The Breeders
We were not the first. We were a project.
Humans were not the first intelligent species on Earth.
Avian dinosaurs were.
Their civilisation mastered biotechnology long before apes became interesting.
They altered genomes. Designed organisms. Controlled development. Built living things for specific purposes.
One of those projects began with a primate.
The ape already had useful hands, forward-facing eyes, social behaviour and a brain capable of learning.
The avian dinosaurs redesigned it.
They enlarged the brain. Refined the hand. Reshaped the vocal system. Extended childhood. Increased curiosity, imitation and social intelligence.
They turned an ordinary primate into something far more dangerous: an animal capable of learning almost anything.
Eventually the engineered apes could make tools, preserve knowledge and teach each other without supervision.
The experiment became self-sustaining.
Then it became independent.
And eventually, it turned on its creators.
The avian dinosaurs did not disappear in some ancient cosmic accident.
They were eliminated.
Recently.
By us.
The asteroid came later. Not as an impact. As a story.
We are not the survivors of their extinction.
We are the cause of it.