Fall in Paradise

"Moonshot, tapping in."

“What’s the status on 285978 in Area 74? Vecrum Group, do you read?”

“Roger, Moonshot. Area 74 is cleared - negative.”

Parker Estez lifted her hand from the comm switch and exhaled in quiet frustration. “What am I even doing here?” she muttered. Six years she had spent drifting among rocks and silence, searching for a nearly undetectable microalgae in the asteroid belt, and she had found absolutely nothing. What stung worse than the barren years was the knowledge that finding nothing might actually be a good thing. Probably.

In the dawning age of synthetic intelligence, the world’s hunger for precious metals grew insatiable. Data centers, battery production, and quantum processors devoured resources by the megaton, and soon Earth began to look outward - to the stars, and to the cold, ancient stones of the asteroid belt. Out there, far beyond Mars, humanity found vast fields of dense, exotic metals unseen on Earth since the planet’s birth. What followed was a frenzy that history would remember as the Cosmic Gold Rush - though this time the gold was measured in platinum, iridium, osmium, and money beyond imagination. Corporations and governments alike plunged into space, carving empires from drifting stone. It became, in every sense, a new Wild West.

And in the Wild West, one must always expect the unexpected.

It began, as so many catastrophes do, as an innocent curiosity. Shipments of asteroid ore sent back to Earth, destined for semiconductor refineries, were occasionally found to contain traces of biological material. Simple microbiological remnants. Nothing alive.

At first, it was a single unknown strain. Then another. Then dozens. Then thousands.

How strange, the shape life would take beyond Earth. For all of the imagined science fiction horror, it wasn't tentacled beasts or silver-eyed creatures, but the humblest form of existence: a microorganism.

These dead alien specimens were studied with feverish excitement. Their molecular structures carried secrets unknown to Earth’s evolutionary path. Their discovery would lead to cancer treatments, anti-viral breakthroughs, even therapies capable of slowing cognitive decay and aging. One good thing led to another, until it didn’t.

On July 28th, 2035, a particular specimen, classified only as P-117 arrived in a shipment from a large asteroid. Unlike the others, P-117 was found alive upon exposure to Earth’s atmosphere. It was not a bacterium, nor viral, nor fungal. It was, for lack of a better term, an algae, though of a kind never seen before in nature.

It was discovered by a Chinese corporation operating on contract in the United States, and before either government could contain the discovery, the news reached the world through thousands of hungry social feeds.

ALIENS. A foreign life alive on Earth! 

With nothing known of the organism’s behavior, P-117 was quickly transferred to a secured laboratory in Ohio, run by the World Health Organization in partnership with United Earth Agencies. There, a team of xenobiologists began simple environmental tests: temperature variance, gas exposure, and elemental saturation.

The testing didn't last long.

A researcher introduced less than one-tenth of a gram of the algae to salt water - a compound assumed to be neutral. Instead, the reaction was immediate and catastrophic. The alien biomass began to expand at an exponential rate, consuming space as it grew. Within ten minutes, the organism filled not only its containment chamber but the entire inner laboratory, crushing equipment and every scientist inside. The chambers swelled grotesquely within the building like a blister ready to burst. It took eighteen hours before the alien mass ceased expansion. After a week, it finally receded and died.

The world understood then, with terrifying clarity: had that organism reached the sea, had it touched even a single ocean it might have taken a day or two for it to clench a grip over the entire planet, just as it did the walls of the unfortunate testing center. 

Asteroid mining was condemned and outlawed by the United Nations soon after. But laws do not kill desire, and the belt still glittered with unimaginable fortune. So miners returned, drawn by greed, desperation, or duty. And in the shadows of that forbidden frontier, survey crews like Parker Estez’s were dispatched; Most to mine and some, to nobly hunt a new enemy of humanity.

That’s where she lived, nowhere, searching for something terrible, hoping to make a difference in an endless sea.

---

Sometimes it feels to me like, I don't know where we are in the story... in the big story. History, you may know as "His Story" is a way of saying the story of god. I'm not meaning to debate gender in linguistics; I deliberately made the protagonist of today's tale female, and I think anyone reading could put themselves in Parker's shoes. What I mean to say is that the rate of change and pace of life is so fast, artificial intelligence in everything that can create a new world in moments - it can be hard to stay inspired, knowing what a tiny blip of a microorganism we actually are in the expanding march of the universe. Hosting Greyt Big Talk has always felt so good to me, meeting fascinating people, and discovering new and incredible places. This month, our theme is LEGACY, and while thinking about the past, it draws me to consider what shape our actions today might be making on the future.

For the morning of Friday, October 24th, I've invited an exceptionally influential leader in our community to talk on the theme, while sitting among the final resting sites of many of the world's most impactful people, or so history says. If you have the chance, I hope you'll join us for coffee in the cemetery, to take a break from the bustle and be among fellow travelers on a creative journey.

Yours Truly,

T. Fox GREYT CULTURE // Greyt Letters Archive // About the Letter: This monthly(ish) email goes to GREYT event participants, partners, and others I would like to be aware of the contents of upcoming programs. Event details listed here are subject to change based on input from recipients. Confirmed event details will always be listed through event listings on ThatsGreyt.com - recipients are added and removed periodically at my discretion. If you would like to be a permanent recipient or removed from GREYT emails, reply, and I will comply with kindness. Thanks for reading.