We don’t know. We don’t know very much at all. We breathe this air, and it was only in the last century that we first began to find out how many different elements and gases made it up, and we don’t know for sure yet.
I think it’s possible that living things may exist that are made of gas only. We’re protoplasm, you know, but do you know that we’re not solid matter—we’re liquid? Protoplasm is liquid. Flesh is liquid arranged in suspension in cells of dead substances. And most of us is water, and water is the origin of all life. And water is composed of two common gases, hydrogen and oxygen. And those gases are found everywhere in the universe, astronomers say.
So I say that if the elements of our life can be boiled down to gases, then why can’t gases combine as gases and still have the elements of life? Water is always present in the atmosphere as vapor; then why not a life as a sort of water-vapor variant?
I think it makes sense. I think it might smell odd if we accidentally inhaled such a vapor life. Because we could inhale it as we do water vapor. It might smell, say, for example, like burning rubber and zinc ointment.
Because in that last moment when the storm was at its height and the area of unearthly air was compressed to its smallest, I noticed that at one point a definite outline could be seen against the black clouds and. the blue-white glare of the lightning. A section of the smelly air had been sort of trapped and pinned off from the main section. And it had a definite shape under that terrible storm pressure.
I can’t say what it was like, because it wasn’t exactly like anything save maybe a great amoeba being pushed down against the ground. There were lots of arms and stubby, wiggly things sticking out, and the main mass was squashy and thick. And it flowed along the ground sort of like a snail. It seemed to be writhing and trying to slither away and spread out.
It couldn’t, because the storm was hammering at it. And I definitely saw a big black mass, round like a fist, hammer at one section of the thing’s base as it tried to spread out.
Then the storm smashed down hard on the odd outline, and it squashed out flat and was gone.
I imagine there were others, and I think that when they aren’t being compressed they could have spread out naturally about a hundred yards along the ground and upwards. And I think we have things like that, only of earthly origin, right in the atmosphere now. And I don’t think that our breathing and walking and living right through them means a thing to them at all. But they objected to the invaders from space. They smelled differently, they were different, they must have come from a different sort of planet, a planet cooler than ours, with deserts and vegetation different from our own. And they would have tried to remake our atmosphere into one of their own. And our native air dwellers stopped them.
That’s what I think.
THE APPLICATION OF DISCIPLINE, by Jason Andrew
“You are deeply troubled by this, Robert.”
Cade unconsciously flinched. He had never learned to feel completely comfortable with Professor Gavin’s thought-speech. “Yes, I am. The treatment that Doctor Mayes has developed could disrupt society and further damage this institution.”
The ancient orangutan wrinkled his massive brow. Professor Gavin paced across the office using a pair of specially made crutches. The movement caused shards of pain to escape the Professor’s mental shields. “I think I’m quite familiar with the dangers of experimental treatments, Robert.”
Cade reflexively boosted his own shielding. “Sir, that is why I am confused as to your stand on this issue.”
The Professor snorted derisively. He spoke aloud for the first time since entering the room. “Apologies, Robert. The doctors insist upon these exerizes each day.” The resistance training helps keep me mobile. I fear orangutan took another pass of the office. “My discipline is lax this day. I should have waited until later to speak to you.”
Cade couldn’t help but feel a bit of shame in Professor Gavin’s presence. He had been one of the first telepaths allowed to directly communicate with him after the experiment that altered his genetic and skeletal structure. The broadcast waves of pain and anguish had driven three scientists to kill themselves. Cade had managed to calm the simian and teach him to use his abilities to monitor and control his abilities and pain. It had been a traumatic experience for the both of them. There was no point in shielding this.
The orangutan smiled, flipping up his enormous lips. It had taken several years for Cade to fully understand the nuances of simian facial expressions. The Professor knew a secret. “Mr. Cade, do you think I am unable to look past personal regrets to see something that could be good for the entire system?”
“To be honest, Professor Gavin, I’m confused as to why you aren’t as worried as I am. Do you see something that I don’t?”
Professor Gavin grunted approvingly and tapped the wooden floor with one of his crutches. “I am certain of the outcome because I am aware that you are the opposing council and that you rarely lose such encounters. You won my freedom.”
Cade waved away the compliment. “That was different. From your pain waves, it was obvious to anyone listening that you were sentient. I was merely first to hear them. And now, you are revered through out the system for your work in teleportation.” Cade shook his head, frustrated. “The experiment will take education out of our hands. This entire institution will be obsolete.”
Professor Gavin grunted softly. He poked Cade with one of his canes. “If you wish to defeat the rather tempting amendment, you will have to think of a better argument. I’m certain that a man with such disciplined mind will come up with a solution. Good day.”
The simian professor disappeared with a loud pop. Cade pondered the advice. Professor Gavin rarely made personal visits to his office or anywhere else. His altered bone structure made any travel, except via teleportation, difficult and painful. Translocating your body took an enormous amount of energy and control. It was the mental equivalent of running a marathon with lead weights tied around the ankles. Professor Gavin would not have taken such a journey unannounced unless he had something important to say.
It was not easy for Cade to acknowledge a superior intellect, but he knew that the simian saw things that he did not. Professor Gavin had seen a solution to the problem, but was forbidden ethically from sharing this solution as one of the judges. He ran his body through the standard breathing and mediation techniques until he received a meek thought-call.
“Professor Cade?”
It was Stephanie Williams, one of his ethics students. Cade checked the time and was quite disturbed to discover that he was ten minutes late for his ethics class. If he hurried, class was fifteen minutes away near the athletics field. Arriving late dripping with perspiration was hardly the way to maintain awe amongst the next generation of sentinels. “Inform your classmates that I will be there in a moment.”
Translocation teleportation involved a complex combination of farsight and matter rearranging. Most of his students mastered some levels of farsight early in their days at the institute. Matter manipulation was more strenuous. Translocation involved seeing yourself in two places at once. The concept is relatively simple, but the practice required the discipline to allow yourself for one brief moment to be cast into oblivion. It was painful willing your atoms to dissolve, but pain could be overcome with discipline.
Relative time the process felt like an hour. From the student’s prospective, only a few seconds passed. He reassembled himself in front of the podium. The students gasped and whispered to each other. Cade smiled warmly, knowing that he had captured their attention and they would pay special attention this session. “Who can tell me why the Augments lost the Earth Unification War? They had superior firepower and armament.”