Nearer the surface, gravity compresses the atmosphere hard. Joelle in Chinook guides Williwaw, holothetically linked to its instruments. Gravity is Jovian. The atmosphere tosses and tumbles the boat and fills it with noise. Williwaw passes through monstrous storms of thunder, lightning, gales, rain and hail, then enters a peaceful region of thick warm air between a violet and indigo sky and an aureate ocean of intricately moving clouds. Danaans, royal blue, whale-sized and -shaped, with wings, arms or trunks and hands, rise from the clouds and dance around Williwaw.
Addendum: Rereading Anderson's text, I have had to amend this post slightly.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Much of this description of Danau in THE AVATAR (pub. 1978) reminds me of a very similar description given of Jupiter in WE CLAIM THESE STARS (pub. 1959). Will it some day be discovered that Jupiter also has sentient life?
The conditions on Jovoid planets are so DIFFERENT from the terrestroid that I wonder how much humans could interact with intelligent beings living on them. As little contact as we see between humans and Ymirites in the Technic History OR as much as we see in THREE WORLDS TO CONQUER?
Sean
Sean,
I wonder what are the chances of two intelligent species evolving in one planetary system?
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
It's probable that the chances of two intelligent races evolving on two planets of the same solar system are not very high. But I think we still know so little about Jupiter that the idea of intelligent life existing there cannot yet be ruled out.
Sean
Sean,
And we know it has energy sources. Given energy, complex chemistry and time, energized, complex molecules change randomly until one becomes self-replicating. That's life. Then natural selection generates multi-celled organisms. Or at least it did on Earth.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I agree. My only real addition being my belief that at a certain point in such a process God would intervene to infuse such living beings with a soul.
Sean
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