All Tomorrows

The pressure of such a reality put their cultures under enormous stress. Some factions turned to made-up religions and remained ignorant under an umbrella of comforting fantasies. Others acknowledged the threats of the galaxy, but reverted to a paranoid rhetoric of conservationism. The galaxy had scared them greatly. Finally, there were those who saw the galactic redoubt and acted to face the odds, however great they might be. Conflicts and even wars were not uncommon between these three factions.

In the end, the centuries-long dispute began to resolve in the progressive factions’ favor. As they expanded their spheres of knowledge, influence and activity, the Saurosapients became as “human” as any other civilization opening up to the galaxy.

Modular People (Descendants of the Colonials)

The blind workings of evolution followed the unlikeliest paths, made use of the most fleeting opportunities. The very existence of the Modular People was testimony to this fact. Their ancestors, the Colonials, would’ve been seen as hopeless cripples by almost any observer; they lacked coherent organs and their existence was limited to carpeting water shores like mats of algae. But as degenerate as they were, the Colonials were resilient survivors, able to hold on to life in the harshest of conditions.

As time passed, they began to organize themselves in differentiated colonies instead of homogenous mats. In the colonies, each human “cell” could perform a singular function and benefit from the union of others. Thus began the great age of organization, during which different colonies competed with each other by developing specialized human-cells that would give them an edge in the struggle for life. Some colonies grew enormous tap-roots that were able to siphon resources from far away. Others abandoned roots altogether and began to move themselves on starfish-like foot segments. Some colonies came up with units equipped with claws and poisons, taking competition to a brand-new, deadly level. Others responded to the threat with armor-plating, or watcher-cells equipped with enormous eyes.

The eventual winner of this Colonial arms race was a sentient colony; organized around hyperspecialized units whose entire purpose was to direct the others. These colonies spread around the planet as they adapted the parts of their rivals to function within themselves. Thus were the Modular People born.

Living in fully-industrialized megalopoli, they came in an indescribable variation of shapes and sizes. Anything from castle-like guardian forests to diminutive, scuttling couriers was a member of the Modular whole. They could combine with each other and split up, or exchange parts as needs presented themselves. The only thing constant in all of their protean existence was their mental and cultural unity.

Due to their biological structure, these people had managed the impossible. They were actually living in a world of peace and utopian equality, where everybody was happy to be parts of greater, united wholes.

A modular colony treats a specialized digester unit with sprays of anti-ulcer medication produced by the medical drone held in its “hands”. Note the differing segments, each of them mutated human beings in themselves.

Pterosapiens (Descendants of the Flyers)

The flyers’ supercharged hearts had given them an evolutionary winning hand, and they diversified to fill up the heavens. It was only a time before the competition in the skies got too intense, even for their souped-up metabolisms.

Some lineages gave up their wings and returned to the ground, living as differing sorts of predators, herbivores and even swimmers. Their aerial adaptations gave them an edge on the ground and they produced forms of stupendous size and agility. There were wonderful beings, but no sentience came out of the terrestrial sky-beasts. Instead, civilization flowered in the skies. One species, from a line of wading, stork-like predators, evolved a brain that was large enough to imagine and act upon the world. Their feet, already versatile to catch slippery, swamp-dwelling prey, got even more articulate and assumed the role of hands. As a compensation they lost some of their aerial streamlining, but what they could not do with their bodies, they were more than able to make up with their minds.

Their power of flight made the Pterosapiens a global folk, before they could invent nations and borders. With such an inherent ease of travel, ideas and individuals diffused too fast for social differences to ossify. Acting with a planetary awareness, they farmed their gigantic, terrestrial relatives, raised cities of perches and fluting towers, harnessed the atom and began to gaze up to the stars, without having to compensate (too much) from the average individual’s welfare, and without dividing up into quarrelsome factions.