Jordan spread his hands. “So the same thing has happened here, obviously.”
“Not so obvious, Jordan,” Longyear contradicted. Ticking off points on his stubby fingers, the biologist said, “One, Sirius puts out so much UV that it’s tough to see how life could have arisen in the first place.”
“Really? Even in the oceans?”
Raising a second finger, Longyear went on, “Which brings us to point number two: time. It took billions of years for life to evolve in the oceans of Earth. Billions of years for those cyanobacteria to generate enough oxygen to change the atmosphere and form an ozone layer.”
“This planet can’t be that old,” Meek said. “Sirius itself can’t be more than half a billion years old, from what Elyse Rudaki’s told me.”
“That’s not enough time for a thick ozone layer to be built up,” Longyear resumed.
“So how did it get there?” Meek demanded.
“How did life evolve on the ground without an ozone layer to protect it from lethal levels of UV?” Longyear added.
Jordan looked at them: Longyear earnest, serious, troubled; Meek burning with righteous indignation.
“Life couldn’t get started on the ground without a strong UV shield, a thick ozone layer high in the atmosphere,” Longyear repeated. “But the ozone layer couldn’t get created until life spent billions of years producing oxygen.”
“And this planet can’t be more than half a billion years old,” said Meek, almost triumphantly.
Jordan sat up straighter. “Are you certain of this, Paul? Or is it unproven speculation?”
“I’ve run the numbers through the computer. Considering the level of ultraviolet that Sirius emits, and the time scale involved, there’s no way that such a thick ozone layer could have been built up.”
“That’s … odd,” Jordan said, weakly.
“And then there’s this energy shield they’ve put up to protect against solar storms,” Longyear went on.
“That’s because there’s no planetary magnetic field, as on Earth,” said Jordan.
“Uh-huh. And how did Adri’s people evolve to the level of high technology without a geomagnetic field to protect them?”
Jordan blinked at him.
“Adri’s been lying to us,” Meek insisted. “There’s no way that these people could have originated on this planet.”
“That’s hard to believe,” Jordan protested. “I mean, they’re here, they exist. Together with all the other life forms we’ve seen.”
“Planetary engineering,” Longyear said. “Terraforming.”
“The idea of reshaping an entire planet to make it like Earth? That’s ridiculous!”
“Is it?” Meek snapped. “Look around you. It’s been done.”
“But the energy it would require,” Jordan argued. “The resources. The time.”
Meek said, “They’re a much older race than we are. They have a much superior technology. Look at those energy shields, their technology is light-years ahead of ours.”
“But to transform an entire planet…”
“That’s what they’ve done,” said Longyear, totally certain.
Meek insisted, “And we’ve got to find out why.”
Confirmation
Jordan’s first thought was to go to Adri and ask him about Longyear’s conclusion. But he hesitated. Instead, he decided to call his brother, still out in the field with de Falla, halfway across the planet.
Leaving Aditi in the city, Jordan joined Meek and Longyear in the buggy that the astrobiologist had driven to the city. All the way back through the shadowed, softly quiet forest, Jordan wrestled with his conscience. He found that he didn’t want to believe that Adri was lying to him, that Aditi was part of a scheme to deceive him and the other humans. It can’t be, he told himself, over and over. It can’t be.
And yet, if Longyear was right, Adri and his people were carrying out a massive deception. And Aditi was part of it. Mata Hari indeed, he thought. More like Delilah.
Then a new worry hit him. Can Adri tap into our phone conversations? What if he can listen to everything we say to each other?
By the time they reached the camp and Jordan had walked to the barracks tent, he had decided that there was nothing he could do about the possibility of Adri’s eavesdropping. If he can listen to our phone conversations, he surely must have overheard what Longyear and Meek told me this morning.
Once he reached his own cubicle, Jordan reluctantly sat on the springy, narrow cot and flipped open his pocketphone. Brandon answered immediately, looking sunburnt, his hair tossed by a fresh breeze, smiling like a man happy with his work. In the phone’s small screen, Jordan could see that his brother was up in the mountains: bare slabs of jagged rock rose behind him, and wisps of clouds threaded through the craggy peaks.
As he explained what Longyear and Meek had told him, Jordan could see his brother’s face grow somber, grave.
“They might be right, Jordy,” Brandon said. “What we’re finding out here is that this planet is much younger than Earth. A lot younger.”
“Geologically speaking,” said Jordan.
“Right. Half a billion years old, at most.”
“That would still give it enough time to develop indigenous life, wouldn’t it? Enough time for life to evolve into an intelligent species.”
“It took more than four billion years for an intelligent species to arise on Earth,” said Brandon.
“But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen sooner, elsewhere.”
“Maybe, maybe not,” said Brandon. “We just don’t know. We’re trying to make valid conclusions with just two examples. Hard to draw a curve with only two data points.”
Jordan sank back on the cot and stared at the domed ceiling of the bubble tent.
“How can we tell for sure?” he asked.
Brandon shook his head. “Jordy, if I knew, I’d tell you.”
Jordan understood the unspoken message. Ask Adri. He knows. The question is, will he tell me the truth?
And he realized that, before confronting Adri with his suspicions, he had to face Aditi.
Dreading what he had to do, Jordan walked through the midafternoon heat back toward the city. Sunshine filtered through the high canopies of the trees. Birds swooped above and butterflies flitted through the foliage. Furry little animals scampered and chittered. He saw it all but paid no attention. His thoughts were entirely on Aditi.
And there she was, standing alone on the stone walkway that circled the city’s perimeter, as if she were waiting for him.
“Hello,” he called. Then he couldn’t help adding, “Been waiting long?”
“No,” she answered. “I … I had a feeling you’d be coming.”
“Woman’s intuition?” he taunted as he stepped next to her.
Aditi looked slightly puzzled. “No … not intuition…”
“Have you been tracking me?”
She smiled at him. “Yes, of course. We track the emanations from your phone. Even when you’ve turned it off there’s enough residual radiation to be detected.”
He did not smile back. “And you listen to our phone conversations.”
“I don’t,” she said, totally serious now. “The communications technicians do.”
“So we have no privacy.”
“I’m afraid not. Adri says we need to know what you’re thinking, how you’re reacting to finding us.”
“I see.” A part of Jordan’s mind was telling him that Adri’s eavesdropping was perfectly natural. We’d listen to his chatter if we could, he thought. Two intelligent races bumping into each other. There’s a lot to learn, a lot to find out, a lot to be afraid of.