Baba.
A/N: This was born from a current fascination of mine. I'm interested in the genetic study going on at the moment to track humanity's migration across the globe, the National Geographic Genographic Project.
Lifeline looked up at the two films on the light board with intense scrutiny. He'd recently received the DNA scan results of all the personnel stationed at the new PIT, and two of them had jumped out at him with their striking similarities. He was currently studying the base DNA scans when he decided to pull out the films for the mitochondrial DNA scans of the two individuals. Setting them up on the next light board over, he flicked the switch that turned the light on and his jaw dropped. He knew that the two had a common ethnic background. It appeared that they also had a common ancestral one as well.
"What's up Lifeline," a woman said as she entered the Infirmary. Carla Greer was the niece and goddaughter of the JOE's late medic Doc. She had been given his codename as a way to honour her beloved uncle. "You still memorising those things?"
He looked over to her and smiled. "Hey Doc," he greeted. "Come and look at these and tell me what you see," he asked as he turned off the second light board.
Doc shrugged and wandered over to look at the films. "That one's male and the other's female," she stated. The clip holding the film in place covered up the names of the individuals whose scans she was looking at.
"Besides the obvious," Lifeline chuckled. "I want you to look closely and tell me if you notice anything…and no I don't mean what they're carriers for and whatnot."
"The big picture?" Doc asked and he nodded. "I have to admit, I'm not as good as you at studying these things," she said as she scrutinised the two films for a few moments before something caught her eye. "Whoa wait a minute…"
"Uh-huh," Lifeline encouraged.
"They have a lot of markers in common on their Mommas' side."
"You noticed," he smirked. "These are their mitochondrial scans," he added, turning the second light board on again. Doc's jaw dropped when she saw the scans.
"They're cousins! Really distant cousins, but cousins none the less," Doc stated.
"Not as distant as you might think," Lifeline said and he pointed out a few markers on the base scans. "These were introduced, at most about seven hundred fifty to one thousand years ago. Whoever their common ancestor was, she was born after that introduction."
"Are you going to tell them?" Doc asked.
"Yep, because I'm curious to find out just how closely related they are," he replied. "Most of those markers you noticed are rare. And for two people, who until now, we thought were completely unrelated to each other? I have to confess, I want to know more."
An hour later Lifeline had Steeler and Vorona seated before him at his desk. Doc was leaning against the wall scrutinising the two to look for any family resemblance. She had to admit, that if you saw them and didn't know who they were, they could easily be mistaken for family. Both had blonde hair and blue almond shaped eyes. Her training in forensic identification helped her spot the traces of Asiatic influence in their features, which she surmised had come from the fact that both of their families were from the same region in Europe. The one the Mongols liked to vacation in, as Lifeline had joked about the Mongol invasions into Europe.
"I'm up to date on everything," Steeler muttered as he glared at the two doctors.
"As am I," Vorona added more politely than her teammate.
"That's not what this is about," Lifeline grinned. "As you know we had to get detailed DNA scans of everyone, in the event of…" he trailed off.
"I already know about my family history of haemophilia," Steeler said.
"Again, not the reason you're both here," Lifeline winked.
"So what is the reason then?" Vorona asked, leaning on the desk.
"We simplified your scans down to your key genetic markers…the things we'd look for, for an ID," Doc said. She turned on the light board behind her to highlight the simplified films. "Ignore the left hand columns," she added.
"Wait…they're similar…on the right," Vorona said after a moment.
"They are?" Steeler asked. "I can't see anything."
"They are very similar. It was that similarity that caught my attention in the first place when I was memorising the scans," Lifeline replied. "Now we also had mitochondrial DNA scans done just in case a base DNA scan doesn't give us results in the identification process…God willing we'll never have to use them." He went on to explain what mitochondrial DNA was and how it was passed only through the maternal lineage of a person's family.
"Like he said, hopefully we'll never have to use this information to ID remains," Doc said as she lit up a second light board. "But if you two ever vanished and we had to resort to mitochondrial DNA…we're screwed."
"Mitochondrial DNA isn't as precise as your base DNA is," Lifeline added. Doc slid the two films together so that the dashes lined up.
"Okay…even I can see that they're identical," Steeler murmured.
"So what does this mean?" Vorona asked.
"You two share a very recent maternal ancestor," Doc stated.
"How recent?" Steeler and Vorona both asked.
"At the very most about a thousand years ago, but I'm willing to wager that she was more recent than that. No new mutations have occurred to differentiate you two," Lifeline replied. "I'd like your permission to send copies of your scans to a friend of mine who works in genetic genealogy. He'd be able to give me a more precise guess."
The two looked to each other before looking back at Doc and Lifeline.
"Hell yeah, go for it," Steeler said.
"Please do," Vorona agreed. "We have talked before and know that our families are from very close to each other," she added. Doc and Lifeline both raised their eyebrows in surprise.
"My mom's family is from just on the other side of the Czech border in Slovakia," Steeler added. My aunt and one of my cousins went there a few years back to work on the family tree, and they based themselves in Ostrava, where she's from," he added, jerking his thumb at the former Oktober Guardswoman.
"When did your family immigrate to the States?" Doc asked Steeler.
"Between 1893 and 1921," he replied. "Dad's side came over a little earlier from Poland."
Lifeline reached into his desk for two vials and asked if Steeler and Vorona would provide a cheek swab in the event that his friend would want to run his own scans. They gladly accepted and soon the swabs were placed with the scans and sent off to be studied.
"I'll have to take you next year to Ostrava for family reunion," Vorona chuckled as she and Steeler left the Infirmary.
"Heh, mine's coming up this summer in Pittsburgh," Steeler said. "Wanna come Czechova?"
"You always call me Czechova," Vorona scolded playfully.
"Daughter of the Czechs…duh." She smacked his arm and the pair laughed.
It took Lifeline's friend three months to send the results back. When he and Doc looked at them they burst out laughing in surprise. Steeler and Vorona were called back in to go over the results. The two ethnic Slavs were anxious to hear the results.
"Next to Duke and Falcon, the Smith twins, and the Libby siblings…you two are the two most closely related people on base," Doc grinned.
"How close?" Vorona asked.
"Ten to fifteen generations back, give or take," Lifeline replied. "You both have the same great, great, etcetera Maternal Grandmother who lived sometime in the sixteen or seventeen hundreds."
"I'll be right back," Vorona stated as she bolted out of her chair and ran from the Infirmary. Doc and Lifeline shared a confused look while Steeler dug out his cell phone.
"Can I have a pen and some paper," he asked. Lifeline handed the items over. "Thanks! Excuse me for a sec," he apologised as he called his parent's home.
"Hey sis, I need a favour. You know that family tree Aunt Irene worked on for years? Can you get it out; I need some info from it." Steeler waved his hand in a hurry up motion as he waited for his sister to find the document. "Got it? Perfect! How far back does it go? 1653…eesh, okay." Steeler then asked his sister to go in a direct line from her to as far back as it could go in a straight line. "From you to Mom, to her mom, and so on," he instructed. "Oh really? Perfect! Okay give me the names and year of birth of those women, from mother to daughter…starting with the earliest and go on until you reach the 1800's," he said and began scribbling down the names and year of birth.
"And they say doctors have bad handwriting," Doc muttered as she tried to decipher the scribbles Steeler was making. Lifeline just laughed.
"Okay thanks Mary," Steeler said suddenly as he finished his list. "Yeah it's that DNA thing I was telling yins about. Yeah…okay cool. Oh hey? How many generations back is that? Great! I'll call ya back later. Uh-huh…bye!" He snapped his phone closed and put it away. "Sorry about that," he grinned.
"No problem Hon," Doc assured him.
"Okay got it!" Vorona called from the door as she hurried back into the Infirmary. "My family history going back to 1378," she proudly exclaimed, placing a large folder down in front of her.
Steeler showed her the list he had and she opened the folder to the section from the 1600's in her family tree. "She's the furthest back at fifteen generations," he said pointing the first name on the list born in 1653.
"I have her!" Vorona stated. "And her…and her. This is so exciting," she grinned as she compared the two lists of names. "This one is the same. These two are different," she said suddenly. "This is Baba," she grinned, pointing to an ancestor born in May of 1764.
"Baba?" Lifeline asked.
"Slavic for Grandmother," Steeler replied, looking at the name in awe. "Mara Rifnoskova, she was born almost exactly two hundred years before me," he murmured, committing the name to memory.
"Oh," Vorona said, suddenly sounding sad. "She was only twenty seven when she died," she added as she looked at the page. "Oh…that's why."
"What's why?" Steeler asked.
"Her fourth child and only son was born on the day she died," Vorona explained.
Doc shrugged. "Pregnancy and childbirth isn't exactly the safest thing a woman can endure even today. Back then, it was almost a death sentence." Vorona muttered something under her breath in Czech and Steeler winced having understood most of it. Lifeline gave him a puzzled look and the tanker mouthed 'Don't ask'. Doc looked between the two men before shaking her head. "So how many generations back is Mara?" she asked. The two quickly counted.
"Nine, from me back to her," Vorona replied.
"Yeah same here. Nine generations back."
Lifeline tapped at his desk in thought for a moment. "What's wrong?" Doc asked, knowing that he was suddenly frustrated.
"Mike, my friend the geneticist, has had three cases like this," he said. "He's even found half siblings, who had both been given up for adoption at birth by their mother. One of those ultra secretive type deals too."
"So, this is case number four," Steeler said. "So what's the problem?"
"You two are the first ones that can actually provide a name…hell a life history of the common ancestor. The siblings I mentioned can't even find their own place of birth," the doctor sighed.
"And the problem is…?" Vorona asked again.
"Mike will want to publish this," Lifeline answered. "Every time he publishes about a match, business picks up. This research is not cheap by any stretch of the imagination."
"Ah. And we're top secret military organisation…ja, gotcha," Vorona nodded.
"He also states in the letter he sent, that he's going to be in the area next week for a conference and he's dying to meet you two," Lifeline added.
"Maybe if we ask that he say; two people who wish to remain anonymous find common ancestor?" Vorona suggested.
"Mike would be willing to make the compromise," Lifeline agreed. Removing his glasses and pinching the bridge of his nose, Lifeline came to a decision. "Let me ask Hawk and see what he says."
Hawk had not only consented to the meeting, he also consented to letting the geneticist use the first names and hometowns of Vorona and Steeler for his report. The general had been as astounded as his two doctors at the discovery of two distant cousins on his team and suggested to his troops that anyone interested in aiding the geneticist's research was more than welcome to. Mike's lab had signed an exclusive contract to randomly test populations around the world to study the migration of humanity across the globe. The geneticist was thrilled at the diversity of the JOE team. Several of the volunteers weren't at all surprised with their results, where others were completely astounded.
The one conclusion that they had all come to rather quickly though, was that despite their many differences, the people of the world were all related to some degree, a realisation that Vorona and Steeler had quickly made after the initial discovery of their close common ties. It had sobered their excitement a little when they realised that the first time they had met, they were political enemies. Hawk was surprised to see that the results of the studies on the JOE team's ancestry had given his team even more of a resolve to end the senseless conflicts that raged around the world. The geneticist also said that he'd submit drafts of his report on the two cousins for approval before publishing it. The first copy that he sent had gotten that approval.
Mara's Grandchildren.
By Dr Mike Casey.
Mara Adamic (nee Rifnoskova) was born on May 15th, 1764 in what is now Ostrava in the Czech Republic. Mara's family were the prominent landowners of the region at that time and as a duchess, Mara lived an easier life than the peasants that worked her family's fields. At the age of 16, Mara was married to another prominent landowner Karel Adamic, who was 31 at the time of the marriage. Mara gave Karel three daughters, Anezka (1782), Sveta (1785), and Jenka (1787). On October 23rd in 1791, Mara died giving birth to her only son, Patek. She was only 27. By 1840, their holdings stripped from them by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Mara's grandchildren would become the peasants that worked their ancestral fields. Two centuries after Mara's death, DNA samples from two people, born half a world apart would be analysed as part of our project and Mara's story would be learned.
Daina was born in Ostrava like Mara. Ralph was born to a family of Polish and Slovak heritage in Pittsburgh PA. The two had met and become friends through work, but it would be nearly two decades before they learned that they had much more in common than just their ethnic backgrounds. Our analysis showed that Daina and Ralph share a fairly recent common maternal ancestor some ten to fifteen generations ago. Both Daina and Ralph had detailed family trees and were able to trace back nine generations to their common ancestor, Mara Adamic. Daina is descended from Mara's eldest daughter Anezka, and Ralph is the descendant of Jenka, Mara's youngest daughter. Knowing what they know now, the two friends refer to Mara as 'Baba', a Slavic word meaning Grandmother.
Mara Adamic would never know, nor could she possibly even have dreamed how empires, conflicts, politics, and migration would affect her grandchildren and beyond. She most certainly never dreamed that over two centuries after her birth, that two of those descendants would end up working together and becoming friends. Daina and Ralph like to think that Mara would be pleased at how modern science has reunited some of her descendants, who lovingly refer to her as Grandmother in their native tongue. Other members from both families have since met and are enjoying learning about each other and staying in contact. We have even heard that a family reunion is in the works, in Ostrava where their Baba lived.
FIN