Chapter 15

One year later...

Kara looked around at the members of the council. "I'm marking the time as 4:48:52 PM Earth time, March 31, 2012, and 8:29:40 AM local time, 254 of 1409."

Kikapua, the current leader of the Hopewell, spoke into the speakerphone at the transfer station, "First contact team, what do you observe?"

"No change sir. The Path remains closed."

"Suggestions, anyone?" asked Kikapua.

"Well," said Anapela, "We should maintain permanent observation, of course. But our hopes that the openings would stabilize at yearly intervals appear unfounded. The most reasonable expectation is that the opening interval is now two years. The last interval was measured at 285 Earth days and 2 seconds. Another factor of two will put the next opening on January 10, 2013 at 4:48:54 PM Earth time, and 6:27:42 PM day 253 of 1410 local time."

Kikapua sighed and looked around the room. "All right... So we wait another year... This is what most of us were expecting. There was no reason to expect the openings to stabilize at yearly intervals... Lois, will you give us a summary report of the current status of your plague analysis?"

"Yes. My latest written report was sent out two days ago. As you all probably recall, it was at the start of this year, at the summer High Sun Festival, that we finally got the two Rapid Gene Sequencers operational. The two month delay was due to the RGS units being dissembled for transport through the spiral tunnel. Over the last fourteen months, my research team has spent much time mapping the genetic traits in the ecosystem here. We have made some startling discoveries."

"We first ran baseline testing of the plants on Aina that are known to be native to Earth. There were some interesting drifts, probably depending on how long each species might have been on Aina, but in general the results met our expectations, and are consistent with our model of the Earth plants arriving here over the last six million years."

"We then tried to test out the RGS units on plants that we were completely certain never evolved on Earth, the green pepper bush and the red sage grass. We spent over a month running diagnostics on both units. They both failed to register the plant materials as even having a DNA structure, let alone being able to read the sequences. It was near the end of summer before we finally moved on to other native plants and animals. The RGS units immediately began producing results, and all the work since has led to our current model of the Aina ecology.

"There appear to be at least four different prime sources for life on Aina, four completely different evolutionary life trees. Some have suggested perhaps one or more might have come from Mahina, since the observations show the planet with a rich biosphere. It's a possibility, but there is no evidence to support the idea."

"The first evolutionary tree we labeled Aina-prime. It includes almost all the species of plants and animals here. Our hypothesis is that this is the original life-tree of the planet. The second evolutionary tree is labeled Earth-prime. The genetic coding is either pure Earth or very nearly Earth with some genetic drifting. All genetic drifting so far is consistent with the idea of the Earth plants being here six million years or less."

"It's the next two trees which are the most baffling. The third tree is labeled super-food. It consists of about forty different plant species. Each one produces an edible fruit, nut, or vegetable. What makes this evolutionary tree so fascinating is that they all produce food that is superbly balanced for human beings. The analogy that comes to my mind is super-premium dog food on Earth, where one food could provide a completely balanced diet for a dog. The plants in super-food are doing the same thing, but for us. But the dog food on Earth is manufactured; the super-food plants here grow wild. It's a double mystery. The first mystery is why would any plant ever evolve to be a completely balanced food source for another species? The second mystery is how could these plants evolve to be a superb food source for humans? Humans were not present in the ecology here until perhaps 10,000 years ago."

"Any finally, the fourth evolutionary group is labeled the X-tree. It currently consists of just two plants, the green pepper bush and the red sage grass. My team is now convinced that these two plants are using a completely different chemical basis for life. Their structures are not using DNA at all. The implications are mind boggling. There is nothing at all similar to them in the ecology, which would suggest they are not native to the planet. We have many great puzzles before us. Our work of understanding Aina ecology is really just beginning. It's unfortunate that the green pepper bush is in the X- tree. We use it in our procreation, and of course everyone here is suspicious that it is providing protection against the plague. But we haven't yet found a tool that would let us analyze it."

Lois paused and looked around the meeting room. "I remember being so startled, more than two Earth years ago, when I first learned of Aina. My mom woke me up with a phone call. I remember the day as if it were yesterday. It was shortly before dawn on January 17, 2009. My mom was saying that Mark and Kara had walked out of the canyon together. The rest of her story didn't make any sense. I drove over and met Va'an and Mayoni for the first time. Va'an was still pregnant with Amy. The days that followed were the most incredible of my life. Part of my difficulty in accepting Mark's story was the absurd description Va'an told me during my examination of her, concerning how women are impregnated on Aina. But Mayoni backed her up. It sounded ridiculous!"