the :u seemed comparati%ely timid' Most of them were used as
ser%ants" careta#ers and manual la!orers' These were the luc#y forms' Some su!/men
were reduced to the le%el of cell cultures" useful only for gas e)change and waste
filtering' *thers were molded into completely artificial ecologies- !aro,ue simulations
that ser%ed only as entertainment' Some machines" with their still/human am!itions"
too# this practice into a new le%el and produced li%ing wor#s of art- doomed" one/off
creatures who e)isted purely as !iological anachronisms'
Be it as tool" sla%e or entertainment" 1umanity narrowly held on to its !iological
heritage" while its Machine cousins reigned supreme for an un!elie%a!le fifty million
years'
93
The +ug Facer archetype flanked by two of his twisted descendants. To his left/ a
phallus-bearing polydactyl bred as a sacrificial offering in one of the many different
Machine religions. To the right/ a one-off work of art/ designed to play its modified
fingers like a set of drums while ululating the tunes of a certain pop song.
94
95
The *ther Machines
Recall that despite its <ala)y/cradling might" the Machine +mpire was not
homogenous' .t contained do&ens of differing factions that did not always agree on
e%erything" including the treatment of their downtrodden" !iological Su!ects'
Some Machines" o%er a process in%ol%ing se%eral religious" social and philosophical
doctrines" !egan to comprehend the uni%ersality of life" and the common origin of organic
and mechanical humanities' .nitially such indi%iduals li%ed in seclusion or withheld their
!eliefs from the world' They secretly engineered lineages of Su!ects that could li%e"
mo%e and thin# as freely as they could' .n a few memora!le instances the engineers fell
in lo%e with their creations" and their martyrdom inspired other Machines to thin# ust a
little differently'
+%entually" the ideology gained enough momentum to !e practiced openly in
e%eryday life' 1owe%er" the sect of Toleration soon ran into odds with their hardline" pan/
mechanical ri%als' The seething intolerance !etween the two factions finally !ro#e when
some Tolerant Machines wanted so set se%eral worlds aside for the unrestricted
de%elopment of !iological life' All hell !ro#e loose and the Machine +mpire- the
apparently seamless monolith of the gala)y" e)perienced its first short" !itter ci%il war'
The war did not cause any lasting damage" !ut it plainly illuminated one fact' The
greatest entity the gala)y had e%er seen was not without its pro!lems'
96
97
The Fall of the Machines 2Return of the Spacers3
.n the longer run" the internal struggles of the Machine +mpire ust might ha%e led
to its downfall' But" there was no need to wait that long" as the +mpire died a shorter"
!ut immensely more cataclysmic death'
For a long time" the Machine and the Asteromorph +mpires had !een eyeing each
other ner%ously' They hadn$t yet run into open confrontations" as the Asteromorphs #ept
mostly to their outer/space ar#s and the Machine +mpire occupied the planets' .n almost
e%ery inha!ita!le solar system of the gala)y" the same upside/down tension !uilt up
!etween organic !eings li%ing in the %oid" and machines inha!iting perfectly terrestrial
worlds'
4ower was e%enly !alanced !etween the two ri%al +mpires' Moreo%er" this !alance
in%ol%ed forces strong enough to destroy planets en/masse' +ach side #new that any #ind
of war would result in mutual annihilation" and only insanity could start such a conflict'
(ell" the post/ci%il war +mpire of the Machines did go insane" in a sense' .n order
to di%ert attention from internal struggles" it needed a new enemy to consolidate its ri%al
factions against' 1ow unwise" that this enemy came to !e the Asteromorphs'
.t is unnecessary and nearly impossi!le to descri!e the carnage that followed' The
conflicts lasted anywhere up to a few million years" and the resulting loss of life 2!oth
mechanical and organic3 made the initial Machine <enocide seem irrele%ant'
(hen the cosmic dust settled" the winners displayed themsel%es' The con,uerors
were the Asteromorphs" changed !eyond recognition after fifty million years of continual
self/perfection' Their grossly hypertrophied !rains stretched out li#e wings on either side"
and their finger/deri%ed lim!s had formed an intricate set of sails and legs' +ndowed with
superior technology and limitless patience" these !eings almost completely destroyed the
Machines" despite losing a su!stantial num!er of their own species'
The conflict also thrust the Asteromorphs into the affairs of their long/neglected
human cousins' As impossi!le as it seemed" some of the Machines$ Su!ects had sur%i%ed
the ordeal' Now" the Asteromorphs could no longer loo# away'
(ith the Machines gone" it was up to the Asteromorphs to clean up after them'
They too# up the Su!ects and used their genetic heritage to populate entire planets'
8uring this age of reconstruction" which lasted for another two million years" many
Asteromorph world/!uilders emerged as true <ods" creating inha!ited worlds almost out
of scratch' Their Su!ects" meanwhile" !ecame the inheritors of a truly new" war/torn
4hoeni) of a <ala)y'
98
99
The 4ost/(ar <ala)y=
(hen replenishing lost worlds" the Asteromorph gods also too# measures to
ensure the continued safety of their creations' The a!rupt rise of the Machines had shown
that unless carefully regulated" the wealth of the stars could always host a race of pan/
galactic usurpers'
The Asteromorphs" watchful !ut e%er transparent" did not want to interfere
directly' .nstead" they produced terrestrial %ersions of their own #ind to regulate the
gala)y' They adapted their delicate" ethereal fingers into spidery lim!s" and shrun# their
!rains considera!ly to re/adust to the rigors of gra%ity' The resulting sideline was
stunted !y Asteromorph standards" !ut still it produced demigods in e%ery sense of the
word'
These !eings" #nown often as the Terrestrial Spacers or simply the Terrestrials"
nurtured and controlled the de%elopment of the post/war ci%ili&ations on many planets'
They acted as careta#ers" prophets" #ings and emperors" !ut also as grim reapers as the
occasion dictated'
The endea%or did not always proceed as smoothly as planned" of course' Most of
the time the new!orn races refused to heed their mentors and in se%eral cases e%en
re!elled against them' Needless to say" this crime was always punished with a swift
e)tinction' Furthermore" e%en the Terrestrials grew corrupted' .nstead of offering
guidance" Terrestrials on many planets simply played god" wea%ing contri%ed religions
around themsel%es to shamelessly e)ploit their su!ects' .t was not ethical or e%en
producti%e" !ut this method seemed to guarantee more sta!ility than actually trying to
!ring up the new races'
This way or another" organic sentience reclaimed its dominance in the gala)y' The
New +mpire- managed !y Terrestrials" populated !y a myriad descendants of the
Su!ects" and o%erseen ultimately !y the omniscient Asteromorphs" achie%ed greater
progress and a longer/lasting calm in the gala)y than all of its predecessors com!ined'
100
A nude Terrestrial shows the highly divergent yet still bizarrely human anatomy that is
the characteristic of this species. These particular Terrestrials maintain a religious
hegemony over their clueless sub.ects/ dressing up in elaborate veils and headgear to
assert their 8divine inheritance.
101
The New Machines=
0ong after their fall from grace" the Machines still clung on to e)istence' 8uring
the initial aftermath of the war" the Asteromorphs had planned to e)terminate e%ery last
one of them" only to disco%er that the Machines were simply too useful to destroy' For
millions of years they had perfected the interface !etween mind and machine to such an
e)tent that they could li%e and operate in the most inhospita!le conditions' Such !eings"
depri%ed of their gala)y/straddling power" would ma#e in%alua!le contri!utions to
research and e)ploration in the New +mpire'
There was a sense of poetic ustice in all of this' The Machines" who once distorted
!iological life forms to their whim" were finally treated to a similar fate' To !egin with"
the Asteromorphs completely scrapped their a!ility of self/contained gra%itational
manipulation- the %ery force that had rendered them in%ulnera!le in the first place' They
were gi%en finite life spans and slightly num!ed imaginations" so that history would not
repeat itself' The degradatory nature of these changes" howe%er" did not imply an o%erall
regression'
;nli#e their ancestors" the New Machines were endowed with nanotechnological
!odies that could remodel themsel%es continuously" which meant that they could come in
e%ery shape and si&e imagina!le" and then some that could not' A machine citi&en could
li%e for some time in the %oid of the space" conducting research" and then transform into
a completely different !ody plan for a holiday on a cometary halo" tropical ungle or a
methane ocean' 1e or she would also ma#e the trip personally !y growing temporary
hyperdri%es and ramet enginesB
8espite their !reathta#ing %ersatility" the Machines were ne%er as common or
prominent" e%en after completely accepting their role as lowly citi&ens of the New +mpire'
The greatest wars in concei%a!le history had ingrained the organics with too deep a
mistrust of their mechanical neigh!ors" and the New Machines were always treated with a
degree of discrimination' The sins of their fathers had come to shac#le this most
splendorous of all human species'
102
A machine citizen of the 'ew 7mpire. %he sports a dazzling pair of branching arms that
suit both the latest fashion trends and her .ob as an artisan. Machines following fashion
might seem unusual to a reader of this era but never forget that these beings are human
intelligences only in different bodies.
103
Second Contact=
(ith successi%e wa%es of machine/aided disco%ery and coloni&ation" the New
+mpire grew e)ponentially' Such was the growth of wealth and progress that its
description would need the use of concepts that remain une)plored today' To tal# with a
man of today a!out the comings and goings of the New +mpire would !e a#in to gi%ing
lectures of CD
th
century geopolitics to a hunter/gatherer'
This magnificent entity was not !lind to the uni%erse around it' .t tuned in its
eyes" ears and sensors" and pro!ed the e%ents of the surrounding gala)ies' The New
<alactics suspected that the surrounding ne!ulae might also ha%e their indigenous fol#"
and it was wise to contact them !efore a misunderstanding" or conflict could occur' *n a
dar#er side" these o!ser%ations also ser%ed as loo#outs for potential in%aders' +%en then"
the memory of the :u was not forgotten'
The disco%ery was e%entually made' *ne of the neigh!oring gala)ies was showing
patterns of acti%ity that were the unmista#a!le signs of a sentient organi&ation' Some
thin#ers re%iled in the disco%ery of a new ci%ili&ation" while others feared a return of the
:u' Fortunately" this second encounter with an alien species pro%ed to !e a peaceful one'
4erhaps the intelligences of !oth gala)ies were finally mature enough to meet without
,uarreling'
The other <ala)y was dominated !y connected unions of different !eings" presided
o%er !y %arious #inds of Amphicephali- !i&arre creatures that resem!led giant sna#es
with heads on !oth ends" one of which !ore a secondary" retractile !ody that they would
use to interact with the world' Apparently" they had undergone alternating series of
regressions" e%olutionary radiations and self/imposed genetic ma#eo%ers" ust as
humanity had'
(ith all of their wild difference" the Amphicephali were welcome' They were the
first" !ut surely not the last'
104
An Amphicephalus ambassador with spaceships typical of their kind. )er strange body
plan betrays an evolutionary history as complicated as that of humanity.
105
+arth Redisco%ered=
The purpose of this wor# is not to descri!e the limitless progress that followed the
cross/galactic contact' *ne could go indefinitely" chronicling how the united gala)ies re/
encountered and su!dued the :u" how they cradled their suns with artificial shells"
multiplying their inha!ita!le &ones a !illion/fold" how they criss/crossed interstellar space
with wormholes and made tra%el a thing of the past' ;ltimately" descendants of those
!eings e%en con,uered Time itself" prolonging the e)istence of their minds indefinitely %ia
reu%enating technologies'
For a time" all men were gods'
But from 2y3our %antage point" one disco%ery truly stood out in this orgy of
ad%ance' Compared with gargantuan achie%ements li#e the taming of space and the
construction of the star/shells" it was a mere !lip" a re%elation of long/forgotten tri%ia'
This was the re/disco%ery of +arth- the !irthplace of humanity" where the omnipresent
Asteromorph" the star/gliding Machine" and the millions of hum!le resident races could
all trace their origins'
.t was made ,uietly" !y a singular researcher com!ing the %estiges of forgotten
history" decade after decade' Millions of years of wars" in%asions and e)tinctions had
!uried the e%idence thoroughly and comprehensi%ely' (hen she finally came across
irrefuta!le e%idence" no!ody was around to cele!rate' That would come later'
106
+y the time of 7arths rediscovery humans have diverged considerably from their
ancestral forms.
107
Return=
The disco%ery spar#ed a certain amount of interest" though nowhere as much as
other !rea#throughs had' To most humans of the cosmos" their ancestral !irthplace was
simply an interesting piece of information" a piece of tri%ia with which they had lost all
ties'
Still" a ship was sent forth" and it landed without ceremony" for now there was no
intelligence left on +arth' Too far away from the main centers of population" it had !een
completely ignored" gone stagnant and feral' But still" it was 1ome'
(hen the e)plorers stepped out" human feet trod on old +arth once more- after an
a!sence of EFD million years' Man#ind was !ac# home'
108
109
All Tomorrows=
. must conclude my words with a confession' Man#ind" the %ery species which .$%e
!een chronicling from its terrestrial infancy to its domination of the gala)ies" is e#tinct'
All of the !eings which you saw on the preceding pages- from the lowly (orm to the
wind/riding Sail 4eople" from the megalomaniac <ra%ital to the ultimate <alactic citi&ens"
lie a billion years dead' (e are only !eginning to piece the story together' (hat you read
was our !est appro)imation of the truth'
(hy did they disappear9 4erhaps it was a final" unimagina!le war of annihilation"
one that transcended the %ery meaning of 6conflict7' 4erhaps it was a gradual !rea#/up of
the united gala)ies" and e%ery race facing their pri%ate end slowly afterwards' *r
perhaps" the wildest theories suggest" it was a mass migration to another plane of
e)istence' A ourney into somewhere" sometime something else' But the !ottom line is-
we honestly don$t #now'
;ltimately" howe%er" what happened to 1umanity does not matter' 0i#e e%ery
other story" it was a temporary one- indeed long !ut ultimately ephemeral' .t did not
ha%e a coherent ending" !ut then again it did not need to' The tale of 1umanity was
ne%er its ultimate domination of a thousand gala)ies" or its mysterious e)it into the
un#nown' The essence of !eing human was none of that' .nstead" it lay in the radio
con%ersations of the still/human Machines" in the daily li%es of the !i&arrely twisted Bug
Facers" in the endless lo%e/songs of the carefree 1edonists" the re!ellious demonstrations
of the first true Martians" and in a way" the %ery life you lead at the moment'
Many throughout history were unaware of this most !asic fact' The :u" in dreams
of an ideal future" distorted the worlds they came across' 0ater on the <ra%ital" with their
insane desire to recreate the past" caused the ugliest massacres in the history of the
gala)y' +%en now" it is sic#eningly easy for !eings to get lost in false grand narrati%es"
li%ing out completely dri%en li%es in pursuit of non/e)istent codes" ideals" clima)es and
golden ages' .n !lindly thin#ing that their stories ser%e a!solute ends" such creatures
almost always end up harming themsel%es" if not those around them'
To those li#e the misguided- loo# at the story of Man" and come to your sensesB .t
is not the destination" !ut the trip that matters' (hat you do today influences tomorrow"
not the other way around' 0o%e Today" and sei&e All TomorrowsB
110
The Author with a billion-year old human skull.
111