The Signal Ch. 01: The Museum

"Huh, how weird." He thought aloud. "First the CO² thing and now this. Those guys must have been stupid.

"Stupid enough to make combustion engines, cars and sweet drinks like us?" Tika countered humorously. "It could have been a culture thing, like how some countries trim their combs or even shave parts of their bodies?"

"Perhaps, but gods these guys must have been so backwards." What about the men, though?

Curious, Gallo then turned to the male equivalent - a thick stretchy piece covering only the essentials. With their upright vertical bodies exposing their externalized genitals everywhere it would have been a good idea to give them some protection from the elements. Gaka only need to design their drapes so they cover the torso, especially where the cloaca would be.

Their observations were interrupted by the tour guide. It was time to move on.

"Alrighty, now that we've delved into the world of the First Primates, let's zoom out a ways and see where everything else fits in the Story of Life. Shall we?"

The tour then moves to a wide room with many different assorted fossils of prehistoric animals from eons ago, including the great beasts known as dinosaurs.

From that point on it was clear that now they're getting to the good part. Children jumped up and down eager to see their great distant ancestors. Gallo and Tika walked over to a specific exabit along with several other goers, observing the fossils carefully salvaged and recreated.

It was the "Gakanu Evolution" exhibit, featuring fossils or parts of fossils lined up along each other, presenting the lineage from jawed fish to legged amphibians to small lizard-like creatures to the beginnings of the iconic dinosaurs all the way to what looks like a crossway between them and birds.

After that, the birdlike forms become even more recognizably bird-like, making a transition all the way to what their ancestors looked like by the time of the First Primates - small flightless creatures that were essentially smaller, dumber and fatter versions of their descendants.

Gallo was especially disappointed, though mockingly so. "Aww no, those guys were able to fly but not us? That's dumb. Tails would have been cool, but I imagine they would've been pretty awkward to swing around."

"Yeah, but you can see some traits we inherited from them. They were basically us before us! Take the forearms and eye-bones." She pointed to the features with her fingers, her finger almost touching the glass. "We would keep those traits for 200 million years, but we gradually lost our tails to reduce drag. By the time the First Primates came around they were just little stubs."

"Speaking of which, look here."

Gallo pointed to another plaque, this time explaining how fossil and taxonomical evidence explained that the First Primate civilization carried many plants and animals around, including domesticated crops rich in starch and carbohydrates like corn, wheat, beans and rice, as well as animals like cattle, pigs, goats, horses, rabbits, rats, cats, bats and... chickens. These creatures may have been taken around by the First Primates in their own ships in some global trading network, either as livestock and cargo or as accidental stowaways introduced into unfamiliar habitats. Although it was 50 million years ago the implications were, needless to say, a tad unsettling. Just a tad.

They then continued down the rest of the Gakanu evolutionary line, showing fossils of creatures that evolved after the First Primates vanished. It showed a general but rapid growing trend over the course of ten million years, adapting and diversifying into entirely new families of bird from a common ancestor.

The Gaka's particular ancestors were initially prey animals the size of lemur-monkeys that foraged the forest floor in flocks and avoided predators. But some 10 million years ago, when the collision of Australia with New Guinea and southern Indonesia changed the ocean currents, the Southeast Asian jungles all but disappeared into grasslands, forcing the little proto-Gaka to adopt new lifestyles, including that of a flock hunter. This promoted further evolution more closely-resembling their present forms, including a further increase in body size, more robust skeletons, higher brain capacity, larger eye sockets, and even a newfound ability to pronate their arms and wrists like their dinosaurian ancestors - or more so.

"And here we are," Gallo finished by pointing at a fake Gakanu skeleton, with it facing sideways to show its profile.

"So this is us, the Gakanu race," Tika faced the skeleton, noting the features developed from all its previous ancestors that they've just seen.

"Mhm, us. The progeny of great beasts and graceful fliers. Those last guys with the oil engines and sugar water came from dumb apes." He stared one more time at the assortment of skeletons of every species and subspecies in the Gaka genus, both extinct and extant. "We are one big happy family... more or less."

Then the two of them looked at each other, now seeing that ancient lineage and diversity in each other, given how they are two different subspecies out of seven that exist today. They quietly cuddled one another as they watched; the resemblance was clear.

Tika chuckled. "You got the long neck and legs. Good for running."

"Me? You got some nice legs yourself, and those smooth and shiny feathers and the webbed feet. Good for swimming."

"One thing you have that I don't: a nice plump body perfect for snuggling!" She leaned further into Gallo's body, her hands ruffling the numerous feathers.

"Aww, hahahah! Nice strong maaasolls!" Gallo playfully showed off and flexed his muscles to her even though he isn't very muscular himself. Still, it was the thought that counted.

"Alright everyone!" The tour guide clapped his hands one more time. "That is everything for the tour. Just follow me back to the gift shop and I'll be there to answer any questions you may have."

"Aww man," a little chick protested. "I wanna stay and look at the T-Rex some more!"

Galaoua State Museum, 15:00, 30 hours before contact.

The museum plaza was a tad less busy than it was before now that the lunch hour has passed.

Gallo and Tika exited the front of the building where the former bought the latter a plushie resembling a rooster from the First Primate era.

"Oh your so adorable! Yes you are! Yes you are!" She rubbed her face in the exterior of the plushie. Gallo held her close as they walked out from the museum as he bemoaned to himself, "there goes my monthly bonus."

He looked down at his pouch, now close to empty of cash. Such are the things he must do for love. "Stupid sales taxes."

They went out and made their way back to campus.

None are aware of an unassuming little thing that laid on a patch of lawn in the front corner of the museum, shaded by a lone tree. At first glance it resembled a small wrinkly-shelled nut. But on closer inspection one could have seen eyes. Eyes! Tiny, featureless black eyes resembling beads, sandwiched in between the wrinkles of the "shell." There it observed, quietly observing, seeing, hearing, watching, communicating with an otherworldly source that the world will soon know, far sooner than they'd realize.