Young Again
Copyright© 2018 by Edward Douglass Patterson
Chapter 32: Daughter of the Earth
Professor Mingyu and Ashley were walking near each other at one end of the line that was checking for the plant that let you become young again. They were talking in Mandarin with Mingyu showing her the correct pronunciations.
“Do you know what the plant looks like?” Ashley asked.
“It wouldn’t be a plant. Mother was changing people, not healing them. When she got trapped inside, she would have sought some way to get it out. An animal or insect possibly, but that is only a guess. I wasn’t involved in that part of our work. I don’t know what it would be, but it would have to be one that she could release into the open. I was in Asia when the Destroyers attacked here. We heard nothing to be concerned about before the message that they were under attack.” Mingyu looked over at the young girl and smiled. “What gave me away?”
“You have choreographed your moves to give the appearance of one that is older and starting to have movement difficulties. Perfect memory allows us to see that the same moves are repeated. You haven’t developed the skills to hide from one that shares the same abilities as you do.”
“Yes, it has been a long time since I have risked hiding in the presence of any of my family. Especially after my grandnephew Omara attempted to kill me. That your grandfather had undergone the transformation intrigued me. I hadn’t figured on you and Sarah also having been transformed. When I saw how you handled Cathy, I knew that I risked being discovered, but I knew I needed help to protect this civilization from Omara.”
“Teach me a language that’s no longer spoken. We’ll need it to keep our talks private.”
Jinghua smiled. She would have worthy assistants to help her in the coming years. No, more likely partners. Man had become smarter over the years. Ashley, Sarah, and Mark were smarter than she was.
“What are we searching for if what changed us isn’t a plant?”
“Mother and twelve of my sisters, all of them were experienced in modifying plants and animals, lived here for five years. There should be other plants and animals that they modified in the area.”
With an attentive audience, Professor Tony Jacobson was describing the manmade features, which could still be seen on the cliff face. Sarah, Ashley, and Jinghua were standing back, conversing quietly in Mandarin.
“Mother had moved here with some of my sisters and their daughters to complete her research. This was the first time we had set up a home in this hemisphere. It was chosen so they would go unnoticed, but somehow, they were discovered. They radioed when they were attacked, but we could do nothing. All survived the attack, and the spacecraft was shot down. My brother Jesip led an attack on the downed ship, but we never heard what happened. We lost contact with Mother. A couple of months after the attack, I got a radio message from her. She was the only one left alive inside. They had been working on the backdoor tunnel to get out when poison gas spread throughout the living area. Mother was in the biological lab, so she wasn’t affected. She said her work was complete. I never heard from her again.”
“You never came to find out if anyone survived or if she had been successful.” Sarah didn’t understand why Jinghua never sought her mother’s life’s work.
“No, we expected other spacecraft to show up at any time, and we had no way to get here. We didn’t have the means to detect them in space, so we just continued our efforts to spread our knowledge so something would survive the next attack.” She knew both girls wondered why it had taken Jinghua thirteen thousand years to visit the area of the bunker and search out her mother’s last work. “When we finally realized there were no more attacks coming, things had changed. We had spread out so we couldn’t be easily attacked. Many had tried different methods to work with the people we were teaching. Many thought of themselves as superior to them, which led to their ruling over the people we were supposed to be helping. This caused arguments, but we were communicating by radio. Then we stopped hearing from some of our people. Time passed, and we grew farther and farther apart. Then the first fighting among us started. It grew until most of us were killed. By then, those who were left had learned to hide and guide those who lived only short lives.”
“Why?” Ashley’s face showed she was very confused.
“Omara said that now that the Earth Mother Jaia was dead, it was time for a man to lead. He blamed it all on Mother’s desire to make all like her. He said we were gods and were destined to rule over man. Of course, he was the one to rule over all of us. Others decided they were the ones to rule, even one of my sisters. I tried to stay out of it, but I was the eldest, and they all sought me as their wife.”
“How old are you?” Sarah realized Jinghua might be much older than they had thought.
“I lived for many years before we learned about numbers. It’s over fifteen thousand years since then. Mother was always driven to find out how she, her daughters, granddaughters, but not the sons, didn’t grow old. We traveled and learned from others and taught what we knew. Finally, Venusa had a son who didn’t grow old. By then, the father was dead, but we went back to his tribe and stayed many years with them, having children. When we had sufficient men who didn’t age, we left.”
“You had children with the sons of your sisters and nieces.” Ashley was aghast.
“I’ve had children with many men. None of Mother’s daughters aged. If the daughters and granddaughters had sons and daughters with the sons and grandsons, more of them didn’t age. We didn’t know of the problems of inbreeding. All of this led us to discovering what you now know as genetics. We just had to learn many things before we got to that point.”
They were quiet and just listened to Professor Debbie Winston, who had taken over from her husband. She was discussing the metal tube they had found by the bridge.
“Messenger tube for communicating with the farm system, which was set up to feed everyone.” Jinghua stopped and stared at the mountainside. “The farms were set up at a distance so they wouldn’t draw attention here. I wonder why no one survived from there.”
Debbie was talking about the area directly behind the bridge where the entrance had been buried in hundreds of tons of rock.
“No, the entrance would be about there.” Jinghua pointed to the right of the bridge. “There would be a false entrance directly behind the bridge, but the real one would be to the side. If you could get rid of the one large boulder, you could dig your way to the entrance. I could then show you how to open the door.”
The two girls looked at where Jinghua had pointed. The area had only the one boulder. They might be able to gain entrance before the snows came.
“Let’s go talk to Nathan and Ernie.” Sarah looked at Jinghua. “I’ll just tell them we wouldn’t have put the real entrance behind the bridge.”
“No, I want to see what’s in there. I need to be known so I can have access.” Jinghua started walking to where the SEALS and Marines were seated. They had learned most of what was being discussed while working here for the last few weeks.
“Commander Whitner, can we speak to you, Senior Chief Alvarez, and Captain Brenner? We think there may be a way to enter the bunker before winter sets in.” Ashley’s words got the attention of all the men.
“OK, what did you notice we didn’t in the weeks we were here?” Nathan wasn’t surprised that either of the girls might have noticed something they hadn’t.
“Oh, not us. Jinghua knows how they would have set it up. The real door would be to the right.”
“You have seen this type of fortification before?” Nathan Whitner looked at the older woman.
“Many times. I helped in the design and building of them, but not this one. I’m one of the ancients they mentioned earlier. My mother built this one to complete the research into the Young Again process you have been talking about.”
“So, you get old eventually.” Ernie Alvarez moved closer to the woman.
“No, she hides her youthfulness.” Jian Chang had been standing nearby as Jinghua and the girls talked. “That I had a young wife would be noticed.”
“I can soon keep with one husband as it is done now.” Jinghua looked fondly at Jian. “I have one who is worth staying with.”
Jian bowed to her. “I’m honored the Daughter of the Earth finds my company acceptable.” He had a smile on his face.
“Daughter of the Earth?” Nathan looked at Jinghua.
“Mother was known as Earth Mother Jaia. I’m probably her last surviving daughter.” She pointed towards the boulder, which would need to be removed. “Use explosives to remove that boulder. After you dig out the door, I’ll open it.” All of the military men had reacted automatically to the command voice. The tone of her voice was of someone who was very used to giving orders.
“We don’t keep the explosives here. We don’t know if the EMP weapon might set them off.” Ernie had stepped back from Jinghua.
“Dynamite and fuses won’t be a problem. I sent many people here to this new land. They build railroads using them all over this country.”
Ernie turned to look at where Ashley had pointed. He studied it for a few minutes. “We have the explosives down a gully near the cabin. There’s more than enough to move the boulder and a lot of the smaller stuff. Then the pick and shovel work will only take a couple of hours. How long ‘til we get sick? I don’t want my men to be stuck here like Mark was.”
“He was able to do things the next day but he felt like he had the flu by evening.” Sarah looked at Ashley. “We should start having people leave in the morning. Some may become sick sooner.”
“Yes, the search is no longer as important.” She turned to Jinghua and bowed. “Would the Daughter of the Earth tell us of what occurred which led Earth Mother Jaia to come here?”
Jinghua returned the bow. “This is a day I never expected. Two daughters of my mother’s spirit with whom I will work to spread her work. Also, two sons. Hopefully within the week there will be many more to join us.” She looked over at the crowd less than a hundred feet away. Many had noticed something was going on where Sarah and Ashley were. Jinghua was smiling. “I have only spoken with a few today, but I have known some for years. You have chosen well.” She turned back to Ashley and Sarah. “I will give everyone a brief outline of what had occurred to have Mother end her days here. More importantly, I’ll tell you of the conflicts which arose after we lost her guidance and who you face today.”
Debbie stopped talking, having noticed most of the audience was watching the three walking towards her. The SEALs and Marines followed them.
“Excuse me, Debbie, we have an announcement.” Ashley turned to the group and indicated Jinghua with her hand. “I would like you to meet the Daughter of the Earth. Her mother, Earth Mother Jaia, built this bunker with other members of her family. Jinghua, as we know her, stayed in the eastern hemisphere coordinating the work so people there could survive the expected attacks. She will tell us a very short version of what happened. We will then need to decide what we’ll do. One of the important things she has told us is how to get into the bunker, which we expect to do by tomorrow.” Ashley stepped back to let Jinghua speak.
“Ashley, how do you know she’s an ancient?” Marsha asked.
“Her disguise as an older person wasn’t planned to be able to hide her from someone with eidetic memory. When Julia and Romano told us, we needed to consider some of the Ancients might have survived. We realized one was here with us. She didn’t deny it. She sees us and what we expect you all to be in a week or two as the success of a project she helped her mother with for over two thousand years. But it is her story to tell, so let us hear what she has to tell us.” Ashley smiled at Jinghua.
“Ashley is correct. I worked many centuries with my mother to find out why we, the female members of our family, didn’t age and others did. When we started, we were members of a small group. The others died, but my mother, her daughters, and her daughter’s daughters didn’t age and die. We could be killed, but we were stronger, smarter, and the other things you have found out about Mark. We had sons, but they grew old and died. We had time to learn and remembered everything. We started to accumulate knowledge as the years passed. We traveled and lived with other groups. We shared what we learned and moved on. During all this time, we sought to understand why our sons aged and died but not our daughters. Soon, others sought us out for our knowledge. We found a place where we could put to use our new ideas. We progressed, grew, and spread out. In all that time, all our sons grew old and died, and then one of our wandering groups had a son who didn’t age. We went back to the group they had been with and had more sons. When our daughters had sons by these men, many of the sons didn’t age, but if the men had sons by other women, they aged. As we now know it, the X chromosomes I have are a non-dominant mutation. The men we later found had a non-dominant Y chromosome that allowed our X chromosomes to be dominant. We then had men to share our long lives with, but they didn’t share all of the advantages we had. They didn’t have eidetic memory. We found our lives with them weren’t as ideal as we had expected. Mother, with some of our sisters, continued the work to find out how we could fully share our gifts with others. I led other of our sisters in guiding our other efforts. Discontent among some of the men grew. My sisters and I had centuries of knowledge to base our decision on, while the men only remembered some of their long lives. We sought ways to help them, which turned out to help us also. Writing was developed along with mental exercises to help the men’s memory.” She hadn’t been interrupted. Everyone was held captive by her words. Centuries of practice had taught her how to take control of an audience. Well, not everyone. Mark had joined Ashley and Sarah. They were quietly communicating off to the side.
When they noticed Jinghua had stopped and was watching them, Mark waved for her to continue.
“Mother had learned how to manipulate genes, not the same as it’s now done, but very effectively.” She looked over at Professor Andrew Fire. “Andy, I have been tempted for a long time to make more suggestions than I have, but I found you and the other researchers were going in directions Mother had never thought of. We will need to talk later. It’s time for me to tell you about the little I learned. Remember, I wasn’t participating in the research, but Mother and I had long talks. The information will help you to understand what was done here.”
Andy Fire stood with his mouth open, looking at the woman he thought he had known so well. The couple of times she had offered suggestions, which had helped him when he had run into a problem, now made sense. That she had more knowledge, which she was now ready to share, had him excited.
“Jinghua, you should continue. I think you should wait to have the discussion on genetics. Tell us about the Destroyers.” Ashley knew the Stanford researchers would spend days getting every bit of information Jinghua knew. They would have to stop while they underwent the Young Again change. Afterwards, Jinghua would have to start over as the geneticists’ new improved memory and intelligence would lead to new questions.
“Mother was close to being able to pass on to others the abilities we had when we were attacked. A spacecraft landed in one of our villages and started to kill people. It was an outlying village with only a few of the long-lived. Most of the village was killed, but one of my daughters was able to get off a message to us about what happened. At the next three villages, the people ran and hid when the spacecraft approached. When the invaders searched, they lost people, which they never found. We learned of the weapons and other things they carried. We made our plans. At the fifth village, which they attacked, we were ready for them. We captured them and their spacecraft. We learned from their weapons and tools. Some of our daughters were assigned to guard them. We left them confined and didn’t restrict them in any other way. The guards listened to everything and learned their language, then we started the interrogations. The Hisphut searched for other beings and destroyed them. They are extremely xenophobic, but we never found out a reason for it. What we did learn was when they didn’t report back, more ships would be sent to look for them. The next attack occurred before we were fully ready. The ship we captured was destroyed where it sat in the village where it had been captured. We killed all of our prisoners so they wouldn’t know how much we knew. It took a while, but all but one ship was destroyed. That ship returned to report on what happened.”
“You didn’t capture any of the other ships?” Commander Nat Whitner was very interested in learning more about the attacks.
“They self-destructed.” Jinghua looked upset for the first time. “It would have made a big difference if we had captured them. The attacks continued for over two centuries. Slowly, they destroyed most of what we had built. Kinetic strikes from space with meteors were what changed the fighting. We had no defense against them. Luckily, they weren’t too bright. We never found out they came up with anything really new.”
“But your family did. You came up with new inventions, like the EMP weapon and your method of powering it over all this time. Why didn’t you build your own spaceship?” Mark, like everyone else, was attentively listening to Jinghua.
“Our technology wasn’t developed to build things like spaceships. We were trying to duplicate why we didn’t age. Before the first attack, we didn’t develop anything, which wasn’t related to Mother’s goal. After the first attack, we started looking into how to protect ourselves. Mother put me in charge. We planned and started work to make a ship like the one we had captured. Then the next fleet of ships came, and there was chaos. When the final ship came, we had scattered with plans to rebuild our numbers and develop new technology to fight the Destroyers. Mother had taken the best of her researchers and people to support them to a location where we had never previously lived. The last ship found them, and they all died, but the ship was brought down first. Since then, no other ships have come.”
“Why didn’t you rebuild?” Troy Stevens had met Jinghua a few times when he had attended Stanford events with his parents.
“With Mother gone, there were men who thought they should lead us. We had scattered across the land, but we had radio communications. There were arguments, but we weren’t together, so there were no big fights. We grew apart with each group going their own way. I tried to get them to be ready for the next attack. When one never came, fewer listened to me. Eventually, groups made contact, which often led to fighting. Soon, we had a few groups absorbing or killing the others. All but one of these groups was led by a man. Fighting grew. Soon, my sisters and I found the need to hide.”
“What is the current situation with the children of your mother?” Sheila felt what they had been told was mainly true but if nothing else would be biased by Jinghua’s perspective.
“I am the only daughter I know of who survived the recent attack. Omara, son of my sister, also survives. He has been killing the other children of my mother. I’m the last. The attacks by the North Koreans killed the few others who were still alive.”
Ashley could see the tears in Jinghua’s eyes. She embraced her and let her cry.
“Let us go back to the cabin.” Mark’s voice was soft, but it carried across the silent crowd.
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