Stephen Baxter - Space

“Think of it, Meacher,” Paulis said. His image was grainy, swarms of blocky pixels crossing his face like insects; nearly all the biopro’s immense processing power was devoted to interpreting the neutron star data. “The very air they move through betrays them; it grows too thick and explodes — wiping the creatures clean from the surface of their world.”

“Well, not quite,” Madeleine said. “They survive somehow, for the next cycle.”

“Yes. I guess the equivalent of spores must be deposited on or below the surface of the star. To survive these global conflagrations, every fourteen seconds, they must be pretty rudimentary, however — probably no more advanced than lichen. I wonder how much these frenetic little creatures might achieve if the fusion cycle was removed from their world…”

She watched the surges of the doomed neutron star lichen, the hypnotic rhythm of disaster on a world like a trap.

She stirred. Did it have to be this way?

“Meacher—” Paulis said.

“Shut up, Frank.”

Maybe she wasn’t going to turn out to be just a passive observer on this mission after all. But she doubted if John Glenn would have approved of the scheme she was planning.

The Gaijin told Paulis, by whatever indirect channels they were operating, that they planned two more days in orbit.

Madeleine called up Paulis. “We have a decision to make,” she said.

“A decision?”

“On the siting of our UN-controlled teleport gateway.”

“Yes. Obviously the recommendation is to place the gateway at L5, the trailing Lagrange stable point—”

“No. Listen, Frank. This system must have a Saddle Point on the line between the neutron star and its parent — somewhere in the middle of that column of hydrogen attracted from the primary.”

“Of course.” He looked at her suspiciously. “There’s a gravitational equilibrium there, the L1 Lagrange point.”

“That’s where I want the gateway.”

He looked thoughtful — or rather his face emptied of expression, and she imagined mips being diverted to the data channel connecting him to the Gaijin. “But L1 is unstable. It would be difficult to maintain the gateway’s position. Anyway, there would be a net flow of hot hydrogen through the gateway, into the transmitter at the Solar System end. We won’t be able to use the gateway for two-way travel.”

“Frank, for Christ’s sake, that’s hardly important. We can’t get out to the Solar System Saddle Points anyhow without the Gaijin hauling us there. Listen — you sent me on this mission to seek advantage. I think I found a way to do that. Trust me.”

He studied her. “Okay.” He went blank again. “The Gaijin want more justification.”

“All right. We’ll be disrupting the flow of hydrogen from the primary to its neutron-star companion. What will be the effect on the neutron star?”

Paulis said slowly, “Without the steady drizzle of fusing hydrogen onto the surface, the helium layer will cease its cycle of growth and explosion. The burster will die.”

“But the lichen life forms will live. Won’t they? No more fusion blowouts every fourteen seconds.”

He thought it over. “You may be right, Meacher. And, free of the periodic extinction pulse, they may advance. My God. What an achievement. It will be as if we’ll have fathered a whole new race… But what’s the benefit to the Gaijin?”

“They say they’ve come to us seeking answers,” she said briskly. “Maybe this is a place they will find some. A new race, new minds.”

There was motion beyond her windows. She looked out, pressing her nose to the cool glass. The Gaijin were swarming over the hull of their flower-ship like metallic beetles, limbs flailing angularly. They were merging, she saw, becoming a gruesome metallic sea that writhed and rippled.

“The Gaijin seem… intrigued,” Paulis said carefully.

She waited while he worked his data stream to the Gaijin.

“They agree, Meacher. I hope you know what you’re doing,” he said.

“Me too, Frank. Me too.”

The Gaijin opened up the flower-ship’s petals, and once more Madeleine swooped around the thin column of star-stuff.

As soon as the UN Saddle Point gateway was established and operational, the result was extraordinary.

The gateway was set at the thinnest point of the column of hot hydrogen torn from the primary. The gateway flared lurid blue, continually teleporting. At least fifty percent of the primary’s hydrogen — according to Paulis — was disappearing into the maw of the teleport gate. It looked as if the column of material had been neatly pruned by some cosmic gardener, capped with an almost flat surface.

“Good,” Madeleine said. “It’s worked… We’re moving again.” She returned to her periscopes.

The ship approached the neutron star. The star’s ruddy surface sparkled softly as residual material fell into its gravity well. Once more the elaborate hexagonal patterns flowed vigorously across the surface of the star — but the lichen seemed, oddly, to pause after a dozen seconds or so, as if expectant of the destruction to come.

But the fusion fire did not erupt, and the creatures surged, as if with relief, to new parts of their world.

A fourteen-second cycle to their growth remained, but that was soon submerged in the exuberant complexity of their existence. Flowing along magnetic flux lines, the lichen quickly transformed their star world; major sections of its surface changed color and texture.

It was stunning to watch.

She felt a surge of excitement. The data she would take back on this would keep the scientists busy for decades. Maybe, she thought, this is how the double-domes feel, at some moment of discovery.

Or an intervening god.

…Then, suddenly, the growth failed.

It started first at the extremes; the lichen colonies began shriveling back to their heart lands. And then the color of the patterns, in a variety of wavelengths, began to fade, and the neat hexagonal structure became chaotic.

The meaning was obvious. Death was spreading over the star.

“Frank. What’s happening?”

“I expected this,” the interface metaphor said.

“You did?”

“Some of my projections predicted it, with varying probability. Meacher, the lichen can’t survive without their fusion cycle. Our intervention from orbit was somewhat crude. Kind of anthropocentric. Maybe the needs of the little creatures down there are not as simple as we imagined. What if the fusion cycle is necessary to their growth and existence, in some way we don’t understand?”

The fusion cycle had delivered layers of complex molecules to the surface. Maybe the crystalline soil down there needed its fusion summer, to wipe it clean and invigorate it, regularly. After all, extinction events on Earth led to increased biodiversity in the communities that derived from their survivors.

And Madeleine had destroyed all that. Guilt stabbed at her stomach.

“Don’t take it hard, Madeleine,” Paulis said.

“Bullshit,” she said. “I’m a meddler.”

“Your impulse was honorable. It was worth a try.” He gave her a virtual smile. “I understand why you did it. Even if the real Frank won’t… I think we’re heading for home, Meacher. We’ll be at the Lagrange point gateway in a couple of minutes. Prepare yourself.”

“Thanks.” Thank God. Get me out of here.

A couple of minutes, and eighteen years into the future…

“And, you know,” Paulis said, “maybe there are deeper questions we haven’t asked here.” That didn’t sound like Frank Paulis, but one of his more reflective companions. A little touch of Dorothy Chaum, perhaps. “The Gaijin could have brought you — the first human passenger, after Malenfant — anywhere. Why here? Why did they choose to show you this? Nothing the Gaijin do is without meaning. They have layers of purpose.”