Kaiju Preservation Society(23)

MacDonald pushed the binder back to Aparna and then turned her attention back to Niamh. “How do you grow a brain? Or, if you’re someone of the uterus-bearing persuasion, an entire other human being?”

“There’s a difference,” Niamh said.

“Is there?”

“You’re saying they evolved to grow nuclear reactors,” Kahurangi said to MacDonald.

“We think so, yes.”

“Not to repeat what Niamh said, but how does that even make sense? What’s the fossil record on that? Do we have any evidence of proto-kaiju with intermediary structures that somehow lead to fully functioning nuclear reactors?”

“Ah, the geologist.” MacDonald turned back to the bookshelf.

“Oh, shit,” Kahurangi said, anticipating another thuddingly large binder, but the one MacDonald pulled out this time was thin enough that she was able to simply hand it to him. Kahurangi took it and appeared almost disappointed in its size. “That’s it?” he said. “Really?”

MacDonald nodded. “Unlike these two”—she motioned at Aparna and Niamh—“you have less prior work on the geology and paleontology fronts because as a practical matter, it’s more difficult to do site work.”

“Ah,” Kahurangi said. “And why is that?”

“A proportionally higher chance of being killed and eaten.”

“Yes, I can see how that would put a damper on research.”

“The last Gold Team geologist decided to retire after we basically had to reattach a limb. For a second time.”

“Oh.”

“Well, that’s not completely accurate. It wasn’t the same limb twice. They were different limbs.”

“I … had not been informed of this,” Kahurangi said.

“There’s a reason Tanaka Base is in the trees,” MacDonald said. “The jungle floor is not very friendly. Which reminds me, which of you have had weapons training?”

We all stared blankly.

“Hmmmm,” MacDonald said, and appeared to make a mental note. She turned her attention back to Kahurangi. “To answer your question briefly, we don’t have much evidence of intermediary structures because we’ve been limited in what we can do and how we can research. You have a lot of ground you can break here, literally.”

“As long as I don’t get eaten, got it,” Kahurangi said.

“We can say that in general the evolution of life here is wildly different, because of differing factors that are represented in the geological samples we do have. Because some initial conditions were different, life here evolved very differently.”

“How differently?” Aparna asked.

“We’re the only mammals on this planet, for one thing,” MacDonald said. “They otherwise didn’t evolve at all. Same with birds. There are reptiles here but they’re not as successful as a biological class as they are back home. We have analogues here for each, of course. Life evolves to fill niches. But they’re not the same biologically.”

“You have frogs, though,” I pointed out.

“Yes. Not the same species of frogs as back home, but frogs and other amphibians. Lots of fish, insects, and invertebrates.”

“So whatever happened differently here happened around the time amphibians and reptiles branched off.”

MacDonald pointed to the thin binder. “Well, you tell us,” she said. “But it’s worth noting that it’s not that simple. We have flowering plants here, for example. As far as we can tell they evolved almost exactly like they do at home. It’s complicated.”

“It always is,” Kahurangi said.

“Which reminds me, you’re chemistry, too,” MacDonald said, and heaved a huge binder toward Kahurangi before he could react. “There’s a lot more there.”

“Evidently.” Kahurangi stared at the new binder.

“One big difference here is that there is a relatively higher percentage of actinides present on this version of Earth than ours. Which includes uranium and thorium. They are taken up and used by the life-forms here in a way they’re not back home.”

Something clicked in my brain. “So everything here refines uranium. And the kaiju evolved to use it.”

“That’s nuts,” Niamh said.

“That’s evolution,” Aparna corrected.

“Maybe,” Kahurangi amended.

MacDonald squinted at me. “You’re our new grunt.”

“I lift things,” I agreed.

MacDonald nodded, turned, and got out the biggest binder of all.

“Starting with that, apparently,” I said.

“Tanaka Base systems and operations,” MacDonald said. “No fair you not getting homework, too.”



* * *



“This is actually kind of fascinating,” I said to the rest of the newbies, at lunch, as I flipped through my binder.

“You really are a nerd,” Kahurangi said.

We sat together in the base dining hall. It was formally serving lunch, one of the four meals that were put together by staff, but it also featured an area open for grazing at all times, and a couple of kitchenettes that anyone who wanted to could use.

“Don’t listen to him,” Niamh said. “Live your truth. Go on, tell us something fascinating about this place.”