Human (5 page)

Sophisticated stone tools had finally been recovered, over 450 tools, in itself, a remarkable find. But the bones they were associated with were extraordinary. First a tiny skull and then the petite skeleton of its owner had been uncovered. At only three feet tall, LB1, as she came to be known, was proving to be an evolutionary enigma. With a brain cavity three times smaller than a modern human, LB1 should not have been capable of producing the tools she was found with, those same tools that were now waiting patiently on Ivy's desk. She appeared two million years later than expected in the fossil record. She looked more ape than human. She created fire, tools, and survived to a time when modern humans had already begun invading the Nusa Tengarra islands. And she had friends.

More partial skeletons had been found, twelve individuals in total. How they had arrived across the impenetrable sea hundreds of thousands of years before modern humans was anyone’s guess. The implications for early human evolution and migration patterns into South-East Asia were potentially enormous. All that had been considered fact was now thrown in a heap and archaeologists were scrambling to pick up the pieces and re-align them. A race that Ivy desperately wanted to be part of.

Molecular archaeology was a new and controversial discipline. Still, Ivy had lobbied the controlling institute for a chance to analyse the stone tools. Organic residues on the tool surfaces promised new evidence on the diet and lifestyle of this strange addition to the human family. So tuned were the methods she used, Ivy could now determine between bird species based on a single shaft of feather. She used DNA sequencing to determine the species of plant or animal that had been cut, pounded and butchered.

To her own astonishment, permission had been granted for preliminary analysis of a sample of tools. She and Jayne had been stocking and preparing equipment for the impending arrival for weeks in anticipation.

“How many have we got?” asked Ivy, her mind buzzing with the scope of work ahead of them.

“One box so far, twelve artefacts,” Jayne said. Her eyes were shining. “More in a few days, we’ve got some seriously late nights ahead of us…” She rolled her eyes dramatically, but her enthusiasm was contagious. “I've had a quick look already; we've got bi-facial flakes, points, perforators, hammer-stones and scrapers. Chert and volcanic material by the looks of it. You’ve got to see them, just brilliant. I've put them in your office with a little something else from me.”

“Jayne,” Ivy began. “I told you not to-”

“Couldn’t have asked for a better day for it, either-” Jayne broke off mid-sentence, looking past Ivy. “You’ve got a visitor, hon,” she winked at Ivy. “Catch you later.” Jayne gave a quick wave to the person approaching behind Ivy and ducked back across the grass. Ivy lay back on her elbows, anticipating Liam's arrival from the refectory.

“How’s it going?” The voice was deeper than she expected and carried an Irish accent instead. Ivy glanced up and into the shifted sun, losing her balance and falling backward. She felt her face burn with embarrassment.

“Orrin, hi,” she said, sitting up awkwardly. Ivy hoped her face wasn't as flushed as it felt, but she knew she couldn't hide her grin. “I wasn't expecting… I mean, it's great to see you again. How are you settling in?”

Orrin James flashed Ivy a wide smile. “Grand altogether. The usual mix-ups with database access of course, but the lads are onto it.”

He gestured to the grass.

“Mind if I join you?”

“Of course not,” smiled Ivy. “We were just getting a bit of fresh air,” she nodded toward Kyah, who was now sitting a few feet away. The bonobo’s nimble fingers were twirling as she dug for ants in a small mound at the tree base. Her brow was furrowed in concentration.

Orrin's dark hair caught the sunlight as he lowered himself onto the grass. Black framed reading glasses complimented his strong jaw line and flecked brown eyes. He looked over curiously at Kyah, occupied with the stick.

“I’ll admit I wasn't expecting you to be in such unique company.”

“This is Kyah,” Ivy laughed. “She lives over in the Biology Research Lab with Liam, I think you met him at the faculty mixer the other night – tall guy, crazy mop hair… a few too many beers…” she added, resolving his faltering memory.

“Oh, right yeah I remember, nice guy.” Orrin glanced sideways at her curiously. “Actually I think I've seen him down at the union baths.”

“Baths?”

“Swimming pool,” Orrin corrected himself. “Sorry, sometimes I forget to use your Aussie lingo.”

Ivy chuckled. “You’re doing pretty well from what I can tell. Most of the faculty seemed smitten with you.”

“Bollocks,” Orrin laughed, shaking his head. “And besides, I’m not really interested in most of the faculty.” His eyes shone with confidence and good humour that seemed effortless.

Against her better judgement, Ivy had let Jayne practically drag her to the last two interfaculty social events. Her blonde assistant had argued relentlessly,
‘You're meant to be showing me the ropes here, woman! Seriously Ivy, if we focus a bit more effort on raising the profile of the Arch department, we could actually raise more grant funding. Did you know they're thinking of funnelling some of our funding into Sociology…?’

‘No way!’

Although Ivy thought the sly grin on Jayne's face was a little suspect at the time, she couldn't argue with her logic. So Ivy spent the fortnightly events forcing herself to mingle amidst the canapés whilst feigning disinterest in gossip about a particular new member of staff that was now watching Kyah intently across the grass.

Appointed a month ago, Orrin at only 27, had become the youngest of the lecturing staff at Melbourne University and was fast gaining popularity with the students for his infectious enthusiasm to ‘think outside the quasar’. He was Irish, clearly, but when and why he’d moved to Australia seemed generally unknown. Not that Ivy had asked around.
Much.
More curious though, Ivy had decided, was the spark he'd ignited under the staff of the Physics department. The younger staff members and research students seemed to orbit him like electrons, impressed by his growing renown in scientific circles. Orrin encouraged their potential to step beyond current scientific theory. The older staff members, skirted the edges of the fray, disgruntled and eyeing him with distrust.

Now, Orrin nodded towards Kyah, his hand shading his eyes from the sinking sun. “Is she the only chimp here?” he asked. “I mean, are there others in the lab? Are they part of some sort of biological research?”

Ivy frowned.
Please, not another one.

When she didn't speak, Orrin continued, “It's just that I've been looking to extend my own research parameters…”

Ivy felt her chest flutter with disappointment. She cut him off, her voice uncharacteristically harsh as she sat forward. “Firstly, Kyah’s a bonobo, not a chimp. More importantly – she’s retired, they all are. She's already had a lifetime of invasive tests and research done on her. She is only here because she hasn't got the social capacity to survive in a wild population. Her rehabilitation has taken years.” She glared at him. “Kyah's not a lab rat. She's had too much trauma already. It's out of the question.” Ivy dismissed him, looking at Kyah. Perhaps it was time to go.

Silence fell on them for a long moment. When she looked back Orrin was watching her with an unreadable expression, his confidence momentarily shaken.

“I'm dead sorry Ivy, really, I didn't realize,” he said. “Of course I wouldn't want to hurt her, really I'm sorry…”

“Yes, well if you are then you’re a minority,” said Ivy. “The pharmaceutical labs have been trying to get their hands on Kyah and the rest of our bonobos for over a year. Liam and I go through hell keeping the vultures at bay.” She looked to Kyah as she spoke, the words rushing angrily. “Most of the bonobos have already been holed up for testing since they were infants. They’re entirely tormented by the time we get them. They need rehabilitation and release into sanctuaries, not more tranquilisers and fear.” With her mouth set, Ivy pushed up from the grass, making to leave. “Most especially Kyah.”

Orrin caught her wrist. “Hold it, please, I didn’t mean to… I had no idea. Please stay.”

Her defensiveness slowly ebbed away as she saw the sincerity in Orrin's eyes. Ivy took a deep breath as she sat down again.

“I'm sorry. I guess I'm a little over-protective,” she said.

“It sounds like you have cause to be.”

“I do.” Ivy offered a smile, which still didn’t quite reach her eyes. “So, what is it that you’re working on, anyway?”

Orrin brushed the grass off his hands, pausing in thought. He looked at her critically for a long moment, deliberating. Ivy shifted uncomfortably under the intensity of it. Then, he seemed to decide something. He smiled back, much more sincerely than Ivy expected.

“I would like to tell you about it actually,” Orrin said. “But my newest research is unpublished at the moment, and I’d prefer to keep the details between us, if you don’t mind. It’s not particularly sensitive information- yet- but there is some potential for future concern. I wouldn’t like to be considered an alarmist-”

Ivy sat forward, intrigued.

“My lips are sealed,” she said.

“Well, it actually started as a side project with a couple of my research students,” Orrin began, leaning toward her with child-like eagerness. “It's a bit involved…”

Ivy held her hands up in surrender, “I should warn you, I’m no Hawking. How about the ‘physics for dummies’ version?”

“Sure,” Orrin grinned. “Well, are you familiar with the magnetosphere surrounding the earth?”

Ivy shook her head, looking apologetic.

Orrin looked thoughtful. Reaching out, he combed his fingers across the grass, raking in two small rocks and some pine needles. He placed the smallest of the rocks on the grass in front of Ivy.

“This is the earth,” Orrin said.

“Why do I feel like I’m in kindergarten again?” Ivy laughed.

“Humour me.” Orrin said, nudging her shoulder. “So this is our earth.” He pointed to the rock in the grass. “The outer core of the earth is made up of liquid iron, which rotates with the rotation of the earth. This rotation of metal in turn creates a convention current, an electrical current per se, which is what gives the earth its magnetic field. So just like a bar magnet, the earth has a north pole and a south pole which incline about 10 degrees to the rotation axis of the earth. Between and around them, there’s an area of magnetic field surrounding the earth. Are you following me?”

Ivy nodded and so he continued.

Orrin carefully shaped the long pine needle into an elongated tear shape, twisting the ends together to keep them in place. He placed it around his rock earth. “Right, well the outer limits of this giant magnetic field surrounding the earth, sort of shaped like a bullet, is what we call the magnetosphere.” He gestured to the pine needle surrounding the rock. “It acts as a shield for the earth, protecting the ozone layer- protecting life on earth- from
this
.”

Orrin held the second, larger rock he had gathered up for Ivy to see and then dropped it near his model earth, outside the rounded end of the pine needle shape. “This second rock represents our sun.” Ivy laughed, feeling silly as Orrin continued. “Now as you probably know, the sun emits a continuous stream of charged particles into space in all directions. We call this phenomenon the ‘solar wind’,” he said. “These particles are mostly protons and electrons and are so highly charged, that they break away from the sun’s gravity and shoot towards earth. This solar wind is capable of making the earth entirely uninhabitable. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun could heat up the earth and strip away our atmosphere. Without the magnetosphere protecting us, there’d be no life on our planet – it would be way too hot.”

Orrin paused to catch his breath and his eyes sparkled with excitement. It was no wonder his students were so drawn to him.

Ivy interjected, anticipating that he was heading somewhere she couldn’t see. “Okay, so in a nutshell, our earth is surrounded by a giant magnetic shield, sort of shaped like a bullet, which protects us from the radiation of the sun, is that it?”

“You’re bang on,” Orrin said. “Also, the magnetosphere is a changeable, fluid shape. The earth’s magnetic field in conjunction with the shape and strength of the solar wind influence it. If the sun emits a massive solar flare, for instance, the size and shape of the magnetosphere gets temporarily distorted. We might get geomagnetic storms on earth. These storms create massive electrical ground currents, making a right mess of satellite equipment and global positioning systems, causing blackouts and surges in power grids; they can even stuff up the migration patterns of animals.”

Ivy nodded again as Orrin barely paused to breathe.

“Normally it’s not a problem at all. Our magnetosphere is pretty stable and deflects any radiation that we would consider to be harmful.” He raised an eyebrow to her conspiratorially. “But this is where it gets tricky. It’s been known for a while now, that the magnetosphere surrounding the earth is weakening in places. There are places even now, that satellites have to shut down as they move through, to avoid being affected by the intense radiation.”

Orrin lowered his voice. “In the last 150 years, the earth’s magnetic field has decreased by ten percent,” he said. “Now, it may simply be the case that earth is preparing for another reversal of its magnetic fields. Every million years or so that happens and there don’t seem to be any serious repercussions to life on earth when it does.”

His smile faded and Orrin looked pensive. “The thing is Ivy; I’m not convinced that’s what’s happening here.”

“What do you mean?” Ivy asked.

Orrin’s tone had changed. Before where he had been relaxed, now he sat straight and tense, frown lines burrowing into his forehead. He ran his fingers over the rock model he had made in the grass, deep in thought and Ivy felt a strange compulsion to place her own hand on his. He looked
burdened.

She swallowed nervously. “You can trust me, you know.”

He looked at Ivy surprised, breaking from his reverie.