Born in a Treacherous Time Read online

  BORN IN A TREACHEROUS TIME

  Book One of the series: Man vs. Nature

  By Jacqui Murray

  Other books by Jacqui Murray

  Fiction

  To Hunt a Sub

  Twenty-four Days

  Non-fiction

  Building a Midshipman: How to Crack the USNA Application

  Over 100 books, ebooks, and other non-fiction resources on integrating tech into education available from the publisher, Structured Learning LLC

  Praise for Jacqui Murray

  A blistering pace is set from the beginning: dates open each new chapter/section, generating a countdown that intensifies the title’s time limit. Murray skillfully bounces from scene to scene, handling numerous characters, from hijackers to MI6 Special Agent Haster. ... A steady tempo and indelible menace form a stirring nautical tale. – Kirkus Reviews, about Twenty-four Days

  ***

  … a satisfying read from a fresh voice in the genre, and well worth the wait. The time devoted to research paid off, providing a much appreciated authenticity to the sciency aspects of the plot. The author also departs from the formulaic pacing and heroics of contemporary commercialized thrillers. Instead, the moderately paced narrative is a seduction, rather than a sledgehammer. The author takes time rendering relatable characters with imaginatively cool names like Zeke Rowe, and Kalian Delamagente. The scenes are vividly depicted, and the plot not only contains exquisitely treacherous twists and turns, but incorporates the fascinating study of early hominids and one ancestral female in particular who becomes an essential character. – Goodreads reader about To Hunt a Sub

  ***

  A fusion of technology, academics, and archaeology make “To Hunt a Sub” a thrilling ride. The stakes are high as a PhD student and an ex-Seal risk all to stop terrorists from stealing American submarines carrying nuclear weapons. The writing is clipped and crisp, fitting well with the genre—there’s little fluff. The author’s expertise in technology shines through. A quick read I finished in just a few days. Solid debut novel. – Amazon reader

  ***

  So last night I couldn't sleep and finally got up about 3 o'clock in the morning and thought I would just read for a while and maybe I would get to sleep. Unfortunately, I read your book. Needless to say I was only halfway done when I started at 3 a.m. and by 6 a.m. I had finished the book! Too good to go to sleep. Excellent book. Can't wait for the next one. WOW – Amazon reader

  ***

  This is a complex layered story that successfully blends well researched archaeology and cutting edge technology, with a high stakes terrorist plot to steal nuclear submarines. It’s got characters to root for, and villains to loathe. –Amazon reader

  ***

  I loved the way the author combined vulnerability and strength in her main characters. I loved where the macho character ‘Rowe’ takes Kali’s hand even though she pulls away. And there is this beautiful raw, insight into what it can cost you to be a mother. Otto is very cool too. – Amazon reader

  ©2018 Structured Learning LLC.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of Structured Learning LLC ([email protected]).

  Published by Structured Learning LLC

  Laguna Hills, Ca 92653

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents, are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Printed in the United States of America

  ISBN 978-1-942101-21-5

  Table of Contents

  Characters

  Bibliography

  Author’s Note

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Chapter Forty-four

  Chapter Forty-five

  Chapter Forty-six

  Chapter Forty-seven

  Chapter Forty-eight

  Chapter Forty-nine

  Chapter Fifty

  Chapter Fifty-one

  Chapter Fifty-two

  Chapter Fifty-three

  Chapter Fifty-four

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Preview: Book II in Man vs. Nature--Crossroads

  Reader’s Workshop Questions

  CHARACTERS

  Raza’s Group

  Ahnda

  Baad

  Brum

  Ch-hee

  Dar

  Falda

  Gleb

  Grg

  Hku

  Kaavrm

  Kelda

  Ma-g’n

  Mir:

  Raza

  Sahm

  Sweena

  Voi

  Voivoi

  Vorak

  Yoo

  Garv’s Adopted Group

  Klvda

  Pan

  Small

  Qweg

  Tree-man

  Ba

  Boah

  Hee

  Shee

  Man-who-makes-tools Groups (Homo habilis)

  Garv’s adopted Group

  Lucy’s old Group

  Raza’s Group

  Author’s Note—Non-fiction Introduction

  Like a favonian breeze, life burst forth on Planet Earth about 3.5 billion years ago. Our story begins much later, a brief two million years before present, during the waning days of the Pliocene Epoch, itself part of the 65-million-year-long Cenozoic Era. The primordial continent of Gondwana splintered into chunks and warm-blooded, furry mammals have replaced the dinosaurs. The climate is cooling and the growing glaciers have locked billions of gallons of Earth’s water into icy prisons. South America has moved to its present position contiguous to North America and the land bridge connecting Asia with Alaska still exists.

  If you telescope in, you see we are in Africa. The capacious tropical jungles created during hotter Miocene times are giving way to dry savannas surrounding the Great Rift Valley. Peer closely and you see a band of hominids hunting, playing, eating, and sleeping, oblivious to their destiny as the Father of Man. One female stands out,
more inquisitive, always peering outside the confines of the tightly-knit group. Her name is Lucy which is the sound she hears when her band calls her.

  For reasons scientists will never agree on, Lucy prospered in this cobbled confluence of climate and geography. When we study the clues she left, we can find few reasons why out of all animal species, this bipedal primate and her successors survived Nature’s challenges. Why did she, with paper-thin skin, nails instead of claws, and flat teeth rather than sharp tearing incisors, metastasize throughout the world? What crude traits made Lucy a survivor?

  To understand her story, scientists decoded the clues encased in the rocks, soil, and the few artifacts that remained of her kind. We might be shocked by Lucy’s resemblance to us. She walks upright. Her face is well on the way to Thinking Man’s (that’s us—Homo sapiens) forward-facing eyes, receding forehead, and understated nose. Her skin is lightly furred and dimpled with millions of sweat glands. Her gluteus maximus has enlarged to facilitate running and her thorax has raised so she can draw the full breaths required to fuel her cells for extended jogging. The encephalization of her brain represents a milestone in primates: She is the first species to on average surpass the cerebral rubicon described by the British anthropologist Sir Arthur Keith requiring 750 cubic centimeters to delineate the genus Homo from other species.

  But physical appearance tells only part of her story. How did Lucy conduct her everyday life? How did she handle illness? How did she hunt for food while stalked by predators bigger and meaner than she? How did she solve problems? For these answers, I read a multidisciplinary assortment of scientists. Paleobotanists study plant seeds buried with her bones. Paleoanthropologists examine the condition of her teeth and calcification of her skeleton. Paleontologists study the tools she created to infer their use. Paleogeologists dig through the horizons in the land, the geologic content of rocks and soil, the detritus surrounding the ossified skeleton. Paleoclimatologists recreate ancient atmospheres.

  By melding their collective research, Lucy’s life comes into focus, as though a mist has lifted, revealing her existence on the savannas of Plio-Pleistocene Africa.

  Yet, even this fails to convey the compelling provenance of her world. Where are the inevitable life and death struggles accompanying days and nights ruled by Nature? Where is the stress that travels hand in hand with her ability to make decisions? Where is the drama integral to existence as a thinking man? Terry Pratchett says, “…there’s nothing like millions of years of really frustrating trial and error to give a species moral fiber…” For with Lucy’s reasoning skill comes the need to take responsibility for her deeds.

  When I first met Lucy, I saw only an animal—more great ape than human—but as I peeled away her life, I found a person with dreams, passion, the will to live, and a daunting need to thrive.

  Pretty much like all of us.

  Lucy was a scientist, seeking new approaches to problems. She became one of the first primates to use tools to make tools, to control her environment and make choices rather than submit to instinct. Thanks to her capacious brain, she thrived in the most dangerous habitat known to mammals, evolving from a plant-eating herbivore to a decidedly-unchoosey omnivore. Because she was so much more efficient at these jobs than any other primate, she possessed surplus time and used it to invent tools to enhance her quality of life.

  It’s important to note that this is a fictional story. I present no new evidence or research, rather extrapolate from the work of others. Lucy’s manner of speaking, grammar, and sentence structure has been lost so I studied Dr. Lev Vygotsky’s research on primitive societies. He found primitive man to be a thorough communicator, his conversations rich with detail about his surroundings and even of places he only once visited. Lucy’s communication includes a smorgasbord of devices to convey her message—vocalizations, body movements, hand gestures, intonations, facial expressions—skills we vaguely understand and often discredit. I have translated her words and those of her band into a Homo sapiens sapiens-friendly language.

  Additionally, Lucy had no concept of numbers so based it on the research of Dr. Lev Vygotsky—again—and Dr. Levi Leonard Conant from his 1931 book, The Number Concept. For example, Lucy will never say her band consisted of fifteen individuals, rather she will describe a band with “enough females to gather fruit and nuts and care for the children, and enough males to hunt and protect the Group”.

  I hope you enjoy Lucy’s story.

  Prologue

  Billions of years whooshed by in a rush that made sentient beings dizzy. Planetary systems formed and life evolved. On Earth, vast landmasses collided with such brutality that the ground buckled into crenulated piles of lofty peaks and yawning valleys, or splintered into ragged continents that floated away on infinite oceans. Molten hotspots blew liquid rock through the fragile crust and splattered volcanic archipelagos like asteroids bobbing in the darkness of the Universe. The erratic climate melted glaciers and rainforests with equal ease.

  Nature’s life forms were no better. They came and went, crushed by Earth’s ever-changing habitats. The survivors, like the desultory horsetail fern and the chirruping insects, were boring. The first had no flexibility and the second, no mental strength. Then, a muscular slope-shouldered hominid named Orrorin appeared. Though his head was no larger than a fist, he fingered his food as though wondering at its texture. Hostility intrigued rather than frightened him.

  One day, Orrorin disappeared, replaced by the apeman Ardipithecus. His clear eyes roved his world with calculated interest. He rubbed callused fingers over the plants and sniffed, even tasted the seeds and dirt around them—and then he too vanished, replaced by a revolving door of species, each more cerebral than the prior.

  When Lucy, the first species in the genus Homo, arrived, mankind took a huge leap forward.

  Chapter One

  The scene replayed in Lucy’s mind, an endless loop haunting her days and nights. The clear sun-soaked field, the dying Mammoth, the hunters waiting hungrily for its last breath before scavenging the meat, tendons, internal organs, fat, and anything else consumable—food that would nourish the Group for a long time.

  But something went horribly wrong. Krp blamed Lucy and soon, so too did Feq.

  Why did Ghael stand up? He had to know it would mean his death.

  Lucy wanted to escape, go where no one knew what she’d done, but Feq would starve without her. He didn’t know how to hunt, couldn’t even tolerate the sight of blood. For him, she stayed, hunting, scavenging, and outwitting predators, exhausting herself in a hopeless effort to feed the remaining Group members. But one after another, they fell to Snarling-dog, Panther, Long-tooth Cat, Megantereon, and a litany of other predators. When the strangers arrived, Feq let them take her.

  By this time, Lucy felt numb, as much from the death of her Group as the loss of Garv. Garv, her forever pairmate, was as much a part of her as the lush forests, Sun’s warmth, and Snarling-dog’s guidance. Now, with all the other deaths, she could leave his memory behind.

  Forests gave way to bushlands. The prickly stalks scratched her skin right through the thick fur that layered her arms and legs. The glare of Sun, stark and white without the jungle to soften it, blinded her. One step forward became another and another, into a timeless void where nothing mattered but the swish of feet, the hot breeze on her face, and her own musty scent.

  Neither male—not the one who called himself Raza nor the one called Baad—had spoken to her since leaving. They didn’t tell her their destination and she didn’t ask, not that she could decipher their intricate hand gestures and odd body movements. She studied them as they talked to each other, slowly piecing together what the twist of a hand and the twitch of a head meant. She would understand it all by the time they reached wherever they headed.

  It was clear they expected her to follow. No one traveled this wild land alone but her reasons for joining them, submissively, had nothing to do with fear. Wherever the strangers took her would be better than
where she’d been.

  Lucy usually loved running through the mosaic of grass and forest that bled one into another. Today, instead of joy, she felt worry for her future and relief that her past was past. She effortlessly matched Raza’s tread, running in his steps at his pace. Baad did the same but not without a struggle. His sweat, an equal mix of old and stale from the long trip to find her and fresh from trying to keep up, blossomed into a ripe bouquet that wafted over her. She found comfort in knowing this strong, tough male traveled with her.

  Vulture cawed overhead, eagerly anticipating a meal. From the size of his flock, the scavenge must be an adult Okapi or Giraffe. Even after the predator who claimed the kill—Lucy guessed it to be Megantereon or Snarling-dog—took what it needed, there would be plenty left. She often hunted with Vulture. It might find carrion first but she could drive it away by brandishing a branch and howling. While it circled overhead, awaiting a return to his meal, she grabbed what she wanted and escaped.

  Feq must smell the blood but he had never been brave enough to chase Vulture away. He would wait until the raptor finished, as well as Snarling-dog and whoever else showed up at the banquet, and then take what remained which wouldn’t be enough to live on.