Fire with Fire, Second Edition

by Charles E Gannon

  ¶ » On a similar note, the leading voices in what is now calling itself the “convergent evolution” movement were somewhat muted in their response to Dussault’s findings. Professor Herve Sarsilla, the Llul Chair of Xenobiology at the University of Madrid, commented that, “Dr. Dussault’s findings are very interesting but do not in any way undermine the growing theoretical indicators and physical evidence that genetic structures and proteins roughly analogous to Earth’s double-stranded helix model are nature’s preferred biological control paradigm.”

  ¶ » When asked if most convergent evolutionists also attribute that “preferred biological control paradigm” to the influence of “intelligent design,” Sarsilla responded that, “Some certainly do; some certainly do not. We are not an official organization and therefore have neither the power nor the inclination to make matters of faith a prerequisite in expressing support for the theory of convergent evolution.”

  ¶ » When asked how, within the theoretical limits of convergent evolution, he would explain the existence of such xenobiologically disparate life forms as those found on 70 Ophiuchi B I, Dr. Sarsilla observed that, “This is not the first such exception we have found, of course. The flora and fauna of Tau Ceti II, while carbon-oxygen-water based, have such radically different xenogenetics that we were, at first, utterly uncertain about the cellular location and transfer mechanisms of their reproductory components. One can hardly call the evolutionary pathway of such life forms to be, in any meaningful way, convergent with our own. However, on the true Green Worlds—particularly Delta Pavonis III, Zeta Tucanae II, and Rho Eridani V—the conformity of the indigenous genetic retention and transfer mechanisms is simply too close and consistent to be a matter of chance. Certainly, there are other means of transferring the information necessary for replication and reproduction, but—as we saw on Tau Ceti II, and now on 70 Ophiuchi B I—those simpler mechanisms cannot build structures as complex as vertebrates.”

  ¶ » The biots found on 70 Ophiuchi B I are vastly different metabolically, as well as xenogenetically. Using both heat and infrared light as the sources of metabolic energy input, they all evince a propensity to produce alcohol—usually propanol—as an integral part of their respiration and energy conversion activities. This lowers the temperature at which the cell’s cytoplasm continues to remain functional, serving as a kind of natural antifreeze in the often bitterly cold and barren biomes of 70 Ophiuchi B I.

  ¶ » From a political standpoint, the discovery of life on 70 Ophiuchi B I was welcome, but was not the news that the European Union’s Ophiuchi Pathbuilder mission had been hoping to deliver to its bloc’s development and colonization communities. Although having found one other life-bearing world during its exploration of the Ophiuchi group (specifically, in the 36 Ophiuchi cluster), the organisms there were, again, disappointingly divergent and primitive.

  ¶ » After the extraordinary discoveries of the numerous “shirt-sleeve” green worlds of the Big Green Main (stretching from Epsilon Indi to Rho Eridani) and the Little Green Main (which boasts habitable worlds in both the Tau Ceti and 82 Eridani systems), the Union was hoping to open up a profitable Main of its own. Unfortunately, by the end of the first day of trading, those companies which had invested heavily in the Ophiuchi Pathbuilder mission were showing valuation drops of 10–15%, and the trading-pit slang which affixed itself to this collection of unpromising systems—“the Brown Main”—already shows signs of becoming a permanent nickname.

  ¶ » Meanwhile, EU government sources remain optimistic about further worlds along the “Brown Main,” pointing to the excellent possibilities for a true green world in the 70 Ophiuchi A system, which the Pathbuilder mission should reach some time in 2116.

  ¶ » When asked if the EU should have chosen a different pathway for exploration, Senior Associate Administrator Helmut Kling of the ESA-I commented, “There was no other place for us to go. Although we have an 8.3 light-year shift range, as does the Commonwealth and the Federation, they had already extensively exploited their Mains by the time we launched this Pathbuilder mission. While there are many stars we can visit with our shift carriers, there weren’t any more pathways—or Mains—where several G and K stars lay in a convenient sequence for surveying. If we had a longer shift range, that would change. But for the time being, the Wasserman drive seems to have reached its reasonable range limit.”

  ¶ » As Administrator Kling’s optimistic hopes for discoveries in 70 Ophiuchi A reached the financial news tickers, early morning trading in Mumbai showed only a weak .5% increase in the aggregrate share prices of the Ophiuchi Pathbuilder mission’s supporting companies.

  Ω

  IINS INFORMATION AND TIPS FOR TRAVELERS

  Currency

  Many off-world commercial venues, but particularly passenger transfer terminals, quickly teach first-time interstellar travelers the value (and often the necessity) of carrying universal credits. National currencies, no matter how well regarded on Earth, are collectively too diverse and too hard to exchange to be practicable for off-world merchants. Conversely, while transactions requiring universal credits are still rare on Earth, they become increasingly common as one travels further away from the electronically-linked economies and banking systems of the home planet. By the time a traveler has reached the Green Mains, Earth-based electronic credit or debit cards become functionally useless. Account and balance verification usually takes at least six weeks from Epsilon Indi, and considerably longer from points further down the Mains.

  Consequently, persons traveling beyond their own nation or bloc should consider converting some of their home currency into universal credits. The official title for that currency unit—the Économique Crédit Universel—gives rise to its many shorthand nicknames: the “ecu” (used primarily in the European Union), the “uni” (the preferred form in global slang references), and the “credit” (the most common form of reference).

  The credit originated as an informal currency translation script in 2085. At that time, most off-Earth bases and colonies were not single-nation or even single-bloc facilities. Since space exploration was extremely expensive, the establishment of permanent habitations usually involved an international effort. Later, even when the costs of space travel and colonization dropped, it was safer if all the blocs built their bases fairly close to (or as extensions of) each other.

  Consequently, as these colonies grew and matured, there were numerous off-Earth communities of a few thousand people, but each populated by contingents from up to twenty or thirty different nations, each with their own currencies, all trying to engage in commercial transactions with each other.

  The currency exchange problems quickly proved to be insurmountable, and so, starting on the moon, a collective of financial managers created an index that allowed a fast conversion between currencies by using a common unit of valuation, or a “translation” currency. This common unit—the Universal Economic Credit unit (this is its anglophone rendering; its French title is the official one)—was pegged roughly between the US dollar and the euro.

  In recent years, there has been clear movement among some blocs to adopt the credit not merely as a translational monetary script, but as their standard currency. Although interest in this model remains guarded in most blocs (and decidedly unwelcome in the DWC), the TOCIO bloc has begun the process of making an eventual conversion to the credit as recognized currency not just in its off-world settlements, but among it many diverse Earth-side member states.

  This is a particularly attractive solution for TOCIO, since the polyglot currency chaos among its many member-states can thus be swiftly resolved by supplanting the plethora of national currencies with one monetary standard. It would also, in the long run, work to disincline states from considering changing bloc affiliations once they have converted to the credit. Once a national currency is surrendered by the nation’s wholesale conversion into credit-based valuation, that polity’s isolated fiscal accounting becomes compromised, since the value of the cre
dit (and thus, the economic fate of the nation) is linked to the total economy of the bloc of which it is a member.

  If this is the subtle “stick” associated with adoption of the credit in the TOCIO bloc, the counterbalancing carrot is quite obvious. The credit, which could then be floated as an openly traded currency, would represent a step up in purchasing power and market access for most of the nations of the TOCIO bloc. Traditionally “weaker” nations would suddenly find their transactions and worth to be based on a “solid” or “market standard” currency, rather than their own untraded monetary units. Also, as the first bloc to adopt the credit, TOCIO would arguably be buying into this currency at a discount, since the implicit value of the credit will rise as more nations or blocs adopt it as an official currency.

  Naturally, there are complex monetary policy matters surrounding how best to track the fluctuation of national currencies, or intra-bloc exchange notes, in relation to the credit/uni/ecu. Ultimately, many economists claim the credit could emerge as a global currency, since, with the more confidence it accrues, the more likely it is to encourage hoarding. By holding reserves of a truly universal currency, a nation can protect itself against a localized recession. This is because the value of the credit would be based on global indicators and trade balances, not nation-specific conditions. The logical result of this would be increased attractiveness of a more conservative monetary policy, in which the value of national holdings as hedges against market recessions or other downturns would remain a constant incentive, rather than fluctuating with the fate of the country (and its currency).

  Logically, the tendency to retain large cash reserves would also tend to reduce deficit spending. Interest rate speculation would be heavily undercut, and nations would presumably find it far more attractive to accrue monetary reserves over long periods of time, rather than spend surpluses when the value of its own currency happens to rise above others to advantageous highs. According to a growing number of fiscal analysts, the widespread adoption of the credit could ultimately increase the stability of the world economy.

  If that is the case, then when you travel and register a transaction in credits, you may well be spending what many people are calling “the dollar (or euro, ruble, yen) of the future.” Either way, space-bound travelers are wise to carry credits: the most recognized, and preferred, currency of all off-Earth communities.

  IINS INFORMATION AND TIPS FOR TRAVELERS

  Destination: Epsilon Indi 2 D

  Epsilon Indi 2 D or “Tigua” (tee-gah) as it is nicknamed, is the most hospitable of the three life-bearing satellites of the gas giant known as Leeward, and represents one of the settlement milestones since humanity commenced interstellar expansion in 2105.

  DISCOVERY

  Unlike the other planetary systems upon which a reasonable level of remote surveying had been performed, the gas-giant-laden Epsilon Indi system presented early researchers and interstellar mission planners with considerable difficulties. With three borderline large gas giants clustered in the inner, life and close outer zones of the system, standard exoplanet detection methods were frustrated, unable to make sense of the small, yet conflicting readings that resulted from the relatively low masses of the objects, and their overlapping gravitational effects. For much the same reason, clear data on their satellites was problematic and visual enhancement studies only confirmed that several bodies of the second gas giant were wreathed by some form of atmosphere. Specific atmospheric composition, hydrographics, and basic habitability data remained a mystery until the first surveying and pathbuilder mission arrived in 2107.

  As it turned out, Epsilon Indi 2 D was the natural site for the first green world colony beyond that established on the often tempestuous surface of Terra Nova (Alpha Centauri III). With an average planetary temperature only 5 C degrees beneath that of Earth, the tropics and subtropics are very comfortable. Lacking any appreciable axial tilt, there are no seasonal variations. This impact upon the local biomes includes polar icecaps which show little change, and a water cycle that favors equatorial rains and middle latitude snowstorms.

  Of greater importance to the colony’s founders was the discovery that Epsilon Indi 2 D was not only rotating independently of its parent planet (i.e., was not “tidally locked”) but also possesses a molten core, thereby producing magnetic fields which vastly reduce the amount of radiation that ultimately reaches its surface. However, as was to be expected, the influence of its parent gas giant Leeward retards its rotational rate, producing unusually long days and nights, with all the weather perturbations one might expect therefrom.

  With only two tectonic plates, Epsilon Indi 2 D’s variation in elevation is modest by true planetary standards, resulting in shallow (and predominantly equatorial) seas with extensive archipelagos, few large rivers (but more widely dispersed, often marshy, watersheds), and few true mountains.

  After the pathbuilder mission returned its findings, settlement proceeded apace, with the first spaceport being established on an average-sized island in a small archipelago just south of the equator. Although early corporate investors pushed for immediate settling and exploitation of the larger contiguous land masses, the Commonwealth commission charged with developmental oversight and safety deemed an island a better site. Having little knowledge of the wildlife, they reasoned that if there were any undetected dangers from the flora or fauna, it would be far simpler to “sanitize” a small, water-bound landmass. This spaceport ultimately became the satellite’s major city: St. John’s or, more commonly, SinJin’s.

  ENVIRONMENT

  With .8 gee and a steady, mostly gentle climate, Epsilon Indi 2 D is quite comfortable for humans. The only routine perturbations in its meteorology arise from the thermal and pressure equalization effects that occur during its long day/night cycle. Winds gust strongly during the long dusks and dawns, since the most marked air-temperature equalizations tend to occupy a longitudinal band that moves with the day/night terminator line. The worst weather occurs when latitudinal pressure fronts intersect with this moving line, spawning small hurricanes and tornadoes. Weather effects on Epsilon Indi 2 D, even when forbidding, lack the intensity of planetary weather simply because of its far more steady climate; profound pressure and temperature extremes are rare.

  The only noteworthy exception is the temperature intensifications that result from the long days. Late afternoon highs and post-midnight lows can become severe, since this is the peak point in the thermal gain/loss cycle that results from slow planetary rotation.

  Since air and oxygen pressure are somewhat less that terrestrial norms, humidity tends to be low, even in the littoral regions, where the mediating effects of the water produce the best climate on the satellite. Although extended physical exertion makes the use of a compressor mask advisable, the slightly low pressure is not otherwise bothersome.

  The primary challenge to human habitation is more an annoyance than a threat: an airborne unicellular organism that attempts to infest unprotected human respiratory tracts in its quest to find a warm, moist host organism.

  Carried on the wind, this simple creature resembles terrestrial bacteria in its lifecycle and survival strategies (although it is quite distinct in terms of its xenogenetics and chemical make-up). Although it cannot utilize human tissue for feeding purposes (too many biological differences), it finds human hosts to be excellent safe havens. Being wind-borne, the organism is constantly in danger of being carried back around to the night-side of the planet. If injected into higher-altitude cold by updrafts, it may perish or become inert. Consequently, its life cycle involves finding a warm, moist host from which it cannot easily be dislodged, there sustaining itself on moisture, heat, and a few simple compounds.

  Although it cannot grow swiftly in the human respiratory tract (since it lacks sufficient nutrients), it also cannot be easily driven from it, since humans lack the natural defenses of the indigenous, air-filtering fauna of Epsilon Indi 2 D. Most native animals possess mucus-based respiratory linings t
hat slough off on a weekly basis, thereby carrying any nascent infestation of this organism into the digestive tract, where it is denatured quickly and completely. In humans, however, successive layers of the organism begin to accrete, constricting breathing and leading to dehydration, the symptoms mimicking high-altitude asthma attacks in many regards. Mortality for humans is approximately 5 percent, with double those rates (or more) for populations whose respiratory status can readily become “at-risk” (children, elderly, health/immune-impaired).

  Although healthy persons will ultimately throw off the infestation (since the lack of nutrients starves the first generation of cells, and the later, accreting levels are often deprived of moisture by the layers beneath and above them), common sequelae include a permanently compromised respiratory system, putting such individuals at greater risk when they contract terrestrial respiratory infections and/or subsequent infestations of this indigenous organism.

  Fortunately, a combination of mitigation technologies and pharmaceuticals have been developed, reducing the dangers of infestation to beneath those associated with common bronchitis. The first mitigational therapy is a prophylactic inhaler that suffuses the respiratory tissues with several harmless chemicals which the indigenous organism finds mildly toxic, thereby preventing it from establishing a toe-hold in the mucosa. Although quite effective, this was deemed an insufficient methodology on its own, and colonists were still compelled to wear filter masks to ensure their long term safety. It was also deemed necessary to have another means of resisting the infestations, in the event the supply of inhalers dropped or was interdicted.