by Ian Stewart
He said it so blithely. Intelligent life in the Sun.? It was impossible to take it in. Only Moses seemed to accept the statement at face value. "I wouldn't want to shake hands with one," said Prudence, in a failed attempt at levity. "What happened, exactly?"
"History is a bottomless well into which many questions may be thrown but few answers splash out. At this point our theories become somewhat speculative."
"At this point?" said Charles, sounding for a moment like the old Sir Charles. Then he pulled himself together. "Sorry—I can't believe this."
"Bear with me," the Cuckoo said. "In the beginning, I was of a similar opinion. But as I meditated, I saw mystery after mystery falling into place. Ice, for instance. The Moon's store of ice at the poles, our lunar installations depend on it. The puzzle is that there seems to be too much ice.
"It is believed that water was deposited on the Moon long
ago by icy asteroids during the phase in which the Solar System was aggregating by bombardment. Ice that could be touched by the rays of the Sun evaporated, but in deep crater shadows at the poles, the Sun could never penetrate. So there, ice survived. But today there is much more ice than could have been created by such a process."
"So?"
"So, Prudence, some other process must have put it there. We have compiled a chain of evidence and conjecture, and it all points to one explanation. At some point in pre-Egyptian times, when there was a flourishing technologically advanced civilization, the Jovians tossed a small comet at the Earth, in their usual manner. The pre-Egyptians sent up a spacecraft and blew the comet to tiny pieces, perhaps with nuclear weapons. Many of the pieces hit the Earths upper atmosphere, where friction turned them into harmless water vapor. Others formed a celestial blizzard that draped the Moon in ice. But again, only ice that lay near the poles would survive evaporation by the heat of the Sun.
"Conceivably, part of the comet remained intact, and the pre-Egyptians' action diverted it into the Sun. By then, plasmoids galaxy-wide were aware that nonplasma life-forms could exist and might be responsible for incoming projectiles. So the Y-ra'i decided to teach the Earth a lesson. Possibly they flamed part of the land with a concentrated solar flare, or . . . But perhaps that is taking the inscription too literally Myth and legend change with the telling, and unrelated events are often conflated."
"But surely traces of such an advanced civilization would have survived," said Charles.
"Charlie, if our own civilization had existed twenty thousand years ago and suddenly lost its powers, you wouldn't have a snow cone in hell's chance of telling it was ever there," said Prudence.
"Save, perhaps, for a few artifacts on the Moon," the Cuckoo amended.
"Where there's no erosion to speak of. Right ..."
Charles could no longer restrain himself. "Pru, you're not buying this load of nonsense, are you? It's riddled with holes! This guy's a mystic, not a scientist! He's been softening us up for weeks . . . meditation with the village monks, a spiritual pilgrimage ending on a mountaintop . . . The neo-Zen Buddhists have cobbled together a pile of unrelated puzzles and obscure bits of Jovian rubbish that are probably their equivalent of a fantascience novel, and come up with this incredible tale!"
"Charles, you can't mean that! You were there when Halfholder and Moses touched] I saw your face! Don't tell me that was mystical rubbish."
"Well ..."
The Cuckoo leaned forward. "Charles Dunsmoore: you are a good man and your instincts are justified. The story that I have told is indeed little more than conjecture, and until a short time ago I myself would have applauded your outburst. Who knows how accurate the tale told by this tablet is? However, I have been in touch with the new Jovian authorities, and events are now in train that have certainly changed my mind. I suspect they will change yours."
Once more the lights dimmed. A wallscreen came to life, shovvdng a portion of the Sun's surface, dimmed by filters. It was unclear whether it was live, recorded, or a computer reconstruction. The dark iris of a sunspot dominated the foreground. Strange granular patterns flowed across the red dome, and in the background they could see the ragged arc of a solar prominence.
"This was filmed earlier today from our lunar base," said the Cuckoo. "It is speeded up fiftyfold. Watch closely"
Part of the sunspot's surface began to bulge; its color changed from dark red to electric lavender. A perfect circular ring of
lavender light emerged from the sunspot and climbed skyward. Moments later, a second followed it. Within a few minutes— no more than two hours real time—a string of several dozen identical lavender rings were rising from the Sun, in line astern, like a succession of smoke rings blown by a very accurate smoker.
"What in the name of. . ." Charles's voice trailed away He couldn't remember what name he was intending to invoke.
"The Jovians have whistled," said the Cuckoo. "The magne-totori that had been stabled in the Sun have heard, and they are coming home."
23
Europatown, 2231
Eight years had passed since the Cuckoo's revelations, and much had changed.
The base on Europa had grown beyond all recognition. Now there was a thriving human township. The old prefabricated huts and inflatable domes were still standing, but the most fashionable housing was fabricated from slabs of impermeable, lightweight, rigid material grown on the Jovian cities according to human specifications and hauled into orbit with wheeler gravitic technology. It was wonderful for heat insulation on the icy moon. There were hundreds of buildings, public and private, all linked by airtight tunnels—offices, sleeping quarters, 'node centers— even a swimming pool. All around the edge of the town human machinery and wheelers were clearing the ground for further building work. Europa Base had become Europatov^m, and business was booming. Almost every day, a new building was completed.
A steady stream of spacecraft brought new people to swell the ranks of what was fast becoming Earth's biggest extraterrestrial colony along with new materials, new demands, and new problems. One area had been turned into an informal market, and it would be only a matter of time before somebody decided that Europatown ought to have a mayor and put himself or herself forward as a candidate.
There were still a lot of bridges to build—not engineering ones, but cultural. The Earths narrow escape from the comet had cost millions of lives; the damage, both to buildings and to the ecology, had been immense. A vocal minority was still campaigning for retaliation, but its membership was fast declining. Most of Earth's population thought the Bomb the Blimp movement was nuts, if only for the self-serving reason that it is unv^se to attack an enemy that can fling comets at you. In general, people had accepted that the approach of the Death Comet had been a terrible mistake, and most of them were prepared to wipe the slate clean—though maybe not to forgive . . . and certainly not to forget.
The Jovians, too, had much to come to terms with. The stagnation of the Elders had given way to the Era of the Sky divers. Most were still estivating, as befits such a long-lived species. By the time they woke up, Secondhome would have changed beyond all recognition. Except, oddly enough, for lo. The Jovians wanted their moon back: it had been an important part of their cometary defenses, and there was no reason to let a good moon go to waste. Volcanically hyperactive but still intact, lo was careering erratically away from the Solar System in an unpredictable orbit. It would stay unpredictable until its volcanic activity died down, and the Jovians had no intention of waiting that long. So groups of wheeler specialists were already gearing up to recapture the satellite and install new Diversion Engines.
Human political attitudes were in ferment. For many years to come, Europatown would have to import its resources from Earth and Jupiter, and its inhabitants were working very hard to convince both worlds that it would be in their continuing interest to support its activities. Earth's businesses were falling over each other to do just that: it was obvious that there was much to gain by developing links with the aliens, and a lot to lose by n
ot doing so. Already the benefits were starting to flow in as Earth and Belter scientists extracted new technologies from the Jovian archives. Antigravity beams would revolutionize lunar transportation, but there were less obvious applications. A small repulsion beam could create vertical wind shear in tropical zones and break up incipient hurricanes, for instance. Earth's more influential politicians quickly saw the way opinion was turning, and most of them aligned themselves behind it, isolating the lunatic fringe. There were plenty of xenophobic hate sites on the X, but opinions posted to Special Interest Groups were running in favor of human/blimp relations by about five to one.
Ignoring innumerable offers of lucrative positions and sponsorship deals back on Earth, Charles and Prudence had returned directly from New Tibet to Europa, helping to develop the growing interaction between humans and Jovians. Their relationship had blossomed as they worked together on things they both believed in. Moses had stayed with them, dashing Charity's hopes yet again. His abilities as an interpreter were indispensable, and when it came to the crunch nothing on Earth could compete with his beloved blimps, not even his mother. Most of Skylarks scientists had found the attractions of an extraterrestrial civilization impossible to resist, and had set up semi-permanent homes at Europa Base. The rest had made the slow journey back to Earth aboard the returning Skylark. With them were Bailey, Cash, and Jonas, whose W film of Tiglath-Pilesefs epic first contact, transmitted back to Earth within hours of the comet's passage, had made them instant celebrities worldwide. Jonas had seen how things were developing between Charles and Prudence and had known it was time to move on.
Moses had changed beyond all recognition. Now in his early twenties, he was poised and confident. He no longer observed the world from behind a poker face. He remained quiet and self-sufficient—but he had come to terms with his lost childhood. His ability to read people's body language no longer left him feeling confused; instead, it was turning him into a formidable politician. His intuition for animals and aliens remained uncanny. A worldwide search was on for others like him: so far, two candidates had been found.
A lot of things had happened to change Charles's mind since the sunspot had spat out a string of tame magnetotori, surfing the solar wind toward Jupiter.
With hindsight, a lot of things were obvious. For example, Jupiter's moons . . .
Before the loss of lo, there had been sixteen moons. They came in four sets of four, each with very distinct characteristics. From the center out:
Metis, Adrastea, Amalthea, and Thebe. Diminutive. None of them more than 160 miles across. Odd shapes, typically that of a potato. Orbital distances between 80,000 and 140,000 miles. Orbital inclination: zero. Eccentricity: zero.
lo, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto. All between 1,950 and 3,300 miles in diameter. Spherical. Each selenologically unique. Orbital distances between 260,000 and 1,180,000 miles. Orbital inclination: zero. Eccentricity: zero.
Leda, Nimalia, Lysithea, Elara. None more than 110 miles across. Orbital distances virtually identical: 7,170,000 miles. Orbital inclination: virtually identical, a massive 28 degrees. Eccentricity: about 0.15.
Ananke, Carme, Pasiphae, Sinope. None more than 23 miles across. Orbital distances virtually identical: 14,000,000 miles. Orbital inclination: virtually identical, a ridiculous 150 degrees. Eccentricity: between 0.17 and 0.41.
The whole setup was totally artificial. Why had nobody noticed? When the aliens arrived at Jupiter, they had reconfigured the moons to suit their own purposes. Moons five through eight were the heart of the setup, the Inner Moons where the Diversion Engines held sway. The two sets of moons nine through twelve and thirteen through sixteen were asteroids, snared from the Belt to provide a convenient supply of raw materials ... especially metal for the Jovians' offcast wheelers. Although metal atoms formed a tiny proportion of Jupiter's atmosphere, the atmosphere was huge, so the total amount of metals was pretty big. And they were concentrated biologically anyway. The eight outer moons were a kind of reserve supply. Their odd orbital geometry made it easier to convey material down to the central gas giant. The long axis of the orbits of moons nine through twelve fitted almost exactly into the short axis of moons thirteen through sixteen, making for easy transfers
What about the Innermost Moons, one through four?
They were rather interesting. Put it this way: where had the Jovians concealed their interstellar ships? They used magnetotori for propulsion, yes—but a Jovian could not live in a magneto-torus. Where were the life-support systems?
On moons one through four. The Jovians had brought them. More accurately, they had brought the Jovians.
Beneath their apparently normal surfaces, the Innermost Moons were mazes of tunnels and caverns, the closest thing to a city that could be fashioned from the dead rock of an asteroid. They had formed the magnetotori's payload, transported from Firsthome with the blimps and everything they owned secreted inside them. There, they were safe from radiation—especially that generated by the magnetotori—and meteor impacts.
Now, wheeler constructs were crawling all over the largest of the Innermost Moons: Amalthea. They were reweaving the tightly fitting nets of metal cable that would allow the magnetotori to grip them in their magnetic jaws. Somewhere beneath the millions of miles of cable were complexes of caves that had been modified for human-style life support. Deep inside an Amalthean crater, Tiglath-Pileser was tethered.
Blimps and humans were joining forces to create an ambitious interstellar expedition. Why? Because the Way of the Wholesome had convinced them that it was vital to the future of both races.
Charles's mind went back to the Cuckoo and their moun-taintop encounter ...
"What you need to understand," said the Cuckoo, "is that the plasmoids are not what is important."
Even Prudence had found that hard to accept. "Don't be silly, Mkha'-gro! First you tell us that there are creatures who live in our Sun and control whether we live or die; then you say they're not important?"
"No, Prudence—I say that there is something that is more important. Charles: I believe that during the last few days before the passage of the comet, you concluded that the Elders were lying to you?"
"How did you—oh, Buddhist spies. Absolutely. That's one reason why I agreed with Prudence that we had to switch our efforts to the sky divers."
"Then you will perhaps not be pleased to be informed that everything the Elders told you was true."
"Nonsense. Their records referred to events that happened forty billion years ago!"
"Those records are accurate."
"But that's nearly three times older than the Big Bang!"
"That is what our scientists tell us, yes."
"And the alien records also said that there had been life on Jupiter when the blimps arrived—which would have been okay, but ... it was compatible with their own kind of life."
"Which you considered highly improbable?"
"Impossible. Evolution doesn't work like that."
The Cuckoo had risen to his feet, blue robes billowing around him, unfit for wearing in zero gee. "Then perhaps you can explain to me the fragment of diatom shell that your own task force discovered on Europa."
"How did you know about—" Charles had collected his thoughts. "Look, I know you had some of your guys on the Skylark, but that discovery was eyes-only. Nobody knew about it except me and Frederica Sunesson, and I don't believe she was neo-Zen."
The Cuckoo said nothing. There was nothing to be said.
'Treddy? I was out of my depth all along, wasn't I? And I thought I was a smart operator! Look, we couldn't tell anyone about it because it had to be contamination. Someone brought it on their clothing."
"Did you get it dated?"
"Of course not. It wasn't relevant to our mission."
The Cuckoo sighed. "You make so many assumptions. We have dated the diatom. Its age is sixty-five million years."
"What?"
"Several Martian meteorites have been found on Earth, mostly in the Antarct
ic. Splashed off the planet's surface by an incoming rock. Go back sixty-five million years, to the K/T meteorite that destroyed the dinosaurs. It smashed into the Gulf of Mexico at Chicxulub, coastal Yucatan. Big splash, some of the water goes into orbit. . . Diatoms in the droplets . . .
"Billions on the Moon, almost certainly . . . but very thinly spread, no one would ever find one except by pure luck. Some made it to Europa. Sunesson got lucky."
"Shit."
"Now, tell me: what is the core belief of the skydivers?"
Moses knew that one. "Lifesoul Cherisher. Cometary impacts are good for the Jovian ecology."
"Correct. Why?"
"Religious beliefs don't have to have rational reasons," Charles pointed out.
"This is not a religious belief. There is a rational reason. It explains much." The Cuckoo saw that he must spell it out for them. "The life cycle of most of the Jovian flora and fauna goes through a sporulation stage, the nanogametes, yes? They produce them by the trillion, all the time—the atmosphere is a thin nanogametic soup. So what happens when a comet hits? What happened on Mars? On Earth?"
Oh, my dear lord. "A splash."
"Exactly And nanogametes splash along with the atmosphere, and they float off into the cosmos. Do you know how long a Jovian spore can survive in a vacuum?" Blank faces. "Indefinitely That is its preferred environment."
Now Charles began to get the picture. "So cometary impacts spread the Jovian spores all over the galaxy . . . Oh, hell. The fauna on Firsthome and the indigenous fauna on Jupiter both came from the same source. Endless tiny spores floating through the interstellar void. Whenever they encounter a suitable world—bingo! Life!"
"And it's the same hfe," Prudence realized.
"To begin with, yes," the Cuckoo told her. "But life, once established, evolves separately in each environment. The skydivers thought that impacts were good for Jovian life—more diversity. That is true. But the real reason is deeper, and far more ancient. They tapped into a racial memory.