"What do you mean, it's alive?" Sharon Draper asked. In spite of the fact that the lab's electric heaters were operating at full force, she wore a heavy parka, wool gloves, and could still see the moisture in her breath condensing in the air in front of her face.

It was twenty-one days into a scheduled sixty day exploratory mission of satellite Io. Most of the twenty-one day period had been spent setting up and heavily insulating the six modules that made up the research team's living and working quarters. Two days ago, Commander Kramer had given the okay for studies to be made outside the perimeter of the site. Sharon was conferring with Max Stephens, chief geologist, about some of his findings.

"That's the only way I can explain the random patterns and images the computer has been generating," answered Max. "Somehow the rock samples possess an inherent intelligence and have the capacity to generate a magnetic field which influences our mainframe computer."

Sharon could almost see her name in the headlines now, "Science Officer Discovers Silicon Life Form on Io!" She would no doubt receive a Nobel Prize as the first to discover intelligent life in the solar system, life that was not native to Earth. The fact that Stephens had actually made the discovery was secondary, for she was the senior scientist among the 11 men and women on the Jovian moon.

Io had been an enigma since the first Voyager flybys in 1979. The moon possessed the hottest volcanoes yet discovered in the solar system while most of the surface was composed of ice and rock at a temperature of -229 F.

Eight years after the first manned missions landed in 2041, Sharon's team arrived to conduct detailed exploration. They were part of a multiple mission with discovery teams set down on three of the principle Jovian moons of Io, Europa, and Ganymede. Hopes were high that Ganymede could be Terra-formed for human colonization, while Europa was known to possess the largest source of water outside the orbit of Earth, and might possibly harbor strange life forms in its submarine depths. Each team would later be picked up and assembled at the main base on Ganymede, returning to Earth in their transport vessel.

"And what's your hypothesis, Max?"

"It has to be inorganic life, Dr. Draper. We've ample evidence of such occurring on Earth. Mineral compounds that absorb nutrients directly from other minerals have been known since the 1980's. It's not an illogical extension to assume in the heavy magnetic and gravitational fields of Jupiter, these silicate compounds could form naturally occurring semiconductors. With billions and billions of such semiconductors continually switching on and off, the random patterns could evolve into an artificial intelligence after millions and millions of years."

 

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"You mean you believe this entire moon can be a sentient being, Max?" "Why not, doctor? We've always known that one day Artificial

Intelligence would be created in the laboratory, why couldn't it evolve accidentally out here, nearly 500 million miles from the sun?"

"Before we call out the marching bands, Max, if this is an intelligent life form, we're going to have to establish communication with it."

"I'm trying that now, doctor, but our mainframe doesn't have sufficient speed or capacity for such a large program, so I'm relaying all our data to the giant Cray-17 on Luna. Because of the latency caused by speed of light, we cannot expect to receive any information in less than 69 minutes for the round trip."

"Damn! When will the engineers find a way for us to get around the limitation of 'c'?"

Before Max could answer, the lab was rocked by a severe tremor that set alarm bells jangling throughout the six domes of the facility. "All hands, all personnel, assemble in the cafeteria immediately!" came the voice of Commander John Kramer over the public address.

Sharon and Max rushed through the umbilical tube connecting each dome to the other, not forgetting to shut the gas-tight doors in case there had been a breech in the stations' hull. When all eleven scientists and crew were assembled in the refectory, Kramer spoke to them. Sharon stood beside her friend, Virginia Westcott, the team medical officer.

"Gentlemen," Commander Kramer said, "and ladies," with a slight bow to Sharon and Virginia, "a fissure has opened not more than 300 meters from the periphery of this station. I've been forced to request an evacuation shuttle from our main base on Ganymede. Observations using our optical pyrometer indicate a slow but steady lava flow of more than 12,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Dr. Lessing tells me it is impossible for lava to reach that temperature naturally nevertheless; it has."

All the members of the research facilities were warmly dressed, for conditions on Io were intensely cold, yet now it appeared the intense heat of the new volcano would destroy them.

The data terminal at one end of the mess hall winked on and bleeped with an audible tone. "Finally, a reply from Luna," Max said. He rushed to the console and seated himself. A stream of text flashed across the screen and the computer automatically went into download mode.

"The super computer on Luna has analyzed the data I sent them a few hours ago. We're downloading an interpreter program now," Max told them.

"What?" Kramer asked. "Why wasn't I informed of this?"

"The data was not conclusive at the time, John, but we're getting an answer now." Max moved aside from the terminal display so each member of the crew could see the text scrolling across the screen.

.... UNAUTHORIZED DESTRUCTION OF FILES AT SECTOR VK3, TRACK 100101....SOURCE...? ORGANIC INFECTIONS.... TEMPERATURE CHANGES DESTROYING TRACK STABILITY... CORRECTIVE ACTION...?

"Christ! You were right, Max!" Sharon shouted.

"About what?" Dr. Lessing asked.

"This entire satellite, the moon we call Io, is one huge collection of naturally occurring semi-conductors. In effect, it is the first successful virtual intelligence we have ever encountered."

...REFORMAT.... STORE NEW DATA AT SECTOR AND TRACK ADDRESS.... The text continued to scroll across the screen. Every so often the cursor would stop until new text could be loaded.

"That explains the apparent randomness of the volcanic action," Sharon said. "It required three weeks for the warmth of our station to leak through the insulation below and have an effect on the silicon brain. I'm afraid there is no hope for us. The rescue shuttle can't possibly arrive in time."

"What do you mean, Sharon?" Commander Kramer asked.

"I mean we are about to be deleted, John. Erased files on the huge disk that is the surface of this satellite."

"She's right," Max glumly contributed. "This satellite is one solid cybernetic organism. It records data in sectors and tracks on the surface. When a track becomes damaged, as the warmth of our station must have done where we are standing, the brain we call Io rewrites the sector, the same way we apply a laser to a CD. Only this brain uses volcanic heat to reformat the sector."

Sharon Draper pulled her parka closer around her. There would be no Nobel Prize for her. In spite of the mind numbing cold outside, it appeared she and her companions would momentarily be cremated.

 

 

W. E. Lopez is a former infantry officer, paratrooper and helicopter pilot who spent two tours in Viet Nam. He is now retired and running a small business from Crystal, NV, forwarding mail to RV'ers who are on the road most of the year. He also runs the online quarterly magazine of the Oasis Writers Guild of Pahrump, Nevada, The Pseudonym, at www.jbmailroom.com/oasiswriters.