Xenoderm 5

Coming over the lip of the crater I encounter a view that brings me back to the forests of my childhood; although, they could not be more different. With one exception: a fascinating white sphere.

When I was young, perhaps eight or nine, I remember discovering in the forest behind our Colorado home an enormous puffball mushroom. I’d never seen one before and I felt that rush of discovery and curiosity that every child knows and craves.

White against the brown forest litter, the mushroom’s surface was a complex series of polygonal cracks and was the most alien thing I’d ever seen in the forest. It seemed out of place. Something from another world, dropped there from God knows where. But as I tried to lift it, I could feel the attachment to the earth as it gave way to my grasp. Remaining in the small crater of soil was a network of thin fibers, like the hairs of mold on leftovers in the back of the refrigerator. And so my path was laid, my eyes strayed less and less towards the trees, the rocks, birds, reptiles or other inhabitants of this shared ecosystem; and was instead focused upon discovering the world of fungus.

White against the dull primer grey of the asteroid, seeing Xenoderm 5 for the first time with my own eyes is like seeing that puffball for the first time and all the rest of the occupants of my vision fade from consideration.

During my career as a mycologist I’ve held thousands of mushrooms. Now, I was going to live in one.

At least until it exploded.

(edited)

I’m sure there are other examples.

But, yeah, it’d be a great setting.

What do we do, now that we know? Go or no go? Not could we, would we?

Is anyone still there? Do they have some leftover nukes?

(I haven’t read Turtledove’s story)

*Imagine the discussions here on the HZ…now that’d be fun!

Exploiting a single one of these would be a crime. But what if there were more out there? If there were ten? A hundred? Maybe it’s dead, an empty -but useful- shell…

Just having fun imagining. That’s why this is on the Science Fiction board.

A horrible thing to consider, scientifically speaking, but you know humans.

We will find things like that “out there”, and even stranger things, unimaginable ecosystems. Perhaps its a symbiotic organism, coexisting with other spacefaring species, like algae, barnacles and and shipworms attached to the hulls of old sailing vessels, or larvae carried from one ocean to another in the ballast water of supertankers and container ships.

But your critter will have enormous economic value. It would be our first look at an alternate biochemistry. Much of our industry today is based on organic chemistry; imagine how valuable it would be to have an alternative biochemistry’s complex molecules to study. In fact, it would be absolutely imperative to protect the organism from commercial exploitation, to ensure that private enterprise wouldn’t rush to commercialize the creature and commodify its juices. Think of the carrier pigeon, or the buffalo, sharkfin soup and rhinocerous horn.

There are wonderful new creations in the cold and dark, and, no doubt, unspeakable horrors too. I’m ready to go now. Where do I sign up?