Dead on Mars

Chapter 203 - Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Six, The Flocking Amoeba
Chapter 203: Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Six, The Flocking Amoeba

“Mutated bacteria?” Tang Yue took the petri dish from Tomcat. “You mean that they have mutated?”

“Bacteria are considered prokaryotes that lack full cellular structure. The stability of their DNA is relatively weak. Under the radiation on Mars, mutation is a common outcome… I’ve been rearing these bacteria for some time. I dare say that every time they replicate, there will be a mutation.” Tomcat nodded. “However, most of the mutations lead to a dead end. Gene mutation is like shooting with your eyes blindfolded. It’s very rare to hit the target.”

Tang Yue curiously observed the mutated bacteria in the petri dish. The bacterial colony was a dark-colored oval with a smooth surface. He didn’t know which bacteria it mutated from, but this was the first life he discovered to be born in a Martian environment—even if their parents came from Earth.

Mai Dong had already woken up and heard the conversation between Tang Yue and Tomcat.

“Mr. Cat, you reared bacteria?” The girl was very curious.

“Yes,” Tomcat replied. “These bacteria are my pets. I’ve just brought them in from the radiation exposure. I discovered that one of the bacteria, perhaps bacillus, has mutated.”

“Why do you expose it outside?”

“Isn’t this common when rearing pets?” Tomcat replied. “You humans walk dogs, I walk my bacteria.”

“The mutation has allowed it to adapt to the Martian environment?” Mai Dong asked.

“You can’t call it adaptation to the Martian environment.” Tomcat shook its head, clearly disinterested in the mutation. It then turned around and continued taking care of the tomatoes. “They have merely adapted to the environment inside the petri dish. If you opened the lid and poured them onto the sand outside Kunlun Station, I believe they wouldn’t survive for more than twenty-four hours.”

“I was still hoping that they would produce the next civilization.” Tang Yue leaned in close to the petri dish and observed it. The bacteria were spreading on the substrate, but they had no idea that there was a pair of eyes looking at them from above. “Although I have no interest in playing God, I do wish to know what a brand new ecosphere would look like.”

“Think about how sulfur bacteria survive. For example, anaerobic purple sulfur bacteria. If they successfully evolve into higher-order lifeforms…” Tomcat hypothesized. “Then, they might be massive, slow-crawling creatures. They will be like reptiles that resemble amoeba. Their bodies will be translucent, and they will move by lying on the ground. However, their bodies will be much bigger than reptiles, spanning several meters.”

Tomcat’s description immediately made Tang Yue imagine a nasal mucus.

“They will form swarms as they travel across the Martian desert. They will have mouths that resemble shovels, moving dirt as they travel. They will survive by consuming the sand on Mars because it will be rich in ferrous iron. These super worms will obtain energy from the microbial oxidation of ferrous iron to ferric ion,” Tomcat continued. “Their translucent bodies will have massive amounts of churning liquid that’s filled with sulfuric acid as they will be responsible for oxidizing and vulcanizing. Apart from sulfuric acid, oxidation will also generate sulfates, leaving behind a long trail of their excrement on the desert to mark their activity.”

“Why would their bodies be translucent?” Tang Yue asked.

“It’s to let light in,” Tomcat replied. “A portion of their energy source comes from photosynthesis, so sunlight is essential. These creatures’ internals will be filled with acidic photosynthetic pigments. The sulfuric acid inside the liquid will be able to provide an acidic environment.”

“What about living in swarms?”

“They live in groups to withstand the harsh survival conditions. Not only will they live in groups, but they will also enter hibernation periodically to avoid the global hurricanes that sweep through the globe,” Tomcat replied. “Once the wind starts up, these worms will burrow into the sand to hibernate until the hurricane passes.”

“Will they create a social structure?”

“Any creature will have a social structure if they swarm together,” Tomcat said. “Every Martian amoeba-shaped worm might have a leader and it will follow a matriarchal society. Then, the leader will be the only queen that possesses the ability to reproduce. Since there’s a queen, there’s nothing stopping us from making further inferences. The Martian amoeba’s swarm will have the worker class, and it might even have specialized workers… They will be specially made as energy stores; thus, making them bigger than other amoebae. Their mission every day will be to eat and drink. Their only value to provide the hibernating swarm with energy during a hurricane.

Tang Yue imagined the honeypot ants on Earth. These strange ants used their bodies as a vessel for food, and they spent their days gorging on food to be living food storage. When the ant swarm faced a lack of food, they would eat up the honeypot ants.

This was an evolution that a creature from Earth took to resist the environmental changes. What means the creatures on Mars used to resist hunger was still an unknown, but based on the principle of mediocrity, whatever showed up on Earth could equally likely appear on Mars.

“Will they have sight? Will they have hearing?”

“Sight isn’t something especially important. They can evolve completely different sensual organs from Earthlings. For example, they could produce strangely long tentacles that crawl underground,” Tomcat said. “These tentacles could reach out into different directions and be used to find underground food, or in other words the abundance ratio of Iron(II) and Sulfide.”

“As for hearing, they crawl on the ground, using their bodies to sense the vibrations of the ground. It could even be their form of communication. By hitting the ground, vibrations of different frequencies are generated,” Tomcat said.

“What about a brain? Will they have a highly developed central nervous system?”

“Of course it’s possible. Tang Yue, everything is possible.” Tomcat said as it turned around. “Time gives them everything.”

Tang Yue stared at the bacterial colony in the petri dish, unsure if what Tomcat said would become reality. Billions of years later, Mars might become a planet bustling with life. These bacteria could mutate to form amoeba that would form groups as they crawled across the desert. Their translucent bodies flowed with sulfuric acid, and as they walked, they shat, and sunbathed, in pursuit of the mineral elements underground. They would leave behind beads of sulfur. That would truly be a ridiculous and amusing world.

Even if the prophecy came true, it would be billions of years later.

Time was truly something that created miracles.

After Tomcat finished watering the tomatoes, it walked over to take the petri dish away. In its words, it was unknown if these mutated bacteria posed any security risks. Therefore, it was best if Tang Yue didn’t stay too close to them. To ensure that it was 100% safe, this petri dish should have been placed in a P4 laboratory—even if its threat to Tang Yue’s life was infinitely close to zero.