all of their fuel, they blast their material out into space in supernova explosions to become part of the interstellar medium from which new stars are made. As the heavier elements build up in space after each generation, so the next generation of stars have an abundance of heavy elements that form planets and comets and asteroids in orbit around them: the things that we’re made from.”
Rachel blinked in surprise. “That’s where the Earth came from?”
“Yes,” Hassim said. “The process is called nucleosynthesis. This is where you get the sodium in common salt, the neon in fluorescent lights, and the magnesium in fireworks, not to mention the zinc in your hair, the calcium in your bones, and the carbon in your brain. The iron in the hemoglobin in your blood shares the same origin as the iron in the rocks of our planet. In your body there’s enough iron to make a three-inch nail, enough carbon to make nine hundred pencils, enough phosphorous to make two thousand match heads, and enough water to fill a ten-gallon tank. We are all chemical beings.”
“And all of this is ‘old news’?” Ethan asked.
“The physics behind all of this was worked out in the 1950s and early 1960s, using Einstein’s general relativity,” Hassim said. “Scientists like Fred Hoyle, Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, and William Fowler did all the calculations long ago, and they’ve all been proven right with further actual observation of the stars using spectroscopy. William Fowler won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983 for the work done. But it’s generally unknown within the public domain, and powerful faith movements prefer it to remain so. Their beliefs are all based upon a human-centric view of the universe, but nucelosynthesis proves that all life is merely a product of natural processes and not unusual or even unique to our world, their disinformation just a smoke screen to deceive the public.”
“But why does that make Lucy’s discovery so important to you?” Rachel asked.
“For two reasons,” Hassim explained. “Firstly, if genetic material from the remains that Lucy found can be extracted and analyzed, it may show what evolutionary path life has followed through natural selection on other worlds. And secondly, it proves what we already suspect: that life is as common as the stars that fuel its existence.”
“Several hundred billion stars in our galaxy alone,” Rachel murmured, “and hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe.”
Ethan began to realize the scope of what Hassim was saying, and suddenly the existence of extraterrestrials didn’t seem quite so ridiculous after all.
Rafael slipped through the door of the building and closed it behind him. An archaic iron lock protruded from the door. On an impulse he turned the key, locking the door from the inside, and slipped it into his pocket before taking in his surroundings.
Musty odors of dust and desiccated soil stained the air; chunks of dislodged masonry and shattered bricks littered the floor. Letting his eyes adjust before daring to move, he saw the faint outlines of a crumbling stairwell leading up and away to his left, and a narrow corridor ahead of him that led into the gloomy depths of the building.
He was about to venture forward into the corridor when he noticed a single door to his left, just before the stairwell. It stood ajar, and he crept toward it, reaching for his knife before swinging the door open.
A large gib frame stood in the center of the room. Atop the frame was a barrel-sized coil of thick rope, from the end of which dangled a heavy iron hook. To Rafael’s right, an unused diesel generator crouched above patches of fuel staining the dusty floorboards.
Rafael edged forward, and in the dim light he saw a large rectangular hole hewn from the living earth, an impenetrable blackness that plunged to unknown depths beneath the city. On the far side of the hole, a rope ladder was tied to two stakes driven deep into the earth, the ladder vanishing down into the darkness.
Rafael squatted at the edge of the tunnel entrance and listened intently.
No sound emanated from within, although he could feel the hot air from the underground tunnels wafting toward him as though the ancient soil was breathing. He knew that there would be other entrances and exits from this tunnel, providing some meager ventilation to those hiding or incarcerated within.
He closed his eyes, orienting himself within the building to the street outside, picturing the layout of the nearby streets. He recalled the single glowing