Species 796 Subset K was just a dream for Darvis of the Nephilite planetary experiment group and Darvis had endlessly heard about the wonders of Species 796 E. Argonis had bragged about Subset E endlessly and nobody had wanted to hear about Subset K. His lab in the arctic region of the planning had been underfunded again. The endless jokes about Darvis breeding a polar bear with Subset D to make Subset K were far from funny. So back from the funding meeting back to the subarctic station and how to make Subset K a reality. He had the means but the funding was lacking and thus unless some miracle occurred Darvis' Subset K would not become the reality he'd hoped for.
Joanne Mertz was pumped. In her tight fitting gym outfit she was lifting weights and raring to go. Her paper on the Denisovians had just been submitted and she was determined the time stream project would accept her to go back and discover the cultural/genetic origins of the Denisovians. It was a long shot really and most of the research had focused on the Neanderthals and the recent evidence that they had interbred with modern humans. A shower in the gym and then back to the school to check a few things. Her hair was dirty blond and she had sharp green eyes from her Scandinavian mother.
Walking into the Northern Central State College Joanne checked her paper first to see if the Prof had graded it or if the people from the time stream project had received her project. It was and that was all Joanne needed to leave and run off to home. Two weeks later Joanne received a letter from the Time Stream Project...she'd been rejected and her competitor Tasha had been accepted to study Neanderthals and further named the head of the project to explore ancient people in Northern Europe. Fuming Joanne called the Time Stream Coordinator and asked about her project.
Luisa Adams listened as Joanne ranted and raved about how the Denisovians were important too and how the opportunity to study them was unique.
"Now look Joanne I do understand how much this means to you but Tasha and her studies were moved to the front of the line as soon as we realized that they are directly in line with humanity's ancestral DNA. You can probably go when Tasha gets back or after we hear from her in a couple weeks."
The weeks passed and nobody heard anything from Tasha. A few speculated she was dead but nobody wanted to go to her site due to the danger inherent to traveling. A month passed and nobody had heard back from Tasha. After six months passed she was declared lost and the Time Stream then had an opening to send someone else back.
Joanne resubmitted her painfully long application and waited until one January day she was notified by email that her Time Stream Application was approved.
The day of the time travel Joanne put the warmest outfit on that she could and stepped into the time stream. The ripping sensation and odd disintegrating feeling left Joanne feeling disoriented as she found herself on a grassy plain. Her GPS and star coordinate finder assured her that she was in Siberia near a cave system where Denisovian remains had been found.
The plains were eerily silent and it took her about an hour to find the caves. Stealthily she slipped into the caves from an upper entry point she'd found in modern times. The inside of the cave however was drastically different. The bottom half contained a hut with what appeared to be an energy field around it. A silver module was perched on a ledge down and across from where Joanne croached. A strange blue light glowed out the windows and it looked to Joanne to be a modern construct.
Someone ELSE had been approved and Louisa had LIED to her about them being here. Joanne was furious and fuming mad. She maneuvered down to the ledge and walked up to the structure and pounded on the door. How dare they try to USURP her research! She would rip them a new one and they would never forget Joanne Merts.
Darvis was sitting in his research room looking defeatedly at his specs for Subset K. Despite all his Many efforts he'd not convinced them to give him more funding, to lend them the Subset F or even one measly egg for breeding. Oh no the Ardex team got all the funding and a monopoly on the Subset F and what did he get?