2001: A SALES OPPORTUNITY

A thin strand of purple light stretched and swelled across the sky. A heliotrope hue crept over rocky outcrops, leaning and looming like skyscrapers. But there were no cities here. This land had no streets, no trade routes, no monuments.
Not yet.
This was a world of wild purity, and it was slowly coming to life in the growing daylight.
Beneath an overhanging strata, huddled against the cold, tangles of fur and flesh began to stir. Bloodshot eyes slowly fluttered to a focus; jumbles of instincts jockeyed in primitive skulls. One heart beat quickened, then another. Long arms stretched and leathery fingers dragged their way down shaggy torsos, releasing lithe bodies from sleep. The hunters would soon be upon them. They licked at each other's mingled fingertips, stained with the juice of berries; the long nails were sucked and stripped clean, savoring the taste before the long journey ahead. It was the same one each day. It was called survival.
The nostrils of one creature arched and filled with a strange, unfamiliar scent. It was something between warm familiarity and the cold unknown, and it quickened him to action. He bolted upright, pulling the rest of the tribe from their lethargy with guttural groans. The strange new smell tugged at the animal's chin, dragging him out from the safety of the rocks and into the expiring dawn. He stumbled into the new day, more curious of the smell than fearful of the danger. His dim eyes widened as, behind him, the odor began curling itself around the rest of the faces, enticing them too out from the cliffs.
Suddenly, the thrill was washed from his uncomplicated mind and something new stood in front of him, blocking the rising sun. His body lowered to a crouch as he tried to make sense of the what now lay impossibly before him. It was dark like the night. It did not have the crags and contours of the landscape. It was smooth like the still waters they drank from. It was taller than the tallest of them and thinner than the thinnest of their young. And it made him want to get closer.
In short bursts, he advanced. The rest of his kind stayed far behind, huddled close together, chirping sounds of danger, watching his hair stand on end as he approached the thing stuck in the sand.
Now the alpha impulse flickered in the back of his brain. He needed to dominate this thing just like he had done with the younger males. He bore sharp teeth and lowered the tone in his throat. The rest of his tribe responded with howls. Bony yet muscular hands flared open and closed in the air, but the thing made no moves. His eyes flashed from its black bottom to its black top, and he continued to edge forward, sniffing and collecting any smells or tastes.
And all at once, the animal was trapped in a whirl of extremes. No longer in control of his own movements, his hand reached up, all fear replaced by something he'd never felt before. He longed to touch the thing that stretched to the sky. Slowly, one by one, the rest of his clan joined in, their bravado fading into sighs and whimpers.
Fear became worship and wonder; palms reached out to stroke the cool dark shape. Something behind their eyes began to crackle and bloom. The thing did not make a sound, yet it was deafening in their ears. It was as if light now reached inside of them and they began to change somehow.
"Ugh," Mangus Torgesson grumbled, wrapping his lips around the stem of a glowing Sens-O-Vape. A mix of sweet and spicy flavours filled his throat and one remaining lung. He held his breath to enjoy the orgy of taste to its fullest, then scanned the view screen before him. A small group of proto-humanoids were crouching before the New Horizon Deluxe Sales Obelisk. His bloated stomach turned sourly in his body as he watched the animal's dirty hands reach up towards the undetectable camera eye. He exhaled a cloud of vapor from between his lips and grumbled again.
"Stinking stupid primates." His aching, turgid fingers slammed a few buttons on the keypad below the view screen.
"I'll be damned if I'm going to wait another two million years to make a sale."
Mangus lurched forward and tapped the microphone resting on top of his monitor. He settled back in his chair, and cleared his throat with the grace of a cold gasoline engine. The sudden blast of sound sent the brutish creatures on the immature planet below into a panic and they clamored back to the safety of the rocks. A gentle three-note jingle squeezed itself out of the black object and floated across the prehistoric air.
"Thank you for your interest in the New Horizon Deluxe Sales Obelisk, your one-stop shop for three dimensional organic and inorganic delicacies, manufactured as you desire."
The monolith, once austere and clean, suddenly crackled to life with garish pictures of liquid-less washing machines, spaceships screaming through the stars, and anti-grav running shoes. The creatures stopped shivering and merely blinked.
"Once your frontal lobes reach a reasonable cognitive capacity, we will make a follow up sales call. In the meantime, dream wonderful dreams of fanciful frontiers. The only limit is your imagination…once you finally get one. We extend our warmest regards."
Mangus dragged his thumb through the word EARTH and it vanished from the hologrammatic sheet of sales leads. He tapped another button and the smooth black totem shot straight into the sky, leaving only a cloud of dust and dirt to settle on the frightened pack of lifeforms below.
Somewhere on the surface of the young planet, two starving beasts sniffed and scouted among the boulders. They tongued the air for the scent of prey. Many miles above, Mangus Torgesson primed his engines for the jump into hyperspace, searching for yet another sign of life, so badly in need of self-cleaning spatulas and sofas with auto-fluffing cushions.