The Code of Life

The Code of Life



Gretchen, walked into the observation room of the the Beagle Project where she found Isaac perusing the data feeds.  Gretchen is the mission documentation and archiving specialist and Isaac is the mission communication engineer.

“Anything new yet”, asked Gretchen.

“You bet!”, exclaimed Isaac without looking away from the data.  “The probe’s arrived at Epsilon and it’s everything we’ve hoped for.”

“And you didn’t report it?!” said Gretchen.

Isaac appeared not to notice Gretchen’s concern as he continued watching his display.  So Gretchen immediately sent a notice to the rest of the team and started examining the data feed at her station.

“How long has the probe been sending data?”, said Gretchen.

“About an hour now”, said Isaac.

“What are you watching?”, said Gretchen.

“The launch of the probes and the orbiter”, said Isaac.  “I just can’t get enough of watching them.  When I die, I want to come back as a lander.”

Gretchen was fuming.

“I can’t believe you didn’t tell anybody that the probe arrived”, said Gretchen.

“Look, this is our fifth planet in the Epsilon system”, said Isaac.  “So it’s beginning to get kind of routine given the fact that we have yet to find any life here.  Everybody knew we would probably start getting data this morning.  Besides, even though the data was sent about ten years ago, the signal’s strong and it’s all being recorded.  So we’ll be scouring through this data for the next ten years.”

Justin, the Beagle Project team lead walked into the room.

“All I want to know, is there any sign of life”, said Justin.

“Not yet”, said Isaac.  “But it looks promising.  The world looks old enough to support life and all the basic ingredients seem to be there.  We’re still waiting for the landers to touch down.”

Nancy, the team’s exobiologist, arrived and went straight to her station.  A second later, Stephan, the team’s geologist arrived.

“So where are we at?”, asked Stephan, as he made his way to his workstation.

“Nancy, are you getting your feed?’, asked Justin.

“Yep!”, replied Nancy.  “But there’s nothing to report yet.  It’s on hold until the landers start sending back data.”

“Me too”, said Stephan.  “I’m getting the feed from the Beagle but nothing from the landers yet.”

“So who’s been here the longest?”, asked Justin as he looked back and forth at Gretchen and Isaac.

“Isaac’s been here for an hour”, said Gretchen, “but I only got here a couple of minutes ago.”

“O.K., Isaac, tell us what you know”, said Justin.

“Uhhhh…”, said Isaac, as he stalled as long as he could before finally tearing himself away from the Probe’s video showing the launch of the orbiter and the landers.  Isaac stood up smiling and looked around the room at his team mates.  “Alright, as we know, the planet is about three times as big as Earth.  What we’re starting to find out is that the planet is not a gas giant or even a liquid planet but something a little different.  There’s a molten iron core surrounded by a mantle of metals and minerals.  Then there’s a thick crust of ice covered with an ocean of liquid methane.  In short, it’s not very dissimilar to our own Titan, except bigger.  As far as any life on the planet, we’ll have to wait until the landers get themselves set up and start relaying data back through the Beagle.

“So, in other words, nothing new”, said Nancy, sarcastically.  This brought snickers from Gretchen and Stephan.  Isaac grimaced disappointedly at his derisive colleagues.

“Not really”, continued Isaac.  “But at least we now have actual data which backs up our suppositions.  And… because I’m so good at my job, each of your workstations now have two data feeds: One with all the data and another filtered with data specific to your specialty.

“Oh, cool”, said Stephan.

“Yeah, I thought so”, said Isaac.

“Not  you Isaac”, said Stephan.  “The landers are coming online.”

The team spun around to their displays and started entering commands.

“The first one who finds life gets a prize”, said Justin.  But the team was too absorbed in their work to notice Justin’s pronouncement.

A few minutes later Nancy let out a celebratory scream.

“There’s life!”, said Nancy.  “Lots of it!  Hey Isaac! How much longer before we get video?”

“The first one will come up in another minute”, said Isaac.  “The other landers are spacing themselves pretty much equally over the planet so it’ll be about an hour before they’re all online.”

“Isaac, put the video feed up on the main screen, please”, said Justin.

“Already done”, said Isaac.  “As soon as we get the feed we’ll all be able to see it.”

“What is the data telling you Nancy”, said Gretchen.

“It’s hard to say at this point”, said Nancy.  “The computer’s having trouble identifying individual life forms because it needs more data.  Once I can see the life forms I can help the computer separate and classify them.”

“Here it comes”, said Isaac.

“Whoa!  This is amazing”, said Justin.  “What can you tell us Nancy?”

“Give me a few minutes please”, said Nancy.  “There’s a lot going on here so it will take me a while to get the computer up to speed.”

“It looks a lot like our own oceans”, said Stephan.

“Except it’s liquid methane”, said Gretchen.

“Is it just me, or do these life forms seem primitive?”, said Justin.

“Based on the creatures I’ve catalogued so far”, said Nancy, “we’re looking at only 30 million years of evolution.  So yeah, life on this world is relatively young.”

“Have you run the test?”, said Isaac.

“What’s the rush?”, said Nancy.  “There’s plenty of life here.  It’ll take a week just to catalogue what’s nearby.”

“That’s not the point”, said Isaac.

“He’s right”, said Justin.  “Run the test first and then we can decide whether or not we’ll go to phase II.”

“O.K.”, said Nancy.  “I’ll run the test.”

Nancy entered some commands into her computer and waited for the results.  A few seconds later the video display froze and started highlighting various life forms.  As each life form was highlighted, the computer superimposed the same message over every one: Static Genetic Coding Match = 30%.

“Yep!  They’ve been here too”, said Justin.

“Damn!”, said Nancy.

“This is crazy”, said Stephan.

Justin entered some commands into his computer and another face showed up on the main screen.  It was the Project Director Raymond Jasper.

“By the looks on your faces I take it you’ve found another one”, said Director Jasper.

“That’s right”, said Justin.  “How do you want us to proceed?”

“You know, I’m tired of waiting”, said Director Jasper.  “Go to Phase II.  We’ll piggyback our code on top of theirs”

“Are you sure Director?”, said Nancy.  “We can’t be sure this will work.”

“And we never will if we don’t try.  ”, said Director Jasper, “What if whoever put this genetic code into our world, did the same to every other populated world in the galaxy?”

“Then won’t those worlds evolve just like ours did?”, said Gretchen.

“Yes”, said Director Jasper.  “But this world will be influenced by our code as well.  Besides, we need to know what will ultimately evolve out of their code.  Our code will accelerate that evolution.”

“But you’re tampering with the life of another world”, said Nancy.

Everybody in the room was stunned that Nancy was protesting.  Even Nancy.

“Yes we are”, said Director Jasper.  “It’s your job.  We trained you for it.  So if you have a problem with doing this then let us know and we’ll have somebody replace you.”

“That won’t be necessary Director Jasper”, said Justin.  “Nancy doesn’t have any ethical issues with what we’re doing.  Do you, Nancy.”  Justin was looking at Nancy with an emotionless expression.

“No, not at all”, said Nancy.  “I don’t know what got into me just now.”

“I’m glad to hear that”, said Director Jasper.  “How long before you’ve designed the code for implantation?”

“Two weeks tops”, said Justin.

“Very well”, said Director Jasper.  “We’ll initiate Phase II and launch the probe when you’re ready.  Justin, can I have a word with you in private?”

“Yes sir”, said Justin.  “I’ll call you back from my office.”

As Justin left the room, everybody was thinking the same thing.  Nancy might not be with them much longer.

…

When Justin got to his office, he called Director Jasper.

“What’s up?”, asked Justin.

“Has Nancy been receiving regular injections of the inhibitor?”, asked Director Jasper.

“We all have, Director”, said Justin.

“I think we should increase her dose”, said Director Jasper.  “But she doesn’t need to know.”

“That can be arranged”, said Justin. 

“Maybe you should all increase your dosage”, said Director Jasper.  “I mean, we can’t have that alien genetic code asserting itself at this point of the operation, can we?”

“No sir, absolutely not”, said Justin.

“In fact, just to be sure, I’m sending a security team over there just to be sure everything goes smoothly”, said Director Jasper.

“Of course, Director”, said Justin.  “If you really think that’s necessary.”

…

Meanwhile, the team begins computing the variables for implanting the life forms of this distant world with synthetic genomics.  Phase II will accelerate the expression of the static genetic code they already possess.

“Do you think they’ll figure out we did this?’, said Nancy.

“Who, the aliens that implanted the life of this world with their genes?”, said Gretchen.  “No more than we would if somebody else came along and did the same thing in another 30 million years.”

“Won’t there be a conflict”, asked Isaac.

“Probably”, said Gretchen.  “But our world has always had conflict.

“Maybe the human race was so conflicted because someone else did to us what were doing to this world”, said Nancy.

“Well, then they’ll have to work it out just like we did”, said Stephan.

“What are you watching Isaac?”, asked Nancy.

“I’m watching the launch of the Orbiter and the Landers”, said Isaac.

“Again!?”, said Gretchen.

“I just can’t get enough of them”, said Isaac.

“I don’t see why”, said Nancy, “they give me the creeps.”

“They’re special”, said Isaac.  “We made them perfect.  They do what they do and we reap the benefits.”

“They’re genetic machines”, said Stephan.  “I’m with Nancy, they give me the creeps too.  Sure we created them and I’ll even go so far as to say they’re alive.  But they’re so different from every other form of life on our world.  Well, it’s just that there’s something not right about them.”

“I’ll tell you what you don’t like about them”, said Isaac.  “They’re pure.  They have a single purpose to their existence and they’re completely fulfilled.  You have no appreciation for the simplicity of their minds.”

“I don’t think that’s it”, said Stephan.  “I think it’s because they don’t share any genetic code with us.  I think our minds recognize at the genetic level that these things are very, very different from us and that’s why we don’t trust them.”

“Well I trust them”, said Isaac.  “They’re pure.  Perfectly pure.”

…

The team continued working together for many years but none of them would ever know how their changes to this world would have repercussions for future generations of humanity.  And it would be the living beings they created to perform the duties on these worlds who would play a major role in creating those repercussions.







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