Footprints at White Sands

Ancient footprints at White Sands

The anniversary of the first explosion of an atomic bomb is coming up next month. The Trinity Test happened at White Sands on July 16, 1945. A new movie about it, Oppenheimer, is set to premier July 21. Recent archaeological finds tell us White Sands may have been the site of North America’s first human culture. Footprints discovered there could be 10,000 to 20,000 years old. This would mean that our first culture appeared in the same place as our latest (we hope not our last), the Nuclear Age culture. With this in mind, I penned the following, a fictional piece for Billion Worlds.

The beast rose on its hind legs, opened its mouth, stuck out its tongue, and stared threateningly at Ko, who squeezed her daughter Ai more tightly in the crook of her arm. Ko pointed at the monster and told Ai to look.

"Make your mouth like the libo's. Open your mouth in a circle, stick out your tongue, and then look closely at its eyes." Ai did, and so did Ko. The libo –a giant ground sloth – shut its mouth. Ko and Ai laughed as the libo let its front legs fall to the ground and moved away.

"We should get back," Ko said, her feet slipping slightly on the soggy ground as she turned. Ko's people would soon light the fire, eat, and sing their stories. Ko patted her stomach with her free hand at the thought of eating. Food was plentiful. With its shrubby trees and bushes, the endless grassland attracted plant-eaters like the sloth and the mammoth. The nearby lakes and marshes also provided an endless variety of tasty water creatures.

As she approached the high ground of home, she saw that the fire was far from ready. Several elders were gathered around the shaman, her late husband's brother. Something's up, thought Ko. The shaman held something in his hands that had the focus of all in the circle. Ko quickened her pace. She was missing out. "Come on, Ai," she said.

Her uncle turned and looked at Ko and Ai as they approached, gesturing for the circle of women and men to part and make way for them. He nodded in greeting and offered the rock in his hands to Ko. "I had a dream," he said. Ko smiled. Her uncle was famous for his dreams.

"What is this, Uncle?"

"A strange stone. Not from here but found here."

"A stone?" She took it in her hands and then almost dropped it. The greenish, glassy rock was warm to the touch. She let out a breath. "What is this?"

"My dream told me you could find the answer to that."

"Me?" The stone weighed less than it should for its size. She tossed it up like a ball and caught it with her other hand. "Has it been in a fire? Why is it warm?"

"The heat belongs to it."

"So, what am I supposed to do?" Ko asked. "How can I find the answer you want?"

Her uncle paused and looked down at the ground like he didn't want to answer the question. "The spirit in the dream said you will take it north from here. To a place near the Shadow Mountains. You will find an answer there." Ko could tell there was more to it than that. She waited for him to continue. "You are to leave tonight and get there before tomorrow's dawn."

Journey through the night to the Shadow Mountains? Ko was surprised. She was known for her boldness and swift feet, but her people seldom ventured out at night, which belonged to the saber-toothed cats, the dire wolves, and other predators. She studied the looks on the faces of the others nearby and saw that they agreed with the shaman. Behind them, the sun had set. The pinks and blues of its goodbye were already fading from the sky.

Ko looked down at Ai, who reached to take the stone from her. She let her hold it, but she frowned and put it back in Ko's hand. She didn't like it. Ko's sister Uno came close and picked up Ai. "We'll watch Ai," she said as others appeared with a small pack of essentials for Ko's journey. They are anxious for me to begin, she thought. Ko tucked the stone into the skin bag and secured the pouch to her waist with a braided rope. She put her arms around Ai and Uno. "I'll be back soon," she said.

Turning to the north, Ko rubbed her hands along the bottoms of her bare feet and then set off at an even, rhythmic pace. She felt the eyes of her people on her as she retreated into the night and glided along the more solid ground between the marshes and shallow lakes. There was no bounce to Ko's gait, and as she ran, she pulled the stone with ease from her little pack. It had the eerie green-grey look of frozen marsh water. Had some unknown magic made this? Was it a natural part of the world people had never seen?

Ko's path would take her along the Mammoth Mountains’ eastern flank and ultimately through the lush pass that divided the Mammoths from the dark Shadow Mountains. Glancing at the sky above, Ko looked down the length of the Great Sky River. It seemed to be going to the same place she was.

Ko traveled far without encountering other creatures. But, after several hours, she sensed a presence behind her, something matching her speed. Likely a big cat taking the measure of her vulnerability. Tigers didn't like to work hard for food; so plentiful was prey that predators didn't have to struggle for it. Ko's pace and stamina were signs of strength. Sure enough, the presence soon vanished, and Ko once again felt alone in the night.

After midnight, the half-moon rose in the sky and cast a silver shine on the green leaves of the chaparral and juniper. Ko had run for hours without a break, so she stopped by a little lake and pulled some berries from her pouch. Mountains of ice, which once covered this land, had left the lakes and marshes behind as they retreated to the north. Ko scooped the cool water from the pond and sipped it slowly, savoring its slightly salty taste.

Back on her feet, Ko sped away into the night. She had not traveled far before finding herself in an unfamiliar landscape. The land seemed to dry out before her, the spongy ground she knew well turning to thirsty sand. The narrow valley between the Mammoth and Shadow Mountains had been thick with brush and trees. Now it was barren. How could this have happened? Ko quickened her pace. The ground grew harder and harder the farther she ran. I'm not lost. I've been here before. But it has changed, she thought.

Soon, Ko noticed a strange glow. Was it a fire reflected in the dusty air? The light's source was many miles away, and she ran on. She soon came upon a village of tents and buildings made of wood. Lights shone within, and people moved about inside and outside.

Ko decided to avoid contact with these strangers and took a path to the east, still aiming at the mysterious light. After some time, she came upon another structure. It was an earthen mound of a type she'd never seen. Ko kept going.

When she grew close to the strange light's source, what she saw made no sense to her. Lights floated in the air with a constant glow, unlike the light of a fire. A tall figure stood at the center. Atop it was a round head wrapped in what she took to be braided rope. Ko had a thought. Maybe she could intimidate the beast as she and Ai had intimidated the sloth. She made a circle of her mouth like the libo's and stuck out her tongue.

She was still holding the pose when a noise like that made by a devil wind swept over her from behind. She turned to see several creatures racing toward her at an impossible speed, each with two glowing eyes. The creatures encircled her, training their bright eyes on her. Squinting against the violent light but still letting her tongue loll from her open mouth, Ko saw men tumble from atop each beast.

Robert Oppenheimer approached the girl, raising his eyebrows at her expression. She was sticking her tongue out at them. Ko stood still, closing her mouth. Several men stood around her. Perhaps these men could answer the shaman's question about the strange stone. She pulled it from her pouch and held it out to them. As she did, another beast arrived, and a burly man leaped from it and ran toward her, stopping next to the tall, skinny fellow who had first approached.

Somehow, General Leslie Groves and the others at Base Camp had missed seeing the fleet-footed girl in the animal skin dress run by them. Chemist Thomas Hornig spotted her from South 10,000, the control bunker for the world's first test of an atomic bomb, scheduled this morning at the Trinity Site, White Sands, New Mexico, 1945.

Oppenheimer, Groves, and the others saw her hold something toward them. A small rock. Oppenheimer moved forward and lifted it gently from her palm. It was warm to the touch. He shuddered and loped back to his jeep, reaching for the Geiger counter. The stone was radioactive. How could that be? Oppenheimer looked back at the young woman. She seemed undaunted by the scene. Who was this Indian woman, and how had she come by a radioactive rock at White Sands before the test? And why did the rock look so much like fused glass?

Many feared the explosion of an atomic bomb might set the world ablaze or set the atmosphere afire. Had this woman brought some kind of warning? But how? The test had not yet happened.

Meanwhile, Groves was agitated. The test was to take place in moments, and timing was critical. Above him, the bomb waited at the top of the tower. The delay was unacceptable. He took a breath. The general looked at the girl, started to speak, and then stopped. He smiled and gestured, palms up, arms open, then turned and pointed at his jeep. Ko understood. They wanted her to go with them. She needed to learn about the stone. She would go.

The jeeps took all of them back to Base Camp. They look so worried. Have I frightened them? Ko thought. She sat on the ground in one of the tents. Maybe I'll seem less dangerous this way. A man handed her a cup of water, which she was happy to have.

In the main Base Camp building, Oppenheimer focused on the stone Ko brought them. Sand melted into glass at 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat of a nuclear explosion might be double or triple that. Then there was the radiation. Oppenheimer made up his mind. If this rock was a sign that the bomb’s destruction could be as bad as his nightmare’s had it, they'd have to investigate further before proceeding with the Trinity test. Groves, in charge of operations, would not be happy.

Before Oppenheimer could locate Groves, Thomas Hornig brought him an idea. The chemist Willard Libby, who'd been working on the bomb from his lab in Chicago, was on site. He'd come to witness the test. "Libby has a new project. It's called radiocarbon dating. He says he can date objects even thousands of years old. Why don't we have him test the rock? He could tell us if it's old, or maybe it's, uh, of recent creation." Hornig shared other fears of the bomb's unknown potential.

Oppenheimer liked the idea. "Why don't we test the woman's clothing while we're at it? It looks recently made, so it might be a kind of control, testing her provenance against the age of the rock."

While Oppenheimer was getting Groves' approval for the plan, Hertog approached Ko and explained what they wanted using a series of hand gestures and facial expressions. Ko thought these were the strangest people she'd ever encountered, but she made a cutting sign with her hand. Hertog unfolded his pocket knife and handed it to her. She cut a piece of hide from the end of her dress and gave it to him.

Ko refused to leave while they waited on Libby to finish his tests, so they gave her a pallet in a small U.S. Army pup tent. Ko used her time exploring the valley and the Shadow Mountains to the east. Some of her people believed this was haunted ground, and the peculiar people she'd met here wouldn't be out of place in some of those tales.

It took Libby two days to assemble his equipment and test the samples. Hornig found Ko and brought her to Libby's briefing. She deserved to be there. It was clear from his stricken face that Libby wasn't happy with the outcomes of his tests. Groves signaled for him to begin.

"What I'm about to say is crazy, I know. I've only begun experimenting with this new radiocarbon process, and you might be skeptical when you hear what I've found," Libby said.

"Get on with it," said Groves.

Libby held up the piece of Ko's garment. "The dress is between 11,000 and 15,000 years old." Everyone looked at Ko. This wasn't possible. The animal skin was so new it was still a little stiff in places.

"Is this a joke?" said an angry Groves.

"Those are the results," said Libby.

"And what about the stone?" asked Oppenheimer.

"Well, it's composed of quartz, calcite, feldspar, and a few other minerals. It was cooked by temperatures in excess of 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit."

"God," said Oppenheimer.

"It is of such a recent provenance that I can't accurately measure its age. But, as I study it, it's like it was made yesterday."

That drew gasps and a few nervous chuckles from the crowded room.

Oppenheimer lifted his hat and ran his palm over his hair. The tests brought no answers. How had a radioactive rock been created yesterday if the bomb which could have made it had not yet exploded? And how had the stone come into the possession of a young woman who may be 11,000 years old?

He tried to tell himself the story another way. Eleven thousand years ago, indigenous people here found a radioactive rock made far in their future that somehow traveled backward in time to their present. A young woman among them then traveled forward through time and brought it back to us, warning perhaps that the detonation of a nuclear bomb might turn the world into green, glassy rock. Oppenheimer shook his head. Bad science fiction, he thought. And yet the rock was radioactive and its creation likely tied to the bomb, or something like the bomb.

The room had exploded with shouts and exclamations among the scientists and military men. Ko had never heard such a racket, but she assumed none liked what Libby told them about her dress or the stone. She decided to slip away for home. She had a tale that might satisfy her people even if the rock remained a mystery.

Moisture returned to the ground as she ran through the narrow valley between the mountains. Soon she was among the marshes and lakes. A great mammoth and its youngster followed her playfully for a bit. Closer to home, she once again encountered the giant ground sloth. It rose and stuck its tongue out. She stuck hers out in response.

The shaman greeted her as she arrived among her people. "Where have you been?" he asked. Before she could answer, her sister ran up with Ai in her arms. Ko wrapped her arms around both of them. "I asked you, where have you been?" said her uncle.

"I took the rock you found to the strangest place I've ever been," Ko said.

"What rock?" said the shaman.