by Inc. HDWP
The sight of the cave entrance ahead jolted him back to the present. “I see the cave. Scanner’s picking up strong signals.” He heard a clank. The rover groaned to a stop, and the digital readouts went black. He toggled the reset, but there was no response. “Trouble. Nomad shut down. Signals from the cave—.”
“Commander Zhang wants to know what’s going on down there. I’m stalling, but you’d better come up with something soon.”
“Tell Zhang I know what the hell I’m doing. Whatever is in that cave can’t be natural, and I sure as shit don’t want to wake up some angry Martians.”
There was a pause. Roberta’s voice had a new roughness. “Move your ass, Ek. My window is closing, and I ain’t risking my life for a goddam bonus. I won’t hesitate to abort, and you know if I do they’ll investigate.”
It was obvious. The people demanded chlorominium. Earth would be a dead planet without it. VANAG would risk lives to get the ore; Roberta would not. He left the rover and scrambled. “Take it easy. I’ll have an answer before go time.” He looked at his computer. His certainty about the timing crumbled. Orbit decay was in twenty-five minutes.
“I’m at the cave. My helmet cam is on.” He swept the scanner across the entrance, activated his weapon, and entered. He didn’t need the helmet light to see the blue glow from a stone twenty meters inside; nor did he need the amplifier to hear the hum. “Damn, there’s an upright slab about two meters tall and a meter wide. The surface looks like stone but it’s glowing blue-green. The scanner says it’s an amalgam of basaltic andesite and titanium synthetite. It doesn’t look like mother nature made this sucker.” He flashed his light and scanned full circle. “The life forms scanner won’t register. And there’s an odd humming.”
His light fell on the shimmering stone, and he tensed. “Christ. Do you see that on the video? Cryptograms. It looks like—. Have any other Earth missions been in this sector?”
“Just the survey team, as far as I know.” Ekahau heard the click of keys and knew Roberta was on Google. “G-Trans hasn’t seen these symbols before. It’s searching the database for comparisons. Could this be something from Earth that Security didn’t tell us about?”
Ekahau removed a glove and ran his fingers over the stone’s surface. “It’s vibrating. Where’s the energy source?” He turned and flashed his light into a recess. “The cave keeps going down. And there are more stones.”
“I’m getting prelims on the language search. Some glyphs are similar to early Mesoamerican. Who would do this?” Roberta managed a feeble laugh. “Has your family been vacationing on Mars?”
“Maybe the other way around. Maybe Martians have been hanging out with my family.”
Roberta’s voice turned serious. “Crap. Images are breaking up. Can you get me more with higher res? And step on it. Orbit decay is in fourteen minutes. I need a go or no go.”
“I’m keeping track of time. I can send all the images you want. There must be over a hundred monoliths. Some of these look—.”
“Hold on,” Roberta said. “G-Trans thinks it found a translation for parts of it.”
A computer voice spoke — “Closest language match: proto-Mesomerican, fourth millennium B.C.E.” Ekahau’s eyebrows went up. “Translation to Global English. Reliability index for the translation is 62%. Numbering in the glyphs is base twenty. In translation these are converted to base ten.”
Ekahau fingered a slab and whistled. The computer continued. “Mars time is indicated in the glyphs, but G-Trans cannot convert it to Global Earth time. The task force for the second year of invasion is: 52,600 colonists, 12,400 warriors. Twenty-one untranslatable glyphs follow. The invasion destination coordinates follow but G-Trans is unable to convert them accurately. They are approximately within the mountains of the present day Andes in South America. The Mars atmosphere is rated: hostile, with carbon dioxide at 6.7% and oxygen at 14.9%. Chlorominium stores are judged inadequate at 36%.”
G-Trans paused for an upload. Ekahau wrinkled his nose and squinted. “Someone was using chlorominium on Mars?”
The computer resumed. “Water synthesis is critically low at 33%. The Mars population is 124% of capacity, with a mortality rate of 18% per year.”
“It sounds like they’re talking about Earth,” Ekahau said.
“What did you say? I’m working on the landing sequence. We’re at eight minutes to orbit decay. What’s it going to be?”
“Somebody was in this valley before us. Probably a long time ago.”
The computer’s monotone returned. “Continuing translation: Earth probe summary: Earth has a Martian-friendly environment. Oxygen is 23%. Earth atmospheric pressure at sea level is high and potentially hazardous. The existing Earth life forms include: Martianoid bipeds that are primitive and potentially hostile.”
There was silence. Ekahau guessed Roberta had paused the computer.
“We’ve got orbit decay in seven minutes,” Roberta said.
“The archeology guys are going to go nuts over this stuff.”
“Maybe so, but stick with the mission, dammit. The arch boys can go nuts after the dome is up. Is there any danger to us? I’m going to abort if I don’t get a go. If I do that, the dome doesn’t go up for six weeks. What do you say? What do I tell Zhang?”
Ekahau touched the stone and inhaled. He felt as if he had walked into his own home and fingered familiar books. His family’s passion for the planet invaded his thoughts. He envisioned brown Martians with slopping foreheads stepping from ships onto Earth.
The light from Phobos in the archway of the cave entrance caught his eye. He turned to look and walked from the cave. He told himself coming to Mars had been the right thing for him to do. He whispered his name, pronouncing it as his grandmother had taught him, the ancient way.
“Say again. I didn’t get that.”
“Ekahau. It means traveler. It means Mars has been waiting a long time for me to return—my people.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It means we haven’t learned much in millenniums. First we destroyed Mars, then Earth. Now we’re back on Mars. We’re running out of places to go.”
“Ek, the one minute count down!”
“Tell Commander Zhang you can begin orbit decay. It’s go for landing. Tell him the stones are not a danger to us. But we are. Tell him Martians are not going to invade Earth.” He stared at the horizon. “We did—a long time ago.”
“We’re initiating decay.”
“You’ve got that right.”
Ekahau looked down and moved the barren dirt with his boot. He put his hand on his chest and searched. His fingertips found Chaac’s medal, and he pressed the cold metal into his skin. Phobos shone in the western sky, and he looked up. He closed one eye and covered the spot of light with his fingertip. The dome on Phobos, he thought. When the bonus came in he would definitely choose the dome on Phobos.
Red Vapor
Micha Fire
Left turn. Right long curve. Fast tilt to the right to fit between the two tree trunks. Then quickly tilt back to horizontal while pulling steeply up. Go over the tree tops and in a long left curve fly out over the river.
Then a sharp turn and back into the red vapor. I can see my house. It's as if it has walls of glass. My family sitting at the table in the dining room. I want to get closer. I want a clearer view of what they are doing. The red vapor is blurring out so many details.
Closer. I'm nearly there. Suddenly I take a steep path up.
Tom woke up, breathing hard. "Not that dream again," he thought. The more often he dreamed it the more details he had at the end, the more his emotions mixed.
Left turn. Right long curve. Fast tilt to the right to fit between the two tree trunks. Then quickly tilt back to horizontal while pulling steeply up. Go over the tree tops and in a long left curve fly out over the river.
This part had been there from the beginning. He remembered the exciting -- sensational -- feeling of being able to fly like a bird. So full
of ease and grace, moving between the trees, then the upward movement and flying over them, and over the town and river. What a magnificent view from up there. Even though everything was hazed by the billowing red vapor. The part with his family had come later. when the dream repeated.
Maybe he should not have tried to have the dream again. Being able to fly had been so exciting. Such a grand feeling that had lasted all day. It made him want to be able to repeat this and have this feeling over and over again. If he had known that the dream would change, and add some feelings of anxiety he greatly disliked, he might not have tried to have the dream again. But only having experienced the grand feeling of flying free like a bird during the first time of the dream, he searched the internet for more information about dreams.
He had found that by thinking about what you wanted to dream before you fell asleep, sometimes you could influence the contents of your dreams. And that was what he had done right the next night. But the red vapor, he could do without that. It blurred out so many details.
So, he had tried to find out what the red shrouding in the dream was. All he could figure out so far was that when he had woken up from the dream the first time, he had been looking right into the red lava lamp blowing bubbles next to his bed. Because of that he had removed the lamp, even turned it off. The red light had always felt so comforting. Not so after that night. Now it was a disturbance.
For some days he had consciously tried to repeat the dream. No success. Maybe the red vapor was a necessary element. Now, for a few nights, he stared into the lava lamp blowing the red bubbles before falling to asleep. It made no difference. The dream did not repeat. Two weeks of experimenting and no success. He was a failure.
He had told his best friends at school about his dream experiments. At first they were interested and even tried it themselves. But none of them had any success either, if they could remember a dream at all. They eventually pushed it aside as a fancy they tried out, like tasting cheese ice cream. As time passed, he forgot all about the dream.
There were more interesting things to do. Like the new game on his computer: Master Invasion Strategy. To invade a foreign country with an army you had to set up and train from scratch. Now this was something even his friends could stay excited about. They could play for hours, instant messaging about the best strategies to win a battle and advance to the next level.
At first Tom had been a lousy player. He was not able to see the big picture. But with tips from his friends and earnest experimenting, he was learning how to solve the battlefield tasks in the fastest and best way possible. It took time. He had to restart the whole game more than once. His friends did, too. The final battle was something none of them had achieved yet.
It was during this stage that his father had gotten angry at him. "This computer game is wasting too much of your time, Tom. If you don't change your behavior and spend more time with your family again, I'll have to take measures."
Tom sighed. He could imagine what type of measure that would be: ban him from his computer. His father had never liked the idea of him having his own. But Dad understood that it was a necessity forced on the children by the school.
Not from the very start though. Those years back it was enough that Tom had known what a computer was and the basic usage of it; always supervised by the parents. They had a family computer, as Tom's father sometimes had some deadlines and worked from home after the office hours to meet them.
But as the amount of homework supposed to be done at the computer rose, like writing essays or doing some research for projects, the time Tom's father had for his work shrank. There had been days the two of them had argued about which work was more important, Tom's, or that of his father, which earned the money. In the end, his parents had decided to buy him his own computer.
That had been an exciting day for him. He got better than his father at using, repairing, and upgrading a computer. Tom still remembered the day when he had gotten rid of that virus on his father’s computer. Dad had been so proud, and that made Tom feel good. He had hugged his father - to their mutual astonishment. This had been the first hug since his sister, Jenny, had been born the year before he had gotten the computer.
Tom had felt lowered in family rank since that day. Sure, he had helped his mother with everything that needed to be done around the house and in taking care of a baby: laundry, dishes, even changing her nappies. But he was annoyed that he was forced to give up the status of being their only child. One thing he did not have to give up was his own room. However on some days, having to share the attention of his parents with this baby was worse than before when he had to use Dad's computer with him watching.
Jenny, in Tom's way of thinking, was a family addition that had not been necessary. He couldn't help but blame his father for not having been more careful so that his mother had gotten pregnant again. Tom and Jenny did have good days and lots of fun together; but nothing which felt as good as the praise the day that Tom had saved his father’s computer.
And now, because of the game, it was all back to how it had been before that day.
After school, he talked with his friends about his troubles. And to his surprise they had agreed with his father. He really should be with his family more. The game was not so important. Even instant messaging with them after school was not that important.
"You only have that one family, Tom. And you have a good family. They care about you. You are lucky to have them. There is nothing worse than losing a person that cares about you." This was what his friends had told him.
And more along that line. It made him think. Yes, maybe he should spend more time with his family. When he had come home that day, he announced: "From this day on I wish we all could at least eat dinner together every day; not only on the weekends."
Both his parents and even Jenny had starred at him with big eyes for a moment. Then his father hugged him. "Tom, that is a marvelous idea. We can start right this evening." His mother smiled broadly. Jenny ran off to get four plates to put on the table.
That night he had the dream again. Left turn. Right long curve. Fast tilt to the right to fit between the two tree trunks. Then quickly tilt back to horizontal while pulling steeply up. Go over the tree tops and in a long left curve fly out over the river. And that feeling was there too. Free as a bird. And the red vapor. Just as he woke there had been the glimpse of his family at the table, blurred by the red vapor, for the very first time. This was a new part of the dream. The dream that by now he had nearly forgotten as it had been such a long time since he had first dreamed it.
"Ah, that's just me defragging the things my mind has accumulated over the last few days," he said to himself. It was something he remembered from his search about dreams and how to consciously work with them, and about the deeper meaning of dream symbols. Nothing to worry about. He again basked in the flying feeling which he had almost forgotten
This time though, he did not try to consciously repeat the dream. He simply recalled the feeling of flying free as a bird. The dream, however, repeated again the next night, all on its own. And the night after that.
Sure, the main feeling was the excitement of flying like a bird. But there was also this subconscious nagging feeling of not being able to see his family better before he was taken out of the dream by the upward motion.
He could not find any meaning to that. He was as close to his family as he had been for years. And to his surprise, he even cared about the neighborhood now. Mostly elderly people. Sometimes he helped them carry in their groceries or mow their lawn after he was done with the one in front of his own home. Some even gave him a bit of money for those easy tasks. He saved up this money to buy a new, faster computer.
Just a few days ago, a young couple moved into the house on the right. They had a baby. He had seen the baby buggy outside a few times, and had heard the baby crying. But he and his family had not visited them yet. There was a garden party planned for next week at their house. Sure, he could have gone over alon
e to see the baby or offer to babysit. But to be honest, he was not so keen on babysitting. He knew what that could be like from baby sitting Jenny. And his time was already filled enough with school, family, and yes, this computer game.
And he was so close to beating all his friends in the game. They all had been at it for months now, and no one had yet won the final battle.
Tom was the only one still seriously wanting to win this game. His friends had more or less given up. But they still could provide him with a few strategy options. His best friend had just given him a great hint today. So the first thing he did after his homework was try out the hint: he re-grouped the troops. It seemed to work. He was eager to win this battle and game today, if possible. No matter how long it took.
To finally beat the game would be nearly as good as flying free like a bird. It took up all his attention.
"Tom! Dinner is ready. Get down here at once."
This was the third call from his mother. And this time she sounded dead serious about the "at once" part.
He sighed. It had been a long day at school, lots of homework as well. All he had wanted was to relax from all that stress. He must have lost all sense of time, so captivated by the invasion he was planning.
OK - just this one click here to train some more troops, send the ready ones out to the battlefield, check the status of the troops already at the line of attack. Yes, that should do it.
He turned off the monitor; not the computer. The game would keep on running and, by the time he was done with dinner, the troops should be at the battlefield, ready to fight. Just one more win and this level was through. One step closer to the final battle - and the final win, of course. He had planned this invasion thoroughly. The computer opponent had no chance against his strategy. Not this time. He was an expert by now. He felt proud of his achievement.
Reaching the dining room, the stern look on his father's face quickly brought him back to the real world.
