I guess you'll have to try to do something with F's moon now. Presumably it's dead. Or even try E." He looked up at it, big in the blue sky. "Well, no. It's too big. Too heavy." Two minutes later: "Maybe you can just keep living on the ship, and stock up on whatever you run out of, from here and from E. Terraform F's moon if you can. Or maybe you can resupply and get to another system entirely. I seem to recall there's a G star just a few more light-years out." Long silence. Then: "But you know, I bet they're all like this one. I mean, they're either going to be alive or dead, right? If they've got water and orbit in the habitable zone, they'll be alive. Alive and poisonous. I don't know. Maybe they could be alive and we live with them and the two systems pass each other by. But that doesn't sound like life, does it? Living things eat. They have immune systems. So that's going to be a problem, most of the time anyway. Invasive biology. Then on the dead worlds, those'll be dry, and too cold, or too hot. So they'll be useless unless they have water, and if they have water they'll probably be alive. I know
( Kim Stanley Robinson )
[ Aurora ]
www.QuoteSweet.com