Age of Cosmic Exploration Chapter 147

Chapter 147: Life? Spaceship?
Suffice to say, the dispatch unit’s good mood was entirely ruined by the appearance of the meat monster.
No one had any leisure left to admire the planet’s beauty, so they rushed through their mission mechanically.
Their hearts heavy with worry, the dispatch unit returned to the Hope. After the necessary decontamination procedure, the 15-member unit was escorted to a secret meeting where more than 100 attendees were already waiting.
"…These are the results of our surveillance thus far."
Yao Yuan explained from the podium. Behind him was a 3-D image of the planet they were on and its two orbiting moons.
"This planet has 2 moons. To prevent confusion, we shall refer to the first moon as Moon 1. Moon 1 is 1/6 the size of Earth’s moon, and the second moon naturally will be called Moon 2… Then again, rather than a moon, it is more akin to this planet’s binary star, as it is only smaller than this planet by 0.17 percent. It has its own atmosphere, terrain, and ecosystem…
"I understand this is hard to believe, especially for the scientists in the room, because scientifically speaking, it is statistically improbable to find a life-supporting planet in space. What’s more is that we have stumbled upon a pair of life-supporting binary stars. They orbit around one another, seemingly unaffected by each other’s gravity field. This is indeed a space miracle.
"However!"
The mood of the room changed as Yao Yuan’s expression turned grim. "That was not all that we’ve found! Operator, please post the enlarged image of Moon 2!"
A second later, the original image was swapped out for the zoomed in satellite picture of Moon 2. Using those, a constructed 3-D image of the moon of half a meter in diameter was projected in the middle of room.
The planet's surface still maintained several traces of greenery, but its sea was nothing more than a giant gulf. All of the water had been dried up, and the planet's surface was so arid that it was cleft with cracks. A giant, meat-like pipe of several tens of thousands in diameter encircled the planet's surface. The branching, muscular pipe appeared to be completely welded into the moon, as if it was sucking it dry from within.
The moon’s biggest land mass… was covered with an unknown muscular layer, and the pipe appeared to be connected to this layer… "Based on our surveillance data, this muscular layer is about 2,400 meters above sea level and covers ¼ of the moon’s surface. So far, we have no clue as to this… thing’s identity. Is it alive? Is it an alien weapon or a mineral collector like the plant on Planet Sahara? We don’t know."
After some minor commotion in the audience, a scientist pressed the speech button. He requested, "Captain, can you pull up the heat distribution schematics for this creature?"
A surprised Yao Yuan answered, "Of course. Operator, you heard the man."
A military man punched in a few controls and the colors of the 3D image changed. Most of the muscular landmass was in shades of red, orange, and yellow, while the rest of the planet was in blue, signifying its low temperature. Within the muscular landmass, there were 4 notable points that shone with a white light. Those were places of high altitude on the map.
"…According to the data, these 4 spots have a temperature of more than 10,000 degrees with a possible maximum temperature of 100,000 to 1,000,000 degrees…" Yao Yuan read from the numbers that appeared on screen.
More commotion ensued until a scientist stood up and announced, "Captain, we suspect that this is a spaceship!"
Yao Yuan was stunned. He asked hurriedly, "A spaceship? A vehicle to travel through space?"
The scientist nodded. "Yes. As we can see, this unknown object is collecting resources by absorbing it directly from the moon. The materials are siphoned through the pipes to be use

d as energy reagents. That is the only plausible explanation to why those 4 spots could reach such a high temperature. Those are energy reactors of some sort. Therefore, this is a spaceship we’re looking at."
Right then, another scientist pressed the speech button, asking, "But Professor Peter, why couldn’t this be an animal organism? It looks just like one!"
Peter retorted, "Then where could such an organism come from? The fact that there is only 1 such creature on this moon and it has no competition means that it probably didn’t originate on this moon. Furthermore, from a biological perspective, an organism with this mass and size can’t logically exist!"
Yao Yuan halted the argument by asking, "Sorry to interrupt, but could everyone slow down for a minute? Can someone explain to me what is this origin planet and illogicality that Professor Peter spoke of?"
Ivan stepped forth to answer. "Captain, let me explain. First, venturing in space has broken many of biology’s accepted rules. For example, silicon-based and nitrogen-based organisms are no longer stuff of science fiction. However, one biological truth has remained uncontested, and that is the biological need for reproduction.
"Be it through sexual reproduction, asexual reproduction, mitosis, or even other methods that we’ve not seen before, the aim of reproduction is to ensure an organism’s continuity. For continuity to occur, the offspring can’t be biologically different from its parent. Such is the iron rule of biology. We see this replicated in every organism that we know; microbes breed microbes and rabbits breed rabbits. It is impossible for microbes to breed rabbits, as that is just preposterous. Even if there’s evolution, it occurs across a long time with the bad genes gradually eliminated by natural selection. Organism A couldn’t just become organism B across 1 generation. This should be true for all space organisms, or else there wouldn’t be any civilizations or races."
Ivan paused to point at the 3-D landmass. "So if we assume that that thing is a living organism… this means that its previous generation would also be about the same size and mass. Could you envision a planet big enough to support such a group of living organisms? Think about it, the planet would have to be at least 10,000,000 times bigger than this planet! For a planet that size, its gravity would simply doom its inhabitants. Furthermore, the planet would implode upon its gravitational pressure, so logically speaking, such a giant organism is impossible."
Another scientist piped up. "Then couldn’t the organism have mutated? Even though I’m not a biologist, I understand mutation can bring some drastic changes."
Ivan replied firmly, "You’re right. Under the influence of radiation or other odd circumstances, an organism can undergo dramatic evolutionary changes. That was why Professor Peter has asked for a heat distribution schematics of this thing… My fellow colleague, do you think it is possible for an organism to even evolve to a stage where it can innately learn how to fuse hydrogen to create atomic energy? This is beyond pure biological knowledge, for it involves familiarity with the fields of electromagnetism, atomic energy, and metallurgy to name a few. These are all 4th revolution technologies, but this ‘organism’ is using them!"
The scientist contemplated for a long time before conceding. "You’re right. If that’s the case, this ‘organism’ has to be a spaceship. Perhaps instead of focusing on mechanics and robotics, this alien race has ventured deep into the studies of biology and genetics…"
Yao Yuan waited for them to finish before adding, "So this thing could be an organic spaceship… This means that its owner has crossed into 4th or even 5th revolution by now. We can’t eclipse any possibilities at this point. However, the bigger question is, will they cross over to this planet?"
Everyone started arguing amongst themselves again, but no one dared to speak their mind. Regardless of its identity, since it had shown the intention to drain the moon of its resources, then it would be illogical to expect it to leave the other similar planet alone… It would descend upon the planet they were on sooner or later.
"…Since no one can be sure, let’s find out more first."
Yao Yuan sighed as he spoke into the communicator. "Fire 10 remote controlled S grade mini AI probes, the ones we salvaged from the junkyard… I want a close-up of this organism within the next 10 minutes!"

Chapter end