Evolution

by Jim Reilly

  As James approached the dig site in the morning, Gibbs met him outside the site.

  “Good morning, James.”

  While still wiping the sleep out of his eyes, James said, “Good morning, Dr. Gibbs. I am sorry I’m late. I guess I overslept a little bit.”

  Dr. Gibbs responded, “That’s OK, James. We could all use some extra sleep. Hey, Dr. Sanchez and I were looking to have someone scout the terrain for another dig site in case we have time after this site is fully excavated or for the trip we’ll make to this area next year. We think with your experience with this trip and your experiences with your dad, you would make a great choice. So, could you do that for the team?”

  Before Dr. Gibbs even finished speaking, James knew what was happening. He thought, “Let’s get the bad egg out of sight so not to infect the other eggs”. James knew that there were others more favored on the team with more experience than he, who would have a much better chance than he had. All he could do was put on a good face and say, “Dr. Gibbs, I feel honored that you and Dr. Sanchez would choose me for this assignment. I won’t let you or the team down.”

  A relieved Dr. Gibbs said, “That’s great, James. Maybe you can start northeast from here because I think that is an area overlooked by previous teams here at Kibish.”

  James then nodded his head and grabbed a few tools before he headed in a northeast direction.

  As James started walking away from the dig site, he thought that there were definitely many others on the team who could have done the job, but knew it was probably best that he get away for a little while so he could clear his head. Even though he had hoped he would be sent home, it would not look good for him, and he knew it. His standing at the university would be adversely affected. No more would there be invites to university functions or to museum openings of new exhibits where he would rub elbows with dignitaries and the famous. Also, the professors at the university would not favor him as they had in the past for just being the son of Patrick Connor.

  He said to himself, “I can’t let this setback ruin everything. So Jennifer is not interested and may like someone else, so be it. This is not the end of the world.” He started to clear his head and concentrate on what he needed to do.

  “I need to think clearly and not let my emotions get the best of me. I can’t be mad at her. She has to like what she likes, and my forcing the issue probably did not help my cause. It was stupid, and I’m most likely the reason why she is with David. I’m only kidding myself if I am mad at David because the guy only tried to help, and it is my fault they worked together in the first place and started to know each other.”

  He continued to walk northeast and started to wonder, “What am I going to do now?”

  The morning passed, and since James was not hungry, he continued to walk the landscape holding his small pick and a brush. Then he saw something that caught his eye in a crack on the side of a small hill. It looked familiar, like a fragment of a small bone. He slowly brushed away the loose gravel until the fragment became a little more visible. Then he gently used his small chisel and pick to break away some of the rock until he noticed that the fragment was indeed a small bone, and it had another bone right next to it and another right next to that one. They were small, and he realized that they were the bones of a small finger.

  He continued to work for the next five hours, gradually removing the items from the side of the hill in the hot sun. While he kept working, he thought about how excited his father would be when he found something like this. He would be thrilled to remove something out of the ground that had perhaps walked on the earth thousands of years ago and not been seen since. James was never as excited as his dad was, but today he felt pretty good.

  When he had the fossil secured in his bag, he grabbed his notebook and quickly noted the location with every detail he could observe. He then marked the site, took his fossils and headed back.

  As James approached the main dig site, David and Jennifer came out to meet him. They were concerned about him because they felt responsible and sorry for him that he had been sent away from the dig site so as not to be detrimental to the morale of the project members. But James was happy to see his two friends walk up to him and proudly blurted out, “I got a finger!”

  David did not know what he meant, and responded with concern, “Well, if you try to be nicer to people, then maybe that won’t happen.”

  Earlier in the day James might have felt combative about a statement like that, but now it made him laugh. Laughing was something he had not done in weeks leading up to the trip, but right now it was what he needed. For weeks he had prepared for this trip, not to search for fossils, but for his conquest of Jennifer. So he did not prepare to come as an anthropologist, even after the endless speeches from his father about what he needed to do. It felt good to laugh as David and Jennifer look at him in confusion.

  Finally James told them, “I found a fossil in the side of a hill. I believe it might be a finger of an ancient human.”

  They looked into his bag and saw little fragments of ancient bone. “Wow,” they said in unison.

  Then Jennifer asked, “Where did you find them? They look great.”

  James replied, “About three quarters of a mile northeast from here. I flagged the spot. I was just walking along, and there it was in front of me. It took me a while to dig them out, and it made me feel good, to tell you the truth.”

  Jennifer insisted that they bring the fossils over to Drs. Gibbs and Sanchez, where James explained to them where he found them. They dispatched Dr. Harris and a few of the other team members to evaluate the layers of earth in which the fossils had been found before it grew dark. James went to dinner with many of the team members, who saw him in a new light, and his two friends who were relieved that he was able to turn his fortunes around. After dinner, David and Jennifer were surprised to see James join them on that ridge to view the nighttime sky.

  “Hey there, it’s nice of you to join us, mister superstar,” David said to a James, who still had his head in the clouds.

  “Well, I couldn’t sleep even if I wanted to,” said James. “And I thought tonight would be a good time to view the heavens.”

  David explained, “You found what I have been dreaming of finding, and I have to admit, I’m a little envious. All we have been able to uncover on the dig so far are 175,000–year-old creatures that lived on the bottom of the ancient river bed, and we were able to dig up some ancient plant life.”

  Jennifer said, “I’m proud of you, James, and I hope this helps you develop into a fine anthropologist.”

  James just smiled at his two friends and looked up. “Wow, that’s a bright one,” he said. “Which star is that?”

  “That is not a star; it’s Jupiter,” answered David.

  “And that one?” he asked, while pointing to another.

  “Hey, I don’t know all their names,” said a flustered David as they all started to laugh. While enjoying their company, James appreciated that he felt that he was one of them now, unlike in the morning when he felt like an outsider to the whole team. This was a time for him to relax and enjoy.

  In the morning, Dr. Sanchez joined James, David, and Jennifer for breakfast. “James,” he said, “that was a great discovery yesterday. Your dad would be pleased.”

  “Thank you,” said a proud James.

  “I spoke to Dr. Harris, and the layer you discovered the fossil in was from about 75,000 years ago, as far we can figure without a much more detailed examination. You did a great job. Maybe next year you can come back to excavate the area,” said Dr. Sanchez.

  “But, Dr. Sanchez, we won’t be able to get to it on this trip?” asked a disappointed Jennifer.

  “Sorry, it doesn’t look like it. We want to stay here and continue to dig around the 200,000-year level at this site or lower. The goal of this trip is to find a 200,000- to 250,000-year-old individual. Again, I am sorry, but on the other hand, I’m also happy for the discovery,” said Dr. Sanchez.
/>
  Jennifer offered, “Then instead of the whole team, can James, David, and I spend a couple of days looking to find some more of this specimen? We will do a quick dig and be back before you know it.”

  After a long pause, Dr. Sanchez looked at the three and said, “Just seeing the excitement in your eyes about a discovery is making me feel excited.” Sanchez paused in consideration, then brightened. “I’ll tell you what. Yes. You get three days. I will communicate it to Dr. Gibbs. We’ll send over some of our team to check up on you throughout the day. Good luck.”

  Without finishing their breakfast, the three jumped up to secure the right gear to attempt the dig and some supplies for the long day ahead of them. Then off they went, without looking back at the camp.

  James quickly got to the site where he had found the fossilized finger. Once there, David and Jennifer set up the site for excavating the side of this small hill, and then they got started by slowly removing the earth and stone from the area. This was a slow and meticulous process, but the excitement of the three doctoral students grew the further they went into the earth. They knew that they had a finger of an individual, and the rest could be nearby. But the work to uncover this individual would take time, and three days was not a lot of time to do this kind of work. They knew they needed to hurry if they were to make progress.

  The days were long, and the sun was hot, but it did not deter them. They ate when they were hungry and took breaks when they needed them, but they knew they had little time to waste and worked at a fast pace.

  It was the morning of the third day, and so far they had found nothing, but they were not discouraged. David got up early to take advantage of as much of the lit hours in the day as possible and got to the site hours before dawn to set up for the day. When James and Jennifer arrived, the first thing they did was sort through the removed earth to try to find anything significant. By mid-morning, Jennifer saw something, and it was small. She picked it up and slowly chiseled away some of the excess rock.

  “Hey, look here. We found a fossilized tooth,” Jennifer yelled over to James and David. “We’re on the right track! There’s got to be more in there somewhere!”

  David added, “It’s not like this individual just got up and forgot their finger and tooth; the rest must be around here somewhere.”

  “Not to put a damper on our enthusiasm, but in the last 70,000 years the landscape could have changed many times over. Rivers have changed direction, wind and rain could have caused much erosion, and earthquakes or other land-moving events could have scattered the bones,” said James.

  “Yeah, and a carnivore could have mauled the individual and carried away the carcass, leaving nothing but a finger and tooth,” said David.

  “Let’s stay positive and focused with what little time we have left here,” said Jennifer.

  They all agreed and hurried their dig.

  As they took a brief break for lunch Jennifer turned to James to say, “I see for the first time that you are excited about what we do. I hope it develops into a passion. I have to admit that the new revived you surprises me. I would never have expected you not only to enjoy doing it, but also to be very enthusiastic about the whole process. Maybe there is hope for you after all.”

  James said, “I don’t know. Maybe all I needed was to get out in the field and get a good kick in my pants. I didn’t spend years studying anthropology and not expect to use it. I mean, yeah, I thought my career path would be as a professor in a prestigious university, so I knew I would use what I learned, but I didn’t think I would like the field work.”

  “Well, a little success sometimes goes a long way. Let’s get back to work,” said Jennifer as she got up.

  A little later in the late afternoon, James was feeling a little fatigued, so he stopped to take a breather and stretch himself for a few minutes. To relax a little, he thought he would walk around the small hill into which they were digging so he could regenerate a little. So while David and Jennifer continued to dig and sift through the dirt, he walked around to the other side of the hill. Along the way, he finally wondered what his father would think if he were here.

  Patrick Connor saw a son that was not too much interested in what his father did as James grew up. For a while, he thought James would follow in his mother’s footsteps and be a theologian. Yet James did end up following his father, maybe not with the enthusiasm he had for the work, but at least he had an understanding for what he did. James right now wondered how his father felt when he found his first discovery. Did he feel as good as James did? Maybe now, he thought, they might have a little more in common or at least a better understanding. Sure, all they found was a finger and a tooth, not a full skeleton, but it was very rare to find a full specimen. His father was always appreciative of every find he discovered because it gave him a window into the past, to touch something that had not been touched for so many years. Today James was starting to feel the same.

  As James walked on the other side of the hill he heard his name being called by David. He climbed the hill straight back to where they were digging.

  “What’s up, David?” James asked from the top of the hill.

  David replied, “It is getting late, and we should start closing down. But Jennifer and I thought that we might come back in the evening every night when we are done digging at Dr. Gibbs and Dr. Sanchez’s site. It might be good to dig under the stars with a little help from some flashlights.”

  James laughed a bit and said, “Sure we can, maybe. Give me a minute, and I’ll help you two.”

  James started down the rocky hill carefully. After all, he didn’t want to go home in a cast. As he slowly made his way down, he put his foot down on a weak spot that he felt crumbling under his foot. Before he could adjust his weight, the rocks gave way. Down he went into a cavity in the hill as he yelled, sliding to the bottom about twenty feet down on a decline.

  When he regained his senses and the dust in the air started to thin out, he first made sure he was all right with no serious injury. After checking himself, he realized he was OK and looked up to where he had fallen through, only to see David looking down at him.

  “James, are you OK?” David yelled down. “Can you move? I will get a rope and come down to get you!”

  At that moment Jennifer reached the hole where James fell through. “Is James OK?” she asked.

  “He’s OK! He’s OK,” said a relieved David. “We’ll get him out of there.” David went back to their supplies to find anything that would help get James out of the hole.

  As James’ eyes started to adjust to the lack of light, he noticed something with the smallest indication of a shiny metallic glow from the light that came in from the hole up above. At first he thought it was something he had dropped, but then his eyes focused a little more and he was looking at something odd. He started to see the outline of what looked like a table embedded partly into the rock.

  “Can you throw me your flashlight?” he called to David. “I think I see a table down here.”

  A confused David asked, “Did you say a table?”

  “Yeah, please send down a flashlight,” said James.

  Quickly finding a rope, Jennifer tied and lowered down the light. Once he got it, he flashed it on to the metal-like table, but the wide angle of the light made him notice a much larger cavern. Then as he shined the light around the cavern, he noticed instruments on an enclosure about the size of a school bus. He then looked back up to David and Jennifer to tell them, “There is a cavern about thirty feet long down here with a structure that has instrumentation on it.”

  A confused Jennifer speculated, “Maybe it is some sort of mining equipment? That doesn’t make sense, though. First off, there’s nothing valuable in the ground that I know of other than ancient fossils, and, secondly, I didn’t see any other entrance as I surveyed the hill before we started to dig.”

  David wondered, “I don’t know, maybe some amateur anthropologists thought they could profit by securing as many fossil
s as possible using mine equipment, then buried the entrance when they failed to do so. Let’s figure this out later and get James out of there before some rock falls on his head.” So he yelled down to James, “Let’s get you out of there.”

  James replied back, “Hold on, let me get a closer look.” He freed himself from the loose small rocks around him, and as he moved toward the instruments, he wondered what odd tools these miners used. Then he must have set off a sensor because lights came on, and they were very bright. Using his hand to block the brightness from his eyes, he then yelled up to his colleagues, “It looks like the place is still operational!”

  A small stone, loosened from when James fell into the cavern, gave way from halfway up the cavity, then bounced down off the sides of the wall, then off a large rock and the table, then on to what looked like an instrument panel. The rock hit what looked like a lever, one of many. The lever moved, and for the next seven seconds a loud sound erupted that vibrated the rocks. Some of the rocks cracked and gave way. The whole hill shook as rubble separated from the hill. James was knocked unconscious and buried in much of the rubble. David and Jennifer were thrown in different directions, then collapsed on the ground below.

  For the next seven seconds, all wireless communication did not work on the side of the planet holding Kibish at its center. No Wi-Fi, no FM or AM radios, no cellular, wireless, or satellite communication in any frequency functioned. There was nothing but static on radios, phones, and television. Then, all of a sudden, they worked again.

  Chapter 2

  There was dust and rubble all around him, and James felt a huge weight on his chest and legs. He was in a daze and couldn’t hear a thing. Slowly, he looked down and saw his right leg crushed between two large, sharp boulders. His chest was pinned between the table and some small broken rubble from above. He then noticed David, with a cut bleeding on his forehead, standing over him, saying something he couldn’t understand while frantically pushing some of the rubble off his chest.