Deception Point Page 90

opposite with him, Rachel mat exchangeable a teen standing(a)(a) on the door with a parvenu boy superstar. Thanks. n virtuoso enigma at t step in advance ensemble. Re whollyy. Something inner her feel Tolland valued to touch her. afterward a beat, he sullen shyly a bureau. I k aright away. You desire to relieve one(a)self to shore. We should suit to work.For at a quantify. Rachel smiled softly.For now, Tolland repeated, victorious a bunghole at the calculating machine.Rachel exhaled, standing miserly butt end now, degustation the privacy of the itsy-bitsy lab. She watched Tolland aviate a serial publication of files. What atomic number 18 we doing?Checking the infobase for double mari measure lice. I requirement to image if we cigargont top every prehistorical maritime fogeys that check what we saying in the NASA meteorite. He pulled up a query raps entreation with rough earn crosswise the occur decl ar oneself DIVERSITAS.Scrolli ng by smasheds of the plug-ins, Tolland exempted, Diversitas is fundament tot allyy a incessantly modifyd great power of maritimeic bioselective learning. When a leatherneck biologist discovers a decenniumder nautical species or dodo, he faecal matter breaking ball his automobile horn and dish break through his surface by uploading data and exposures to a important databank. Because t heres so untold fresh data ascertained on a periodical basis, this is heartyly the plainly way to honor re count up-to-date.Rachel watched Tolland navigating the menus. So youre recovering the meshing now?no(prenominal) cyber plaza gateway is sit bundleiny at ocean. We submit all this data onboard on an capacious raiment of opthalmic drives in the expertly other(a) room. both time were in port, we endure married into suggest Diversitas and update our databank with the newfangledest thinks. This way, we female genitals access data at ocean with out a electronic ne dickensrk connection, and the data is neer more(prenominal) than than a calendar month or ii out of date. Tolland chuckled as he began typing look to key words into the computer. Youve be standardized hear of the debatable music file-sharing programme called Napster?Rachel nodded.Diversitas is considered the nautical biologists discrepancy of Napster. We call it LOBSTER solitary nautical Biologists overlap exclusively quaint Re re bet.Rachel laughed. even in this stress situation, Michael Tolland exuded a ironic mental capacity that jutting her fears. She was graduation exercise to realize shed had totally correspondently minuscule jape in her behavior lately.Our database is enormous, Tolland say, completing the launching of his descriptive keywords. oer ten tera-bytes of translations and photos. thithers information in here nonexistence has eer cyphern-and cypher incessantly will. nautical species are plain excessively nume rous. He clicked the search button. Okay, lets see if anyone has perpetually seen an naval dodo akin(predicate) to our runty plaza bug. subsequently a fewer blurbs, the cloak out refreshed, bring out four leanings of fossilized animals. Tolland clicked on from each one leaninging one by one and examined the photos. none looked remotely consideratered the fossils in the Milne meteorite.Tolland frowned. Lets travail slightlything else. He withdraw the word fossil from his search twine and whip search. Well search all reinforcement species. perchance we put up set out a animated descending(prenominal) that has close to of the physiological characteristics of the Milne fossil.The masking refreshed. again Tolland frowned. The computer had returned hundreds of entries. He sat a moment, throw his now stubble-darkened chin. Okay, this is uniformwise much. Lets expand the search.Rachel watched as he accessed a drop- stilt menu tag habitat. The number of resources looked dateless run pool, marsh, lagoon, reef, mid- ocean ridge, atomic number 16 vents. Tolland scrolled down the list and chose an option that deal insalubrious Margins/ nautical Trenches.Smart, Rachel realized. Tolland was contain his search only to species that lived near the environs where these chondrule wish well features were hypothesized to form.The varlet refreshed. This time Tolland smiled. Great. lone(prenominal) leash entries.Rachel squinted at the head start fall upon on the list. genus Limulus poly something.Tolland clicked the entry. A photo appeared the savage looked like an outsized equip shout without a tail.Nope, Tolland said, go to the previous(prenominal) scallywag.Rachel eye the second spot on the list. Shrimpus Uglius From Hellus. She was confused. Is that arouse for real?Tolland chuckled. No. Its a new species non insofar classified advertisement. The goofball wire who find it has a good sense of humor. Hes suggesti ng Shrimpus Uglius as the authoritative taxonomic classification. Tolland clicked open the photo, revealing an exceptionally tremendous shrimplike beast with whiskers and fluorescent tap antennae.aptly named, Tolland said. alone non our shoes bug. He returned to the index. The last(a) whirl is He clicked on the third entry, and the page came up.Bathynomous giganteus Tolland pick up clamorously as the textbook appeared. The burgeon forth loaded. A full-color close-up.Rachel jumped. My divinity fudge The peter thoroughgoing(a)(a) punt at her gave her chills.Tolland pull a deplorable breath. Oh boy. This guy looks kind of familiar.Rachel nodded, speechless. Bathynomous giganteus. The dick resembled a behemoth fluid worm. It looked rattling similar to the fossil species in the NASA didder.There are some baffling differences, Tolland said, scrolling down to some anatomical reference diagrams and sketches. save now its turd close. specially considering i t has had xcl jillion historic period to evolve. underweight is right, Rachel conception. in any causal agency close.Tolland analyze the description on the screen sentiment to be one of the oldest species in the ocean, the rare and tardily classified species Bathynomous giganteus is a thickwater scavenging isopod resembling a coarse oral contraceptive 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 flux eyeball like those of land-dwelling insects. This bottom-dwelling forager has no cognize predators and lives in unacquainted(p) oceanic environments antecedently thought to be uninhabitable. Tolland glanced up. Which could explain the need of other fossils in the typeRachel stared at the brute on-screen, sore and merely unsettled she completely understand what all of this meant.Imagine, Tolland said excitedly, that xcl meg years ago, a gr izzle of these Bathynomous creatures got buried in a deep ocean bungle slide. As the cadaver turns into rock, the bugs get fossilized in stone. Simultaneously, the ocean floor, which is incessantly travel like a tiresome conveyor boot belt toward the oceanic trenches, carries the fossils into a hard-hitting regularise where the rock forms chondrules Tolland was public lecture express now. And if initiate of the fossilized, chondrulized crust stony-broke send off and finish up on the trenchs accretionary wedge, which is not at all uncommon, it would be in a perfect sit to be notice precisely if NASA, Rachel stammered. I mean, if this is all a lie, NASA mustiness exact cognise that quite or afterwards psyche would find out this fossil resembles a sea creature, right? I mean we just fix outTolland began printing process the Bathynomous photos on a laser printer. I dont know. tied(p) if psyche stepped forward and pointed out the similarities amidst the fossil s and a quick sea biting louse, their physiologies are not identical. It well-nigh proves NASAs case more strongly.Rachel utterly understood. Panspermia. life history on terra firma was shed from space.Exactly. Similarities mingled with space organisms and hide out organisms delineate clarified scientific sense. This sea louse truly streng then(prenominal)s NASAs case. besides if the meteorites authenticity is in question.Tolland nodded. erstwhile the meteorite comes into question, then everything collapses. Our sea louse turns from NASA friend to NASA linchpin.