I like picturing how embarrassed the Federation probably gets about the fact that whales are sentient.

"Wow, so humans co-evolved with multiple other sentient species on Earth? That must've been *wild!*"

"Uh. Well, they were aquatic and we were terrestrial. We didn't interact much."

"Oh. But still, the cultural exchange when you DID must've been amazing!"

"W-well, uh. We sort of... Didn't realize they were sentient? Until a probe from a cetacean species nearly wiped humanity out."

"...Oh."

"In fact we, uh. Nearly genocided them without realizing that >_>"

"......Oh."

"But once we did, we went all in on the political rights-granting and everything! There are Starfleet ships crewed entirely by cetaceans now!"

"...For how long now?"

"uh... 2286? Ish."

"...So just over a hundred years. You guys have been in space since...?"

"...Like 1960-something."

"Uh huh."

#StarTrek

@CactuarJoe can you ficking imagine the kinds of conversations earth cetaceans and xindi aquatics would have?

@xerozohar "Pfft. Terrestrials, amirite?"

"I KNOW, jeez."