The Children of Saturn: Contact

Prelude
''A blazing flash of light streaked across the sky as an alien object fell through the atmosphere. Brighter and brighter it burned, the force of the great winds wrenching in into pieces, screaming loudly in its wake. Weak yellow flames lit up around the metal structure as its passage burned through the ammonia clouds. Two of the greatest chunks rebounded off a great twisted current of air and back into space.''

''            One of these chunks flew off to the left, headed away from the gas giant below, towards one of its smaller companions, racing through space towards its destiny. It shot through clouds of dust, smashing into the sides of spinning boulders and sped on, flying relentlessly on to its fate. Closer and closer it came, sucked in by the moon’s gravity, traveling for days in end, before it finally arrived. A great geyser of ice shot up to meet it, and it hissed angrily as the hot metal was struck by the sea ice. At last, it plowed into the surface, digging a deep furrow into the ice, letting up a blistering cloud of steam as the metal rapidly cooled, the vapor abruptly refreezing and drifting gently back down as snow.''

''            During all this, the second chunk was blasted the other way, heading in the direction of another moon. It blazed through the atmosphere, the intense heat igniting the methane air until it burned with a bright yellow flame. Fire blazed behind it, leaving a trail to mark its fiery passage.''

''The metal slammed into the surface of a great lake of liquid methane, lighting it on fire as it sped along, skimming across the surface, until it finally ran aground on the beach, nestled against the foamy rocks. ''

''The two pieces would lie there for thousands, millions of years. But, unbeknownst to those who sent it there, and much to their fears, both pieces contained something revolutionary. Microbes, thousands of them. These tiny, seemingly insignificant little organisms had somehow survived the tremendous journey through the vacuum of space, and had now reached its reward, two new worlds, ripe for the taking.''