Chapter 23 - Not Of This Earth

"You want to do what?", asked Darlene in complete surprise.

"A double degree in Meteoritics and Astrobiology. There's also a couple of units in computational genetics."

"So meteoritics is the study of what exactly?"

"Meteors, those lumps of rock that drop from the sky. Astrobiology is such an exciting field that is still in its infancy."

"It's not that we don't think you can complete your studies Imogen. But when I build a house I can feel the bricks as I lay them, I hear the nail gun as I join the timbers in the roof. I'm protected from the whether in the latter stages of construction. It's real, you can experience it. Now I don't know if we're alone or not and it seems the chances are there's company out there somewhere. But until we meet them astrobiology is nothing more than highfalutin science fiction."

"Not exactly Dad. It involves going into extreme environments on Earth and seeing how these extremophiles have adapted. There are also models of other environments on other celestial bodies, such as sub-surface Mars, the clouds of Venus, the hidden oceans of Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Those various environments are recreated in the laboratory and Earths extremophiles introduced into them to see if they can adapt and survive. It's a really exciting field."

"Well, look. As long as you're happy with it, it's up to you. But your mother and I will feel more comfortable when we're convinced that this aint some flash in the pan thing and there's a job waiting for ya at the end of it."

"Of course there is"

"Well, I suppose there's always the business to turn to if you're wrong."