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This explains why no remains of modern humans have been found from that era in Northern Europe. Few remains of the Neanderthals who were pushed into the frozen tundra were ever found either, due to scavenging from wolves and other carnivores, and the grinding action of ice on the stone upon which the advancing glaciers crept forward.
    “Not until modern times did examination of the ‘record of the rocks’ give an idea of the age of our planet by studying the layers of geological strata. In widespread digs, but on a smaller scale, archeologists excavated the layers of dirt and debris of cave floors north of the Alps. Deposited during this period of change, using radiocarbon techniques in the deepest layers, dated most recently to around 40,000 years, signs of the vanquished Neanderthals were found. But not for ten thousand years of strata would traces of modern humans, Homo sapiens , be uncovered.
    “First discovered in a large cave in southwestern France, these are known as Cro-Magnon man, or EEMH, European Early Modern Humans. Traces of the descendants of the Martian invaders were finally found, but only when their presence was betrayed by their final immersion in belief in their adopted world. Over the millennia, most began to substitute burial for cremation. No longer would they give up their dead to the sky, or to whatever planet became the subject for their reverence.
    “It was then that an evolving belief in an afterlife, as expressed in later cave paintings and ornaments, began. With burial in the now-revered soil of their second home, it became the custom to inter their worldly effects with them. It was this plentitude of artifacts, technically advanced over those of the Neanderthals, outlasting the bones of their makers, that ultimately drew attention to the beginnings of this new race of humans.”
    The End
     
    She put the paperback down, absently holding her little pendant and reflecting on what she had written. To her, the story remained fascinating. It was science fiction, no doubt about that. It also occurred to her that she was in love with the story. She realized that she had created a fantasy, yet she reveled at the prospect of discovering the secrets of such a landing site. What could be revealed? The possibilities were endless, from commercial to military. But she cared only about the science, the anthropology, and the furthering of humankind’s knowledge of its own origins.
    All she needed was confirmation of her theory, a seemingly impossible undertaking. But she was an optimist. Somehow she would find the appropriate location and also a sponsor for the anthropological dig she envisioned.
     

FOUR
     
    The Satellite
     
    In 1957 a super-secret satellite was launched through a partnership between the Army and a consortium of large American oil companies. The key to the accomplishment was enlisting the aid of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, in Pasadena, California.
    At that time, the Navy was encountering repeated problems with its own rocket, the Vanguard, in the race that was ultimately won by the Soviet Union's successful orbital placement of Sputnik. Competing with the Navy, the Army had quietly developed a reliable ballistic missile, the Redstone, under the direction of Werner von Braun, employing the technology he had developed during World War II with the Nazi V-2 missile that had so bedeviled London. There was only one problem: the Redstone didn’t have enough power to put a payload into orbit.
    Scientists at the JPL came up with the fuel that could boost the Redstone to orbital velocity. Working with the Buell Tool Corporation, they also achieved another technical breakthrough, a satellite that could record and transmit back infrared, magnetic and nuclear radiation data emanating from the earth’s crust. This achievement promised to revolutionize exploration for subterranean fossil fuel and mineral deposits.
    While the Government was busy in the space race with the Soviets, Big Oil