They in turn kill one of the Beings - drilling it with both ships’ fiery exhaust. “Beings” composed of widely dispersed particles and magnetic fields, as huge as planets but too gauzy to be seen by human eyes, attack Shanna’s ship and kill a crew member on the vessel that the Barths pilot to the rescue. She also finds evidence that Pluto may be a giant petri dish for a science experiment run by even greater intelligences in the outer reaches of space and they don’t want humans to butt in. Shanna and her crew also find life - intelligent creatures called the “zand,” who worship the sun and have an epic oral history. It turns out that Axelrod wants to unsettle them enough to make them willing to rescue his daughter, Shanna, who already has flown to Pluto to investigate a strange warming trend that intermittently melts its methane seas. Despite their fame, Julia and Viktor hear unwelcome whispers. They have discovered a form of life, the Marsmat - carpet-like molds that dwell underground and send messages by electric current. Axelrod’s astronauts, Julia and Viktor Barth, have become the First Couple in a thriving settlement on Mars. Gregory Benford’s new novel, “The Sunborn,” is a sequel to “The Martian Race,” in which a private consortium led by biochemical magnate John Axelrod won a $30-billion prize by outstripping sluggish, bureaucratic NASA in a contest to colonize the Red Planet.
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