Diamond Moon

by B K Gallagher

  “And the fissure was oriented in which direction?” he asked.

  “It was pointed directly this way. If it continues to grow it will come right towards us. It was very big, you could fit the Grand Canyon into it, I’m sure,” she said.

  Hanson nodded in approval, and Julian sent a worried look toward Dr. Aman.

  “It was very wide,” Mara continued. “I don’t have a good estimate. It’s hard to gauge anything on that landscape. If I had to guess, I’d say it was over five kilometers, at least. It disappeared over the horizon. No telling how long it is,” Mara continued. “We’ll need to get the orbiter to help us determine.”

  “By my imagery I estimate the fissure is three-hundred kilometers or more at this point,” Luis answered. “And growing.”

  “Would you say you could determine the cause of the fissure?” Julian asked. “Did it appear to be caused by the drilling?”

  “That’s hard to say,” Hanson answered. “We see cracks in asteroids from time to time, but always small, localized. Never like this.”

  “The good news is that there hasn’t been another quake in a few days now, and we don’t think there will be another for at least a couple more,” Julian said.

  Mara looked confused, but excited to hear the news.

  “We will explain why we think that in a minute,” Dr. Aman said, ending the line of talk. “Now, I’d like to tell you what we are finding about the creatures and how it might relate to the fissure,” he continued.

  Luis interrupted them. “If we are done talking about the fissure, I am going to get back to the latest orbital images,” he said. “I can let you know if anything has changed.”

  “Very well, Luis,” Dr. Aman answered, sending him away. Dr. Aman then turned to Mara and Hanson. “Let us begin with what I have found medically since you have been away,” Dr. Aman said. “There is a lot to go over,” he said, and he shuffled some of his papers around the table.

  Mara took a bite of food. “We can eat, then?”

  “Yes, Mara, please, both of you. First, it is good to have you out of quarantine. We will get to that in a minute. Julian and I have been running a lot of tests on the samples, and this may be a bit hard to believe. But… the organic substance you brought to me; the fluid from the specimen… if you want to call it that.” He waited patiently for Mara’s full attention while she took a bite and swallowed it.

  “That substance has regenerative qualities, as you witnessed,” he said. “The animals with that particular enzyme within their bodies… it is as if it can almost make them… immortal.”

  Mara nearly choked as her food went down. “What exactly do you mean by that?” she asked, and she coughed slightly.

  The doctor cleared his throat as he watched Mara struggling with her food. “These animals are highly evolved, as we discussed, and they are adapted to this extreme environment. There is no telling what they have been through just to survive here. We have volcanic activity, extreme temperatures, wild chemical changes, ice-quakes… they seem to take it with no outward suggestion of stress. They can rapidly heal… You witnessed that, and now we have seen it too. They do not appear to age. We cannot determine an age for any of your specimens. They are also perfectly identical in size and appearance; genetically identical… all of them, as if from the same origins. And, they are perfectly capable of fighting off any strand of bacteria or virus we have exposed them to. I have tested that myself,” he said.

  The doctor stood pensively, then shook his head in disbelief. “I have never seen something so evolutionarily advanced,” he told her. “It is an incredible example of the power of life to survive at all costs,” he stated.

  There was silence as Dr. Aman prepared to go on, shuffling some of his papers around. Mara contemplated the implications of their discoveries during the brief pause. She set her fork down waiting for more. Hanson followed her, discontinuing his meal.

  “Mara, there is something you will want to know,” he said.

  “Sure,” she answered.

  “I said these creatures seem to have regenerative qualities,

  correct?”

  Mara nodded.

  “My research suggests the regenerative qualities extend to Earth-based… extend to human tissue.”

  He paused to read her reaction, but Mara had a blank stare. “I mean, virtually any human tissue. I first tried it on the mice, of course. Seemed to work flawlessly. Then I tried it on human tissue samples. Same thing.” The doctor stopped again, giving her some time.

  Her reaction hadn’t changed.

  “Mara, could you please look at your thumb?”

  Mara looked at her hand, and she felt the bandage around her wound. She examined the wrappings, and the bloodstains still showed through the gauze. She lifted the tissue from the scar and the woven fabric peeled off her moist skin until her skin was revealed.

  The wound was healed. Mara tried to remember how long it had been, and how severe the cut was. She realized she had not felt it in at least a day or two. She had even traveled with Hanson to the fissure and her thumb had not been an issue the entire time. She realized that she hadn’t noticed it at all.

  She leaned back in her chair with her eyes fixated on her thumb. She knew they were opening the doors to one of the greatest discoveries in medicine.

  Hanson leaned toward her. “Something good,” he whispered.

  She turned her head toward him, unable to speak. Her mind was racing with the implications of what this could mean. This was going far beyond any expectations she had.

  “Tell me more about the tests,” she snapped. “You’ve witnessed this enzyme at work on mice and now my tissue? What else can it do?”

  “I do not know, but there is a lot more work to be done, a lot of discoveries await us still. We will be working hard to find some answers. Unfortunately, we are nearly out of the enzyme you collected. We will need another sample to continue,” he finished. “Now,” he said, changing his tone, “Julian would like to go over the rest with you.”

  Julian took a deep breath, and he began placing his charts and data before him. He stood up in front of a bank of monitors on the wall.

  “Mara, you may have hit on something before you left,” he said. “I need to know if you’ve had experience with any animals on Earth that are in tune with the geology there? Have you come across any examples, say, of animals that could predict earthquakes?”

  Mara hesitated as she remembered suggesting the creatures may have used flashing light signals to communicate geological information, possibly as a warning system.

  “Well,” she started. “There are loosely documented cases of animals doing unusual things before Earthquakes. They’ll round up their young and return them to a den. Birds will flock, frogs and salamanders will congregate, among other things. None of it is solidly proven or predictably observed.”

  “But there is some evidence, however circumstantial, that animals can read the geology of the Earth? I’m not just talking about the environment. I’m suggesting they are in tune with the planet somehow, its gravitational field, magnetic field, even the geology. Because I think what we are seeing here, with these creatures, suggests such a correlation.”

  “In what way? By reading the magnetic field? Birds do that…”

  “Not just that,” Julian cut her off. “I mean, they can understand the real-time geology of the moon,” Julian said. “Maybe not the entire moon… but we haven’t tested the limits of their sensitivity out to any distance yet. I do have a theory they are attuned to the tides. The gravitational pull from Jupiter and the other Jovian moons.”

  “I was right, then? The creatures can tell us something about when to expect the quakes?” Mara asked.

  “What we are finding is that the light signals given by these creatures seem in tune with what we see on the seismic sensors. We can watch it in real-time. There’s
a correlation.”

  Julian waited a moment in case there were questions, then he continued. “The behavior and sensory output of the animals is coordinated with the geological data. There just so happens to be hundreds of micro-tremors on a cycle of one-hundred and seventy-two hours or so. We can watch that on the sensors and see it in the light pulses,” he said. “Activity picks up and then falls around that period.” Julian paused, his eyes on Mara. “Do you know what one-hundred and seventy-two hours correlates to?”

  Mara nodded. “Ganymede,” she said.

  Julian smiled at her. “Correct. It matches the orbital period of Ganymede — largest moon of Jupiter, and third in orbit,” He pressed a button on a handheld controller and turned to the monitors on the wall. “Look here,” he said as he pointed to a short video graphic that was running a graphic loop.

  “Io, Europa, and Ganymede are each moons of Jupiter, and they are locked into an orbital resonance with each other. They revolve around Jupiter at regular intervals. For every time Io goes around, Europa goes around twice. For every time Europa goes around, Ganymede goes around twice,” he explained.

  The monitor showed a large sphere with the four smaller spheres spinning around it — the Galilean moons, as they were called. The three inner moons out of the four were highlighted. Mara watched them spinning around the screen, orbiting the larger sphere in the middle, and at regular intervals just as Julian was describing.

  “We knew about these resonances before, of course, but we didn’t know that they could be the source of so much tidal stress,” Julian continued.

  “The creatures seem to be able to predict the tides based on these resonances. We’ve been here long enough to see the pattern, and I’ve gone over this extensively with Luis. For each one of those periods there is an almost perfect corollary to the light emitted by the animals. I can likely even tell you when and where the next tremor will be just by their behavior. The creatures seem to be able to forecast them. Activity should pick back up in about forty-eight hours, and I believe we’ll get a warning if there is another one.”

  Mara took a hard chug from her cup of water. She realized being able to read the activity of the moon could be a lifesaving discovery. But it suggested a sensory adaption far beyond what any creature on Earth seemed to have.

  “I remember when I cut my finger,” she added. “The quake caused me to slip. The creatures were so bright just before… The light was coming through the seams at the doorway. Through the hinges” she said.

  “Yes. I’ve seen that, on a lesser scale of course. The good news is that the recent signals appear to be indicating a decline in activity. It tells us that we are safe, for now,” Julian said.

  “How certain? Is it that simple?”

  “I’m very confident. All based on the signals. And, of course, the orbital forces and gravitational tides between the moons. That’s why I am declaring us safe here, at least until the next alignment with Ganymede.”

  “Have you explained this to Mission?” Mara asked.

  “Affirmative,” Julian answered.

  “Then EUNICE can go back under?”

  “Yes. But we must be ready to leave if things change. You know how fast that can happen,” Dr. Aman reminded her. “If Julian sees a warning, we need to be ready to leave. We’ve requested the fuel supplies we need from the Zephyr, and we are anticipating the next passage of Ganymede to ramp things up. As of now we have about two days.”

  Mara nearly pushed aside her plate of food to get started on whatever work she could, but Dr. Aman motioned that he wanted to continue. “Mara, hold on, there is more,” he said, pointing her back into her seat.

  She stopped and sat down, surprised not to be finished.

  Julian postured in front of the room again, and he continued his presentation.

  “Look,” he started. “The structures we were seeing below are absolutely built by the creatures. We’ve confirmed it. They have the ability to produce diamond crystals through some sort of biological reaction.”

  “I was fairly certain of that from our samples,” Mara said. “Those structures are used for communication… I’m sure of it,” she added.

  “Yes. And it’s a complicated process to create them, requiring a huge expenditure of energy. It’s a special reaction called chemical vapor deposition. Scientists on Earth create diamonds this way artificially. Except, these creatures appear to do this underwater as part of their natural metabolic process.”

  Mara waited for more information, but Julian had remained quiet. “Diamond producing creatures,” she said. “Talk about the goose that laid the golden egg.”

  Julian laughed while Hanson and Dr. Aman seemed confused.

  “I am not familiar with that term,” Dr. Aman said.

  “It’s on old fairy-tale,” Mara told him. “It’s about a goose that could lay golden eggs. There was a poor farmer couple that discovered it in their barn. When they saw it laying the eggs, they assumed it must have a much larger chunk of gold inside. They foolishly killed it seeking the larger treasure, but of course they find out it’s just an ordinary goose once it’s dead.”

  “Interesting,” Dr. Aman said. “And you think these creatures may share a similar fate?”

  Mara shook her head. “If you found a golden egg under a goose, what would you do?” she asked.

  The scientists were all quiet while they contemplated the hypothetical situation.

  “Well, I would not kill the goose,” Dr. Aman finally replied. “I’d simply wait patiently for another egg.”

  Julian eagerly answered him. “I’d want to find out if the eggs were related to the diet, nutrition, or reproductive cycle of the goose. Then I’d look for any factors that would increase the frequency of the observed phenomenon. I’d also want to know how often and how many eggs to expect. Then I’d set up the ideal environment to recreate the observation as many times as possible.” He smiled amusingly at the rest of the team.

  Hanson chuckled at him. “Most miners I know won’t do any of that,” he said. “They’d steal the goose from you before you got that far,” he added.

  The room fell silent for a moment.

  Dr. Aman turned from Hanson, clearing his mind of the image. “Mara, there is more we need to go over,” he said to her. “You’ll want to hear this.”.

  “Sure,” she responded.

  “Julian?” Dr. Aman called.

  Julian stood again and began straightening his palm-printed shirt. He placed his glasses on his nose and pointed to the bank of monitors on the wall. He cleared his throat very softly as he raised the controller.

  “I’ve run an analysis of the diamond crystals in the system nearly continuously since we’ve had them,” he said. “The computers are still analyzing them, and they are, to put it simply, spectacularly complex. Somehow, these bugs, whatever they are, have created a library catalog of vast amounts of information,” he said. “And I’ll explain how…”

  Mara sat up, suddenly more interested.

  “Those bugs and the structures they build are responsible for the regenerative enzyme Dr. Aman described. We’ve run several of the crystals through analysis and the conclusion is clear. Those structures are… a recipe book. The creatures know how to manufacture that enzyme based on knowledge stored inside the crystals, among other things. They compose the diamond structures according to their current geological environment, as I described. They are then able to process the enzymes to achieve any desired effect; whatever it is that they need at the time. It’s completely reactionary to the geological information they are getting from the moon.”

  “Think of it like a survival guide. They produce the life-altering enzyme as they need it to counter their environment, and they can do it in real-time. All we need is some of the bugs and some of their diamonds. They do the rest, producing the enzyme naturally. They share the genetic recipes to counte
r their environment by storing the information in the crystals, and the light pulses send it out to the others… It’s beautifully simple, yet beautifully complex.”

  Julian stood still before the group, then shook his head while contemplating the discovery. He clicked another button. The entire bank of monitors in the room lit up as diagrammatic images of the crystals flashed onto the screens. There were rotating grids and three-dimensional representations of atomic molecules, among other images. They flashed on and off the monitors, each a representation of one of the samples of diamond crystal.

  “It will help to look at these crystalline structures represented here on the monitors,” he said. “This is an atomic-level view of the crystals.” He turned and gestured toward one of the monitors. “You can see the carbon atoms aligned in perfect rows, three-dimensionally. However, look right here.” He pointed to a spot on one of the screens. “There are pockets where the carbon atoms are missing; here, and here… In the place of carbon atoms at these locations is a nitrogen atom. The absence of a carbon atom here is called a nitrogen-vacancy and is used to create a binary data system, like a computer chip, or a processor. Only, in three dimensions, and at an atomic level, this arrangement is far more efficient and effective than anything we’ve ever seen that is man-made. These diamonds… they are unique in all of geology. Bio-digitized diamonds… That’s what I’m calling them.”

  “Each crystal is unique, and each gives instructions on how to produce an enzyme or genetic alteration that would assist in survival. Not only that, but the creatures can communicate this information through the light signals. They can send this information over vast distances and share the instructions to survive and thrive across the entire ocean floor. They share the enzymes, methods of healing and regeneration, and adaptations to changes in geology. And it all happens naturally, biologically…”

  Julian paused for just a moment, pushing his glasses up onto his nose again. “It’s remarkable,” he said. “Think about this… They communicate and share as a means of ensuring survival for all. We’ve uncovered an entirely unique way of driving evolution, something we’ve never even thought of or looked for.” He scratched his head and looked at the monitors, then turned back to his audience.