The Martian Pendant

by Patrick Taylor

  “In the lead craft, the crew was able to manually control the touchdown, with the result that the impact was merely jarring. Earth’s gravity was much more than their astrophysicists had calculated. Before the passengers were given the injections reversing their hibernating state, a scouting element was dispatched to explore the surrounding terrain. Everywhere they found an undulating plain of grasses punctuated by scrubby acacias and thorn trees, many of them still burning.

  “The group, well-armed but totally unfamiliar with the dangers, was attacked under cover of the thick green growth by a huge cat. The animal was stopped by their stun guns, but not before it had killed two of the men and severely mauled the Commanding Officer. This incident resulted in their being unable to make it back to the ship before darkness set in. By the time a search party was sent out at first light, all the men, dead as well as alive, had been found by a large pack of huge, aggressive hyenas. The trampled grass and the numerous dead scavengers scattered about attested to their desperate defense, but all that could be found relating to the men were their weapons, a few scraps of clothing, and much bloody grass.

  “After that, they fully charged their weapons, enough to kill even the largest wild animal. More importantly, it was evident to the remaining expedition leaders that their human cargo, all seasoned surface dwellers, would be needed more than ever as trackers and hunters, well-versed as they were about living in the wild. In this, they would prove to be correct. But could the nomads be trusted?

  “Still in hibernation, in addition to a scattering of children there were nearly two thousand men and women, mostly all hardened warriors. Only a dozen of the original leaders were left, half having been lost in the previous night’s debacle out on the savannah. They would have to play their cards right, in view of the warlike attitude of the nomads.

  “It was feared that there would be hostilities directed against the leaders, based on old feuds between the two cultures. To their surprise, when a few men from the surface tribes were revived from their sleep, they bore no malice toward their erstwhile oppressors. After further questioning, it soon became evident that these men were amnesic about their life prior to the administration of the hibernation dosage. The question was whether they had also forgotten their wilderness survival skills.

  “Elated by the results of the de-hibernation of the first surface people, the crew processed the rest of the pod occupants, and assembled them for their instructions in the use of the Martian weapons. The nomads quickly gathered their essentials and headed toward the low hills that arose from the grassy plain some distance from the landing site. On reaching the heights, several miles away, an expansive view could be seen. Only then could it be appreciated that the spaceship had come to rest in a shallow depression, which had all the earmarks of a major fault line. The process was still active, as shown by columns of sulfurous smoke and steam that rose from fissures at irregular intervals. The rift skirted their rocky hill, curving away in either direction, to the north lost in a high escarpment. In the blue haze, near the spaceship, a cone-shaped volcano obscured its southern extent.

  “That night, warned of nocturnal animal marauders, they built fires around the camp, and posted guards. The cries of the animals, only vaguely recognized, were similar to those on Mars, but were much louder in the more dense atmosphere, and more numerous. They enjoyed little sleep, but the fires, burning far brighter on earth than on their home planet, kept the predators at bay. At sunrise, they were all astounded at the sight. The sun’s orb was much larger than it had appeared on the home planet. Further, it imparted a warmth unknown to them.

  “After several days among the exposed rocks, awaiting instructions from the expedition’s Subling leaders, it was decided to move on to the north in search of cooler conditions in the highlands, where shelter from the burning sun could be found. The hunters were eager to take game for food, which soon would be sorely needed.

  “Late one afternoon, activity was seen in the vents along the fault line, and the next morning the surrounding plain, now windless, was bereft of signs of life. One could see only a few wheeling vultures, unusual in the newcomers' short earthly experience. The depression around the ship was littered with carrion. As they watched, a vulture settled on a prostrate animal, flapped its wings to get settled, and then fell over dead.

  “This had never been seen on Mars, and if it had been, no one would have been able to recall it. The winds constantly swept that planet, but here, the stillness of the air gave an instinctual warning. It was agreed, sensibly, that they would use the birds as indicators before any descent onto the savannah could be permitted. They would wait, not only for the wind, but also for visual evidence of survival, after landing, of the vultures.

  “In the meantime, the ship, which had been envisioned as a safe haven by the remaining crew, had become a death trap. They slept that night with the air vents open. As the ship was even lower than the surface of the plain, situated as it was in the depression created by the fault, they too were suffocated by the inflow of carbon dioxide. Alarms had remained silent because CO2 was, after all, not poisonous, since it is a normal constituent of air. With the return of the afternoon breezes, the suffocating gas was dissipated, followed by the safe landing of the hungry birds. This signaled that it was safe to leave the rocky heights and begin the migration north to cooler weather. Part of an ongoing amnesia, the existence of the spaceship would soon be lost to their memories.

  “It was soon recognized that their stun guns were losing power as they left the vicinity of the power source in the ship. Because of this, it was necessary, before moving out of range, to fashion weapons that would be adequate for protection and for hunting. They had been accustomed to relatively advanced personal weaponry on Mars, but now, amnesic, they would have to start from scratch. Sharp points and heavy clubs.

  “When they reached the escarpment, its sheer wall of granite looming immediately in front of them, they were not a little awed. They made camp that night in its shadow, cast by the setting sun. With a successful hunt, sleep came more easily, even for the few infants, who were content with ample supplies of their mother's milk. In the first light of dawn, a definite defile was found, allowing a slow passage up between the sheer cliffs on either side. In the last rays of the sun, they could see the vast grasslands through which they had journeyed, and in the distance, still wavering in the residual heat of the day, was the glint of the shiny hull of the ship.

  “The night at first was uneventful, with the clear black sky forming a dome overhead for the millions of sparkling stars and the few planets. One such object stood out directly overhead, but the red of the denuded soil and rock was unrecognized by any of the throng.

  “Everyone except the sentries were asleep when the tranquility was shattered by the sudden shaking of the rocky ground beneath them, accompanied by the rumbling roar of falling stone. All were instantly awake, but could do nothing more than hang onto each other, trembling in fear, until the tumult ended. The rest of the night was spent in sleepy consternation as aftershocks continued until sunrise. There had been no seismic activity at home for a million years.

  “Morning sunshine greeting them was as pale as that on Mars, partially obscured as it was by the dust of the earthquake. As they packed up to move, the breeze was early that day. The dust that obscured the view began to clear. Once again, the panorama of the route they had taken was laid out below them. At first glance, not much seemed changed, but for those looking more closely, in the distant fault line, the ship was gone.

  “The migration from the landing site continued, taking around two hundred thousand years. The continued heat of the sun kept the more fair-skinned among them searching for cooler climes. As their numbers grew, factions broke off, forming tribes of their own. Of these, some moved westward into the interior, while many followed the shore of the great ocean they found to the east.

  “There was occasional contact with naked primitive native people, short and slim, with small hea
ds, and so timid that they would often vanish into the bush when approached. They communicated by means of clicking sounds, lacking laryngeal development that would permit speech. At times, however, due to mutual curiosity, by means of sign language, communication and close inspection would occur, particularly of the Martians' furs and fairer skin. Ever-more-frequent encounters of this type, however friendly, would lead to the demise of these indigenous peoples, whom we know generally as early hominids. The Leakeys’ ‘Lucy’ was one of their ancestors.

  “The Martians had brought with them our now-common viral diseases, which until their arrival had never existed here. For the invaders, most of these maladies carried a low virulence, much as they do now, as they had become nearly immune to them over many millennia. For the little pre-humans, the diseases would contribute to their extinction. These viral afflictions were disasters for native earthlings. Entire races of these little hominids were wiped out, far more completely than in the epidemics that decimated native peoples in the Americas after the arrival of Europeans.

  “Bacterial diseases had been controlled on the home planet by Bacteriophage, at that time unique to Mars. That virus particle at first proved to be effective in inhibiting earth’s pathologic micro-organisms, benefiting the alien race and contributing to their survival, where otherwise they might have succumbed as easily to earth’s bacteria, as Africa’s early proto-humans were wiped out by the newly imported viruses. Bacteriophage is still among us, but is largely ineffective now, since bacteria have developed a relative immunity to that virus, much as today, where many such pathogens have developed a resistance to penicillin.

  “As the inexorable northward migration of the descendants of the Martians continued over the millennia, another species of native humans was encountered living in caves around the rocky eastern shores of the Mediterranean. Most of these people, Neanderthals, had survived initially by avoiding much contact with the Martians. Aside from a few isolated pockets, they died out about forty thousand years ago, scattered as they had become, and pushed northward by the newcomers. A few traits of these original humans did survive, due to interbreeding of the two races, as seen by an occasional prominent brow ridge, or other primitive feature.

  “The size of the migrating groups rapidly increased, with populations of growing children. Many died of fever, especially malaria, caused by neither bacteria nor virus, but suffered when passing through swampy areas. This became less of a problem among those who continued north, but remains a scourge for the descendants of the invaders who settled locally.

  “Fire was naturally looked upon as a benevolent force for cooking and for the circle of protection at night. The dead were offered to fire, returning them to the spirit that gave life. To thwart the hyenas and other carrion feeders, cremation was thorough enough to leave mostly ashes, only a few crumbly bone fragments remaining. It would take more than ten thousand years before most of these people could commit the bodies of their dead to the earth-host, and only then, when the last vestiges of a Martian origin in their unconscious had finally been extinguished.

  “From the home planet, the surface nomads brought very little awareness of any divinity. With the hibernation drug’s imposition of amnesia, nothing but a vague sense of their origins was retained. They often found themselves looking to the sky for answers to the puzzle. The solution just had to be up there, to their way of thinking, but the answers could only be imagined.

  “As the centuries passed, many continued generally in a northerly direction, but others fanned out to the vast lands of the east, as the onset of the ice ages created a less hospitable climate in the north. It was this divergent migration to diverse regions and environments, coupled with the genetic adaptability characteristic of humans, which led to the different racial forms we see today.

  “At about that time they again encountered that other race, at first only chance meetings of hunters in the course of following animals to be used for food. Later meetings became more frequent, especially for those continuing west along the mountains. From a distance, they looked much like members of the migrant clans, clad in furs and armed with clubs and spears. Shyness inevitably gave way to curiosity, and close-up inspections took place. Unlike the little primitives of Africa encountered by their Martian ancestors, the Neanderthals were stocky, and a little stooped-looking, perhaps because of their massive shoulders. They had large heads with sloping foreheads, and their brows were heavy ridges of bone, giving the eyes a deep-set look. Where their furs permitted skin exposure, one could see reddish hair covering light skin. When they grimaced, possibly in an attempted smile, their teeth protruded from thick lips. Their weapons were formidable but crude, the clubs and spears heavier than those of the newcomers. There was hardly a foot covering among them.

  “Originally this early human strain had been an offshoot of a more primitive line, which had spread across the world from Africa a million years before. That migration reached as far as northern China and the island of Java, but avoided other northern climes at first. Later, as part of further migration, the Neanderthals settled as far north as Siberia, for a time flourishing in those frigid lands, hunting big game there, the Hairy Mammoth and the ox-like Auroch.

  “The Middle East was where they had first encountered the invaders, and later in what is now northern Europe, around the shores of the Mediterranean. By the time the slowly migrating descendants of the Martians had spread throughout that continent, the advance of the glaciers of the last ice age had driven the Neanderthals south again, their further retreat blocked by the Alps. As a people, they then settled into the limestone caves of southern France, Germany and Spain, where they again met the newcomers.

  “One year, late in the season, when they were pursuing reindeer, men of the two groups clashed. Because of a squabble over who had the right to a kill, the first human blood was spilled. The outcome proved earthshaking, not because of the killings, but due to a viral epidemic that followed, reducing the already-faltering Neanderthal population to unsustainability.

  “Two Martian descendants were trailing a party of native hunters following a reindeer herd through a long narrow valley. Whenever someone approached too closely, the skittish animals would retreat out of range of their spears, much to the hunters’ frustration. The stolid cave men blamed the newcomers, who in turn attributed the problem to the apparent dullness of the plodding natives. In this atmosphere of frustration, the first kill, instead of being a reason for celebration together, became a casus belli. While occasioned by only one bloody death, the incident indirectly became the beginning of the end for the entire race of Neanderthals.

  “It began when the Neanderthals cut out a lame, lagging old stag from its fellows, and were closing in for the kill, yet were still having difficulty of getting within range with their heavy spears. Seeing this, one of the Martian descendants brought the beast to its knees with his weapon, propelled by a throwing stick, striking the stag in its hindquarters. It was a lucky shot for him, weakened as he was with influenza. That act deprived the natives of the honor of the first blow, or coup, a strong tradition among warriors, proving to be an intolerable affront. When the migrant arrived to retrieve his weapon, he was quickly dispatched by a spear thrust to the back, followed by a skull-crushing blow with a heavy club.

  “The Neanderthals dressed the reindeer, and triumphantly made their way back to their hungry families. But while much-needed food was being provided, the men carried an influenza virus with all the virulence of the strain that brought death to millions in the pandemic of 1918-1919. Combined with the inordinate cold of the last ice age, the resulting epidemic would ultimately lead to their extinction.

  “As the increase in the population from Mars brought them into the colder climes, competition with the native people resulted in the Neanderthals dwindling into ever-smaller groups, where they succumbed to the ravages of the alien virus and its complication, lobar pneumonia. After the last ice age ten thousand years later, and in some cases earlier, the n
ewcomers became the occupants of the empty caves.

  “When they could, the Neanderthals had always buried their dead, or encrypted them, along with their weapons, but the invaders burned theirs, thriftily collecting their weapons and other effects for envisioned later use, at least for their first ten millennia in Europe. This explains why no remains of modern humans have been found from that era in Northern Europe. Few remains of the Neanderthals who were pushed into the frozen tundra were ever found either, due to scavenging from wolves and other carnivores, and the grinding action of ice on the stone upon which the advancing glaciers crept forward.

  “Not until modern times did examination of the ‘record of the rocks’ give an idea of the age of our planet by studying the layers of geological strata. In widespread digs, but on a smaller scale, archeologists excavated the layers of dirt and debris of cave floors north of the Alps. Deposited during this period of change, using radiocarbon techniques in the deepest layers, dated most recently to around 40,000 years, signs of the vanquished Neanderthals were found. But not for ten thousand years of strata would traces of modern humans, Homo sapiens, be uncovered.

  “First discovered in a large cave in southwestern France, these are known as Cro-Magnon man, or EEMH, European Early Modern Humans. Traces of the descendants of the Martian invaders were finally found, but only when their presence was betrayed by their final immersion in belief in their adopted world. Over the millennia, most began to substitute burial for cremation. No longer would they give up their dead to the sky, or to whatever planet became the subject for their reverence.

  “It was then that an evolving belief in an afterlife, as expressed in later cave paintings and ornaments, began. With burial in the now-revered soil of their second home, it became the custom to inter their worldly effects with them. It was this plentitude of artifacts, technically advanced over those of the Neanderthals, outlasting the bones of their makers, that ultimately drew attention to the beginnings of this new race of humans.”