Fragility
The test came back positive.
Positive.
Leo could hardly believe it.
He had been watching this planet from his telescope over the past month. He had a hunch there was something unusual about it and he was finally proven right.
There was life.
Small, single-celled organisms. The chemical signature was correct, exactly as he had predicted. They appeared new, just beginning to breathe.
An alert suddenly appeared on screen, though he had turned away from it.
“Solar flare detected!” it blared.
Before Leo could finish writing his documentation, the system’s sun bathed the alien planet in solar radiation.
As he returned to peer through the lens, everything was gone. The organisms had been destroyed. Life ended as quickly as it had begun.
Why have we not detected alien life already? That is the question posed by the Fermi paradox. Perhaps intelligent life destroys itself once it gains access to nuclear weapons. Or perhaps the “Great Filter” takes place much earlier. How many times did life begin on Earth only for it to be snuffed out by a hostile environment?