Number 9

[Buran]

I like the cover picture. It looks pretty accurate (except for what appears to be a lake, of course) to photos sent back by spacecraft currently in orbit. Of course, who knows what's really going on there? There's been gullies and other features that look like they might have been carved by liquid water in the recent past -- and I do mean recent, not just geologically so.

Bacterial contamination is certainly an interesting theory, although if there's a Martian race in the present day, there wouldn't have been enough time for microorganisms to evolve intelligence, at least as we currently understand things. (In Earth's billions of years, multicellular life has only existed for a few "instants" on the earth's 24-hour clock.)

All spacecraft sent to the surface are sterilized against the possibility of accidental contamination that could skew future results or contaminate the planet, too, so it's highly unlikely for that to be a source. I wonder if those wizardly "bubbles" of air are also sterilized ...

[Caitlin]

Originally queried by Buran:
I wonder if those wizardly "bubbles" of air are also sterilized ...

That's a really good question. Do wizards acidentally transfer things throughout the universes as they hop about on errantry? And do those transferrals have negative side effects? Or do the tranfer spells have their own sort of mechanism that prevent things like that from hapenning?

[Fox]

As far as I can tell, the wizard bubbles sheild from the enviroment and from what I've read so far also acts as a filter. In WoW it say's about Co2 being released from the bubble, nothing else? interesting point though!

<span class="ev_code_white">And as for the Nita becoming less or more human its got to have something to do with her new inner Manual friend! Cant spell it so I'm not going to try .</span> Cant wait for this book and I'm going to recomend this series to all the children I teach!
Fox

Added spoiler protection for WAW - Peter

[Buran]

CO2 wouldn't cause any harm on Mars, certainly, since the atmosphere of Mars contains lots of it as it is. And on the Moon there's virtually no atmosphere, so it'd all escape into space.

Mars ain't the kind of place to raise your kids; in fact, it's cold as hell. (And there's no one there to raise them, if you did.)

[AlidaART]

Heh. Thank you for the Elton John reference, Buran. It made my evening. (J'adore that song...)

Anyways: Nita. As PM has mentioned elsewhere (elsewhere being W@W spoiler territory, so be wary of going looking for it if you haven't read W@W), Nita's power levels have actually been increasing (and DD says it isn't a mistake)--now, what do you think that could mean? Coupled with the lucid dreaming and prophetic things that Nita's been doing lately, one wonders--what exactly is going on here? Something big, certainly. Something possibly...Powerful (note capitalization).

At least, that's my general thought pattern on the subject. Because the Powers certainly are "more than human".

(Agh, my whole argument sounds over-recycled and predictable. Sorry )

[Lauren]

Well, since I don't want to go to far into spoiler territory, <span class="ev_code_white">we all know a dog that might have gone through similar experiences, yes</span>? Not to mention Peach. There seems to be a pattern developing...

[AlidaART]

Lauren, I hate to be a stiff, but I think that may be a bit too far into spoiler territory already It might be respectful to use white font there. Just a suggestion.