"Captain!", the radio squawked in the voice of Science Officer Hithlomiel. "My field analysis of the remains and archeological findings here is complete. It's fascinating, you need to see this!"

"Can you upload it to the ship's server?", Captain Narion asked.

"Yes, I'm doing it right now! By the Exalted One, Captain, you MUST see this!", Hithlomiel's voice was bubbling with excitement.

"This is some kind of error", Captain Narion thought as he started to peruse Hithlomiel's findings. "It's just Elfoid remains, nothing more... Wait!", a thought flashed in his head as he examined a photo of some posters found on the ruins. The beings depicted were, indeed, very similar to Elfoids, but on close inspection, it became obvious that they were not. The most obvious distinction was round ears. Precise anatomical drawings hid more details the Elfoids lacked. These people had 32 teeth, while the Elfoids had 28. There was a strange, tiny, dead-end intestine these people had and the Elfoids didn't. The eyes' retinas were literally facing the wrong way. But there were much, much more similarities than distinctions. These people had a tetracameral heart, a pair of lungs, a network of blood vessels and a gastrointestinal tract. Their bodies were made of eukaryotic cells with DNA encoded proteins.

"Science Officer, these people..."

"They looked like us, yes. But with one small caveat. They looked like the naturally evolved version of us. Untouched by genetic enhancement."

"So... this... this dustball, forsaken by the Exalted One, is the actual birthplace of the Elfoid kind? Not Anor? Do you have any further data? What were they like?"

"Ample medical data, Captain. It appears these beings weren't biologically immortal and got sick pretty often, so their doctors were never out of work. Here, I have uploaded some scanned old photos".

One photo depicted a woman that was impossible to mistake for an Elfoid, so bloated and massive she was. It reminded Narion of old science fiction flicks, where the evil aliens always looked like uglier, monstruous version of Elfoids.

"What is THIS?"

"Body fat, captain. Apparently it's a medical condition these people sometimes had, which caused their body fat to become so massive".

"Another thing edited out of us? Like those extra teeth?"

"Yes, and now I see why the extra teeth didn't make the cut. Look at these X-Rays of them growing wrong way."

Narion was extremely confused by Hithlomiel's excited, chatty attitude. All these images looked horrible. The hypertrophied body fat, teeth growing wrong way... What's next, hairless scalps? Misshapen spines? Tumors growing on skin? "Don't tell me they sometimes had all that, too!", Narion shuddered. The Elfoids' imperfect ancestors looked like Elfoids at best... and like sick twisted monsters at worst.

"You say they weren't biologically immortal. Any success with deciphering their records? What was their average lifespan?"

"About 65 Anorian years, or 80 local ones".

"So they died as barely more than children", Narion whispered in horror.