I'm looking for a short story that involved:

• time travel;
• the search for the origins of humanity;
• an ancient enemy.

It was one of several short stories published in one of the monthly Amazing Stories that used to be popular so long ago (likely the 1970s for this particular tale).

The plot, inasmuch as I can recall, went along the following lines:

Historical anthropologists in the present use a time machine observe the very earliest homo sapiens. In their travels, they observe that although homo sapiens are obviously related to our cousins in the evolutionary tree — neanderthals and the like — homo sapiens do not appear until much closer to the present than previously thought. They seem to just appear in the timeline all of a sudden.

As the search continues for the point in time when homo sapiens makes their first appearance, the main character tries to understand why they would show up in suddenly in a rather short time frame compared to their evolutionary cousins.

The story ends when the main character realizes the obvious truth. Humanity did not evolve here. Humans were put here. A close friend of the main character reveals that it was all a test to see if homo sapiens could grow and evolve to discover and understand their own origins.

Our progenitors had been locked in eons of war with creatures that can be described as Lovecraftian &msash; immense monstrosities of unimaginable malice towards humans. It was a war our forebears were losing. They needed a way to wipe the slate clean, so to speak, and come up with a completely new source of strategies.

So they invented us. A small volunteer group of people had been stripped of everything, especially their memories. They were left on a fertile world with only the stone tools and basic implements to survive.

A small group of observers had also been planted on that world to document what happens. The main character's friend was the last of the observers. This observer was also immensely proud of humanity's ability to survive and innovate. In particular, they had been able to crack time travel, something the original species had never thought to try.

At the end of the story, the ancient enemy is out still there in the cosmos, waiting.

I'm looking for a short story that involved:

• time travel;
• the search for the origins of humanity;
• an ancient enemy.

It was one of several short stories published in one of the monthly Amazing Stories that used to be popular so long ago (the 1970s for this particular tale).

The plot, inasmuch as I can recall, went along the following lines:

Historical anthropologists in the present use a time machine observe the very earliest homo sapiens. In their travels, they observe that although Homo sapiens are obviously related to our cousins in the evolutionary tree — Neanderthals and the like — Homo sapiens do not appear until much closer to the present than previously thought. They seem to just appear in the timeline all of a sudden.

As the search continues for the point in time when Homo sapiens makes their first appearance, the main character tries to understand why they would show up in suddenly in a rather short time frame compared to their evolutionary cousins.

The story ends when the main character realizes the obvious truth. Humanity did not evolve here. Humans were put here. A close friend of the main character reveals that it was all a test to see if Homo sapiens could grow and evolve to discover and understand their own origins.

Our progenitors had been locked in eons of war with creatures that can be described as Lovecraftian — immense monstrosities of unimaginable malice towards humans. It was a war our forebears were losing. They needed a way to wipe the slate clean, so to speak, and come up with a completely new source of strategies.

So they invented us. A small volunteer group of people had been stripped of everything, especially their memories. They were left on a fertile world with only the stone tools and basic implements to survive.

A small group of observers had also been planted on that world to document what happens. The main character's friend was the last of the observers. This observer was also immensely proud of humanity's ability to survive and innovate. In particular, they had been able to crack time travel, something the original species had never thought to try.

At the end of the story, the ancient enemy is out still there in the cosmos, waiting.

I'm looking for a short story that involved time travel, looking for and finding the origins of mankind, and an Ancient Enemy. It was one of several short stories published in one of those monthly "Amazing Stories" that used to be popular so long ago (the '70s for this tale).

The plot, inasmuch as I can recall, followed along like this:

Contemporary researchers, Historical Anthropologists, are using a time machine to go back in time and observe the very earliest Homo Sapiens. In their travels, they observe that although HS is obviously related to our cousins in the evolutionary tree, Neanderthals and the like, HS aren't seen until much farther down the timeline than they should have been. And then they just appeared.

As the search continues for the point in time when HS makes their appearance, the main character tries to puzzle this all out. Come to some reason why HS would just show up in what (to the researchers) is a ridiculously short time frame compared to his evolutionary cousins. It's like one second HS isn't there and the next second they are.

The story ends when the main character realizes the obvious truth. Mankind didn't evolve here. Man was put here. A close friend of the main character reveals that it was all a test. To see if HS could grow and evolve to puzzle out and understand his own origins.

Our progenitors had been locked in an eons-long war with creatures that can only be described as Lovecraftian. Immense monstrosities of unimaginable malice towards "humankind'. It was a war our forebears were losing and they needed to find an answer. But they also recognized they needed fresh new thinking. that any answer they would come up with would only reflect the thinking and answers they have already tried. They needed a way to wipe the slate clean so to speak.

So they came up with us. A small volunteer group of people would be stripped of everything but most especially their memories. They would be left on a fertile world with only the barest minimum of stone tools and implements to survive. Left to their own devices. Left to forge their own path and see where it leads.

Only a small group of observers would be left to see what happens. The main character's friend was the last of their kind. But he was also immensely proud of all man has achieved, all through the ups and downs of history. We had been able to crack time travel, something they had never thought to try.

The Ancient Enemy was out there in the cosmos, waiting.

I'm looking for a short story that involved:

• time travel;
• the search for the origins of humanity;
• an ancient enemy.

It was one of several short stories published in one of the monthly Amazing Stories that used to be popular so long ago (likely the 1970s for this particular tale).

The plot, inasmuch as I can recall, went along the following lines:

Historical anthropologists in the present use a time machine observe the very earliest homo sapiens. In their travels, they observe that although homo sapiens are obviously related to our cousins in the evolutionary tree — neanderthals and the like — homo sapiens do not appear until much closer to the present than previously thought. They seem to just appear in the timeline all of a sudden.

As the search continues for the point in time when homo sapiens makes their first appearance, the main character tries to understand why they would show up in suddenly in a rather short time frame compared to their evolutionary cousins.

The story ends when the main character realizes the obvious truth. Humanity did not evolve here. Humans were put here. A close friend of the main character reveals that it was all a test to see if homo sapiens could grow and evolve to discover and understand their own origins.

Our progenitors had been locked in eons of war with creatures that can be described as Lovecraftian &msash; immense monstrosities of unimaginable malice towards humans. It was a war our forebears were losing. They needed a way to wipe the slate clean, so to speak, and come up with a completely new source of strategies.

So they invented us. A small volunteer group of people had been stripped of everything, especially their memories. They were left on a fertile world with only the stone tools and basic implements to survive.

A small group of observers had also been planted on that world to document what happens. The main character's friend was the last of the observers. This observer was also immensely proud of humanity's ability to survive and innovate. In particular, they had been able to crack time travel, something the original species had never thought to try.

At the end of the story, the ancient enemy is out still there in the cosmos, waiting.