“Might as well. The gross morphology I’m seeing here is no different than a bacterium on Earth.” She used a pointer. “Here’s the cell wall.” She checked a readout as she used her pointer to delineate a section of the wall and clicked. “Got the same polysaccharides and peptides, which we expected from the original survey research. The theory is that organic chemistry—being the same all across the universe—will have the same structure and function on Donovan as it does on Earth. Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen only fit together in so many ways. At the atomic level, chemistry has to follow the rules of covalence and bonding. Can only form so many shapes of molecules here or back home. The simplest organic molecules to do the job will be the most likely molecules that life will use.”

Vik dialed up the magnification, used her pointer to mark another small box inside the cellular wall, and clicked. Again, she studied the readout. “That’s the plasma membrane. Again, no surprises. Could be terrestrial chemistry with a few oddities. I’m seeing a bilayer composed of phospholipids and proteins.”

Vik outlined a box in the cytoplasm and clicked. “Okay, this is a little different. These structures here? Essentially they serve as the ribosomes. The architecture is almost the same with some variations in morphology compared to what we see on Earth. Fits the model. If you are making proteins with RNA, how many different ways can nature engineer that factory? In fact, mix ribosomal proteins and rRNAs together in vitro and they’ll reform into a functional ribosome. That’s just chemistry.”

Now Vik stared thoughtfully. “Here’s a big difference, Michaela. I should see what we call a nucleoid where the DNA is. I’m not getting one.” Vik increased the magnification, searching through the granular image, and stopped. As she enlarged the image, what looked like a traditional S-twist, tightly wrapped and knotty rope seemed to emerge in the cytoplasm.

“What’s that?”

“I think that’s our mysterious TriNA. Let me get a better perspective.” Vik blocked it, clicked, and stared at her screen. “The scope tags its chemical signature as deoxyribonucleic acid.” A pause. “But we know it isn’t. Structure’s wrong. It’s not a double helix. It’s a rope-shaped, three-strand molecule.” She smiled. “Wow! It’s like, real, you know?”

“Glad you’re so thrilled.”

“Hey, Michaela, I’m looking at three-strand DNA that I just resolved on my own scope. This is life on another planet. Proof. What I came here to see. And this is just the first step.”

“Okay, so jazz over it later. Record it so we know what we’re looking for.”