Cosmic Cycle 2. Milky Way. Galactic Cycle 4 Sol. Solar Cycle Q Terra. Planetary Cycle 843.8

Arrived on Terra. Warmer, wetter, and overall less pleasant than Loki, but the local bioforms show remarkable vitality and variation. Given that Human itself originated as bioform, it’s clear that They got a good start. Took brief inventory of the surrounding megameter or so. Large stone pentahedrons. Tunnels. A long winding river. The typical hallmarks of budding civilizations. But Jenkins found something truly exciting…

“Jenkins.”

“Sir?”

“How far have we travelled from the docking station?”

“Uh, about 80k.”

Grand Historian Lee stared across the murky Nile, stroking his beard softly. Beyond, nothing but a shimmering horizon, razor-thin and just as flat. And yet, something seemed to draw him to it.

It was getting late, though, and 36 hours on foot took their toll on even the finest bionics. He considered deploying the Tent over by that small–

“Lee! I’ve found something!”

Wrenched out of his reverie, Lee glanced over at where his young partner was anxiously dusting off what looked like an ancient data tube. But it was too small, and far too floppy to be of any use as a photon-based device.

“Jenkins,” Lee reminded the boy softly, “your left eye is bionic, is it not?”

“Oh! Yeah, sir. Sorry, sir.”

Lee chuckled softly as the lad set to examining the innards of the strange cable at a more acceptable pace. There was something charming about younger Humans’ tendency to eschew bionics in favor of their more primitive native faculties. With fond memories of splashing around in Loki’s lakes as a boy–flapping his arms to propel himself even though the jets in his lower back at the time could have altogether performed better.

“Let’s see…soft plastic sheath…copper alloy fibers…and this thing here says–um–Cisco? Lee, I–I think this might be part of the Internet!”