John Saul - The Presence

Above them the nova hung alone in the sky, but other stars were beginning to appear as well.

And soon — very soon — the nova would fade away.

Unlike the volcano, it would never awaken again.

More than a year and a half ago the idea for The Presence came to me while I was walking on the beach near my home on Maui. Here, on this island paradise, exists one of the finest astronomical observatories in the world, as well as one of the most powerful computers on earth. And, within a few short miles, an active volcano, Kilauea, sends forth continual lava flows. From these intriguing, disparate-seeming ingredients, the basic concept began to take shape for a book of “speculative fiction.”

Little did I know as I began to write that my “speculative” fiction might turn out to be not quite so speculative. First it was discovered that there may well have been life on Mars, and the remnants of that life may have been carried to Earth within the core of a meteorite. On the heels of that discovery came new photos from the spacecraft Galileo, revealing that Europa, a moon circling Jupiter, may well have water and volcanic action beneath its covering of ice. More than one scientist has theorized that these conditions could presage the presence of life.

Just three months prior to publication of The Presence, Smithsonian Magazine reported that at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meetings in Seattle, there was discussion of very unusual life-forms living on the floors of our own oceans, near hydrothermal volcanic vents: life-forms surviving and developing with no oxygen, no sunlight; life-forms thriving in 500° F heat, on gases such as hydrogen sulfide — the very “poisonous” gases that would terminate life as we have previously known it. Additionally, many scientists now believe that volcanoes deep under the ocean may not simply harbor life, but be the very place where life began.

Suddenly, all our presumptions about the source of life have been turned upside down. So, now that I have finished writing The Presence, and you have finished reading it, the question arises: Is this truly speculative fiction?

Or is it possible that perhaps things might have happened just this way?

Somewhere in the Arizona desert

April 30, 1997

Many thanks go to John L. Africano, Astronomer and Senior Engineering Specialist at Rockwell International Corporation, and Paul W. Kervin, Chief Scientist at Phillips Laboratory, for their assistance and time. Mahalo, guys, for the tours, the stories, and your work.

Much appreciation is extended to David Fisher, Center Director of the Small Business Development Center at the Maui Research and Technology Park. Thanks for showing me around and introducing me to a group of fascinating people.

I am grateful to A. Keith Pierce, Designer of the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, for the time he spent guiding me around Kitt Peak. Thanks, Keith, it was lots of fun.

Special thanks also go to Les Horn and William Longacre, who connected me to the right people.