Pacifican Capsule

Twenty-eight thousand years ago, a great earthquake destroyed the known world. During that time, the first primitive humans appeared from the rubble, reborn in the fires of destruction. Our eight-legged ancestors evolved inside underwater volcanoes. Over time, they lost all their legs, save the two we have today. At least, that’s what scientists believed, until now.

In the early morning of June 15, Jesse Hart of the Anthropological Researchers Guild led a team deep into the heart of Pacifica, the rain forest where the Pacific Ocean once rolled in prehistoric majesty. In the grueling noonday humidity, where pockmarked ships and ancient submarines rust beside the bones of a thousand sea monsters, he dug up a secret in the Nautilus Ruins.

“We’ve been studying these ruins for months,” says Jesse. “We didn’t expect to find anything so earth-shattering.”

The earth-shattering find is a silver capsule about the size of a trunk.

“We wasted no time in popping the capsule,” says Jesse. “Inside, we found laminated paper magazines full of what seemed to be human pictures. They had strangely painted faces, and clothing not much different from our own. Among other things were pens, pencils, what seemed to be hair pins, and silk scarves. The most fascinating was what we thought was copper money with a man’s head carved on one side. Who was he? What was he?”

A number on the copper piece reads 2020.

“Don’t get me wrong,” says Jesse, “but that’s exactly 28,000 years ago.”

Could the number really mean a year?

Professor Clark Lean, the leading scientist from the National Association of Natural and Space Science, or NANSS, has undergone an extensive search into the findings of this strange, unearthly capsule.

In an interview with him in his laboratory at NANSS, he stated, “Now all known science has been challenged in the wake of this new discovery. New questions have arisen. Where did our ancestors come from? What secrets lay in the rubble of 28,000 years ago?” He runs a hand over his sleek hair and gazes thoughtfully at the magazines from the capsule, which lie in a neat row on the table. His eyes rest on the picture of a strange animal, with a muzzle and lolling tongue. “Perhaps the most distressing and pressing matter is at hand. Are we alone in the universe? Could this capsule have come from beyond Earth?”

Professor Lean hopes to find life beyond our planet, and even make contact with those strangers who, for some reason or other, left the capsule for us to find. However daunting the task may be, Professor Lean is optimistic.

“Everything,” he says, “is changed because of the Pacifican Capsule, but that’s what we, as scientists, love: change, questions, challenges, and we are up to this challenge.”

Article by Janice Nolan, roving reporter for National Archeological Expeditions

The End

Copyright © by Julia Benally 2023

All rights reserved

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this work are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

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