Page 159 of Project Hail Mary

I figure the breeding zone of Astrophage is based mainly on the air pressure. Basically, they have to aero-brake from near light speed when they hit the planet. But being so small that doesn’t take very long and of course they gobble up all the heat that’s created.

The end result is that Astrophage come to rest when the air is 0.02 atmospheres thick. So, going forward, that’ll be our standard for pressure. Venus’s atmosphere is 0.02 atmospheres at around the 70 kilometer mark, and the temperature there is about minus 100 degrees Celsius (thanks, infinite supply of reference material!). So that’s the temperature I have the Venus analog experiment set to. Rocky’s temperature-control system works perfectly, of course, even down to ultra-low temperatures.

“Good. Now Threeworld.”

“What temperature is Threeworld’s air at the 0.02 atmosphere altitude?”

“Minus eighty-two degrees of Celsius.”

“Okay, thanks,” I say. I move to the next chamber. It has an identical setup of Astrophage and Taumoeba. I let in the appropriate gases to simulate Threeworld’s atmosphere and temperature at the 0.02-atmosphere pressure area. I get the relevant information from Rocky’s perfect memory. It’s not much different from Venus or Adrian. Mostly carbon dioxide with some other gases running around. No surprise there—Astrophage go for the biggest concentration of CO2they can see.

It’s a good thing these planets aren’t covered in helium or something. I don’t have any of that aboard. But carbon dioxide? That’s easy. I make that stuff with my body. And nitrogen? Thanks to DuBois and his preferred method of death, there’s a whole bunch aboard.

Threeworld does have some sulfur dioxide, though. Four percent of the total atmosphere. It’s enough that I didn’t want to approximate it away, so I had to make some. The lab has quite a selection of reagents, but no sulfur dioxide gas. However, it does have sulfuric acid in solution. I recovered some copper tubing from a broken cooling coil in the freezer and used it as a catalyst. Worked like a charm to create the sulfur dioxide I needed.

“Okay, Threeworld’s done,” I say. “We’ll wait an hour and check results.”

“We have hope,”says Rocky.

“Yes, we have hope,” I say. “Taumoeba are very sturdy. They can live in a near vacuum, and they seem comfortable in extreme cold. Maybe Venus and Threeworld are habitable for them. They’re good enough for Taumoeba’s prey, so why not for Taumoeba?”

“Yes. Things are good. All is good!”

“Yeah. For once, everything’s going great.”

Then the lights go out.

Total darkness.

No lights. No monitor glow. Not even the LEDs on the lab equipment.

“Okay, stay calm,” I say. “Stay calm.”

“Why not be calm, question?”Rocky asks.

Well, of course he didn’t notice the lights go out. He doesn’t have eyes. “The ship just shut down. Everything stopped working.”

Rocky scuttles a bit in his tunnel.“You equipment quiet now. My equipment still working.”

“Your equipment gets electricity from your generator. Mine’s powered by my ship. All the lights are off. There’s nothing working at all!”

“This is bad, question?”

“Yes, it’s bad! Among other problems, I can’t see!”

“Why ship turn off, question?”

“I don’t know,” I say. “Do you have a light? Something you can shine through the xenonite into my side?”

“No. Why would I have light, question?”

I bungle in the darkness, feeling my way around the lab. “Where’s the ladder to the control room?”

“Left. More left. Continue…yes…reach forward…”

I get my hand on a rung. “Thanks.”

“Amaze. Humans helpless without light.”