Deception Point Page 90

Face-to-face with him, Rachel felt like a teenager standing(a) on the doorstep with a new boyfriend. Thanks. No problem at all. Really. Something inside her sensed Tolland wanted to kiss her.After a beat, he glowering shyly away. I know. You want to get to shore. We should get to work.For now. Rachel smiled softly.For now, Tolland repeated, taking a oceant at the computer.Rachel exhaled, standing close behind now, savoring the privacy of the menial lab. She watched Tolland navigate a series of files. What are we doing?Checking the database for big ocean lice. I want to see if we can find any prehistoric marine fogys that match what we saw in the NASA meteorite. He pulled up a await rogue with bold letters across the top PROJECT DIVERSITAS.Scrolling through the menus, Tolland explained, Diversitas is essentially a continuously updated index of oceanic biodata. When a marine biologist discovers a new ocean species or fossil, he can toot his horn and grapple his find by uploading data and photos to a central databank. Because theres so much new data discovered on a weekly basis, this is really the simply way to keep research up-to-date.Rachel watched Tolland navigating the menus. So youre accessing the Web now?No. Internet access is tricky at sea. We store all this data onboard on an enormous array of optical drives in the other room. Every time were in port, we tie into Project Diversitas and update our databank with the newest finds. This way, we can access data at sea without a Web connection, and the data is never more than a month or two out of date. Tolland chuckled as he began typing search keywords into the computer. Youve probably heard of the controversial music file-sharing program called Napster?Rachel nodded.Diversitas is considered the marine biologists version of Napster. We call it LOBSTER Lonely Oceanic Biologists Sharing Totally Eccentric Research.Rachel laughed. Even in this tense situation, Michael Tolland exuded a wry humor that eased her fears. She was beginning to realize shed had entirely too little laughter in her life lately.Our database is enormous, Tolland said, completing the initiation of his descriptive keywords. Over ten tera-bytes of descriptions and photos. Theres information in here nobody has ever seen-and nobody ever will. Ocean species are simply too numerous. He clicked the search button. Okay, lets see if anyone has ever seen an oceanic fossil similar to our little space bug.After a few seconds, the bury refreshed, revealing four identifyings of fossilise animals. Tolland clicked on each listing one by one and examined the photos. None looked remotely like the fossils in the Milne meteorite.Tolland frowned. Lets try something else. He removed the word fossil from his search string and hit search. Well search all living species. Maybe we can find a living descendant that has some of the physiological characteristics of the Milne fossil.The screen refreshed.Again Tolland frowned. The computer had returned hundreds of entries. He sat a moment, stroking his now stubble-darkened chin. Okay, this is too much. Lets refine the search.Rachel watched as he accessed a drop-down menu marked habitat. The list of options looked endless tide pool, marsh, lagoon, reef, mid-oceanic ridge, sulfur vents. Tolland scrolled down the list and chose an option that read Destructive Margins/Oceanic Trenches.Smart, Rachel realized. Tolland was limiting his search only to species that lived near the environment where these chondrulelike features were hypothesized to form.The page refreshed. This time Tolland smiled. Great. Only three entries.Rachel squinted at the first name on the list. Limulus poly something.Tolland clicked the entry. A photo appeared the creature looked like an oversized horseshoe skreigh without a tail.Nope, Tolland said, returning to the previous page.Rachel eyed the second item on the list. Shrimpus Uglius From Hellus. She was confused. Is that name for real?Tolland chuck led. No. Its a new species not yet classified advertisement. The cuckoo who discovered it has a sense of humor. Hes suggesting Shrimpus Uglius as the official taxonomical classification. Tolland clicked open the photo, revealing an exceptionally ugly shrimplike creature with whiskers and fluorescent pink antennae. capably named, Tolland said. But not our space bug. He returned to the index. The final offering is He clicked on the third entry, and the page came up.Bathynomous giganteus Tolland read aloud as the text appeared. The scoot loaded. A full-color close-up.Rachel jumped. My God The creature staring back at her gave her chills.Tolland drew a low breath. Oh boy. This guy looks kind of familiar.Rachel nodded, speechless. Bathynomous giganteus. The creature resembled a giant move louse. It looked very similar to the fossil species in the NASA rock.There are some subtle differences, Tolland said, scrolling down to some anatomical diagrams and sketches. But its damn close. E specially considering it has had xcl million years to evolve.Close is right, Rachel thought. Too close.Tolland read the description on the screen Thought to be one of the oldest species in the ocean, the rare and recently classified species Bathynomous giganteus is a kabbalisticwater scavenging isopod resembling a large pill bug. Up to two feet in length, this species exhibits a chitinous exoskeleton segmented into head, thorax, abdomen. It possesses paired appendages, antennae, and compound eyes like those of land-dwelling insects. This bottom-dwelling forager has no known predators and lives in barren pelagic environments previously thought to be uninhabitable. Tolland glanced up. Which could explain the lack of other fossils in the sampleRachel stared at the creature on-screen, harebrained and yet uncertain she completely understood what all of this meant.Imagine, Tolland said excitedly, that 190 million years ago, a brood of these Bathynomous creatures got buried in a deep oce an mud slide. As the mud turns into rock, the bugs get fossilized in stone. Simultaneously, the ocean floor, which is continuously moving like a slow conveyer blame toward the oceanic trenches, carries the fossils into a high-pressure zone where the rock forms chondrules Tolland was talking faster now. And if part of the fossilized, chondrulized crust broke off and ended up on the trenchs increasing wedge, which is not at all uncommon, it would be in a perfect position to be discoveredBut if NASA, Rachel stammered. I mean, if this is all a lie, NASA must(prenominal) have known that sooner or later someone would find out this fossil resembles a sea creature, right? I mean we sound found outTolland began printing the Bathynomous photos on a laser printer. I dont know. Even if someone stepped forward and pointed out the similarities between the fossils and a living sea louse, their physiologies are not identical. It almost proves NASAs case more strongly.Rachel suddenly understood. Panspermia. Life on earth was seeded from space.Exactly. Similarities between space organisms and earth organisms make pure scientific sense. This sea louse actually strengthens NASAs case.Except if the meteorites authenticity is in question.Tolland nodded. Once the meteorite comes into question, then everything collapses. Our sea louse turns from NASA friend to NASA linchpin.