Sir Robert chuckled, proudly hugging Bobby. “He’s entirely right, you know, shaking hands arose during medieval times when men always carried weapons. Our grandson is now thinking like a Yank.”
Lady Howard smiled broadly and said, “I should think so. He’s three-quarters American, as you well know.”
After they arrived at the Howard mansion, the discussion was all about Diana’s upcoming presentation before the Royal Society. “You have no idea of the strings I’ve had to pull, and the favors called in, to place you on the schedule of speakers,” Sir Robert said. “Needless to say, the subject is still highly controversial. It seems that the conspiracy theorists are out in strength here in Britain, much of it fomented from the pulpit, I believe.”
Diana’s mother affirmed that. “Just last Sunday, the Vicar brought up the subject, fearing that the very foundations of the Bible will be shaken if our Diana’s theory proves correct.”
“Mother! Theory? And the other word you should use, in fact, is when, not if.”
Sir Robert agreed. “That really is the key word here. England has fallen behind the States in one important respect. Creationists. With their ‘Science,’ which in some states has been given an equal footing with Darwin, they are bound somehow to confuse the issue. Wasn’t that what the professor you wrote about was concerned with when you gave your paper in Chicago?”
“Rather,” Diana replied, “There are always religious naysayers of different persuasions with any new theory, whatever the proof. My concern is about the members of the Royal Society. Most of them are your age, father, but unlike you, they will be much more conservative in their thought. ‘Reactionary’ would be more accurate, in my opinion.”
“We will see, my dear,” her father retorted, “we may seem hidebound to a person of your age, but the history of the Royal Society has always been one of acceptance of scientific advances. Look at Newton, Boyle and Darwin. And the Royal Family has rewarded many of those accepted by the Society with knighthood. Think of it. You have proven that the find in East Africa dates to a million years ago, and that not only are the fossil remains identical to those of modern man, but that they hail not from earth, but elsewhere, most likely Mars. The only thing not actually proven is their planet of origin. Were that book with the diagram of the solar system still available, you would have your proof. I’ll wager that when their language is deciphered, we will have further confirmation that our original home was the fourth planet from the sun, and not the third.”
Just then, Hughes the butler announced that supper was served. After leading his guests to the dining room, when they were seated, Sir Robert raised his glass. “This is a celebration not only because of the reunion of our family of the last thirteen years, but also to include a new family member. Welcome, Danny!”
* * *
All the trappings of the holiday season festooned London the night of Diana’s presentation. The sky was clear, following a slight dusting of snow the night before, and the stars and planets shone brightly, despite the city’s lights. Before entering the hall with her family and Dan, she couldn’t help holding her pendant in her fingers, picking out the red planet shining down from above.
Diana’s paper, From Mars via Africa, was again scheduled to be the last presentation of the night. For her, the wait was an eternity, and, preoccupied by the task ahead, she missed much of what took place during the meeting. When her turn came, she was so excited by the adrenaline rush, she nearly dropped her slides while handing them to the projectionist. Ascending to the podium, she was introduced by the Chairman, the eminent Neurologist Sir Charles Head, after which she confidently began her talk.
She outlined the current anthropological concept that the human race had developed in Africa from ape-like pre-hominids, whose fossil remains had been found in the Great Rift Valleys of Tanganyika and Kenya. She then drew a timeline, beginning about a million years BCE, marked by the alien landing in East Africa of a relatively few humans, and their subsequent migration and multiplication, spreading over the Afro-Eurasian land masses. She brought out the known demise of the Neanderthals, suggesting how the proliferation of an alien race, along with their imported diseases, must have suppressed the natural evolutionary progress of earth’s pre-existing hominids and pre-hominids.
The photographic evidence was then presented. First, the spaceship was shown, beyond any doubt the product of a more advanced culture, even for 1958. Next were the slides juxtaposing the skeletal remains, demonstrating that the aliens’ anatomy was virtually identical to our own. At that point, there was an interruption in the audience, abuzz with their reaction. Anticipating that, she caught their attention by showing the slides comparing--point by point--the anatomy of the fossil mandible with a modern human specimen. That absolutely confirmed that the specimens were identical, and by extension, that the aliens were of the Genus Homo, Species sapiens.
The Chairman then fielded a number of questions, all related to whether the uncovered hulk contained any other evidence that the specimens were not of our world. Diana smiled at that. “Gentlemen, you have anticipated my next point. Let me explain.”
She then went into the phenomenon of the radioactive isotope iron-60, its role in forming our solar system, and possibly star systems elsewhere in the universe. She emphasized that it had never before been found on earth until x-ray spectroscopic analysis at Caltech had shown that the alien mandible contained that very isotope. Anticipating the next question, she outlined the analysis of several pre-hominid and animal fossil specimens thought to range from two to three million years old, none of which contained Fe-60.
“So you see,” she continued, “this evidence by itself shows beyond any doubt that the fossil is from somewhere other than our planet. There is still the matter of dating the landing. The actual time of that can’t be answered by the isotope the alien fossil contains, however. What is needed is something that is common in the earth’s crust, and which can be calibrated to the rock surrounding the ship.”
She explained that the method using potassium-40, which decays into argon-40 gas, led to an accurate dating of the spaceship’s arrival, found in the igneous rock from the nearby volcano that surrounded the ship. A comprehensive study of the strata indicated an average age of 1.1 million years; no sample analyzed proved younger than a million years old.
Concluding with a summary of her findings, she said, “The age of the volcanic rock found at the site of the landing fixes the event to approximately a million years ago. The technology embodied in the spaceship, far in advance of anything found on earth even today, proves its extraterrestrial origin.
“The fossil specimens found on the ship, while virtually identical to Homo sapiens, are not of this world. This is proven by the remains from the spaceship that contain Iron-60 in their bones, an isotope never found naturally on Earth.
“The logical home of the alien race was obviously the planet Mars, due to its relative proximity to us, and evidence that the planet in the remote past had surface water, suggesting at one point that it supported life as we know it”. She finished by saying, “I wish to thank you for allowing me to present this material to your august body.”
As in Chicago, the audience was at first stunned, at a loss for words. Then the moderator called for comments or questions. Everyone present had read Diana's preliminary paper, and most had been convinced that her data presented the true facts. Until then, what had remained was only to present absolute proof that the fossils found on the ship were truly alien. Still, after her presentation, there remained perplexing questions.
“Thank you, Miss Howard,” an elderly Fellow said. “A fascinating presentation, for which I congratulate you. Everything seems to fit neatly as far as it goes. But there is one glaring problem. It is rather illogical that men with such a high degree of technology, after landing successfully, would continue their journey as primitives. For all your scientific data, this single fact would seem to cast doubt on your entire theory. Perhaps you will s
how us how the aliens went on to populate the world with weapons and tools likely no more advanced than the Neanderthals.”
Taking the microphone, Diana replied. “The answer concerning primitive weapons is the easy part. Pre-humans, wherever they may have developed, had to fashion their weaponry and tools from the materials available and with whatever ingenuity their minds possessed. Both pre-hominids and Neanderthals made their start in that way. As you observed, it is more difficult to explain the incongruity of an advanced race being reduced to stone-age status. As you will see, however, the findings aboard the ship serve to explain that nicely.”
After a word with the projectionist, she pointed out a photographic slide of the main deck of the ship. “As you know, the passengers on that space vehicle must have been in a state of hibernation during the lengthy voyage to our planet. Look at all these sleeping capsules. We shall call them pods. Note that every pod that is clearly seen is empty. You must believe me that all on that deck had been vacated. Now here on this next slide, you see a more limited number of pods, actually only twenty-four. These are the quarters just behind the control room. We call this the command deck. There was also a solitary pod in what must have been the Captain’s cabin. And while all of these pods had been previously opened, half contained skeletons in recumbency. This makes it clear that something killed them while they slept, probably noxious volcanic gas or carbon dioxide, which still collect on occasion in the depression in which the alien vessel landed.
“Where the rest of the crew was at the time remains a mystery, but it seems obvious that they were the watch on duty, exactly half the complement. My theory is that they were either killed outside the ship by that same gas, or by wild animals. Thus, the entire command was wiped out, and their advanced knowledge with them. The passengers, who survived were those on the lower decks, evidently having left the ship earlier. Why they wouldn’t have had access to Martian knowledge is unclear. One possibility is that if they were naïve and uneducated peasants or herdsmen, they would have had little, if any, knowledge of the science or technology of the elites in command, forcing them to start all over again, as it were, regarding weapons, tools, and other means of survival.”
“Mere conjecture,” another Fellow observed. “It is easy to accept the fact that Cro-Magnon man, only around 25,000 years old, was found to be identical to the modern human after its discovery some years ago. But how can you explain that in a million years, no evolutionary changes have taken place in those descended from the aliens? Wouldn’t one expect at least minor differences developing in all that time?”
Diana smiled, saying, “Oh, but there have been many changes. We don’t know anything about minor ones such as pigmentation, hair and eye color, but our Martians’ bones are indeed identical to modern man, save for an apparent increase in chest capacity, a function of the decreasing oxygen tension of their thinning atmosphere. But in the intervening million years since the landing, the human race has evolved in many ways. Compare the bony development of the black African and the East Asian, regarding frontal bosses, bony tubercles for muscle and tendon attachments, skull thickness and shape. Were we able to analyze muscle and other non-skeletal structures, we would certainly find as many differences, all developing in the human race as it spread across the globe, adapting to the varied conditions encountered.”
A final question followed. “What evidence do we have, really, that mankind’s diaspora from Africa consisted of Martians? Why not another race, evolving from pre-hominids parallel to the Neanderthals, and identical to those found in the spaceship?”
Diana replied, “What a coincidence that would be! There is nothing other than the virtually identical skeletal remains, I’m afraid, and the mathematically calculated million years’ time it would have taken for population growth and migration from Africa to reach the far edges of the Eurasian land mass. Final answers to such questions will have to come from further investigation and exploration.”
It was rare that a more heated discussion would fail to develop after such a talk at the Society, but that night, such was the evidence that few chose to contest the issue. One, a notorious skeptic who had become better known for his conspiracy theory than for his science, stood up.
“I should first like to congratulate the author for such a masterful climax to her previous effort. I refer not to her preliminary report given in Chicago, but to that earlier opus, the fiction on the demise of life-supporting conditions on Mars, leading to the space voyage to earth. Considering this previous work, written well before any of the evidence presented tonight was uncovered, I submit that tonight’s paper is yet another work of fiction!”
Several members around the critic jeered at him until he sat down, as the audience in general voiced its disapproval of his opinion. The moderator, Sir Charles, hastily took the microphone. “Gentlemen, please! Despite the outburst you have just heard, we must all keep in mind that the so-called fiction previously published by Miss Howard has, in fact, proven true. One has only to regard the photographs of the spaceship, the pods containing skeletal remains of the aliens and their advanced technology to see prophecy, rather than prevarication, in her earlier publication.”
Then turning to Diana, he added, “Please accept our apologies. I daresay that this membership is nearly unanimous in their approval of your work. I, for one, will be the first to place your name before the committee for admission to this Society.”
Another member came forward from the front row. “A most impressive paper, Miss Howard. I’m sure there will be many questions in the press, if not more from other members tonight. I do have, in fact, one of my own. Rumor has it that you possess linguistic material hitherto never presented. If that is so, might you enlighten us?”
Taking the microphone, Diana began. “Indeed there is more Martian evidence. And I say “Martian’ rather than ‘Alien,’ because that material, mostly in their language, does contain a diagram of the solar system, identifying their home as the fourth planet, depicting our world as the next closer to the sun. I’m sorry not to have been able to present all that tonight, but that data has been seized by the U.S. Government. Military authorities there fear the material too advanced to be released, for security reasons. To this has been added the destruction, or loss to thieves, of all the fossils, and every bit of Martian technology. Someday, the impounded data will be released. Then, perhaps, their alphabet and language may be deciphered to allow us to translate the material. This includes a technical manual for their spaceship, as well as what might be a history of their habitat’s deterioration and what appears to be a log of their landing.”
Once again, Sir Charles took the microphone. “Thank you, Miss Howard, for the most outstanding presentation this society has heard in years. When next we have the pleasure of your company, I’ll wager you will be a member here, where we may address you as either Doctor Howard, or Dame Diana.”
Springtime
By the end of March, the crocuses had pushed their way through the snow, heralding the end of winter. By early April, blossoms were just appearing on the trees, and the many other previously dormant bulbs underground were displaying their flowers in an explosion of color. Spring had come to London at last, and with it, Diana’s urge to get on with her life. She had to admit that it was all about Dan. Family support and love were wonderful, she thought, but life wouldn’t be the same without him. Now she had both the reassurance of his encircling arms, and the twinkle in his eye whenever they were alone together. To have a man in her life again, a significant love, after so many years! As a consequence, it was Dan’s return to London with her that had brightened her spring more than Mother Nature could ever hope to.
After her triumph at the Royal Society, she had received an invitation for tea with the Queen at Buckingham Palace. While Dan and Bobby talked sports and politics with Prince Philip and young Prince Charles, the Queen engaged Diana in conversation, mostly regarding theory as to the demise of the Neanderthals. The Queen had read Diana’s
The Martian Imperative, which she had found fascinating.
“But, Miss Howard, you discussed the well-known hiatus of around ten thousand years between the last discovered Neanderthal remains and those of the earliest-known Homo sapiens. How would you now explain that, in the framework of all you have proven about the Martian landing?”
“Much of the story, Your Majesty, has paralleled the anthropological findings of others, regarding the spread of modern humans in waves into southern Europe and Asia, as well as Australia. It is true that most of the evidence points to successive ice ages as having hastened the extinction of the Neanderthals. Although my fiancé and I discovered a solitary thigh-bone, butchered by humans, in a cave in Spain, dating to that so-called sterile period, nothing north of the Alps has turned up to prove that the two species came into contact there. There is ample evidence of that in the Near East, where caves along the migration route out of Africa have been found to contain skeletal fossils suggesting hybridization. I believe that the Neanderthals were driven out of Southern Europe, and other more temperate climes, only to battle the glaciers of the last two ice ages. Indeed, a losing battle.”
“My dear,” the Queen replied, “Our view exactly. Caught between the expanding glaciers to the north, and the Alps and modern man on the south, they had little chance. And our humans had no reason to push on to the north until later, as those coming behind were busy fanning out to the east, onto the steppes into the Far East, and west to the Iberian Peninsula. It wasn’t until the end of the last ice age that northern Europe became more attractive, and population pressures became critical enough, to lead Homo sapiens to tackle the Alpine barrier. By that time, the last Neanderthal had been dead ten thousand years.”
“The evidence indeed points to that, Your Majesty. But my story suggests that the Martian immigrants never left a trace of their presence until they had become true earthlings, literally what Americans call litterbugs, burying their dead, and leaving their artifacts in their kitchen middens, just as did the Neanderthals, later to be dug up by archaeologists.”
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