Terran Legacy
Another world, another time, yet something seems vaguely familiar. This world appears to be like our own in many ways, however vague. The plants are broadly similar to ours, though different in their specifics and in some novelty of form, but the animals are something again. Any resemblance comes down to fundamentals, jaws, backbones, eyes, all of earthly pedigree. These features are mounted upon animals that appear almost alien, but the story is more complicated than you would think.
The date is 620 million years after mankind, and we are looking at a planet far beyond our own. But the organisms here are earthly in origin, coming down to a complicated act of terraforming.
Long after the extinction of man, an exceedingly wise alien race came to observe the earth; this was 450 million years after the last human being. These aliens understood what was happening to the earth, the sun was expanding and continental drift was beginning to grind slowly to a halt. Inevitably earth would boil away into a hostile wasteland, and animals and plants would inevitably disappear. From some insight of benevolent altruism, this race decided to relocate a few species as founders of a new, younger planet.
Almost as soon as they ensured the future of this new ecosystem, they departed. Perhaps they were to return eventually to observe their handiwork, but at any rate they mysteriously disappeared. Maybe they found a new venture in the far reaches of the universe; maybe they were subjugated or wiped out by another less peaceful species. Regardless, the steles and monuments they left allowed no guess as to what they looked like, or any of their technology or motives, beyond the obvious ones of how they founded a new earth. Maybe they intended to remain a god-like mystery to any intelligence that would eventually discover their relics in the coming ages.
The date is 620 million years after mankind, and we are looking at a planet far beyond our own. But the organisms here are earthly in origin, coming down to a complicated act of terraforming.
Long after the extinction of man, an exceedingly wise alien race came to observe the earth; this was 450 million years after the last human being. These aliens understood what was happening to the earth, the sun was expanding and continental drift was beginning to grind slowly to a halt. Inevitably earth would boil away into a hostile wasteland, and animals and plants would inevitably disappear. From some insight of benevolent altruism, this race decided to relocate a few species as founders of a new, younger planet.
Almost as soon as they ensured the future of this new ecosystem, they departed. Perhaps they were to return eventually to observe their handiwork, but at any rate they mysteriously disappeared. Maybe they found a new venture in the far reaches of the universe; maybe they were subjugated or wiped out by another less peaceful species. Regardless, the steles and monuments they left allowed no guess as to what they looked like, or any of their technology or motives, beyond the obvious ones of how they founded a new earth. Maybe they intended to remain a god-like mystery to any intelligence that would eventually discover their relics in the coming ages.