“Not extreme enough? Hell, it only just about wiped out life as we knew it.”
“Not life. Civilization. Look around. I know it might sound crazy just at the moment, but Athena really wasn’t the last word.”
Despite his sarcasm, Keene knew what Naarmegen meant. The Kronians’ current reconstruction put the detachment of Earth from Saturn configuration at around 10,000 years Before the Present, and identified it also as the event that had triggered the replacement of the giant Pleistocene mammals by the more familiar types of modern times. An even greater upheaval at some earlier date was believed to have ended the age of the giant reptiles—involving a large impacting body as known since the twentieth century, but with more yet to the story. Whatever the exact mechanisms responsible, it was fairly generally accepted that on both these occasions Earth’s gravity had increased significantly, changing the biological environment sufficiently to induce the appearance of totally new forms of life, not just variations of what had gone before. If such complete adaptations to the new conditions had expressed themselves in the short time scales that the Kronians maintained, then, as with the coloring of the plant specimens that Keene had commented on, the genetic coding must already have been present as components of programs that were immensely more complex than anything that had been suspected before.
Keene asked the obvious question: “So where did the programs come from? How did they get in there?” He had meant it to be flippant, but Naarmegen didn’t reply until they had walked back out through the doors and into the open again.
“Answering that is one of the greatest tasks that Kronia has set itself for the generations ahead,” he said. “Some say it’s the most important single mystery confronting us.”
It took Keene back to his meeting with Jon Foy in Foundation. So much to think about. “I often used to wonder why leaves were green and not black,” he said, stopping to take in the scene of the hills around the base. “You’d think they’d have optimized by going for all the wavelengths available, wouldn’t you?” He gestured. “Like those out there. And then, why settle for the lowest-energy end, the red?” Actually, it had been Robin who’d brought it up, but it made easier telling this way.
“Maybe it was something that hung over from the Saturn era,” Naarmegen suggested. “When the Sun was remote. Maybe something near red was all there was.” It was a possibility, Keene supposed.
He was about to say something more, when an alert tone sounded from the speakers commanding the area, signaling an announcement. “Attention. Attention. Descent vehicle due down in the Landing Zone in ten minutes. All personnel are requested to vacate the outside area. Descent due in ten minutes.” It was a nuisance, but something they’d have to live with until sufficient ground transportation was available to service the larger landing area being cleared farther away. Until then, everyone had to be under cover during landings and launches. “I need to park the truck,” Naarmegen said. “I’ll see you inside.”
“Sure. I’ll be in Ops.”
Keene walked across to the OpCom dome on the edge of the landing area between the ends of the lab block and the workshop buildings, and let himself in via a side door to the lower level. A steel-railed stairway took him up to the operations floor, with its clutter of consoles and equipment, and windows giving an all-round view of the landing area in front and the base complex to the sides and rear. Kurt Zeigler was down from the Varuna, supervising, standing behind one of the console operators. As was typical of the Kronian way of doing things, the routine was light on rules and restrictions, and a number of others who didn’t strictly belong were also present, either having wandered in to see what was going on while taking a break, or using the operations center as a social gathering point until the general messroom adjoining the two dormitory blocks was completed. The operator in front of Zeigler was talking to a screen showing the head and shoulders of a man in a flight suit, with instrument panels and a figure at another crew station visible behind. Keene took it to be from the incoming shuttle.