A different Flesh

By Harry Turtledove

Synopsis:

How would we treat our cousin, Neanderthal man, if he were alive today?

In this alternate history, bands of Homo erectus had crossed the Siberian land bridges to America, but no modern humans made the same trip later. The world where sims (the European settlers' name for Homo erectus) rather than Indians live is different from ours. North America would have been easier for Europeans to settle than it was in our history, where the Indians were strong enough to slow if not to stop the expansion. The presence of sims, intel igent beings, but different from and less than us, shaped European thought.

Those Sims were enough like us to be very useful, different enough from us to be exploited with minimal guilt, and too weak to resist effectively for themselves.

The urge to treat them better would have to come from the ranks of humanity, and to compete against the many reasons, some of them arguably valid, for continuing exploitation.

This is the story of Europeans conquoring the New World, and the story of the Sims as theyy move from slavery to true humanity.

This is a work of fiction. Al the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

Copyright O 1988 by Harry Turtledove

copyright 01988 by Nightfal , Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Book Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale, NY

10471

ISBN: 0-671-876224

Cover art by Kevin Murphy

First Baen printing, September 1994

Distributed by Simon & Schuster 1230 Avenue of the Americas NewYork, NY

10020

WHEN TWO ORGANISMS overlap too closely in a single environmental niche, they compete. It may not be purposeful, the organisms may not have the kind of brains that will make anything at al purposeful, but they will compete just the same. They will try to use the same habitats; live on the same food; and it is very likely that one will prove a bit more efficient than the other. The stronger will beat off, damage, or kill the weaker; the better hunter or forager will leave the poorer to starve.