The terminal quietly beeped twice to alert the operator that its latest process had been completed. Although barely distinguishable from the various other noises in the research station, the entire crew leapt up as if it was an ear-piercing critical alarm.
“The results are in, lads!”
“Stop calling us lads. You’re the only man here.”
“I call everyone lads! Now’s not the time. Look!”
The three researchers huddled around the terminal, bug-eyed. There was life in the ice core samples they had. Confirmed non-Earth life. On a non-Earth moon.
“Three hundred and fifty-seventh time lucky, eh!” cried Andrew, dancing a jig. “We’ve hit the jackpot!”
The next few hours passed in a blur as Catriona set about the task of programming the station AI to isolate and analyse the bacterial life they had extracted.
Flopping back in her seat, Isla fetched her tablet and saw the blinking blue envelope icon she had been avoiding. It was from Osiris PMG, the extrasolar corporation that had contracted them to find promising new mining locations. They needed an update. She didn’t have one. Until now.
“Listen to this Corpo prick, Jeffries… “We cannot, unfortunately, authorise your next supply drop without results. There is, however, a lifetime of work if you can fulfil the promises that led to the award of this contract.”
“Yeah, he’s Osiris: growth or death,” Catriona snorted at her own joke, “but if these models show what the AI thinks it does, he’s gonna have to make good on that lifetime of work he’s hinting at.”
Andrew was still marvelling at the simulations on the terminal. “The bacteria just seems to affect the brains of mammals,” he said, shaking his head. “Makes no sense to me; mammals only appear on Earth. Bloody hell. Life only appears on Earth.”
Andrew worked in geology, not in biology. His work on this dig had been relatively quick and easy, given they had found nothing of note. Again.
“What does this mean?” he asked, while selecting a passage of text from his screen. “I’ve turned on the ‘Plain English’ mode so I can work out what the hell this all means, but it’s still a bit over my head.”
Andrew clicked, and the station’s tinny speakers burst into life, “Initial synaptic connections form at five to seven times faster than normal. Within seconds, there is a 99% chance you will see a sustained dendritic explosion in the infected subject.”
“What it says, Andrew,” replied Catriona, wandering over to look over his shoulder, “is that it has the potential to turn you into a learning machine. You could even be as smart as me.”
Andrew smirked and stood up, “I don’t think anything would make me as clever as you think you are, but even my sub-genius brain tells me that there has to be some form of trade-off.”
“Actually, that’s quite smart for you. Are you sure you haven’t been infected already?” Catriona joked, as she sat in his seat and started typing at the terminal. “I’m gonna set up multiple AI models to look at that side of things and run more simulations.”
“Hey, Isla, have you asked that Osiris boy for champagne to be included in our next supply run, yet?” Andrew cheerily asked, while doing the universal hand sign for drinking.
Isla sighed, “I think we should wait for the AI to run this analysis and let us know exactly what we’ve found first. Remember the Arctic ice core incident? Millions died. I don’t want to be known as the researcher who released a superbug on the Earth and wiped out half the population.”
Andrew jumped back comically, raising his hands like she had pulled a gun on him. “Isla, are you mad? We’ve just found life! We were looking for a chunk of rock to strip mine and we found alien life! Anything bad happens, it’ll be Osiris who’ll take the blame and I’ll cry into my big pile of cash.”
Isla threw the tablet into the cushions and stood up. “Whatever is left of it after you’ve paid your bookie.” she snapped. “And anyway, do you trust Osiris to actually pay us for what they will argue is rightfully theirs, by contract? They already stiffed us on compensation on this one, and not for the first time.
Catriona spun her seat around and cut in, sensing Isla’s temper rising, “We’ve still got five days before Osiris expects a response from us. Let’s sit on it for that time until we know more. Then we can give them everything we have and see what they want to do about it.”
Andrew turned back to his terminal. “Fine, but I reckon we’re on to a winner here,” he mumbled.
The next few days passed in relative silence. Isla spent time on the routine maintenance required after every dig. Catriona worked on AI models analysing the bacteria. Andrew spent most of his time brooding and reading. His terminal simply showed a countdown.
It was on the fifth day that Catriona broke the tension by laughing at something on her screen. Isla and Andrew rushed over.
She pointed to a line in a document, jabbing her fingers towards the glass, “Look at this!” she laughed.
Andrew rubbed his stubble as he read, “Ok, can you turn your plain English mode on and explain what this means?”
“Well, the initial report saying all that stuff about this thing making you super brainy seems right enough, but the final investigation on the downsides just popped up, and it says… it’ll also kill you, haha!”
A short chime sounded, and the voice of the disembodied station AI voice announced, “You now have twelve hours left before the window for a further supply drop closes.”
The three researchers moved to the common area. Isla and Catriona sat back, exhausted. Andrew, standing, started with “Ok, so what do we know? The full analysis has finished and infection from this alien bacteria will light your brain up and make you super brainy, but, what?”
“The average person dies in roughly 300 days from the ATP demand.” Catriona replied. “That’s the brain’s energy stores. But given our limited AI processing ability up here, I have no idea if we can simulate any kind of mitigation for this. Research absolutely needs to continue back home.”
“I’ll tell you what won’t be limited, my bank acc …”
Andrew didn’t manage to get his full sentence out before Isla started up.
“No, I’ve told you before, there is no way Osiris pays us an extra penny for this. They are just gonna take it and we’ll have to be grateful for the contract renewal.”
Andrew grabbed a heavily annotated printout of the full contract from his desk, and slapped the thick stack of paper down on the coffee table in front of Isla. He rapidly flipped through the stack of papers until he found the one he was looking for. He stabbed his fingers at a section he had vigorously circled multiple times.
Isla read aloud, “Scope: mineral and metal extraction opportunities. Hmmm.”
They both looked towards Catriona. “I don’t think we can know either way, without additional input from lawyers. What we do know is that we have less than twelve hours to decide whether we tell Osiris what we found and see where things lie with compensation.”
Isla sighed, and rubbed her brow with her finger and thumb. “Ok, I have an idea”, she muttered before she pulled out her tablet and started furiously tapping out an email draft.
Moments later, she spun the tablet around on the table and pushed it towards her colleagues. “Read it.”
Mr Jenkins,
Apologies for the delay. The truth is, we have incredibly exciting news.
I have attached the full report, but the headline is that we have found life out here, and it has incredible potential for the human race.
After a thorough review of our mining research contract (also attached), we are happy to offer Osiris first bid, before we open the bidding to other interested parties.
We look forward to meeting you or other representatives along with our next supply drop.
Dr. Isla Campbell
“Ok, so what do you think?” Isla asked, her finger hovering over the send button.
“Why not?” Andrew grinned. “Either way, lads, we are incredibly rich.”
“Imagine not having to struggle from contract to contract. Not having to work. That security would be nice, Isla.” Catriona added.
The glow from the tablet illuminated Isla’s face as she re-read her email. “Well, whatever we decide, we need to remember that this decision will change our lives forever, and probably humanity. What is it worth? And is it worth it?”
The decision hung heavily in the air between them. The white noise of the station’s life support system thrummed indifferently, momentarily punctured by a soft ‘click’.
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