Evolution

by Jim Reilly

  It was packed to capacity, and when Hilary came to the podium, she was almost blinded by the many camera flashes in the audience. “Ladies and gentlemen,” she said. “James Connor will be out in a moment, but first I wanted to remind you that he is still weak from the injuries he received at the Kibish rock formation, so there will be a limited number of questions for him today. Due to the number of you here, we have selected a few of you to ask a question, and hopefully many of you who were not able to ask a question will get a chance in follow-up news conferences. Now, let me introduce James Connor, a doctoral student studying anthropology.”

  As Hilary was introducing him, James could hardly believe that he was seeing this large audience waiting to hear what he had to say. It was now about four weeks since he had been injured in Kibish. His ribs and his head had healed, but his leg had needed follow-up surgery. He was wheeled up to the podium because he had a cast on his leg that would be there for weeks, followed by months of therapy to regain his full ability to walk. As he was about to speak, he couldn’t help thinking about the dig going on for the discovery he had made. He wished he were there. As a matter of fact, he was jealous that his friends David and Jennifer were still there exploring and he had been sent back home to recover from his injuries.

  All he could do was communicate with them by phone and email, but those were slowed by being controlled to keep information from getting out. The museum and university employed a security firm to monitor the flow of information, and the university was using their public relations department to control the information going to the general public. Usually the museum and university were not confronted with this much interest in one of their scientific discoveries. Normally, a significant find would have to go through a lengthy process to validate the discovery before the museum would present the find to the scientific community and the general public. But this was not a normal discovery and there was nothing usual about it, especially with a public that liked its information updated every moment with twenty-four-hour news channels, the Internet, emails, blogs, and social networks.

  Hilary finished her introduction and turned the microphone over to James, who sat next to university scientists, professors, and leaders. James at first could not speak as he shielded his eyes from the sea of camera flashes. Finally, when the flashes subsided, he started to explain what had taken place when he made the discovery.

  Early in the news conference, as he explained the events that had taken place, he used terms like “the team”, “our group”, “the project,” and “we.” As the news conference continued, however, it started to sink in how important his discovery was and his place as the face of the unbelievable find. Sure, he had watched much of the twenty-four-hour news coverage of this story, but it was not until he was in front of this crowd of people that he realized how famous he was and that he was taking part in arguably the most important discovery in human history.

  After a reporter asked him, “How does it feel to be the most famous person on the planet?” it was a revelation that he was finally out from under the shadow of his well-respected parents and could make a name for himself. Towards the end of the conference, he began to refer to his own actions, separate from the rest of the team.

  When the news conference was over, his mother came to the podium to help safely move him off the stage. James barely acknowledged her, as his mind was elsewhere thinking about all the interviews and talks he would have to do because of his newfound fame.

  It took nine months from the time he left the States for Ethiopia to return, and Patrick Connor was relieved to be home. Even though he met his wife for excursions in Cairo and Madrid during breaks, he missed her company most of all, as he was not usually away from her for so long. This discovery was not like the others, and he had been asked to help.

  A homecoming was not the reason he came back, however. The university was hosting a conference on the discovery, and they had brought in the key personnel from the project and NASA, as well as respected scientists from around the country. There were physicists, biologists, paleontologists, and anthropologists from many of the best institutions in the country. At the request of NASA and some of the other US government agencies in attendance, there were no foreign scientists, which was odd for such a discovery on foreign soil. Many of the government personnel wanted to keep some of the information secret, at least for the time being.

  Patrick walked through the crowd before the meeting began to see the people he had been working with for the last nine months, and also saw colleagues from around the country he had not seen for a while. He imagined that this was going to be a meeting like none he had ever been to before. Things like fossilized remains of ancestors who have been dead for two hundred thousand years, a walking, talking primitive man, and a possible spacecraft with fossilized passengers needed to be discussed. Whatever the outcome of this conference, the way human beings looked at themselves, as well as how they looked to the sky, had changed forever.

  As he took his seat, he heard from behind him, “Hi, Dad. How was your trip?”

  He turned around to see James standing there in his new expensive suit. “I didn’t know there was a dress code,” Patrick replied in jest. Patrick was the kind to be more comfortable in his wrinkly clothes with dirt under his nails.

  “If you took the time to read the schedule you’d see that I’m speaking later in the afternoon,” a proud James told Patrick.

  “I thought you’d be all talked out after all the talk shows and lectures you’ve given,” said Patrick.

  “Hey, what can I say? I’m in demand,” James told Patrick.

  But Patrick just smiled back. Patrick was happy that James was making a name for himself, but he was also concerned about where he was taking his career.

  “Please take your seats,” said Mike Wells, the head of the science department for the university who would be running the conference and who happened to be a good friend of Patrick’s. “I want to thank you all for coming and apologize for the non-disclosure agreement you had to sign in order to participate in the conference. So, let’s get started. As you know, James Connor stumbled across what may be the find of all time, and we are here to try to make sense of this. James found a craft unlike any made on Earth with technology that will take us years, heck, even generations to understand. Then there were the fossils of the ancient human remains and three individuals. There was one individual, who was encased in a chamber filled with a thick blue liquid and controlled by advanced technology, who happened to get up and run away until the poor soul collapsed and died. The other two chambers have yet to be opened, but we think there are individuals inside them as well.

  “And before I forget, there were two passengers of this craft fossilized alongside the ancient human remains. Early indications are that they were living about two hundred and fifteen thousand years ago. So, that is it in a nutshell.”

  Mike paused for a second to take a drink then asked, “Any questions?”

  Without any hesitation, almost all the participants raised their hand to speak, and Mike heard one voice over the others: “How do you suppose the craft got stuck here?”

  “Good question,” he said. “We believe that there was some sort of catastrophe that buried the individuals, such as a mud slide or volcanic activity.”

  Another question came up: “What do we know about the creature who came out of the cylinder or chamber?”

  Mike took a deep breath and said, “His skeleton and the size of his cranium suggest he was not of the Homo erectus or Homo heidelbergensis species, but his DNA suggests closer to Homo sapiens.”

  A human anatomy expert from the University of Kansas asked, “Do you suggest this was the species that came before Homo sapiens, and we have discovered a new species?”

  “Honestly,” Mike said, “it is puzzling, and we have not come up with an answer yet.”

  The question-and-answer session went on all morning and into the next day. There were a lot of questions and very f
ew answers that most would agree on. It did show that there was a lot of passion in the room with vigorous debate, but it caused much of the schedule to be pushed back.

  On the afternoon of the second day, Mike said, “Let’s hold off on this spirited questioning because it has put us behind schedule. So let me introduce the head of NASA, Dr. Ronald Mays.”

  “Thank you for letting me speak to you today,” said Dr. Mays. “I first want to update you on the status of who gets the rights to the craft. As you know, our government would prefer that we get it because whoever unlocks the obviously advanced technology could change the balance of power. The Ethiopian government will most likely sell it to the highest bidder. We might have to partner with the European Union’s space agency to outbid the Russians and Chinese.”

  That statement was not received well with the scientists in attendance because they all knew that when governments got involved, with all the politics taking place, it would muck things up.

  Dr. Mays continued, “The next thing I want to talk about is the disruption in wireless communication that occurred nine months ago. You might be wondering what this has to do with the discovery of the craft. Well, communication was disrupted for a little over half the planet. We ruled out things like solar flares because part of the area in question was not facing the sun at the time. This is not common knowledge, so please keep it under wraps so we don’t scare the public. From what we have calculated, the epicenter of the disturbance was Kibish, Ethiopia, or more precisely, the Kibish rock formation. We have concluded that at the moment James Connor triggered the reaction that freed the craft from the rock, it sent a communication of some sort out to deep space that interfered with all wireless communication on that side of the Earth.”

  Many in the room were shocked and asked, “For what reason?”

  Dr. Mays replied, “Your guess is as good as mine. Since there might have been a catastrophe that rendered the passengers of the craft immobile, maybe it is an automatic SOS or something. All we know is the ship sent a message to someone or something.”

  This caused uproar in the conference as Dr. Mays was bombarded with questions. This discovery was of an incident that had happened over two hundred thousand years ago, and each person took comfort that the civilization that visited Earth must be long gone or very far out into space. An invitation had been sent out to return, making this find a worry for the present. Everyone wondered, the civilization that returned, what were their intentions going to be? What would they think of humanity? If they were this technologically advanced two hundred thousand years ago with the craft in the discovery, then how were they now? These were questions they would like answers to because they were not only curious, but also a little afraid of what the answers might be.

  While everyone in the room wondered about the consequences of the communication, James thought about how this would help the book he started to write. He barely had time to write it, but he felt that with a public that was clamoring for information, it would be an opportune time. Since the discovery, he had been wanted for interviews and lectures that had not only increased his fame, but also made him realize it could line his pockets with the large fees he could command for speaking. He was not the only one taking advantage of his new fame. The university and museum had leveraged his notoriety to improve their donation drives by having James in attendance at lunches and banquets. James’ discovery had not only changed the world, but also James.

  “Hey, stranger, remember us?”

  James recognized that voice and quickly turned to the people standing beside him.

  “Jennifer, is that you and David? I haven’t seen you guys since they put my broken body on the truck. How have you been? When did you get here?”

  Jennifer replied, “We’re good, but a little late for the conference.”

  David added, “It was a nightmare getting out of Ethiopia. Since your discovery the country has swelled with journalists and sightseers. Also the permits for new digs have skyrocketed with interest from around the world. It was great to see so much interest in history and archeology, but it was getting to look like a circus out there. For every legitimate dig site with teams of respected anthropologists and paleontologists meticulously using fine dentist picks and soft brushes to slowly investigate for fossils under the ground, there are three dig sites with nuts dressed in Klingon and Jedi outfits using shovels and backhoes looking for ET and the ship that brought him. Maybe I should be happy that interest in ancient man has increased. Anyway, the Ethiopian government is happy for the increase in foreign currency for their economy, but so far their infrastructure has not caught up to the demand. I hear even Kenya has seen an increase.”

  A concerned Jennifer said, “James, how are you? I see you still have a slight limp.”

  After he looked down at his leg, James said, “It’s getting better, and if I had time to sit to rest it I would be all better by now. I’ve been so busy speaking and writing my book.”

  “Why don’t you tell us all about it at dinner?” said a hungry Jennifer.

  A curious David asked, “Are you going to mention us in your book? We were with you when you fell in the hole.”

  “First off, I didn’t fall in the hole. I slightly stumbled into it after an exhausting day of investigating, and, of course, there will be a small footnote of your participation.”

  Jennifer and David just laughed with each other at James’ revisionist memory of events.

  They both said, “Come on, James. Let’s go get something to eat, and you can tell us all about the book.”

  Chapter 3

  The moderator said, “Today on MSNBC, we have Dr. James Connor, who about three and a half years ago discovered an ancient spacecraft buried in a remote part of Ethiopia. Today he is here to promote his new book Gods and What We Believe, the follow-up to his record bestselling book, We Walked with the Gods. First of all, Dr. Connor, I want to congratulate you on your marriage to socialite Brittany Morgan, the daughter of shipping billionaire Jonathan Morgan and a favorite of the paparazzi.”

  “Thank you. We are very happy,” said James.

  “Now, Dr. Connor,” the moderator said in a little bit more serious tone. “This is a very fascinating book, but the knock on this book, just as with your first one, is that you have taken what others have written, like Chariots of the Gods, by Erich von Däniken, and put your own spin on it. Can you answer to this?”

  James looked at the television camera and said, “The difference is that great authors like von Däniken only speculated about what aliens might have done, but I have walked where they walked and have seen their power. My answers to questions about where we came from are answered with scientific truth due to the discovery of the Ancient Visitors in Ethiopia.”

  Then the moderator followed with, “If that is the case, then why…”

  At that very moment, Eva Moran walked into her living room to yell at her husband, “Can you turn that off, Eddie? I am sick of hearing about the Ancient Visitors this or Ancient Visitors that. They have been dead for hundreds of thousands of years, and we are still talking about them. I should be so lucky to be talked about that long after I’m dead and buried. Let them rest in peace, and let’s move on.” She walked over to the stairs to yell up to her son, “Steven, do you want dessert? I made brownies.”

  A frustrated Steven said as he walked by his mother toward the front door, “I just got on the scale, and I’m two pounds over. I need to burn some calories, or I am not going to make my weight at the weigh-in tomorrow, and I will not be in the wrestling tournament. I’m going out for a long run tonight so I can sweat it off.”

  A concerned Eva said, as she always did when Steven went on a run at night, “Be very careful. I hate when you go out in the dark. I worry that you won’t come back.”

  Steven, as always, assured his mother, “Don’t worry, it’s not too late. It’s seven o’clock, and I’ll be back before eight.” Steven then grabbed his University of Kansas sweatshirt and headed o
ut of the family home.

  As Eva started to close the door behind Steven, her two other sons Tommy, who was fifteen, and little Johnny, who was ten, ran up to the door and asked her, “Can we go, too?”

  “No way,” she said. “You’re too young. He is just going out on a quick run and will be back in a bit.” She then closed the door and went about her business, tending to the house.

  Steven jumped in the pickup truck in the long driveway and quickly headed over to his former high school, knowing that he had to make this fast. He always called his girlfriend, Brenda, at eight-thirty every night so they could talk for a few hours. They had been together throughout high school, and she had enrolled at the University of Kansas so they could be together. He felt that they were already married because she was always bossing him around. His father, Eddie, told him, when his mother was not around to hear it, that he should just get used to it because it was no use fighting it. Both their families expected that they would be married after Steven and Brenda completed their college studies. There was pressure to get married now, but Steven didn’t mind because he loved Brenda and he couldn’t see himself with anyone other than her.

  Steven, who had a lean and finely toned muscular frame to go with his Midwestern rugged farm boy features, had just turned twenty and was a sophomore. He grew up just outside of Topeka, Kansas, where he was a two-time state wrestling champion. Being able to get a scholarship to wrestle at the University of Kansas had been a dream of his since he was a little boy growing up on his parents’ small dairy farm. It was also a relief financially for his parents, who just got by with the money they made from the farm. The University of Kansas was just down Interstate 70 in Lawrence, and his family was close enough to be at some of his wrestling matches. The coach of the wrestling team was appreciative that Steven wished to stay close to home and chose his program, because with his talent he could have been a part of any wrestling program in the country, with a full scholarship. All the coaches in the country desired Steven because he had achieved national honors and was an “A” student. Already Steven was the number one-ranked NCAA Division One wrestler in his weight class. Many of the coaches believed Steven was by far the best wrestler, pound for pound, in all of the sport.