The Descent

'Who says  they  didn't?' asked Ali. She  went  on  studying  the  statues.  'What  intrigues me  is  how  flexed  the  cranial  base  is.  And  how  straight  the  jaws  are.  Remember  that head Ike  brought in? The  skull fit differently  on  the  neck.  I  distinctly  remember  that. It  extended  forward, like a chimp's. And the jaw had a pronounced thrust  forward.'

'I saw that, too,' Troy  said. 'Are you thinking what I am?'

'Reversal?'

'Exactly. I mean, possibly.' Troy  opened his hands. 'I mean, I don't know, Ali.'

In  lay  terms,  a  straight  jaw  –  orthognathicism  –  was  an  evolutionary  climb  above the  more  primitive  trait  of  a  jutting  jaw.  Anthropology  did  not  deal  in  terms   of evolutionary  ascent,  however,  any  more  than  it  recognized  evolutionary  decline.  A straight  jaw  was  called  a  'derived'  trait.  Like  all  traits,  it  expressed  an  adaptation  to environmental pressures.  But evolutionary pressures  were  in  constant  flux,  and  could lead to new traits  that sometimes  resembled  primitive  ones.  This  was  called  reversal. Reversal  was not a going backward, but rather  a seeming to do so.  It  was  not  a  return to  the  primitive  trait,  but  a  new  derived  trait  that  mimicked  the  primitive  trait.  In this  case  the  hadals  had  evolved  a  straight  jaw  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  years  ago, as  seen  on  these  statues,  but  had  apparently  derived  a  jutting  jaw  that  was  highly simian  and  primitive  in  its  look.  For  whatever  reason,  H.  hadalis  seemed  to  be  in reversal.

For  Ali,  the  significance  lay  in  what  this  meant  to  hadal  speech  and  cognition.  A straight jaw provided a wider range of consonants, and an erect  neck-skull structure  – basicranial  flexion  –  meant  a  lower  larynx  or  voice  box,  and  that  meant  more  vowel range. The  fact that fifteen-thousand-year-old  hadal  statues  had  straight  jaws  and  an erect  head,  and  Ike's  trophy  head  did  not,  suggested  problems  with  modern  hadal speech,   and  possibly   with  his   cognition.   Ali   remembered   Troy's   remarks   about symmetry  in  the  hadal  brain,  too.  What  if  subterranean   conditions  had  evolved Haddie  from  a  creature  capable  of  sculpting  this  fortress,  firing  these  terra-cotta warriors, and plying the sea and rivers,  into a virtual  beast?  Ike  had  said  hadals  could no longer read hadal script. What if they  had lost their ability to reason? What  if  Satan was  nothing  more  than  a  savage  cretin?  What  if  the  Gitners  and  Spurriers  of  the world were  right, and H. hadalis deserved  no better  treatment  than a vicious dog? Troy  was  troubled.  'How  could  they  reverse  so  quickly,  though?  Call  it  twenty thousand years.  That's  not time enough for such a pronounced evolution, is it?'

'I can't explain  it,'  Ali  said.  'But  don't  forget,  evolution  is  an  answer  to  environment, and  look  at   the   environment.   Radioactive   rock.   Chemical  gases.   Electromagnetic surges. Gravitational anomalies. Who knows? Simple inbreeding may  be to blame.'

Ike  was just ahead with Ruiz and Pia, examining three  figures waving  swords  of  fire, looking  them  in  the  face  as  if  checking  his  own  identity.  'Is  something  wrong?'  Ali asked.

'They're  not like this anymore,' Ike  said. 'They're  similar, but they've  changed.' Ali and Troy  looked at each other.

'How do  you  mean?'  Ali  thought  he  would  speak  to  some  of  the  physical  differences she and Troy  had noticed.

Ike  raised  his  hands  to  the  entire  tableaux.  'Look  at  this.  This  is  –  this  was  – greatness.  Magnificence. In all my  time among them, there  was never  any hint of that. Magnificence? Never.'

They  spent  the  rest  of  the  first  day  and  the  next  exploring.  Flowstone  oozed  from doorways,  collapsing  sections.  Deeper  in,  they  found  a  wealth  of  relics,  most  of  them human. There  were  ancient coins from Stygia  and  Crete  mixed  with  American  buffalo

nickels  and  Spanish  doubloons  minted  in  Mexico   City.   They   found  Coke   bottles, Japanese baseball cards, and a  flintlock.  There  were  books  written  in  dead  languages, a set  of samurai  armor,  an  Incan  mirror,  and,  beneath  that,  figurines  and  clay  tablets and bone carvings  from  civilizations  long  forgotten.  One  of  their  strangest  discoveries was  an  armillary,  a  Renaissance-era  teaching  device  with  metal  spheres  inside  one another  to  depict  planetary  revolutions.  'What  in  God's  name  is  a  hadal  doing  with something like this?' Ruiz wanted to know.