Jupiter Project

Chapter 14

Suddenly everybody in the room was smiling: Mr. Jablons laughed. “When they write this up in the history books, they’ll have to record that blank look of yours, Matt.”

I realized that my jaw was hanging open and quickly shut it. “Wha—How?”

“How did it get there?” Dr. Kadin. said. “That is a puzzle. I imagine these spores—if that is indeed what they are—somehow traveled up through the Jovian atmosphere by riding along—‘piggyback’ I believe you say—on the electric fields produced by the turbulent storms.”

Mr. Jablons slapped his knee. “I knew it would happen! Half an hour ago we didn’t know if that dust was alive, and already a theory has raised its head.”

Dr. Kadin ignored him. “You might have a look at them through the microscope,” he said. “There are very interesting aspects.”

I bent my head over the eyepiece of the microscope. Against a yellow smear I could see three brownish lumps. They looked like barbells with a maze of squiggly blue lines inside them. They weren’t moving; the smear had killed them.

“Note the elongated structure,” Dr. Kadin said at my ear. “Most unusual for such a small cell. Of course, these do not appear to be at all similar to Earthly cells in other particulars, so perhaps such a difference is not surprising.”

“I don’t get you,” Dad said.

“I believe these organisms may use that shape to cause a separation of electrical charge in their bodies. Somehow, deep in the atmosphere, they shed charge. Then, when a storm blows them to the top of the cloud layer, they become attached to the complicated electrical field lines near the north pole.”

“That’s what brought them out to Satellite Fourteen?” I asked.

“I think so. It is the only mechanism I can imagine that would work.”

“Why did the Faraday cup malfunction?” Commander Aarons asked. It was the first thing be had said since I arrived.

“Well, consider. When an electron strikes the cup it passes through the positive grid and strikes the negative plate. From there it passes down a wire and charges a capacitor. These spores—or whatever—are also charged; they will be trapped in the same manner. But they do not pass down the wire; only between grid and plate, eventually filling it up. They still retained some of their charge, though, and when they piled up high enough to connect the grid and the plate they shorted out the circuit.” Dr. Kadin looked around, as if for approval.

“That could be why the Faraday cup failed, all right,” Mr. Jablons said.

“I couldn’t tell much from the microscope,” I said. “Dr. Kadin, what are those cells like?”

“They seem to be carbon-based. They are not carbon dioxide absorbers, however, like terrestrial plants; perhaps they breathe methane. They have a thick cell wall and some structures I could not identify. Calling them spores is only a guess, really.”

Commander Aarons shook his head. “You are certain these things couldn’t have been left there by accident—just be something from the Can that was on the Bohles boy’s gloves when he took it out?”

“No. They are like nothing I have ever seen.”

“But what are they doing out there?” Dad said. “Why should organisms evolve that can be thrown clear above the atmosphere? If that bunch hadn’t been trapped in Satellite Fourteen they could have gone all the way to the south pole, riding along on the magnetic fields.”

“That may possibly be the point,” Dr. Kadin said. “Perhaps these are spores and they were migrating.”

“Migrating?” Dad said. “What for?”

“We know there are fewer storms near the poles. A point at the pole does not rotate like the rest of the planet; the atmosphere above it is relatively still. It could be that only under those conditions can life survive in the Jovian atmosphere.”

“I see,” I murmured. “They were migrating to the other livable zone of the planet—the south pole.”

“Perhaps, perhaps.” Dr. Kadin waved his hands. “This is all quite preliminary. I am only advancing speculations, you understand.”

“We can deal with theories later,” Commander Aarons said. He smacked his fist into his palm. “The point is that we’ve found life—the real McCoy! If this doesn’t make ISA sit up and take notice, nothing will.”

“You think we might get to stay?” I said excitedly.

“We’re back in the running, anyway. I am going to get Earthside on the line at once: this will make headlines on every continent, if I am any judge.” He plucked at his moustache, smiling to himself. “Just wait until—”

“If you don’t mind, gentlemen, before you leave I have a piece of data you might find interesting,” Dad said. He got slowly to his feet, pausing for dramatic effect. I grinned. Dad could really play to the house, when he wanted to.

“I couldn’t sleep while Matt was out making an unintentional hero of himself; neither could his mother.” I suddenly noticed bags under his eyes; he was tired. “I spent the time following up a project I’ve been meaning to get to for several weeks.”

He picked a memory cube off the work table and inserted it in a viewscreen slot on the wall. The screen came to life.

At first I thought it was a bull’s-eye—just a bunch of concentric circles with three large ellipses on the outside. Then I picked out one little dot on the rim of each curve and realized this was the orbit pattern of the Jovian moons: the bull’s-eye at the center was Jupiter. As I watched, the dots moved. It was a speeded-up simulation.

“I had the computer plot out this history of the moons over the past month. All thirteen of the larger ones are here. You will notice that the outer moons do not move rapidly and have rather eccentric orbits. The outer three have never been visited by man; they appear to be smaller than the other moons and are probably asteroids captured when Jupiter was young.”

“That is only a hypothesis,” Dr. Kadin said.

“True, but a reasonable one.” Dad paused again. “You have probably heard of the meteor swarms we have recently observed. They strike Jupiter near both the north and south poles. To do that requires an orbit that doesn’t revolve in the same plane as Jupiter’s equator, as the Can’s does. It happens that the outer moons share this property.”

“Ah,” said Dr. Kadin.

“My reasoning wasn’t this clear when I began. At the time I was simply interested in the orbits of the meteor swarms. Previously we had simply followed their orbits backwards until we could be sure they came from far out. I extended the calculation.”

My father pressed a button and the screen flickered for a moment. The moon orbits were in yellow; now blue lines crawled away from Jupiter’s circle and spiraled outward.

“This is a history of the meteor orbits, run backwards. This first swarm spreads out a little”—the blue lines fanned open—“and then bunches together again. That is unusual in itself. But notice where they bunch.”

The lines focused together and intersected the eleventh Jovian moon.

“There isn’t very much error in this work; we got good fixes on the swarm.”

“Are you certain they had to strike J-11?” Dr. Kadin said. “It is a very small satellite”.

“About twenty miles across, in fact. But the swarm had to hit it; I’m sure of that.”

“Dad, ‘hit’ is the wrong word, isn’t it? This display is running backwards. You mean the swarm started from J-11, don’t you?”

“Right. Sloppy terminology. The program is still going though—watch this next swarm. The same pattern—spiraling out, bunching.”

We watched the lines inch away from Jupiter. They came together just as they met the yellow dot that was J-12.

“Zap!” Mr. Jablons said. “I don’t understand what’s going on, but it looks beautiful.”

“And strange,” the Commander murmured.

“There’s more.” Dad said. “I’ll speed it up.”

Another family of lines wound outward, meeting at J-11. The next group was a little slower, they took their time, but they all ended up at J-12.

“Three earlier swarms show the same pattern.”

“You have verified these calculations?” Dr. Kadin said. “Yes.”

“I am no astrophysicist.” Commander Aarons said. “Maybe I am missing something in all this.”

Dad shook his head, “I don’t think you are, sir. This is something new to all of us. There isn’t any handy explanation.”

The room was quiet. Everyone was watching the screen. Blue lines crept out from Jupiter again.

“What could possibly cause it?” I said.

Dr. Kadin narrowed his eyes as he studied the lines.

“Let us go and find out,” he said.