A Martian Named Eve

So many eons ago when our sun was a bright blue star, it was so much hotter then. Earth back then was much like Venus is today--a planet hostile to life--its atmosphere filled with noxious gases that no living thing could breathe.

However, the fourth planet from the sun was just right and teaming with life. This was the golden age of Mars!

Although, Mars was still a harsh planet to live on. Food and water has always been scarce. Only creatures that were highly intelligent could survive. Most species on Mars stood erect and walked on two rather than four legs. This allowed their forelimbs to be free to make tools and technology that would enable them to survive on such a harsh planet.

Given these conditions, the most intelligent technological species eventually superseded all the rest. These were the Atlanteans, an upright, hairless race that in many ways resembled modern humans.

For several eons these Martians lived in relative comfort. But all good things must end. The sun slowly but surely faded into the yellow sun we know today. The Martian rivers and oceans dried up. The global magnetic field that protected Martian life from cosmic radiation was no more.

The Martians were dying. The billions teaming the planet had been reduced to a mere 140, 000 souls living in bio-domes. It was only a question of time before they were doomed also.

The third planet from the sun, Earth, was now teaming with its own strains of life. Unlike Mars, however, there was an abundance of food and water. Many earth creatures moved on four legs rather than two, and did not need a highly developed brain to survive.

So why didn't the Martians move to Earth? Well, they tried that but the microbes of Earth did not agree with them. In fact, there were billions of microbial species on Earth that did not agree with them. For this reason, vaccination was a joke. Even if vaccines could be generated for each and every microbe species, by the time that happened, the microbes would have had sufficient time to mutate--rendering the "cures" moot.

The bottom line was that Martians were safer living on Mars even though their extinction was imminent.

What Happened at the Meeting on Mars

Martian 1: My fellow Atlanteans, I think it is obvious at this point we are a race doomed to extinction.

Martian 2: Yes, I agree. Say, can we switch to telepathic communication? I have laryngitis--a disease I brought back from my reconnaissance of Earth.

Martian 1: Sure, no problem...oops!...I mean sure, no problem. Can you read my thoughts?

Martian 2:Loud and clear! Here's what I think (pardon the pun) we should do to solve our survival problem: we should splice our genes with the primate species that live on Earth. That way the offspring will have our high intelligence combined with the primates' immunity to the Earth microbes.

Martian 1:Good thinking! (Pardon the pun-ark! ark!) We shall use the GOD--Genetic Ordering Device

Martian 2:They'll have the best of both worlds!

Martians 1 and 2: Ark! ark! ark! ark!.......

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Now you know where that worldly expression came from.

Anyway, the Martians set their course to Africa, Earth--the navel of our world--or Environmentally Decent Earth Navel (EDEN) around 200, 000 years ago and used the GOD to splice their genes with different species of primates. As time went by, the Homo habilis, Homo erectus and Neanderthal strains became extinct partly due to their Martian genetic configuration that made them more vulnerable to diseases, and partly as a result of Global Warming.

There was one hybrid species, however, where the GOD created the ideal combination of Martian and primate genes: Homo sapiens. From a single male and female pair, the entire human race was spawned. Impossible, you say?

Here is an excerpt from http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761566394_10/Human_Evolution.html:

"MtDNA research into modern human origins has produced two major findings. First, the entire amount of variation in mtDNA across human populations is small in comparison with that of other animal species. This means that all human mtDNA originated from a single ancestral lineage-specifically, a single female-fairly recently and has been mutating ever since. Most estimates of the mutation rate of mtDNA suggest that this female ancestor lived about 200,000 years ago .In addition, the mtDNA of African populations varies more than that of peoples in other continents. This suggests that the mtDNA of African populations has changed for a longer time than it has in populations of any other region, and that all living people inherited their mtDNA from one woman in Africa, who is sometimes called the Mitochondrial Eve. Some geneticists and anthropologists have concluded from this evidence that modern humans originated in a small population in Africa and spread from there. "

OK, how about the Martians? Did they really exist? Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_on_Mars:

"In March 2004, NASA announced that its rover Opportunity had discovered evidence that Mars was, in the ancient past, a wet planet. This had raised hopes that evidence of past life might be found on the planet today."

Now that you know this story is not totally out of this world (pardon the pun), let me continue.

To do the gene splicing and to protect against microbes, the Martians built a bio-dome. Being Atlanteans from Mars, they naturally called their new habitat Atlantis. Yes, you guessed it, they were responsible for the legend of Atlantis and many other myths, legends, cults and religions.

It has always been believed that Atlantis was an island, but it was not an island in the literal sense of the word; it was an isolated bio-dome in the midst of a sea of African jungle. That is why it has never been located by modern archaeologists.

Atlantis did not sink beneath the sea as they assume, but rather the microbes, malaria in particular, eventually penetrated the bio-dome and the Martians were sunk--get it?

All their records, unfortunately, were electronic, and someone forgot to press the "save" button. As a result, the Martians' vast libraries of knowledge were lost for all times. Heck, they may as well be underwater. Hence the legend of Atlantis.

Before the Martians went under (pardon the pun again), they would occasionally suit up and take trips forward in time in their Unified Flying Oval (UFO) to check on our future progress. Naturally, these trips had to be discreet and they could not, under any circumstances, risk making contact with us--if they caught so much as a common cold it would kill them.

Don't tell anyone I told you, but one UFO crashed in Area 51. The three Martians on that mission died of a stuffy nose--not from the crash. It was a major cover-up!

In conclusion, Eve was not a full-blooded Martian, but a human being. However, "A Human Being Named Eve" just isn't a catchy title.

WP