Asteromorph

The Asteromorphs were a posthuman species that evolved from the Spacers.

After the spacers joined all of their arks into one giant world built from zero-gravity bubbles, their bodies became even more spindly, and single digits evolved into whole appendages. None of these were used for locomotion because of the specialized sphincters used to propel them through their worlds.

Most of all, their brains evolved. Free from the burden of weight and gravity, their brains expanded beyond the limits of terrestrial organisms. As a result, they began to think in concepts totally alien to their posthuman relatives and human ancestors, leading to the development of philosophy and science far superior to that of their ancestors.

The Asteromorphs expanded their empire by constructing smaller sub-arks and colonizing stellar systems to build a new empire of man, abstaining from colonizing any planets. Instead, they lingered in the outer realms of star systems, silently watching their primitive relatives.

When the Second Empire of Man, founded by the Satyriacs and the Killer Folk, and by now completely aware of their history with the Qu, encountered the Asteromorphs, they feared the worst. But, after the Asteromorphs turned out to not be interested in the Second Empire, they were accepted as incomprehensible, omnipotent forces of nature and were left alone. They continued to develop themselves, their giant brains unfolding into wing-like structures and their finger-derived limbs forming an intricate set of sails and legs.

After the total annihilation of the Second Empire of Man by the Gravital, both the Gravital and Asteromorph empires coexisted for a considerable period of time. The Gravital inhabited the planets while the Asteromorph-descended species inhabited the void. However, following a brief but catastrophic civil war within the Gravital Empire, they sought a new enemy to unite against and attacked the Asteromorph descendants. The ensuing prolonged war resulted in a staggering number of casualties, dwarfing that of the Gravital genocide. Ultimately, the Asteromorph descendants emerged victorious from the conflict.

Following the war, the Asteromorph descendants took the Subjects, who miraculously survived the conflict, from the Gravitals and became true creator gods through terraforming and repopulating the Milky Way’s planets with the numerous descendant species of the Subjects. The surviving Gravitals were changed by the Asteromorph descendants into the New Machines.

To prevent another genocide like the one perpetrated by the Gravital, the Asteromorph descendant species decided to watch over and control the newly created worlds. To supervise these new worlds, an entirely new species was created from the Asteromorph descendants. Genetically altered to survive the gravity of planetary life, their appendages, made from modified fingers, were strengthened to use for walking. They were also given smaller brains which were nonetheless still bigger than those of the Subject-descended species. This new species was called Terrestrials and acted under the supervision of the Asteromorphs.

As the new empire was spanning the whole of the Milky Way, the humans tried to make contact with the indigenous folk of the surrounding nebulae, while still being cautious given their history of alien invasions, remembering the Qu as well as the invaders that attacked the Bug Facers.

After a time, they found another civilization in the form of a diverse empire ruled by the Amphicephali. Like the posthumans, the Amphicephali had a rich and diverse history and approached the idea of contact with caution. Eventually, both species finally proved mature enough to make peaceful contact. While they were the first species to peacefully make contact with humanity, they would not be the last.

Together, the United Galaxies eventually defeated the Qu, cradled their suns with artificial shells, crisscrossed interstellar space with wormholes and made travel a thing of the past. One day, a researcher rediscovered the Earth, humanity's ancestral home, which had been abandoned 560 Million years ago as it was too far away from the main centres of population.

By the time of the All Tomorrows afterword, all of humanity has disappeared for unknown reasons. The Author of the book speculates that perhaps it went extinct through war or the empire slowly falling apart, leaving single colonies to meet their own fate. Or maybe a mass migration to another plane of existence. The book ends with no definitive answer.

Appearances

 * All Tomorrows, by C. M. Koseman (2006)