The Siblings

     Two friends, Dr. Sam Wendell and Dr. Jim Renner worked in their laboratories in Denver Colorado. They worked well together. Sometimes they worked in the observatory, 5,000 feet above sea level, discovering new galaxies and other times they traveled into the past or into the future in their phase engine capsule.

     During one of their trips into the past, around 1.6 million BC, they found two siblings. Their mother held them with her right hand. The left arm was missing, because a hungry saber-tooth wolf chewed on it. The friends saved the siblings from certain death and brought them to their present in 3,045 AD. It was their challenge, with the help of Tania, a roboid, to adapt the sibling to their new environment,

Did they succeed in their quest?

Excerpt

During the night, loud cracking noises of varying intensities woke the group, except the male on guard — he was up. The noise subsided and the hominines tried to sleep again. A while later, the aggravating noise returned. The mountain and the cave beneath rumbled, and then shook violently. The earth shook and eventually a major earthquake divided the cave, denying the priviliged group members in the back of the cave to escape. The lava below was slowly rising in the fissure. It saturated the air with hot, toxic fumes, filling the lungs of the unfortunate ones who were cut off from the cave entrance. One male was running, trying to jump across the gap, attempting to reach the other side. His finger tips reached across the sharp edge, but he couldn’t hold on. He slid down the gap and moments later, he disappeared in the depths of the fissure, screaming, landing in a pool of hot lava. A bolt of fire burst upward, fueled by fat, from the unfortunate soul as he plunged into the hot lava. Others looked for a long branch or tree stump to span the fissure but none were in the cave. Who would have thought, that an earthquake would divide the cave? A second man, coughing and choking, also tried to jump across. He didn’t make it either. On his way down to the hot lava, he screamed louder. While he was in midair a surge of fire, spitting upward from the lava below engulfed him. He died while he was still in mid air. A female stood on the edge of the fissure. Her support gave way and she slid down, a sharp stone gouging her back. She screamed, overpowering the noises of the earthquake. The remaining members moved to a far corner of the cave, hoping to survive the ordeal, by clinging to the cold cave walls and sat on the ground, wedged in a corner. They resigned to their faith. ...