What we know about the barnacles...
- Barnacles seem to be an alien life form (artificially created or not), and not simply a biotechnological machine for extracting minerals because barnacles reproduce. While some people may argue that the increasing number of barnacle sightings is just a result of the increased number of explorers, who discovered barnacles that had not been found yet, this argument does not apply to the multiple barnacles found close to each other. It is hard to believe that the legions of explorers failed to find the additional barnacles close-by, when they were able to detect the first one. So I think it is widely agreed that barnacles grow and/or reproduce.
- As they reproduce, and we were able to see this reproduction within a few weeks, it is pretty unlikely that the barnacles' ultimate origin is in merope or anywhere in the pleiades. Otherwise the whole planet's surface would have been covered by these things. However, this does not rule out the possibility that they were created in a laboratory somewhere in the pleiades. This would match the theory that the anaconda wreck was the source of the first barnacle. The second plausible explanation would be that the first barnacle was an "infection" or has been seeded from another world far beyond the bubble. So for finding the barnacles' origin we either need to look for hints on a secret lab (see the recent galnet news) or a planet covered with barnacles, thargoids and the like.
- Since we are dealing with an alien life form that is by definition able to reproduce itself, we should focus our attention how they actually reproduce, because the prospects of finding the barnacles' origin by coincidental discovery are very poor. This is also closely related to the questions how fast they actually reproduce, and which environmental conditions are needed or which factors limit barnacle growth (others than farming explorers). Furthermore, answering these questions will give us an indication whether the barnacles are potentially dangerous. These things could evolve to a galaxy wide plague faster than you might think.
- Barnacles seem to be most common within mineral-rich regions and produce fruits or seeds that are mineral in nature. Therefore it seems straightforward that their metabolism is somewhat based on minerals. So I guess we should put the most effort on cultivating the barnacles seeds (MA's or UA's) with minerals either by dropping minerals close to them, bringing them to a mineral site or just by spreading them all over the place and watch if and where they grow. Unfortunally, we cannot completely rule out the possibility that there is no way to cultivate the barnacles. But this approach seems more compelling than random exploration and delivery of the MA's to a laboratory of questionable reputation.
