"The Tau, these primitive xenos, bear extremely subtle traces of genetic editing, yet the alterations are incomplete. Something manipulated their reproduction and evolution from the shadows."
"We simply do not know why. Those genetic edits exist in only a few regions. If they wished to create a sufficiently perfect species, why did they not continue?"
Lox interlaced his fingers and leaned back in his chair. The Magos's conclusion had taken him by surprise, yet on reflection, it made perfect sense.
The development of this xenos species was filled with mysteries. In merely fifteen hundred years, they had reached their current state. Some force must have intervened.
But who had done it?
There was no way to know. Humanity knew far too little about this stretch of stars at the easternmost edge of the galaxy, and even less about its history.
"Based on our own civilization's developmental history, we can roughly infer that a civilization must rise in a spiral. It experiences periods of explosive growth, but after each explosion, it requires time to digest and adapt. It may even regress or take the wrong path because of unforeseen historical events."
Magos Lawrence said. Genetic editing was his field of research, and that inevitably involved the modifications humanity had made to its own genes over the past tens of thousands of years. As he explored the labyrinth of genetics, he had also gained a deeper understanding of human history.
"But the Tau did not. Those traces of editing buried deep within their genes directly helped them make their choices."
"When they were still in their ignorant age, the power of their genes drove them from the oceans onto land, and they naturally evolved respiratory systems suited to terrestrial life."
"Once they reached land, they swiftly evolved appropriate physiological structures and even