Author's Note: Story that I may or may not update. I have a full fledged plot in mind, but I don't know if I'll ever get around to actually writing it. I'm not much of a science fiction writer, but the idea came to me and it was too good to let go to waste. If I should decide to update, I'll be sure to try and make author's notes both rare and brief, but I don't know how that'll work out. This is the journal of one in a group (the exact number may be revealed later) who is going to Mars to meet and study two primitive societies that recently (as in, over the past few billion years), evolved. I'm using very loose estimates of how long it took for various life to evolve, so please excuse and point out any inaccuracies if you think it may have been too long or too short a period. This first entry is an overview of what exactly sparked this expedition as well as other backstory from which the current state of Earth (which isn't exactly relevant to the story) can be inferred. Additionally, this may stop being proper science fiction later on. As it is now, the plot consists of an analysis of two new sentient species each developing their own cultures with the help of an already extremely developed culture. The title, as you may be wondering, comes from just how much the backstory has to do with evolution rather than the traditional "We just suddenly found aliens" story. At this point I feel like I'm rambling, but I'd like to make note of one very important detail that I couldn't figure into the story without forcing it. These Martians are not humanoid. I'm refraining from describing them in any great detail for now because I'm not entirely sure how to describe them. I have appearances for both species in mind, but I can't seem to describe either of them in a way fit for this style of writing. With that, begin reading, and please do comment on how I can make this better. We found them in early 5,002,205,004 CE. The surface of Mars, over the course of the past billion years, has become home to some very strange life. Automatic rovers were no longer sufficient for exploration. The first concrete trace of life that we found was in a sample of water from the polar ice caps. The year was 10,374 CE. The rover, which had somehow worked its way up there, chipped away at the ice until it managed to get a fair sized sample of ice which it analyzed for notable data to be sent back to our base here on Earth. What it found was a few organic compounds. What we found was far more interesting. The organic compounds detected by the rover made up a simple bacterium, very similar early bacteria on Earth. It had a cell membrane, a nucleus, and even DNA in that nucleus which was replicated by ribosomal structures distributed throughout the cell's cytoplasm. We rejoiced. In late 1,000,000 CE, a surprisingly round numbered year, the rovers discovered primitive mosses and in a few million years we were seeing fully developed ecosystems consisting of plants, animals, fungi, all those kinds of life. Naturally, these were all mostly centered on the polar ice caps. Not surprisingly, the poles were very different from each other, although they did develop at about the same pace. After a while, we had to remotely control the rovers because there was just so much going on that we had to see for ourselves. Sure, there was a delay of a few minutes, making exploration somewhat tedious, but we made do. Then, last year, 5,002,205,004 CE, we made a huge discovery. Some the animals that we found had congregated into groups. While not significant in itself, they also seemed to be tool users and had developed some sort of movement based language. They built small huts made out of the Martian snow and, by July when we sent the next probe, they noticed that it had come from the sky (we had been observing the event from our own rovers that were already there), went to the craft and immediately began to crowd around it. Over the next few months, we discovered that a primitive religion had developed around our rovers. This happened with both poles. With that, we finally concluded one amazing fact. It took billions of years, but we were finally not alone. In this universe, there were other people and to them, we were gods. Not only that, there were now three drastically different species of people. The World Space Exploration Association was given more funding than it had ever had in history, and the people from all nations belonging to the New World Union were happy to go above and beyond their required taxes to fund the new mission to Mars, now dubbed Operation First Contact. On New Year's Day at midnight, 5,002,205,005 CE the first human carrying spacecraft was launched into the void in the general direction of Red Planet. As of this writing, it has been a week since that initial launch. The craft has been been traveling nonstop and is estimated to reach its destination in six months, seven if there are unforeseen complications. I'm writing this journal to document any discoveries made. The next entry will the made when we begin planning our landing on the Martian surface, since nothing interesting is likely to happen in the interim. If it does, I'll be sure to jot it down, but don't expect a full entry.
