Children of the Fifth Sun

by Gareth Worthington

  They stared at it.

  It appeared to stare back.

  “What is it?” Victoria asked, her voice cracking. “It looks like a giant axolotl.”

  “Is it, you know, an alien?” Chris asked.

  “No, no, this came from here—from Earth.” Kelly sounded so sure. He studied it as if trying to dredge up an ancient memory of somewhere he’d seen it before.

  “Mr. Graham is quite right.” The voice came from behind them.

  A tall, thin man walked toward them through the only door in or out of the room. He wore brown slacks and white boat shoes. His white blazer was buttoned over an open-necked, light blue shirt. He was in his early fifties, but still had piercing blue eyes that contrasted against his dark leathery skin.

  “I’m Professor Alexander.”

  The General marched over to the professor and put one hand on his shoulder. “Professor Alexander is our resident expert and really the driving force behind our understanding of K’in. He’ll let you know what’s going on.”

  “Indeed, please follow me.” The professor turned around and headed back out through the door. Kelly, Victoria, and Chris looked at each other and then at Tremaine and Ms. Nilsson.

  Ms. Nilsson nodded toward the door. “Go on.”

  The three friends shuffled out of the room, each one glancing backward more than once to chance another fleeting look at K’in. It was still there, gliding gracefully in the water near the glass—its blind gaze firmly fixed in their direction.

  Location: Secret base, somewhere in the Nevada desert, USA

  They entered a small, white room. No windows. No other doors. Only a plain oval glass table placed in the center and six see-through chairs made of some kind of plastic. They assembled along the edge of the table while Professor Alexander sat at the head. He rested one leg on the knee of the other, his hands in his lap. Calm. Serene.

  “What do you know about evolution?” the professor asked. The question didn’t seem to be aimed at any one particular person. They looked blankly at each other.

  “Perhaps that was too broad. Let me be more specific. What do you know about human evolution?”

  Kelly sat upright in his chair and coughed nervously. “We descended from apes.”

  “Well, that is very broad and not wholly accurate but close enough. Yes, we descended from ape-like ancestors. However, if you go back far enough, we have ancestors that are common to both us and frogs or crocodiles. According to the fossil record, life began in the oceans and moved on to land. Therefore, our ancestors also originated in the oceans. Understand?”

  Kelly and Chris nodded.

  The professor stood and tapped twice on the table. The glass came alive, transforming into a transparent working computer surface. It glowed with a faint, blue haze. A series of folder-shaped icons littered the table surface. Professor Alexander placed a finger on the image of a folder and dragged it toward his end of the table. He tapped it twice. The folder opened and spilled its contents around the glass table-screen. His eyes scanned the images and then selected the one he wanted. He grabbed the outer edges of the picture and pulled his fingers in two different directions—the image expanded, almost to the full size of the table. It was the representation of an evolutionary tree, a cascade of electric blue lines leading to a species name. Each line worked backward, connecting to another line at a certain point in history.

  The professor flicked his finger along the tree, moving it forward and then backward. “Ah, there it is.” He tapped on a species name: Orcinus orca. The killer whale. “Did you know orcas and, in fact, all whales are closely related to cows? It’s true. If you look at the bone structure,”—he tapped again, bringing up a virtual skeleton of a killer whale— “you can see remnant bones in their fins and a pelvic structure from when they had legs.”

  Chris wrinkled his nose. “Legs?”

  “Yes, legs,” repeated the professor. “You see, following the great evolutionary feat of moving from the ocean to land, it seems some of our mammalian cousins went back to the ocean—for some reason unbeknownst to us. We have fossil records showing the regression of land-adapted appendages to sea-faring ones. Interestingly, though, they kept the need to breathe the atmosphere and thus all have lungs. Now,” the professor’s voice became more excited, “it seems at one point, an ancestor or ancestors of the human race lived very near water. And it had to be deep enough to allow diving.”

  “Why?” Chris asked.

  “The mammalian dive reflex.” Kelly spoke softly, unaware he’d vocalized his inner thoughts.

  “Quite right again, Mr. Graham, the mammalian dive reflex. I thought you might understand, being a diver.” The professor turned his attention to Victoria and Chris. “There are several peculiarities of human physiology. One is that we are one of the few species of ape or monkey that have downward-facing nostrils. If you look at chimpanzees or gorillas, they do not. Another related animal that has downward-facing nostrils is the proboscis monkey—and that species spends a lot of its time in water. That particular nose shape is to prevent water entering the lungs. Now, perhaps more persuasive evidence is the mammalian dive reflex, as Mr. Graham pointed out. When a human’s face is placed into cold water for longer than a few seconds, there is a drop in heart pulse rate; the blood vessels contract; the blood is directed away from the limbs. It protects the heart, lungs and brain. In addition, the spleen contracts, releasing red blood cells carrying oxygen; and finally, blood fills the vessels in the lungs. Without this adaptation, the human lung would shrink and probably wrap into its own walls at depths greater than one hundred feet. This reflex can be seen in newborn human babies.”

  The group looked intently at the professor, absorbing his every word—mentally filing each and every fact.

  “Shall I continue?” he asked.

  They nodded.

  “Okay. So where was I? Oh, yes, the mammalian dive reflex. All this evidence suggests our ancestors lived very close to water and even developed adaptations that would have meant a substantial amount of time in water—deep water. But we know there were several species like our ancestors that existed at around the same time. So what if one or more of them moved completely back into the water? What if their adaptations took them back into the sea? In this environment, evolution quickened and much more so than on land. In the oceans, gravity is less impeding, and nutrients, essential chemicals, and such are all around—an endless supply of water and oxygen, the two things needed for life.”

  “So what are you saying? That thing in there is a splice off from one of our direct ancestors? Something that evolved under our noses, alongside us?” Victoria sat back in her chair, her arms crossed defiantly.

  “Oh no, Ms. McKenzie. K’in is much more than that. I have only told you half the story.”

  Victoria glanced at Chris and then Kelly. They were fixated on the professor. “Half the story?”

  “Okay, I’m going to skip ahead a few millennia now.” The professor closed the evolutionary tree and moved it away from him. His eyes scanned the table as he searched for a new folder. “Ah, there it is.” He leaned over the table, stretching as far as his body would allow, and touched two fingertips to a folder marked, Deluge. He tapped on it twice, and again, a series of documents and images spilled out. He moved each one around, maneuvering them by sliding his fingers across the surface of the glass. He tapped an image of a wall; it was covered with strange inscriptions.

  “In almost every ancient culture on this planet, there is the story of a massive flood. Something so huge that it completely destroyed the majority of life on the planet. The Christians will tell you God sent the flood. Of course, they will also tell you an eighty-year-old man built an ark on his own and traveled around the world collecting two of every animal.” He chuckled, but saw Victoria was scowling. “Anyway, the flood story exists in other cultures, and in many of the stories, they speak of a man or men that came after the flood, bringing with them knowledge and skills. Legends from Peru to Su
meria and ancient Egypt to India recount the arrival of god-like beings after the great flood—Osiris and Thoth in Egypt, Vishnu in India, Enki and Oannes in Sumeria and Babylonia, Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha in the Americas. Often, these gods, or men, were closely linked with the sea. In Sumeria, these men were depicted as fish-men or serpents of some kind.” He tapped an image on the table. It expanded to show the stone carving of a man with a braided beard. He wore a fish head as a hat; its piscine body draped like a cape on his back. Below the waist, the figure wore a garment formed almost entirely of fish scales. In his hand, he carried an unidentifiable, round object.

  “This is an Assyrian carving.” He pointed at the image. “In ancient Sumeria, there was a legend of a being called Oannes. Stories from this region describe, at length, a being that came from the water and brought reason and culture to the peoples. This being would return to the water at night, because he was amphibious.”

  The professor had already pulled up several more documents and was flicking them around the table monitor for the group to inspect. Each was in a foreign and ancient language; all they could do was nod.

  “Of course, then you have the Americas. The Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas. In the pre-Inca and Inca mythology in the Andes region of South America, they spoke of a god called Viracocha, which roughly translates to ‘foam of the sea.’ Viracocha was one of the most important deities in the Inca pantheon. He was the creator of all things—the universe, sun, moon, stars, time, and civilization itself. Viracocha was worshipped as god of the sun and of storms. He was said to have appeared after a great flood.”

  The professor flicked his fingers, and an image on the table spun 180 degrees to face the group. It was a drawing of something that looked like a man. It had a trapezoid-shaped head with thick lines radiating from it. Black eyes stared out. Its body was square with two arms and two legs. The whole image was a pale yellow color.

  “This is how the Incas represented Viracocha. It has long been believed he was represented as wearing the sun for a crown, with thunderbolts in his hands, and tears descending from his eyes as rain. Descriptions of him usually include him being a pale-skinned man with a beard. Look closer at the image. What do you see?”

  “It looks like that thing in your tank.” Kelly’s voice trailed off.

  “Indeed, Mr. Graham. That sun-crown looks more like the gills on our guest, doesn’t it? And the black eyes or perhaps no eyes ... And look at the arms and legs—they don’t have the same number of digits as you or I, do they?”

  Again, they nodded.

  “Moreover, if you consider the Ancient Mayan myths, they speak of the deity named Quetzalcoatl, which translates to ‘plumed serpent.’”

  “I know these stories.” Chris tapped on the table. “My grandfather was from Cuzco; he used to tell them when I was a child. These gods were always described as pale-skinned men with beards, not big gills on their heads.”

  “You are right in one respect, Mr. D’Souza. However, the stories have been tainted by the conquistadors who ravaged those lands. Indeed, an early description of Quetzalcoatl, written in the original Nahuatl, describes the attire of Quetzalcoatl as a green mask, red lips, yellow face, and a beard of feathers. Unfortunately, the meaning of the word ‘beard’ was abused by Spanish colonizers.” The professor paused for effect. “Furthermore, not one cultural representation of Viracocha or Quetzalcoatl in paintings, sculptures, or the like shows them bearded in any sense the Spanish colonizers described.”

  Chris stared wide-mouthed at the man who was rewriting his heritage. “Huh?”

  The professor continued. “So, when you take all of these facts into consideration, don’t you think these descriptions from all over the world accurately reflect K’in? Pale skin, plumed, amphibious. You see, we don’t think K’in is just an evolutionary curiosity. We think his kind brought civilization and advanced thinking to the human race. Having split off from one of our ancestors and returned to the nurturing ocean, his species may have evolved much faster than ours. Thus, it is reasonable to assume their civilization and social structure would also have evolved faster. The theories of a pan-continental civilization older than our own have existed for a long time, but it was always assumed it was a human civilization. Only through modern technology have we been able to connect the dots.”

  Victoria glowered again. “And when was all of this supposed to have happened?”

  “Well, that depends entirely on your point of view and interpretation of the evidence at hand. Conventional thinking says many of the advanced buildings and communication systems in both the Americas and the Middle East, such as the pyramids, are a mere three to four thousand years old. However, the stories and legends from these regions describe the coming of the ‘teaching men’ in the very distant past—much more than four thousand years.”

  Victoria scoffed.

  The professor eyed her. “I could bore you with a variety of strange facts and figures about the antiquity of the great pyramids in Egypt or various structures in Latin America, but that would take many, many hours. If you like, you can browse my extensive research, Ms. McKenzie. However, let’s continue. Whatever caused the cataclysmic flood, about which every civilization on Earth has written, must have forced K’in’s species to abandon the water and rise to the surface. In any case, it is common knowledge many of the human civilizations around the world started building huge, technically complicated monuments and had the ability to calculate complex equations after the flood; these people were essentially farmers, and then, in a relative blink of historical time, became the best engineers the world has ever known.” The professor sat down—pleased with himself, with his evidence, and his complete and infallible story of events.

  “That all seems a bit circumstantial to me. Evolution at the best of times seems circumstantial to me, but you are proposing one of our ‘ancestors’ returned to the ocean, developed faster than us, and then decided to come up to say hello and teach us all how to live.” Victoria was red-faced and appeared flustered.

  Kelly glanced at Chris and then Victoria. He eyed the woman, studying her every facial movement. She was rubbing her crucifix between her thumb and forefinger again.

  “I can imagine as a Christian you would find this perplexing, Ms. McKenzie.” The professor’s voice was calm and flat. A poor attempt to placate Victoria.

  “First of all, I’m a Catholic. And you’re damn right this upsets me. Another scientist making huge leaps from bones to fact. I tolerate it most of the time, but—”

  Kelly interrupted her. “Okay, for argument’s sake, let’s say you are right. If these guys were so advanced, where are they now? Where are the great underwater cities of the world? Why don’t we see these guys? Huh? If he’s so smart, how come he ended up in your pond?”

  “Mr. Graham, as always, you ask the most complex questions. Questions I, too, asked myself. We cannot assume to know all of the answers, but if you think about it logically, why would an aquatic lifeform utilize or have the need for dwellings made from stone and such? Hmm? You are thinking in terms of the need for shelter from the terrestrial environment, Mr. Graham. You have to think more like a ... fish!” He smiled. “And as for why they are not around, again, it’s a good question. One we are unsure how to answer. What we do know is the human species lost its civilized ways and plunged into darkness both socially and technologically for a long period of time. In many of the ancient stories, there was an uprising; the humans with their newfound knowledge felt they knew better. The civilization-bearers were forced back to the sea or killed. Then, it would seem, without them, we lost our way.”

  “We wiped them out? Then how the hell did you get your hands on fish face in there?”

  “And you still haven’t answered my question,” Victoria said. “This is all circumstantial—pieces of stories that have been translated and retranslated.” Victoria rose to her feet, her face contorted and indignant.

  “You could say the same thing about the Bible, Ms. McKenzie,”
the professor replied, one eyebrow raised higher than the other. Victoria sat down. “Genetic testing of K’in has pinpointed when in history his kind and ours would have split off from one another. He may look different, but genetically, he is not that dissimilar to us. And as for your questions, Mr. Graham, this is where my story ends for now and General Lloyd’s starts.”

  The professor swiveled his chair and gestured to the General, who entered the room and paced a little, eyeing his audience. He was deciding whether to tell them or not. He opened his mouth to speak, but an officer briskly entered the room and whispered in the General’s ear.

  Kelly piped up. “Okay, regardless of all this crap—why us? Why tell us? And what has this got to do with what you asked us to collect down there—”

  “Aaaannnd,” added Chris, “for that matter, what the hell happened on the boat, who was—”

  “I think this is enough for now,” objected the General.

  “Yes, Benjamin, I agree. It is late. Perhaps we should let our guests rest.” The professor had already pushed his chair back and was starting toward the door.