Alien Universe (19 page)

Warriors
. These are Aliens who value honor, bravery in battle, and aggressiveness above all. They consider life-forms who do not yearn for combat to be weak and therefore creatures to be conquered and either exterminated or enslaved. The Klingons from the
Star Trek
universe are iconic versions of this type of Alien, especially those from
Star Trek: The Next Generation
onward. The Green Martians of Edgar Rice Burroughs’s Barsoom universe are other excellent examples. The Hawkmen of the Flash Gordon comics are warriors, as are the Kzinti of the Larry Niven
Ringworld
universe. It is possible that the eponymous
Predator
Alien counts, although it is not completely clear whether
his race are hunters or warriors out for a little rest and recreation. Another variant of this archetype are Aliens who are a fighting class of a larger society. Often this variant is not the leader class of the society, and the Jem’Hadar of
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
and Jaffa of
Stargate
typify this type.

Cuties
. These Aliens are usually designed to get our children to have us part with our hard-earned money. They are cute, often evocative of warm and fuzzy pets, teddy bears, or other cuddly memories. The Ewoks of
Return of the Jedi
, the Tribbles of
Star Trek
, E.T. of
E.T.: The Extraterrestrial
, and maybe ALF are cutie aliens.

Yankee traders
. While the historical and earthly Yankee traders were interested in making money, the Alien variant ranges from the merely acquisitive to species for which money is central to their culture. The Ferengi of the
Star Trek
universe are one example, as are the Psychlos of L. Ron Hubbard’s classic pulp novel
Battlefield Earth
.

Shape shifters
. These Aliens have an unspecified natural form but can assume the shape of others to blend in, sometimes to hunt. Examples include the changeling assassin in
Star Wars: Attack of the Clones
, the unnamed Alien in John Campbell’s
Who Goes There
, the pod people of
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
, or the race personified by Odo in
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
.

Mechanical organic life haters
. These are a mechanical form of life or occasionally a mix of organic and robotic components. More often than not, they are driven to exterminate or enslave organic beings. The Borg of the
Star Trek
universe are one example, as are the Cylons of
Battlestar Galactica. Star Trek: The Original Series
exploited this form of Alien frequently, with the episodes “The Doomsday Machine” and “The Changeling,” as well as V’ger from the first
Star Trek
movie. Doctor Who fans will recognize the Daleks as one of this type of Alien. A rare variant is the good robot, for instance the Autobots in the
Transformers
cartoons and movies.

Gods
. These Aliens are so powerful that they can do anything. They often are capricious, sometimes malicious, and sometimes ambivalent. The Organians and the Q of the
Star Trek
universe are two examples, as are the Goa’uld of the
Stargate
universe.

Wrap Up and Transition

Thus far, we have discussed the Aliens we have imagined and even dreamed of. Because these Aliens have been our own creation (or have supposedly done us the courtesy of visiting us so we know what they look like), we have had
some power over who and what they are; indeed they often are mirrors, reflecting our collective psyche. However there is a real question. Are there
real
Aliens in the universe? If we ever decide to leave the solar system and travel to nearby stars, what will we find? Are we alone or will we one day join a cosmopolitan galaxy, just one more species among many?

INTERLUDE

The inimitable Mark Twain
once wrote in
Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar
that “truth is stranger than fiction.” Nowhere is that truer than in the discussion of extraterrestrial life. Thus far in this book, we have spoken of fiction and of stories that cannot be confirmed. While it is possible that one or more of the tales told by Arnold or Adamski or the Hills are a factual and accurate rendition of their experiences, anecdotes are an unreliable source of knowledge, no matter how gripping and entertaining.

For a question such as whether Aliens actually exist or what they might look like, we need to turn to science and, to paraphrase Twain, what we learn here is far, far stranger than fiction. Aliens are highly unlikely to be humanoid. The odds of them being able to eat us are nil. The range of the possible is so much broader than the strictures imposed by filmmakers and the need to have a recognizable plot line.

In the next pages, we will go in a different direction, one that is far more likely to teach us something about actual, physical Aliens, rather than Aliens as an earthly, social phenomenon. Biologists have explored some of the myriad possibilities of body plans seen here on Earth in the various mammals, birds, reptiles, and insects. More recent scientific research has considerably broadened our understanding of the various biochemical reactions that can lead to life. Breathing oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide is an excellent way to keep an organism alive, but it is by no means the only way. Types of life on Earth can exist in environments that would kill you and me, but the range of possible environments on Earth pales compared with those on other planets, environments in which no earthly life would survive. However, scientists know of ways in which other chemicals can combine that would serve the
same purposes as our familiar respiration and metabolism, some of which proceed at pressures that would compress you to the size of a pea and temperatures that freeze air completely solid. In order to understand the range of what life might look like, we must explore the range of the possible and delve into the restrictions imposed on life by the physical and chemical rules of matter itself. In these next few chapters, well explore what sorts of things govern the form of
real
Aliens.

It is important to remember that just because something is physically possible, doesn’t mean it really occurs. If physics and chemistry allow for a particular kind of Alien, it could exist in a distant galaxy and we’ll likely never encounter it. Thus, when we’re asking about what Aliens we’ll encounter if we venture into the galaxy, we should ask the simple question: “But what Aliens actually exist in our stellar neighborhood (if any)?” The safest way to do that is to simply ask them. Literally, as you read this right now, scientists across the globe are listening to the radio hiss of the heavens, hoping to identify the faint crackle that brings to us the voice of our neighbors. We’ll talk about these scientists and their multidecade quest as well. So let’s sit back and dive into what science teaches us about Aliens.

FIVE
LIFE-FORMS

You can see a lot, just by looking.
Yogi Berra

For the first half of the book, we’ve been discussing the history of mankind’s vision of Aliens. If it is easy to see how our ancestors might have been interested in the subject, it is just as easy to see why the idea continues to fascinate us. The question of whether we are alone in the universe is one of the most compelling mysteries of all. This second half of the book explores our modern and scientific thinking. If we ever do meet an extraterrestrial, what is it likely to look like? Can we empirically explore the possibilities?

If we’re going to talk seriously about Aliens, perhaps the place to start is to visit them in their home. Let me transport you to a world never seen before by human eyes. Go ahead and look around. Meanwhile, let me play tour guide and tell the other readers what you’re seeing.

There are no trees in this alien land. There are plants, or at least things that look like plants, but they’re unlike anything you’ve ever seen. Off to your left, a grove of unusual emerald fronds sway gently, rising high above you,
like dozens of green ribbons might look if they were stirred by a breeze. Occasional rustling hints of something possibly moving through them unseen.

Those are the most familiar looking of the plants. Off to the right, a peculiar growth has a passing resemblance to a carrot, shorn of its greenery and balanced precariously, with nothing more than the skinny tip stuck in the ground. Only the shape is carrot-like, as the coloring and texture look like a pale strawberry and the cluster of spikes guarantee no bunny is ever going to make a meal of them. Other plants are weirder still. One looks like a cactus, except it is giraffe-spotted and topped by what could be tentacles, seven waving appendages that might or might not be dangerous.

The plant life is unfamiliar, but the animal life is downright freaky. The mystery of the shaking of the green ribbon plants is solved as a truly bizarre creature pokes its nose out from the undergrowth. Of course, “nose” is just a bias of your earthly experiences. As the creature emerges even further, its true shape is revealed. Maybe 5 or 6 inches long, the animal looks like a fat worm, walking on seven pairs of long, unbending, legs, like a Chinese dragon on many stilts. Sprouting from its back are fourteen long and dangerous-looking spines, a clear sign that something thinks of this animal as lunch.

Closer to you, the ground is covered with clean, white sand. A small chitinous creature scuttles around your feet perhaps grazing or possibly just out for a stroll. It looks like a horseshoe crab without a tail, or maybe just a huge beetle, with a segmented back and lots of feet. After it noses at your toes for a moment or two, it resumes its erratic journey. Your eyes follow it as it meanders away.

The sunlight is familiar at least. The bright yellow-white light shines from a clear blue sky, unmarred by clouds. A shadow flits over you, once, twice, and as you look up to see the source, there is a flash at the corner of your eye and you hear a squeal on the ground in the distance in front of you. Looking in that direction, the source of the shadow is revealed. Rising above the ground in a swirl of sand is a large, alien animal, sandy gray in color, with protruding eyes that look like glossy black mushrooms on stubby stems. The two articulated trunks rising out of its face are holding the hapless beetle-like creature you saw before. The hunter is a solid mass, with ruffles down both sides, a little like the kind you might see on the hips of a kindergartener as she dips her first toe of summer into the pool. The predator moves by undulating its sides like a cuttlefish, with a smooth and fascinating motion, carrying away its luckless prey. Death has come to this alien world.

The scene I’ve painted here has definitely never been seen by human eyes, but it isn’t fiction. Although my choice of the coloration of the plants and creatures came from our best scientific guesswork rather than knowledge, the scene I have painted for you comes from Earth’s ancient history, below the shallow seas of the Cambrian period (
figure 5.1
). Plants as we think of them had not yet evolved, although single-celled algae had banded together into plant-like structures, and the sponges and corals of the era might have appeared like vegetation to the modern eye. The articulated beetle is a trilobite, of which there were many individual species, while the fourteen-legged worm bearing thorns is called
Hallucigenia
(
figure 5.2
). The fearsome predator of the early ocean with two trunks like a Siamese-twin elephant was
Anomalocaris
and could grow up to three feet long or perhaps more.

FIGURE 5.1
.
The plant and animal life of the Cambrian era is visually as alien as many a science fiction movie. While actual extraterrestrial life is likely to be much weirder than this, we can begin to understand the range of the possible by first looking at the great variety of life on Earth over the past half a billion years.
© 2006 The Field Museum, Chicago. Illustrations by Phlesch Bubble Productions
.

The biota of the Cambrian era is preserved in the Burgess Shale formation, located in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia, as well as other locations around the world. It contains many creatures that are as weird as any Alien found in science fiction.
Opabinia
(
figure 5.2
)—with its articulated body, five eyes, tail like a modern fighter jet, and claw-like graspers that extend on a sinuous snakelike appendage as long as the rest of the body—would not at all look out of place in Hollywood’s next blockbuster, set on a planet circling a distant sun.

This is
not
a book about the origins of life and the evolution that caused the diversity we’ve seen over the past 500 million years. However, Earth is the only planet in the universe on which we are sure life exists. While alien life is likely to be totally different from Earth-based life, understanding the range of the forms of life that has existed on Earth is the first step in our exploration of what we might possibly encounter “out there.” One thing I want to make clear is, as much as I dearly love the television show
Star Trek
and its spinoffs, it paints a totally improbable universe. Driven by the pragmatic need to have the characters played by human actors, the races in that universe are overwhelmingly humanoid. The chances are essentially zero that the Aliens we might one day meet in our exploration of the cosmos will be so familiar. Our visit to prehistory gives but the merest hint of how strange an alien world might be.