In System 52-22-70, Planet Pinky moved through outer space at remarkable speeds, orbiting around the blue star at the center of the solar system, rotating slowly about its axis.
WHOOSH
Invisibly, the Stellarch orbited the ship, conducting detailed and deep scans of the entire planet with its robust and extensive sensory apparatus. The Stellarch was equipped with all manner of surveillance technology in order to ensure that it could fulfill its purpose as a surveyor, including, of course, the proprietary quantum entropy sensory technology of the Esoterist.
Because the frigate was much smaller than a satellite, it couldn’t easily scan large volumes with its sensors, requiring it to plete sweeping orbits across the entire planet to locate the entropy anomalies across the planet.
However, long before they found what they were actually looking for, they found other indicators of note.
"High-resolution spectrographical analysis of the atmosphere reflects a ten percent presence of oxygen." One analyst transmitted the data to the notification mainframe via her neural inlay. "Too low for human ability, but we estimate that oxygen supply sequestering is very viable on the surface of the planet."
A sigh of relief passed through the five pathwalkers. Life would have gotten much harder if they couldn’t sequester oxygen from the environment. They would have had to rely on more cumbersome solutions.
Since they were pathwalkers of the fourth rank, they couldn’t generate without oxygen by converting matter into energy the way Martial Sages could. While Ria could generate sparks of materia prima, they were high-effort results and not something that she could sustain for long or her life with.
"I can siphon oxygen from the atmosphere through my nature manipulation," Siliscia confidently offered. "I can have a portable supply of oxygen if there’s ten percent oxygen in the atmosphere without the need for exosuits. As long as the land of the planet doesn’t have any highly toxic substances, extreme pH levels, or other highly inpatible conditions with nature, we will be able to breathe freely at all times.
"That’s a relief." Ria directed an appreciative gaze at the elf. "But the exosuits are a must-wear nonetheless."
Biotechnology was generally more efficient than non-organic technology, and if there was a solution that was biotechnological, it was almost certainly going to be more practical than any normal technological solution.
However, more than just relief from the knowledge that sequestering oxygen would be easy, the presence of oxygen had drawn interest from everybody in the mand room.
It was highly suggestive of the presence of life.
Oxygen gas was highly reactive and oxidative. And in an atmosphere of hydrogen, one would almost certainly expect to see oxygen reduce over time through inorganic reactions. There were very few, highly niche circumstances under which oxygen could be generated through inorganic means.
In Gaia, oxygen was generated through flora and nature.
"Have you found other indicators of life?" Siliscia’s eyes lit up with a hint of interest as she got up, strolling over to a row of analysts in charge of analyzing life indicators. "What about the presence of carbon? How prevalent is carbon within the planet?"
Most life was based on a carbon-centric biochemistry. Carbon was one of the most reactive and diverse in the chemistry that it gave rise to, so much so that an entire branch of chemistry was dedicated exclusively to studying the boundless plexity that could emerge with carbon.
There were exceptions, of course, the crystal striders that they had found in the first wave of excursions outside human civilization in an exoplanet not too far away from the Solar System had crystalline lifeforms that were constructed from silicon.
"Yes, spectrographical analysis shows that there is a high presence of hydrocarbons across the surface of the planet." One xenospectrographist lit her eyes with a hint of excitement. "We have detected hydrogen sulphide and even methane! The probability that this star system has life is much higher than we initially thought!"
While the analysts geeked about the discovery, the rest remained relatively calm and posed. Certainly, aliens have always been interesting. But they were not a novelty in the Era of Expansion.
Fifty percent of all exoplanets within the Goldilocks zone around their star harbored some form of life, statistically speaking. Of course, most of the time it was single-celled organisms. plex life was a hundred times as infrequent, while intelligent life had discovered less than a hundred times.
And of them, only one advanced civilization had been discovered across ten thousand stars.
They weren’t surprised that Planet Pinky likely had life.
But the results were more surprising than that.
"T-THIS!" A xenobiologist shrieked with a stunned expression. "This can’t be!"
"What?" Captain Sherman grew alarmed as he stepped forth, leaning on the railing at the helm. "What is it? Is it a threat?"
"No..." Another analyst murmured with a stunned expression. "No, this... This is not possible!"
Captain Sherman lost patience, jumping over the railing and onto the rows of analysts working in the mand room as he walked over to their row. The five pathwalkers followed after him, equally curious as to what got the normally invisible analyst teams in this much of a shocked expression.
"What is it?" Captain Sherman stood before their hologram screens, squinting at the images that the Stellarch had collected.
They were zoomed-in images of... what appeared to be single-celled organisms.
They were certainly different from the ones that were monly learned of in textbooks at school, with much stranger shapes and crazier appendages that made it clear that these were not amoebas or paramecia that everybody was familiar with.
But so what?
"Just microbes." Captain Sherman turned towards the analysts with an irritated expression. "What’s the fuss about this? It’s garden-variety alien life!"
"They’re not microbes..." The analyst’s fingers touched the hologram as she made a zoom-out motion with her fingers. "They are... macrobes."
Captain Sherman frowned. "They’re wha—"
He froze as she zoomed out.
These weren’t microscopic images taken from space.
They were regular images taken with regular resolution and focus.
"This image was taken at a millimeter-per-pixel resolution," the analyst murmured, staring at the screen. "Which means..."
She turned towards the captain and the five stunned pathwalkers behind him.
"...These microbes are one meter in diameter."
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