The salt.
The movement.
The current.
The force.
The effect.
The beauty.
The order.
The time.
There is not:
The not-I.
The not-all.
There no longer is:
The eternity.
There is:
The doubts.
There is:
The questions.
This is the age of questions.
It starts with a point.
December 19, 2046, Valkyrie
Watson woke them at 0800 hours ship time. The smartest people on Earth had decided the voyage should continue downward, into the depths of the ocean, all the way to the bottom. Martin mentally prepared for a period of boredom. Valkyrie tilted its nose, but due to the low gravity, he barely noticed it. Their seats and displays adjusted automatically. There was a brief moment of pressure, and then the vehicle moved at a constant 29 kilometers per hour. They would not have noticed their progress without the instruments that measured the distance covered. The cameras showed the same image from all directions.
Martin asked the AI to display what had been found so far. The list of chemical molecules was long. First, Martin quickly scrolled through them. Maybe there was a pattern the software had overlooked. The crucial question was, could the origin of these compounds be explained purely through chemistry, or was there something that required a biological explanation?
Martin noticed very little ammonia was dissolved in the water. The ice cores of comets that originated during the formation of the solar systems had a significantly higher percentage of ammonia. The ocean must, therefore, be very old to have had enough time to release the now missing ammonia via the Tiger Stripes.
Martin and Francesca seemed to be moving through a reservoir of water older than all of the oceans on Earth. If there was life here, it would have had a lot of time to evolve toward perfection. Scientists had already suspected the water was saltier than in most bodies of water on Earth. Valkyrie reported a current pH value of 11.1, which was slowly increasing with their depth. In the Al Hajar Mountains in Oman there is a mineral called ophiolite that had, in ancient times, been exposed to water with similar pH values. Tectonic movements had formed the mountains, transporting the ophiolite from deep in the Earth’s crust to the surface. The high PH level found here was another indicator that the ocean on Enceladus was enormously old.
This raised another question. From studying the formation of ophiolite, it had been discovered that hydrogen was an important by-product. Hydrogen played a prominent role in the synthesis of organic compounds, and also provided energy for life. If these processes were still ongoing, this ocean, particularly its floor, would be a livable home for microorganisms. Even though I would like to look at the dark sediments at the root of the Tiger Stripes, I can fully understand the decision of the scientists on Earth, Martin reflected.
“Are we there yet?” he asked.
“Yes, my boy, have a little patience.” Francesca played along with the game indicated by Martin’s tone of voice.
“I have to go potty.”
“Just a moment, I am looking for a place to park.” The pilot turned the nose of Valkyrie, as if she was looking for an exit from a highway.
“Approaching solid ground,” Watson reported. At the same moment, Martin saw a fine line appear on the radar display.
“Just the right time,” Francesca said. “We are sure to find a bathroom for you down there.”
It took a few more minutes before they established visual contact. What they saw was completely different from the scene below the ice. Martin was surprised, even though he should have known better. The stone below them, which formed the rocky core of Enceladus, was impermeable to searchlights. It did not shimmer or shine. Francesca turned on the infrared light. The image did not change. She activated the normal searchlights again, but left the infrared camera on.
“Oh!” Martin blurted out. Francesca froze. Several patterns appeared on the screen, and she increased the contrast.
“There are temperature differences of several degrees!” Francesca exclaimed.
Martin checked the calibration. Francesca was right. Were there geological processes that created such an image? Maybe cracks in the rock that transport more heat from the interior than their surroundings?
“Watson, I need an in-depth analysis.” Martin had to find out whether the temperature differences conformed to the structure of the rock. This would be the simplest explanation, but we also have to watch out that our desires do not dictate what we see.
Since she was the pilot, Francesca was required to confirm the order. Then Watson bombarded the area below them with everything their vehicle could muster—gamma rays, x-rays, terahertz, UV, radio waves. These channels had different penetration depths, depending on the rocks, temperature, pressure, and so on. A very precise image of what lay below them would be generated once these measurements were combined.
The calculations took a while, even though they also used the main computer which was connected via the fiber-optic cable. After seven minutes and thirteen seconds—Martin had followed the time with the seconds-display of his watch—they received a result. The silicate-rich rock met their expectations. They were facing the uppermost layer of a differentiated core. Not every moon possessed such a core. Such a temperature distribution had not been detected on any known celestial bodies, save for Earth. This proved energy was produced, distributed, and consumed here. We have caught life red-handed, even though we have yet to discover living beings.
“Do you know what that means, Francesca?” he asked.
The pilot nodded and exhibited a triumphant smile. Martin felt goosebumps on his arms. It is here, extraterrestrial life. Right here, so near we can almost touch it. We have found what mankind has been seeking for so long—and I am part of it! It was stunning, and Martin had to hold on to his table.
What does it look like, though? In order to find out, they would have to take samples. Francesca already knew what to do when the vehicle approached the bottom. The analyzer modules in the jets did not report any significant changes in the composition of the water. It was not the water that represented the biotope, but the bottom, the layer where the alkaline liquid and the rocks reacted to each other. Therefore the percentage of biological material in the geysers was relatively low, and this was also the reason the analyzers had not yet discovered anything.
“Five… four… three… two. Arm range reached,” Watson reported.
“Autonomous hover,” Francesca ordered before she bent over her console and reached into a cavity. This was the ‘glove’ that would transmit her finger movements to the robotic arm at the bow of Valkyrie. The arm was extremely flexible, and during tests its hand had even succeeded in picking up a sheet of paper from a smooth surface. That task was easy by comparison. The fingers were supposed to scrape some coating from the rock.
Martin watched the hand on the monitor. It looks like it is trying to tickle the sea floor. If I were Enceladus, the giant from Greek mythology whose name was given to this moon, I would giggle now. The display could not show what the hand was scratching off the floor. A jet sucked in the material, like a vacuum cleaner, and then analyzed it. However, under infrared light, Martin saw the procedure had changed the structure of the colonization. The hand had reached part of a particularly bright line. The area where the line had ended before was now as dark as the naked surface of the rock.