Nothing New Under the Sun
von Jacques Pinard Brown (Copyright)
I.
He was a primitive primate by comparison to modern man, but almost human in many respects. His people had mastered the art of many crude tools, implements and weapons. They even had early oral communication much akin to language. But life was hard at the beginning, the greatest danger being predators. This day Oo-ra was busy fishing with a sharpened stick down at the river, when he saw a brilliant light at dusk. It came flashing through the sky with a terrible roar accompanying it. It vanished out of sight among the hills and thick vegetation, and the furious noise died with its passing. Oo-ra picked up his catch in the woven basket and headed for the communal enclosure. On his arrival he found that his young female mate had gone missing at about the time that the light-with-noise was heard overhead. Frantic with concern he departed with a friend, whose mate was also missing, into the jungle in the dark of night.
This was a dangerous undertaking in these savage times. They could be killed any number of wild animals; poisonous snakes, scorpions, big cats and big wild canines.
Yet Oo-ra’s love drove him on, as did his companions for his loved one. Dawn came with them having had no success in locating the young female. Despondently, they headed for home. On their mid-morning arrival however, they were overjoyed to find their respective mates safely back in the camp. It seemed that somehow they had been transported away with the phenomena of the previous day, but neither woman had any definite recollection of what had happened to them.
Oo-ra was not that concerned about this, he was just happy his mate was safe. He was even happier when he found out a short while later that she was pregnant. It was slightly strange to him, however, that his friend’s mate had also fallen pregnant. But he took it as co-incidence and resumed his duties of procuring food for the group.
The two children that came from these two women were far superior to their contemporaries. They far outsmarted anyone in the group, and assumed leadership roles in their early years. The tribe grew and became the most powerful in the region, when these two of the new breed were themselves able to procreate. All their offspring were vastly superior to the likes of Oo-ra, both mentally and physically. He himself was now old and ready to depart from this existence, so he looked over his marvelous children and grandchildren, and wondered with his primitive thought; how they would change the world he knew.
And change the world they did. Their descendants multiplied and prospered. They built great villages, great towns, great cities. They built big armies and made war. They built roads, dams, huge monuments. They strived for higher understanding of the world they lived in, yet they built big armies and killed one another’s children. And so it went. They comprehended things that early man couldn’t, they mastered flight and applied it to their favorite pastime; war. They dropped a lot of bombs on each other, until it was only necessary to drop a few. That was where it would end.II.
Sam the chimpanzee was at his post, at the fence of the cage, the day it started. He lived, along with a few other chimps, at a zoo outside a city. This city was one of the few around the globe not to be vaporized during the great atomic war, which must have the prophesied as Armageddon. Bombs rained down the last time that day, as mankind forced himself to his knees. That is how the end started; with a bang. But man’s reign ended with the ungraceful whine of defeat. Sickness and plague spread in the wake of the terrible bombs. Humanity could not withstand the onslaught.
Sam was unsure as to what exactly was going on, but he and the others could sense there was something amiss. For one thing, food became less, and feeding time less frequent. One night a group of men entered the zoo, scavenging for food. They broke open the chimpanzee cage; cornering one unfortunate primate. The others, including Sam, made a break for freedom, and succeeded; running into the nearby countryside seeking refuge. This little group found it relatively easy to survive in the now open wastelands that were almost devoid of other live. Mankind was swiftly diminishing,
In quality and quantity, plague rifling them into non-existence. And finally we were gone altogether, leaving this world for the likes of Sam to inhererit. And the meek inherited the earth.
The world became a new and beautiful place for Sam and his kin. There was plenty of food and not much danger, other than internal squabbles. They had offspring and so on and so forth for countless million moons. Earth was paradise once more, not a trace of the destructive society of man was left. Sam’s kind was the rulers of this paradise world, being the highest form of intelligence. But new predators evolved along with them, and long forgotten poisonous little enemies returned. Still, they survived and prospered.
They evolved to more erect posture and their brain capacity also increased. They started communicating by gestures and sounds, also inventing primitive tools. Greenery surrounded them on all side as their primitive lives evolved to something of higher magnitude. Among them there was a small group that lived in a densely growing jungle. In that group was a young male named Ba-ga.III.
Ba-ga was a prime specimen of his kind. He was lean and supple and strong. His job, along with other young males of group, was hunting and gathering food. Their diet was no longer strictly vegetarian like their primate forefathers, now it included meat.
There was a young female that he fancied in the group, and after complying with the necessary requirements, they coupled. As he was out hunting a little wild pig like creature one day, he tired and reclined against a nearby thorn tree. He rested awhile, and it being late afternoon, watched the sun slowly sinking in the west. Getting up and dusting himself off he was about to return to the group’s encampment, when he saw a great disc hurtling overhead. It came accompanied by great light and noise, and vanished in the distance. Bag calculated that it must have disappeared somewhere near his camp.
He hurried back to share with the others the amazing sight, which they also must have seen. His shock was unparalleled when he discovered his female mate had disappeared during the commotion, along with two other young females. He and another young male were chosen to go and look for them. The night was long, dark and deadly enemies lurked in the thick undergrowth. But they continued their search until dawn, and mid-morning returned to camp for further instructions. On their arrival they found to their amazement that the females had all returned safely, but where unable to recollect what had happened to them. In his joy, Ba-ga also became betrothed to one of the other girls who had disappeared.
His happiness was even greater when he was told that both his wives were expecting babies soon after (along with the other girl who had gone missing.). The children that these young women brought forth were beautiful, strong and clever, beyond anything that Ba-ga’s people had ever known. They became great leaders and they and children proceeded to inhabit the world. Somewhere a spaceship was returning to a distant galaxy, hoping that this time their experiment would be more successful, while Ba-ga stared at Orion.
He was old now and near dying, but his thoughts were still strong. His thoughts were similar to someone who had lived long ago, unbeknownst to him, countless ages before him. He realized that all this must have happened a long time ago, just as it was happening now. That everything that is, has already been, and will be again. There is nothing new under the sun