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“Yes. Also, they can survive in a near vacuum.”
“Like your fuel tanks.”
“Yeah, but not atotalvacuum.” I frown. “They need carbon dioxide. At least a little bit of it. I made an Adrian environment but put argon in instead of carbon dioxide. The Taumoeba didn’t eat anything. They stayed dormant. Eventually they starved to death.”
“Expected,”he says.“Astrophage need carbon dioxide. Taumoeba from same ecology. Taumoeba also need carbon dioxide. How they get carbon dioxide in fuel tanks, question?”
“I had the same question!” I say. “So I did a spectrograph of my fuel-bay sludge. There’s a bunch of CO2gas dissolved into the liquid.”
“Astrophage probably have carbon dioxide inside. Or decomposition creates carbon dioxide. Some percentage died in fuel tanks over time. Not all cells are perfect. Defects. Mutations. Some die. Those dead Astrophage put carbon dioxide in tanks.”
“Agreed.”
“Good findings,”he says. He starts climbing back down.
“Wait. I have more. Much more.”
He stops.“More, question? Good.”
I lean against my lab table and pat the tank. “I made Venus in the tank. But not quite Venus. Venus’s air is 96.5 percent carbon dioxide and 3.5 percent nitrogen. I started with just the carbon dioxide. The Taumoeba were fine. Then I added the nitrogen. And the Taumoeba all died.”
He raises his carapace.“All die, question? Sudden, question?”
“Yes,” I say. “In seconds. All dead.”
“Nitrogen…unexpected.”
“Yeah, very unexpected!” I say. “I repeated experiment with Threeworld’s air. Carbon dioxide only: The Taumoeba were fine. I added in the sulfur dioxide: The Taumoeba were fine. I added the nitrogen: Boom! All the Taumoeba died.”
He taps a claw absently on the tunnel wall.“Very very unexpected. Nitrogen harmless to Erid life. Nitrogen required by many Erid life.”
“Same with Earth,” I say. “Earth’s air is seventy-eightpercent nitrogen.”
“Confusing,”he says.
He’s not alone. I’m just as baffled as he is. We’re both thinking the same thing: If all life evolved from a single source, how can nitrogen be critical to two biospheres and toxic to a third?
Nitrogen is utterly harmless and nearly inert in its gaseous state. It’s usually content to be N2, which barely wants to react with anything. Human bodies ignore the stuff despite every breath being 78percent nitrogen. As for Erid, their atmosphere is mostly ammonia—a nitrogen compound. How could a panspermia event ever seed Earth and Erid—two nitrogen-riddled planets—if a tiny amount of nitrogen kills that life?
Well, the answer to that is easy: Whatever the life-form was that caused the panspermia, it didn’t have a problem with nitrogen. Taumoeba, which evolved later, does.
Rocky’s carapace sinks.“Situation bad. Threeworld air is eight percent nitrogen.”
I sit on the lab stool and cross my arms. “Venus’s air is 3.5 percent nitrogen. Same problem.”
He sinks farther and his voice drops an octave.“Hopeless. Cannot change Threeworld air. Cannot change Venus air. Cannot change Taumoeba. Hopeless.”
“Well,” I say. “We can’t change Threeworld or Venus’s air. But maybe we can change Taumoeba.”
“How, question?”
I grab my tablet from the workbench and scroll through my notes about Eridian physiology. “Do Eridians have diseases? Sicknesses inside your bodies?”
“Some. Very, very bad.”
“How does your body kill diseases?”
“Eridian body is closed,”he explains.“Only opening happen when eat or lay egg. After opening seals, area inside made very hot inside with hot blood for long time. Kill any disease. Disease can only get into body through wound. Then is very bad. Body shut down infected area. Heat with hot blood to kill disease. If disease fast, Eridian die.”
