The Helianx Proposition/page 58
The bipeds were evolving rapidly while Noe's attention
had been taken by the activities of the extraterrestrial visitors.
SHe had managed to remain undetected as much through hir own guile
as for the fact that sHe was so much part of the landscape by that time
that the visitors appeared to ignore hir on those rare occasions hir guard had slipped.
Although sHe had watched the extraterrestrial comings and goings with interest,
Noe was also pressingly aware that hir main concern needed to be with
the indigenous life-forms and how the bipeds were developing.
The mutation that was to lead to the first true humans appeared suddenly as a pair of twins, a male and a female, in a family of mature apes. Even as babies the mutants had looked different to their bewildered primate parents, but since they smelled familiar they were accepted and nurtured to young adulthood. With their considerably larger brains, the young humans' range of mental and emotional responses were so much wider and deeper than their parents that it had not been long before they had struck out on their own, seeking out others of like mind.
Noe had not observed this for hirself, but sHe knew enough about the process of transformation, and how significant mutations can occur within one or two generations, to have some sympathy for the parents of those mysterious and precocious offspring. Soon a complex language had grown up between increasing numbers of these new humans as they started to gather in clans, and then in larger tribes. While their primate forbears had communicated largely through grunts, roars and body language, their mutated progeny were rapidly able to share with each other what they had learned. This cooperation led to more efficient hunting techniques. The pooling of knowledge on edible plants meant healthier and longer lives; tribal life supported larger families and a natural division of labor allowed for specialization and the development of new and more effective tools.
Over the next half-a-million years, Noe watched quietly as human beings expanded to all the habitable regions they could reach. With their higher intelligence, they quickly disposed of the more primitive tribes that stood in their way. When different groups of these nomadic humans encountered each other, they either fought bitterly, or were forced into diplomatic truces. Interbreeding between the clans, when it could occur, fed further interesting genetic variations which, in turn, led to yet more ingenious applications of intelligent thought. But intelligence also had its drawbacks. Already a fearful species, the humans' newly acquired consciousness had profoundly deepened their capacity to imagine the worst. Ghosts and demons now seemed to lurk in the darkness, haunting their dreams and leading to superstitions designed to placate their ravenous needs. Still largely dominated by their animal natures, these early humans were all too readily controlled by the manipulations of the more interfering off~world visitors.
No good can come from this, thought Noe, as sHe mulled over hir options.
