91

You and the scorpion listen to the aliens and realize they're only half right. Humans can't possibly understand a more-than-perfect beat... yet. But they could if you improve them and make them capable of it. Some more dried fruit jerky and a few beers later the space aliens agree to let you use their very advanced technology -- that is definitely not being used as a magic plot device -- in order to make all humans capable of perceiving the full scope of a more-than-perfect beat. After booting up the species improver (and downloading the mandatory patches, it's like every time it boots there's more patches), all it takes is a few mouse clicks to get it done, but something unexpected happens. It turns out as soon as humans gain the ability to hear the more-than-perfect they also gain the ability to appreciate the ambient sounds of nature, including just silence, as their own more-than-perfection. It turns out that everything around is already a more-than-perfect sound, we just couldn't hear it. As you crawl into your tent later, finding it easily being more than- on for a good morning's rest, you listen to the flap flapping in the wind, but now appreciate it in a whole new way.

an ending