Pangaea- Eden's Planet

by Tom Johnson

  "I don't know," the colonel admitted, turning the vehicle slightly in order to drive closer to the object.

  Stopping when she reached the dark object, she told him, "It looks like a piece of wood." Stepping out of the all terrain vehicle, they both walked over to the object, and Cooper reached down and picked it up.

  "It's merely a broken piece of board," Colonel Peterson said.

  Picking up the shattered piece of board, he turned it over and read, "so nam". Shaking his head for a minute, he wondered about the writing on the broken piece of wood, and then he remembered: "Hell, Colonel, this is the sign Sheri made. Remember, 'I so name this place, Sheriville'? That's all that was left of the sign after the first big storm."

  "’So nam’," Colonel Peterson repeated. "That's not as catchy as Sheriville, Major," she shrugged.

  "Maybe not," he agreed, "but seeing as how that's all we have left of the sign, we might as well leave it like that. Sonam might grow on us. Who knows?"

  Picking up a large rock near by, Cooper pounded the piece of a sign back into the ground, where it gave the impression of a city limit sign at the edge of some small town.

  Looking over towards the graves scattered around the Galileo Two, he shook his head as he continued: "I guess we're the last ones now, Colonel. We're all alone in this place. If I had a marker, I would write, 'Population 2' on Sheri's little city limit sign!"

  "Or perhaps we're the first ones," she smiled, coming closer to him, and reaching her arms around his neck. "We will never be alone, Cooper. Not as long as we have each other. We will teach the sciences to our children, and they will be able to survive the catastrophe that's coming upon this planet. Our children's children shall repopulate the world, and civilization will once again exist on Earth."

  Smiling, he took her in his arms, pulling her tight against his chest. "You know I love you," he said, and their lips met for the first time in a passionate embrace, each had longed for since they'd first stepped upon the Galileo Two.

  "May I quit addressing you as Colonel now, and call you Evelyn, instead?" he asked her, as they pulled apart finally.

  "Please," she smiled, "call me Eve—Adam!"Somewhere in the distant mist, they heard the odd laughter of Roger Manning.

  Genesis: Chapter One, Verse 22

  Epilogue

  The Beginning

  Mankind has always been like a child. They must be taken by the hand, and led on the path intended. If not, then they will usually stray on uncertain roads. Evelyn Peterson and Adam Cooper lived long productive lives, dying in old age after raising many children on Eden’s Planet. Before their first child was born, the great catastrophe occurred, when one of several asteroids twenty-five miles wide struck the Earth like a bullet, causing great earthquakes worldwide, and volcanic hot spots spewed molten lava and gasses for thousands of years. The oceans and atmosphere were poisoned, and almost all life was wiped out.

  The spaceship, Galileo Two acted as a nuclear power source, providing heat, water, and air to the bio-dome, where plants grew in abundance, supplying food for them and their children. Their parents fulfilled their promise by teaching the sciences to their children, and the computers were tools that provided knowledge in every field of study. Yet, as each generation grew to old age, they stared from the bio-dome, desiring to see their world live again.

  Their parents had called them the Genesis children, and when they were young, they would laugh and call themselves Gen-sis, which eventually stuck. And though the sign had long since deteriorated, they remembered the words, Sonam, and thought of their little world as that name. They became the First Ones, the Gen-sis of Sonam.

  This was their beginning.

  The End

  About the Author

  As a twenty-year military veteran, I served on the Korean DMZ under fire, as well as in Vietnam. I have a law enforcement background. My studies of paleontology and entomology have been an influence in many of my novels. My wife and I started the publishing imprint of FADING SHADOWS in 1982, and published a hobby magazine and several genre magazines for 22 years, before I settled into writing my own novels. I have now been published in over 80 books, which include fiction novels and short stories, as well as nonfiction books. I write SF, YA, Western, and Action novels.