“So it’s a case of bad timing, then?” the reporter asked.

“I don’t think there’s ever a good time for the sun to get dimmer.”

“Good point. Please go on.”

“Venus moves very fast compared to Earth, which means more fuel just to catch up. Even under ideal conditions, it actually takes more fuel to get to Venus than it does to get to Mars.”

“Amazing. Amazing. Now, Doctor, some people have asked, ‘Why bother with the planet? The Petrova line is huge, spanning an arc from the sun to Venus. Why not somewhere between?’ ”

“Because the Petrova line is widest there—as wide as the whole planet. And we can use the planet’s gravity to help us out. ArcLight will actually orbit Venus twelve times while collecting samples of whatever material the Petrova line is made of.”

“And what is that material, you think?”

“We have no idea,” said Browne. “No idea at all. But we might have answers soon. Once ArcLight finishes this first orbit, it should have enough material for its onboard analysis lab.”

“And what can we expect to learn tonight?”

“Not much. The onboard lab is pretty basic. Just a high-magnification microscope and an x-ray spectrometer. The real mission here is sample return. It’ll be another three months for ArcLight to come home with those samples. The lab is a backup to get at least some data in case there’s a failure during the return phase.”

“Good planning as always, Dr. Browne.”

“It’s what we do.”

A cheer erupted from behind the reporter.

“I’m hearing—” She paused to let the sound die down. “I’m hearing that the first orbit is complete and the data is coming in now….”

The main screen in the control room changed to a black-and-white image. The picture was mostly gray, with black dots scattered here and there.

“What are we looking at, Doctor?” said the reporter’s voice.

“This is from the internal microscope,” said Browne. “It’s magnified ten thousand times. Those black dots are about ten microns across.”

“Are those dots what we’ve been looking for?” she asked.

“We can’t be certain,” said Browne. “They could just be dust particles. Any major gravity source like a planet will have a cloud of dust surrounding—”

“What the fuck?!” came a voice in the background. Several flight controllers gasped.

The reporter snickered. “High spirits here at JPL. We are coming to you live, so we apologize for any—”

“Oh my God!” said Browne.

On the main screen, more images came through. One after another. All nearly the same.

Nearly.

The reporter looked at the images on-screen. “Are those particles… moving?”

The images, playing in succession, showed the black dots deforming and shifting around within their environment.

The reporter cleared her throat and delivered what many would call the understatement of the century: “They look a little like microbes, wouldn’t you say?”

“Telemetry!” Dr. Browne called out. “Any shimmy in the probe?”

“Already checked,” said someone. “No shimmy.”

“Is there a consistent direction of travel?” he asked. “Something that could be explained by an external force? Magnetic, maybe? Static electricity?”