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

dawn of the space age the search for the existence of extra-terrestrial life has been, arguably, the most important goal sought by space exploration. Too often, before the Copernicus telescope, we became blinded by our familiarity and predisposition to find a place with carbon and Earth like conditions. But what if life on other planets doesn’t require carbon or even oxygen?
    As part of this search, finding a habitable planet has always been about a few important details: size of the planet, its distance from its star and the presence of vital gaseous elements like oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. Even with the high probability of life on a planet like red Mars, life of any kind has been silently absent up here in the stars. Now that we’ve made the discovery on GidX7, we have achieved what others have only dreamed about. Since the first rocket explorations in the mid-twentieth century, the human race has been looking for any sign of life somewhere other than Earth. Life has often been seen as some cosmic irony, just a fluke of randomness that defies understanding. But to the optimists and those familiar with Drake’s Equation, others have fervently believed that there was no statistical way that we are alone in the universe. For several modern centuries popular mythology has ingrained in the public’s collective fears and desires that alien life would come in the form of little green men of superior intellect and technological innovations. While microscopic cellular parasitic life doesn’t really have the sizzle or the razzle-dazzle of bug-eyed hominids that look vaguely like us, finding an alien microbe is still the discovery of a lifetime.
    Let us not forget that we have also discovered a very intriguing skeletal remains of an unidentified alien origin. This discovery leads us to ask some very interesting questions. What else is down there? Is it friend or foe? Is it like us or not? Is it even still breathing? Still moving around? Still alive? Was it ever alive? Does it breathe the way we do? Does it even need to breathe? All are worthy questions that we hope to answer in the coming days and weeks and even years.
    For three centuries, we have labored in the stars, around them, near them, hoping to prove that the human race is not alone. We have much work and experimentation ahead of us but I know we are ready for any challenge that presents itself. We would not be here now without the fortitude and vision of heroic explorers and scientists who came before us. Truly, this is the work of a lifetime where we are standing on the shoulders of giants. Let us continue to build upon their insights and explorations, their fears, their passions and their unanswered questions.
    Or, perhaps, there is more to their tiny survival? More study will be needed. In an innocent way, we believe, Sam’s sweat falling on the bone was Genesis writ small, microscopic small. For in the beginning the Earth and all of life was without form and the spirit of creation, what believers called God, moved upon the face of the waters and there was lightness and darkness, day and night and there was life, abundant life that was both big and microscopic. Brief, though conclusive experiments have proven that our sweat and saliva contribute to the growth of the Yin-Yang Twins. In water alone, there is no growth. In salt alone, also no growth. Even in a salt-water mixture there’s no growth.
    Given the conditions of our most recent rabbit experiment we are now confident that the Yin-Yang Twins do not transmit via the air. Rather, transmission occurs through touch or sweat or saliva. In a sense this is very good news, though it is tempered by other more alarming news.
    We have determined that the blood tests of each rabbit confirm that the little Yin-Yang Twins in the rabbits aren’t dying. In fact, the little Yin-Yang Twins are speeding up and multiplying in both rabbits. Thus, we would classify this as a potentially malignant organism, an infection that