Odyssey Rising by Michael T. Best Read Free Book Online Page A

crustaceans found in oceans around our Earth with eight legs for walking and two more that are pinching claws, making ten appendages, they may appear to be closely related, in fact they’re very, very different little creatures. Crabs pretty much eat algae, so they’re an omnivore at least that’s what wikipedia says.”
    Sam had heard enough. “Thanks, kid. I wasn’t expecting a real answer.”
    “Oh, I thought you were. There’s really a lot more differences. And I actually think these microbes look nothing like crabs or lobsters. In fact, they have a certain salamander-esque like quality if you ask me.”
    “Maybe it’s just one of those tiny horseshoe crabs,” Sam said.
    “Which, to be factual, are not even in the crab family,” Ravi said.
    Sam just rolled his eyes as Ravi started to talk.
    “See, they’re ancient arthropods, like a spider or scorpion. Horseshoe crabs actually predate dinosaurs by more than 250 million years.”
    “Whatever twerp. We’re a little off topic. What are we looking at now?”
    “We’ll have to wait until Dad identifies them,” Theo said.
    Over the Channel 4 feed, they could hear Ed Lorre breathing quickly and nervously. “Okay. Remain calm. Breathe. Breathe. Come on, breathe. What are we looking at, Doctor? They’re not in our database. Of course they’re not,” Ed Lorre said with some urgency and excitement. Because they’re not from Earth. Right. Right. Of course. Sorry. Right. Right. I’m just – this is – wow! Wow! I’m speechless,” Ed Lorre exclaimed.
    The next several hours were a roller coaster of observation and inquiry and by day’s end, Doctor Starling sent a short Communication entry about the Yin-Yang Twins to the entire crew of Odyssey and the Command Council of the Ark.
    Theo, Ravi, Ellie and Sam kept channel four on all night and it was mostly quiet for several hours until a cranky, tired voice spoke. The Yin-Yang Twins, still under microscopic observation, had changed yet again. They were inert, motionless, perhaps even dead.
    There still was a mandatory lockdown but since most of the standard operations that kept Odyssey functioning were computer automated, the lockdown -- in effect -- did little to slow down the normal duties of the crew.
    In the far corner of the lab there was a simple though important experiment underway. There were two rabbits. The gray one had a live “dose” of the Yin-Yang Twins. The other, a cute brown one, was uninfected. They had been carefully segregated in separate cages that received no oxygen from the outside lab. The rabbit’s source of oxygen was a shared oxygen bottle received through a clear, plastic tubing that connected the two enclosed cages.
    Preliminary observation of the rabbits revealed that they were two cute, fuzzy, healthy and normal little fur balls. Nothing had changed in their blood or with their vital signs. This was great news.
    The scientific and medical community back at the Ark felt that they had these Yin-Yang Twins under control. Whether that assessment was prudently accurate or foolishly ignorant remained to be seen.

COMMUNICATION ENTRY:
    FROM: [email protected]
    TO: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]
     
    As most of you have probably heard or read by now Odyssey has discovered a multi-celled organisms living on one of the bones found on the GidX7 surface. They are made mostly of salt and ammonia and acid. We are not sure of every chemical yet. They do not have a recognizable sequence of DNA, at least not in a form we have been able to read or understand yet.
    The most interesting new fact about them: they’re growing. How much and into what remains to be seen. At this point, we conclude it is a multi-cellular based life. There is no cause for alarm. Our brave new world just got a lot more interesting.
    Every six hours these things have doubled in size and then split in half during a binary fissure process. We have named them the Yin-Yang Twins.
    Since the