Chronovac Error: Intelligent species file corrupted....file unrecoverable. Following directive...activate new intelligent species to ensure creation of Chronovac and avoid paradox. Corruption in human species file due close relationship to intelligent species...filename unrecoverable....must repair...Analyzing. Original instruction, swap intelligent species and pet...Candidate chosen, calculating new evolutionary changes.
The Chronovac looked for other species in the house it was in other than the humans. It found a pair of parakeets elsewhere in the house. But it wouldn't change every bird to an intelligent species...as some would remain as primitive ancestors of the new intelligent bird species.
The mammalian ancestors of humans and the reptilian ancestors of birds diverged over 300 million years ago...and much more recently(although still millions of years ago), birds evolved from bipedal dinosaurs. Chronovac began to make changes to the history of evolution back then, swapping some characteristics and extrapoliating forward.
Birds no longer owned the sky. Mammals did, having developed wings. Birds and their reptile kin owned the land, and none of them could fly...though some of the lesser species could glide. Birds and reptiles also had paws, hands, and hooves...something mammals had not developed.
Only the two parakeets and the human called Jeff were in the house, so the Chronovac experimented before expanding outward to the rest of the world.
Jeff was a typical human created during the previous step. He was a hairy slobbering creature with a tiny brain, a large tongue, and an affectionate nature. But, his ancestry began to change. His forearms began expanding, the hands at the end of them being absorbed into them. He began to flap around, but in the new timeline, he'd become a member of a species of flightless mammals, still called humans, having been domesticated by the Parrot race...the intelligent birds. His legs grew thinner, while his midsection grew a bit thicker. He could move surprisingly fast, but he couldn't quite get off the ground.
Meanwhile, the cage the two parakeets were in ceased to be, as they grew many times their previous size, their wings being replaced by arms. They were starting to take on not only the characteristics of intelligent species...larger brains and such, but characteristics of their ancestors
But it wasn't the only change in the vicinity of the house. The pigeons and the rats seemed to be changing places in society...or at least the rats were growing wings while the pigeons settled in on the ground.