THE SAND HILL REVIEW http://www.sandhillreview.org 2003

Going Ape

By Bob Noriega

Jane Upton gathered her transparencies and began replacing them in their binder. She'd just presented her theory of evolution and a progress report on the construction of what she called her De-Evolver, DE for short. Since her days as a graduate student, she had been working towards this day. Jane had shown how it was possible to build such a machine, but more importantly, she'd gone ahead and built it.

People were beginning to get up and leave the lecture hall. These people were truly some of the world's brightest people and many of them had believed in her and helped her build her machine. Others among them had said it was impossible and her machine would never work. Right now Jane didn't care what they believed because all she had left to do was switch on the power. Then she would show them that she was greater than Darwin and Einstein put together. They would all be in awe of her.

As she gathered the last of her transparencies she saw Ben Bright still seated and watching her. When she'd been new on campus he'd seemed charming and she'd taken a liking to him. They'd been lovers for one night and now he just couldn't seem to accept the fact that he would never be with her again.

During that one night together she'd found his laptop computer running and instantly recognized her own work on it. He'd been reworking one of her papers trying to make it his own. Jane read just enough to convince herself of his treachery. Her temper flared: not only had he just used her for sex but he was stealing from her while he was doing it. Jane took care of his unfinished work by re-formatting his hard drive. From then on he never made mention of their night together.

Her gathering finished, she mused that if she had her way, she'd use Ben as the test subject for her upcoming experiment. She could imagine sending him back in time to a more primitive state. And in his case, it would show what he really was.

The De-Evolver was her baby. Her upcoming experiment would move the volume of space between her travel plates and de-evolve a living creature. The space between the plates would travel down the thread of time to an earlier age. For her first experiment she intended to place a bird between the plates. The travel plates would be closely tied to the time line of the creature through its DNA, which would act as the guideline.

Ben came up unnoticed beside Jane while she was busy answering a question. He spoke loudly, cutting her off in mid sentence

"Jane, you look great tonight. How have you been keeping fit when you're so busy and so close to testing the De-Evolver?"

Jane was just beginning to formulate a reply when Jerry mercifully took her arm, saying, "Jane, you just have to meet Professor Mann," and led her quickly away.

"Thanks, Jerry," Jane said softly.

"Don't mention it, its all part of the service," he said with a smile. Jane took a deep breath and let herself be led out into the hallway. Jerry had been her right-hand man and had helped her build her dream machine. Leaving the lecture hall they drove back to the lab, located across the campus next to the power station.

Jane entered her office and quickly turned around to thank Jerry for rescuing her earlier. Her motion meant that now she was facing the security monitors and those monitors allowed her to see the front door of the lab opening. She froze.

Jane pointed to the monitors and watched as Ben Bright came skulking in. He looked this way and that for signs of anyone's presence. Ben was heading for the experimental hall, but stopped at the bottom of the stairs leading to Jane's office. They saw a sneer cross his face as he gazed up at the closed door at head of the stairs.

Jerry headed for the door as soon as Ben had moved out of range of the stairwell camera. Jane followed and they quickly and quietly descended down the stairs. They peeked around the corner and watched as Ben opened the door to the experimental hall and went in. Jane knew it wouldn't take much for him to do real damage to her project.

Ben was adjusting the last plate power supply when Jerry brought a pipe down on the back of his head.

Jerry picked Ben up and tied him to a chair and watched as Ben slowly rose to consciousness.

"What is the meaning of this? Why have you got me tied to this chair? Let me loose immediately." He then began struggling at the ropes.

Jane shouted at him, "Oh, shut up Ben! You came in here to sabotage my project. Now you're going to help us prove the DE's performance."

Jane put the plates on either side of Ben, and pushed the start button. Ben vanished in mid-protest: his atoms were still there but were in a different time now.

Jane knew that he was moving backward in time and would soon be losing himself as he passed the point of his own birth. He became a part of what made all men what they are, the common thread that links us to the past and to our future. She wondered what his last thought would be as he winked out of existence.

The DE worked by locking on to his DNA and traveling back down the time stream looking for a match. Once it had found one, it continued to follow that stream to its origin. Jane watched the time display as it tracked the time stream.

Jane toyed with the idea of stopping the machine when Ben was an ape. Theoretically, she could take him back to the slime he came from and she could kill and end any hope that he would ever exist. She snickered at the thought and wondered if she would even remember that he had ever been alive.

Now, together she and Jerry watched the display count down. Already it was at three thousand years back. Jane was ready for the machine to pick up speed as it wound back in time. Soon it would be traveling at thousands of years per second.

Suddenly the display started slowing down. Were they running out of power? Was the mass too much for the DE to handle?

Before she could think it out, the DE stopped. Only thousands of years back. How could this be, Jane asked Jerry. "He should be slime. I want slime," she shouted almost hysterically.

She looked towards the plates an instant after the display stopped and a light too bright to look at cut through her.

The light dimmed and her eyesight returned slowly. There, standing between the plates of the DE was something huge. Jane couldn't make it out at first but it must have been twelve feet high. The top of it reached to the top of the plates and she knew they were that high. She blinked hoping to help her eyesight clear. Then, seeing whatever it was there, she took a step back.

Standing between the plates was the most amazing being she'd ever seen. He was perfect, she could see that now. He glowed, but she could see he was a man.

He was frightening, and Jane's body shook as she tried to bolster her courage. He looked right at her. "He's so beautiful," she thought. He had the kindest gentlest face. He seemed to look at her with the pity of a father whose child has done wrong. His head tilted to one side as he eyed her.

Her heart melted. What was he, who was he? How could he be here?

She couldn't look at him but couldn't look away. His beauty made her ashamed of whom she was, and made her feel ugly.

Through her shame she found the courage to ask, "Who, who are you?"

The voice that answered was so soft and gentle it came to her ears like a soft breeze: "Madam, I'm ADAM."