Shadows in the Rift Par VIII
03 May 2017Jellicoe
"Terraformed?" I asked so surprised by Claude's assertion that i doubted the evidence of my own ears. "You're telling me that a planet more than ten thousand light years from the bubble has been Terraformed?" "Yes. Not in a big way, probably little more than some atmospheric seeding but it's had a big impact, you remember I said the air was slightly oxygen rich but not a problem for us?" I nodded despite the fact that I had completely forgotten. "If we'd been here a century ago we wouldn't have been able to, it'd have been a lot colder as well. Something's been done to change the oxygen/nitrogen balance to make it more suitable for our lungs and increase the greenhouse effect, probably within the last fifty years no more than eighty at most.
"How do you know this?" I asked remaining sceptical.
"Data from atmospheric samples at various altitudes, water and rock samples put through computer models. I'd like some ice cores to be absolutely certain but it's an near exact fit for the terraforming process in near earth likes. Did you see any animal life when you were out in the buggy?"
"No I did wonder why not."
Exactly what fits with the computer models, a mass extinction in the very recent past, so recent that surviving species haven't even had time to expand into the space they've left yet."
"That must have been one hell of a mass extinction."
"The computer estimates between 93 and 97% of all species wiped out."
"No natural phenomena that could account for that?" I asked.
"Nothing the computer could find comes close, and we've observed a lot of these kind of planets, there's always the possibility of something we've never seen before but set against the 87% match with the terraforming process, well..." He spread his hands to emphasise the point.
"Comet? Super volcano?" I asked wracking my brains for anything.
"No we'd have picked up traces of anything like that."
"The Dynasty mission?" I asked.
"Can't prove it but it fits with the timings."
"But terraforming's a major operation, could they even have got the kit out here back then?"
Claude ran a hand through his unkempt hair and took a long, deliberate breath before answering. "Two weeks ago I told you it was impossible to have got out here at all thirty years ago, I was wrong, in view of what we've found here I don't think we can say what was and wasn't possible."
"So they came out here, set up a network of beacons, established ground bases and began terraforming entire planets then what? After all that expense the whole thing was abandoned?"
Claude smiled like a teacher seeing the first glimmerings of understanding in a likable but rather slow pupil. "I think that is a very pertinent question, why would they do that?"
"How can we know?" I replied, Claude looked disappointed in me.
"We can't, but we can make some educated guesses. Nobody abandons a project of this scale without very compelling reasons, from what we've discovered what might those be?"
"We've seen it was a disaster, only thing I can think of is whoever was paying for it couldn't afford to keep going." I said well aware my answer was highly unlikely to be satisfactory.
"But why did it end in disaster? They got here, they set up the beacons and began terraforming, why did it go wrong? Think Skipper, what was in the log?"
I thought back to just before Harry's tantrum and cursed my stupidity. "The heat signature! She said it wasn't. They found something out here."
Claude smiled with grim satisfaction, apparently satisfied with my progress. "Exactly, and the lights 'following' them in hyperspace that both missions saw? From what we've found so far my guess is that they found something out here and those back home decided it was best left very well alone."