The Aurora Project: We were not the first (Eemians Book 1) by Paul McGowan

Author:Paul McGowan [McGowan, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Aurora Project, Thriller, ancient humans, eemians
Published: 2023-04-09T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Sam noted the differences even before he pulled into the drive of Dr. Bickford’s ranch. In the years since he’d last been here, the land had grown even sparser, drier. Unrelenting heat and insufficient rain—except, of course, the dangerous downpours that came with the increasingly frequent storms—had pummeled the land, beaten it, and stolen any vestiges of what once must have been beautiful. His hands tightened on the steering wheel of his car until his knuckles ached and tears stung his eyes.

By the time they pulled up to the house, Harry was already outside waiting for them. She seemed even sadder here than she’d seemed in her office. Maybe she’d always been sad. Maybe he’d just been too blind with hope and fervor to see it.

Julia stood on the porch, gazing out over the landscape, and when she turned to face Harry, her eyes held the tears Sam had been unwilling to shed. “It’s dying,” she said.

“That’s too kind,” Harry said. “It’s already dead. But I’ve had a long, long time to say goodbye.”

Julia shook her head almost absently, as if in disbelief. “It deserved better than this.”

“It did,” Harry agreed. “But this isn’t the saddest piece of land in the world. Mine isn’t the saddest story. Many out there have tales much more dire. And many more have stories whose endings might not be so set in stone.”

She stepped to the side and gestured at the chairs already set up cozily on the wraparound porch. “Make yourselves comfortable. I’ll bring out some lemonade. Maybe a spot of something stronger. It might help make what I’m about to say go down a little smoother.”

Grimes chuckled and lowered himself into an old wicker rocker, and when Harry came by with a tray of glasses a few minutes later, he took one of lemonade and another of whiskey. Julia and Sam settled next to one another on a surprisingly comfortable loveseat, then followed his lead. Harry took the chair opposite them. Digging into a pocket, she retrieved a handful of jerky. When she offered it to Sky, the dog immediately chose to curl at her feet.

“All right.” Harry took on the tone Sam remembered so well from her lectures. “The last glacial thaw took place about twelve thousand years ago. Earth came out of its deep freeze, and our accepted history is that humans moved from caves and nomadic hunting to begin what we call civilization. Everything we think of as modern humankind’s history—the invention of the wheel, agriculture, permanent dwellings, cities, industry—has taken place in the last twelve thousand years. In the grand scheme of things, that’s a pretty short span of time, even for a species as recent as Homo sapiens.”

Harry ignored her own glass of lemonade in favor of a sip of whiskey. “Much as we’d like to believe that the three-point-five million years it took primates to climb down out of the trees and step into spacecraft was a straightforward, linear progression, it was not. Along the

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