The First Superhuman: Rebuilding Civilization from the Moon

Just as the crew was pondering the fate of the vanished civilization, the main monitors suddenly flagged several anomalous images. Inside a half-collapsed bungalow, a blurry shadow was visible through a shattered glass window.

It was a corpse.

Unlike the scattered animal bones found in the wilderness, this body was located indoors and appeared to be deliberately covered by some sort of fabric. According to the supercomputer’s analysis, there was a very high probability that this was the remains of an intelligent native.

"Discovering intact remains of an intelligent species is no easy feat," a scientist noted with intense interest. "After more than a decade, most organic matter would have completely decomposed. It takes very specific environmental conditions to preserve a body for this long..."

Receiving their new orders, several hexapod robots swiftly scaled the ruins and crawled into the house. They slipped through a hole in the collapsed wall and began a careful examination of the corpse.

These hexapod drones, each roughly the size of a basketball, were highly upgraded versions of their older spider-bot models. They were incredibly nimble and packed with a suite of sophisticated sensors for close-quarters reconnaissance.

However, they lacked brute physical strength. It took the combined effort of three robots to finally roll the stiff corpse over.

The instant the body was moved, a swarm of brightly colored, writhing insects poured out from underneath it. Instantly, the sealed room on the screen seemed to fill with a foul, chaotic miasma as red and white scavengers spilled across the floor. From a swollen, ruptured cavity in the corpse’s abdomen, even more bugs could be seen squirming inside.

Everyone on the bridge frowned. Many instinctively held their breath, almost feeling as though the sickening stench of decay could seep right through the monitors.

Several of the younger Federation Marines wrinkled their noses in deep discomfort, their stomachs violently churning. Having grown up in the sterile, highly controlled environment of the Ark, they had never witnessed something so incredibly grotesque.

Aboard the Titan-Z, Security Minister Austin scowled, feeling a deep sense of disappointment.

In truth, he shared Jason’s lingering concerns: these young recruits were still far too inexperienced. The entire military apparatus was... well, soft. They desperately needed harsher field training. As a soldier, how could a few bugs and a rotting corpse make you lose your composure?

The older veterans, however, didn’t flinch. Jason stared intently at the screen, analyzing the remains.

The corpse was approximately 1.5 meters tall. Due to the unique, dry conditions inside this specific room, the body had been entirely desiccated. The skin was leathery and shriveled like a mummy, which explained how it had survived the decade intact.

Its original shape was barely distinguishable, and its specific facial features had collapsed in on themselves. The body was wrapped in a layer of colorful, degraded synthetic fibers, likely a form of clothing that had rotted into tatters over the years.

"Could it just be a pet? Some people back home used to put clothes on their dogs, right?" a scientist muttered from the back of the room. "If it’s just an animal, it doesn’t hold much anthropological value."

But the anatomy suggested otherwise. It possessed long, distinct limbs, and aside from a patch on its head, the rest of the body appeared completely hairless. Looking closely at the collapsed face, one could make out the eye sockets, a mouth, and right in the middle... a nasal cavity.

"The overall skeletal structure... doesn’t it look surprisingly human?"

Seeing the close-up image, Jason was momentarily stunned. For a split second, he felt as though he had been transported back in time to a grisly murder scene on old Earth!

He had seen plenty of similar sights during his days in the special forces. When a human died and underwent natural mummification, this was exactly what they looked like.

Of course, logic quickly reminded him that he was light-years away from Earth, on a completely alien world.

He glanced over his shoulder, exchanging bewildered looks with a few of the older combat veterans. They shared the exact same suspicious expression. As for the younger crew members... they had never seen a real human corpse before, so the eerie familiarity was lost on them.

Then, the camera panned down. Protruding from the base of the corpse’s spine was a flat, broad appendage resembling a beaver’s tail. That was certainly a stark departure from human anatomy.

Swallowing their nausea, the researchers and marines got to work.

One robot carefully manipulated the body, scanning for trauma or identifying marks, while the others swept the room.

The interior was an absolute wreck, with belongings violently scattered across the floor—a clear indicator of a massive earthquake. Yet, beneath the destruction, the room’s layout felt profoundly familiar. They could easily guess the purpose of the remaining furniture: torn curtains, a collapsed bed, storage cabinets. These natives evidently required a comfortable place to sleep and likely cooked their food.

"Can the drones determine a specific cause and time of death?" Jason asked over the comms link.

An expert wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. "We’re running the algorithms now, Captain. But the hexapods’ built-in diagnostic tools are basic; they can only give us a rough estimate..."

"We’re looking at approximately ten to fifteen years ago!"

"As for the specific cause of death... that’s likely impossible to determine on-site. The body underwent severe bloating before it desiccated. Unless there’s massive, obvious skeletal trauma, we won’t know without a full autopsy."

The 900,000-kilometer distance between the fleet and the mothership resulted in a frustrating six-second communication delay, forcing Jason to keep his inquiries brief. He simply nodded in acknowledgment.

While they spoke, another massive discovery was made. One of the drones had unearthed something incredible from the debris.

A physical photograph. A family portrait that had fallen from the wall!

This single image would finally reveal exactly what these intelligent beings looked like when they were alive.

As the restored photograph flashed onto the main screens, a collective chill ran down everyone’s spines! The shock rippled from the vanguard fleet all the way back to the scientists aboard the Deep Space.

Even Jason felt his heart skip a beat, a cold sweat breaking out across his back. It was completely unbelievable!

Looking at the photo, the natives were unfathomably human!

They had brown hair on their heads, smooth brows entirely lacking eyebrows, and a sickly, grayish-white complexion. Their cheekbones and noses were slightly more prominent than a standard human’s, and their chins were sharply tapered, giving them distinct, oval-shaped faces.

By standard human aesthetics, they wouldn’t be considered conventionally attractive. But undeniably, the resemblance was staggering. They looked like a slightly divergent branch of humanity, a unique subspecies!

This was, by far, the most humanoid alien species the Federation had ever encountered. They looked much closer to modern humans than apes or gorillas ever did!

A deeply unsettling feeling washed over the crew. If one of these creatures were to shave its head, put on some makeup, and hide its tail beneath a heavy coat... it could easily walk down a street on the Ark without drawing a second glance.

Jason and his senior staff exchanged stunned, bewildered looks as a frantic commotion erupted across the bridge.

It took several minutes for the room to regain a semblance of order.

Alright, so they look like us. It’s not the end of the world, Jason told himself, trying to rationalize the discovery. The universe was vast and full of infinite possibilities. Was it really so impossible for a species to evolve along the exact same lines?

"It’s just a physical resemblance... it’s not a big deal," one of the biologists reasoned aloud, trying to calm the room.

"From an evolutionary standpoint, this convergence isn’t entirely illogical. While the human form isn’t flawless, it is highly optimized for survival and tool use. Bipedalism frees the hands, and long limbs provide leverage. It makes sense that a different evolutionary tree might arrive at the exact same functional destination."

"As for the lack of body hair, that’s easily explained by the local climate. The global average temperature here is over 30 degrees Celsius. Fur would be an evolutionary disadvantage. If you look at the local wildlife, most of them lack thick fur coats as well."

The biologists worked hard to provide a rational, scientific framework so the crew wouldn’t panic.

"We have clear examples of this on old Earth! Think of penguins and great auks, two completely unrelated species from opposite ends of the globe that evolved to look almost identical because of their environments. Or look at dolphins and sharks; one is a mammal, the other a fish, yet they share the exact same streamlined body plan."

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