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'Marjorie tench fell silent, as if reeling from that pull through punch.\r\nThe CNN host prompted, â€Å"Ms. Tench? A reaction?”\r\nThe muliebrity finally cle atomic number 18d her throat and spoke. â€Å"I make Im plainly surprised to adjudicate that Mr. Sexton is automatic to establish himself as so staunchly anti-NASA.”\r\nSextons eye narrowed. Nice try, lady. â€Å"I am not anti-NASA, and I resent the accusation. I am simply saw that NASAs budget is indicative of the kind of runaway expenditure that your electric ch denude endorses. NASA said they could create the shuttle for tailfin billion; it cost twelve billion. They said they could build the blank home station for eight billion; presently its cardinal hundred billion.”\r\nâ€Å"Americans ar leaders,” Tench countered, â€Å"because we zeal lofty goals and stick to them through the tough dates.”\r\nâ€Å"That study felicitate speech doesnt work on me, Marge. NASA has over spent its adjust custodyt three times in the past deuce years and crawled back to the President with its tail amongst its legs and withdrawed for more bills to fix its mistakes. Is that matter pride? If you want to piffle active national pride, talk about strong schools. Talk about common health cargon. Talk about smart kids emergence up in a country of opportunity. Thats national pride!”\r\nTench gl bed. â€Å"May I ask you a direct perplexity, senator?”\r\nSexton did not respond. He simply waited.\r\nThe womans words came out deliberately, with a emergent infusion of grit. â€Å"Senator, if I told you that we could not look blank shell for less than NASA is currently spending, would you act to abolish the lay agency altogether?”\r\nThe question matte up the like a boulder landing in Sextons lap. mayhap Tench wasnt so stupid after all. She had just blindsided Sexton with a â€Å"fence-buster”-a carefully crafted yes/no question designed t o force a fence-straddling opponent to involve clear sides and clarify his position once and for all.\r\ninstinctively Sexton tried sidestepping. â€Å"I mystify no doubt that with proper management NASA can explore space for a lot less than we are currently-â€Å"\r\nâ€Å"Senator Sexton, answer the question. Exploring space is a dangerous and expensive business. Its much like building a passenger jet. We should either do it right-or not at all. The risks are too great. My question remains: If you become president, and you are set about with the decision to continue NASA blooding at its current level or entirely argufy the U.S. space program, which would you choose?”\r\nShit. Sexton glanced up at Gabrielle through the glass. Her convention echoed what Sexton already knew. Youre committed. Be direct. No waffling. Sexton held his chin high. â€Å"Yes. I would channelize NASAs current budget directly into our school systems if faced with that decision. I would vote for our children over space.”\r\nThe look on Marjorie Tenchs face was one of absolute shock. â€Å"Im stunned. Did I gain vigor you correctly? As president, you would act to abolish this nations space program?”\r\nSexton felt an anger simmering. at a time Tench was putting words in his mouth. He tried to counter, but Tench was already talking.\r\nâ€Å"So youre reflection, senator, for the record, that you would do away with the agency that put men on the moon?”\r\nâ€Å"I am saying that the space race is over! Times have changed. NASA no longer plays a critical purpose in the lives of everyday Americans and notwithstanding we continue to fund them as though they do.”\r\nâ€Å"So you dont turn over space is the proximo?”\r\nâ€Å"Obviously space is the future, but NASA is a dinosaur! Let the private sector explore space. American taxpayers shouldnt have to open their wallets every time near Washington engineer wants to take a billion-dollar shoot of Jupiter. Americans are tired of selling out their childrens future to fund an outdated agency that provides so small in return for its gargantuan costs!”\r\nTench sighed dramatically. â€Å"So weeny in return? With the exception perhaps of the SETI program, NASA has had enormous returns.”\r\nSexton was shocked that the parent of SETI had even escaped Tenchs lips. Major blunder. Thanks for reminding me. The search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence was NASAs closely abysmal money pit ever. Although NASA had tried to give the project a facelift by renaming it â€Å"Origins” and shuffling some of its objectives, it was smooth the same losing gamble.\r\nâ€Å"Marjorie,” Sexton said, taking his opening, â€Å"Ill address SETI merely because you mention it.”\r\nOddly, Tench looked almost eager to hear this.\r\nSexton cleared his throat. â€Å"Most people are not aware that NASA has been looking for ET for thirty-five years now. And its a pricey treasure hunt-satellite dish arrays, great transceivers, billions in salaries to scientists who sit in the dark and mind to blank tape. Its an embarrassing waste of resources.”\r\nâ€Å"Youre saying theres zip up there?”\r\nâ€Å"Im saying that if any separate government agency had spent forty-five million over thirty-five years and had not produced one single result, they would have been axed a long time ago.” Sexton paused to let the gravity of the statement hang in. â€Å"After thirty-five years, I think its moderately obvious were not going to find foreigner life.”\r\nâ€Å"And if youre disparage?”\r\nSexton rolled his eyes. â€Å"Oh, for heavens sake, Ms. Tench, if Im wrong Ill eat my hat.”\r\nMarjorie Tench locked her jaundiced eyes on Senator Sexton. â€Å"Ill remember you said that, senator.” She smiled for the first-year time. â€Å"I think we all will.”\r\nSix miles away, inside the Oval Office, Presi dent Zach Herney turned off the television and poured himself a drink. As Marjorie Tench had promised, Senator Sexton had taken the bait-hook, line, and sinker.\r\n24\r\nMichael Tolland felt himself beaming empathetically as Rachel Sexton gaped in silence at the fossilized meteorite in her hand. The exquisite beauty of the womans face now seemed to dissolve into the expression of innocent wonder-a young girl who had just seen Santa Claus for the first time.\r\nI know just how you feel, he thought.\r\nTolland had been struck the same way only forty-eight hours ago. He too had been stunned into silence. Even now, the scientific and philosophical implications of the meteorite astounded him, forcing him to rethink everything he had ever believed about nature.\r\nTollands oceanographic widenies included several previously unknow deepwater species, and yet this â€Å"space bug” was another level of find altogether. Despite Hollywoods propensity for casting extraterrestrials as little green men, astrobiologists and science buffs all agreed that prone the sheer numbers and adaptability of earths insects, extraterrestrial life would in all probability be buglike if it were ever discovered.\r\nInsects were members of the phylum arthropoda-creatures having troublesome outer skeletons and jointed legs. With over 1.25 million known species and an estimated five hundred thousand still to be classified, earths â€Å"bugs” outnumbered all of the other animals combined. They made up 95 percent of all the planets species and an astounding 40 percent of the planets biomass.\r\nIt was not so much the bugs abundance that impress as it was their resilience. From the Antarctic ice beetle to oddment Valleys sun scorpion, bugs happily inhabited deadly ranges in temperature, dryness, and even pressure. They also had mastered exposure to the most deadly force known in the universe-radiation. sideline a nuclear test in 1945, air force officers had donned radiation suits and examined ground zero, only to discover cockroaches and ants happily carrying on as if nothing had happened. Astronomers cognise that an arthropods protective exoskeleton made it a perfectly possible candidate to inhabit the countless radiation-saturated planets where nothing else could live.\r\n'