John Julius Candelaria

Virion John Julius Candelaria

Virion is not a hot new SUV with latest technology that eliminates steering wheels. No, this essay is about impending doomsday that will be caused by an invisible particle, a virion (precursor to a virus). It will arrive on Earth very soon; not by ETs, but as a Trojan horse aboard a NASA craft dubbed "Mars Sample Return." That spacecraft will retrieve soil samples collected by NASA's Perseverance Rover and then return to Earth. Perseverance landed on Mars 2-18-21 on a mission to find life. Mars was once Earth-like but something terrible happened. Martian soil contains evidence about that catastrophe. What could be lurking in Martian soil is alien life which is what viruses actually are. Since the dawn of time, virions have been aboard asteroid debris that partially makes it through Earth's shields. However, virions aboard the enormous asteroid that decimated the Dinosaurs made it through Earth's mighty outer shields intact. To a lesser degree, viruses have ravished us throughout History. Earth's shields protect us from dangers "out there." However, this grand fortress cannot protect us from ourselves.