The Martian Enigma

by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton

  ‘Below the area where the previous Lander should have been, they found what can only be interpreted from the sound chart readings as a void, some fifteen meters below the surface. Unfortunately, the explorers didn’t have the necessary equipment with them to excavate the area to find out if it was indeed a void, or if the old Lander was down there.’

  ‘Looks like there may be something in the rumours which have abounded since the new ship has been under construction.’ Paul commented, looking in turn at the other members of the crew for confirmation of his statement.

  ‘Be that as it may,’ the Director continued, ‘we don’t have enough data to be certain one way or the other, but it looks as if there is something happening on Mars which we didn’t expect and are certainly unable to explain.

  ‘Anyway, every precaution possible was taken to ensure that if anything did happen, we would be aware of it via the video link, not that we could do much about it from Earth as the signal takes twelve minutes on average to reach us, and another twelve for our reply. As I’m sure you already know, Mars is about two hundred and twenty eight million kilometres from us, mean distance, that is, so transmissions take a relatively long time to reach us.

  ‘The two explorers left the Lander module, set up the main video camera next to it, and then one of them proceeded to walk towards the rift valley where the previous mission had lost two of its personnel.

  ‘After walking for about one hundred metres, he turned, training his camera on his companion who was still beside the Lander module, so that as he came forward and bypassed the first man, a record of the second man’s progress could be taken, and studied later if some misfortune befell him.’

  ‘They continued in this manner, taking it in turns to move forward one at a time until the rim of the valley was reached, and here they paused for a while, standing the obligatory one hundred meters apart and sending back pictures of the area for later analysis.

  ‘As far as we can tell, there was nothing in the pictures to indicate any threat or danger, the Martian landscape was just the same as seen on the previous visit, and very similar to the pictures taken by the earlier unmanned probes.

  ‘We were about to instruct one of the explorers to find a suitable way down to the valley floor, when one of them reported hearing a faint singing sound, although his companion couldn’t hear it, and nor could we.

  ‘Before our message instructing them to move back from the edge could reach them, the one who reported the ‘singing’ walked off towards a steep incline at the valley rim, and stepped off into space. In actual fact, he slid down the valley wall in a cloud of fine dust which soon obscured his flailing body from sight, the only evidence of his presence being the odd limb showing at the front of the dust cloud as it raced towards the valley floor.

  ‘When the dust cleared, there was no sign of the man, just a slight disturbance on the surface of the side of the valley where he had slid down. The other man, despite our instructing to the contrary, went to the edge of the valley, and using his monocular, scoured the area for his companion. There was no trace of him.

  ‘At this point, it was deemed sensible to return our man to the orbiter and plan the next move. The remaining explorer was ordered back to the Lander and the Lander returned to dock with the orbiter, hopefully out of harm’s way, should anything try to reach out that far.’

  ‘Despite his comprehensive training, the explorer was in a state of shock when he emerged from the Lander to join the other two crew members in the orbiter. He maintained that as he over shot the Lander in his haste to get back, the gravity being so low on Mars, he thought he heard the ‘singing’ sound his companion had mentioned.

  ‘As he turned to retrace the last few metres to the Lander, his vision went blurred as though another picture of something else was being superimposed on it. It was only his extensive training which enabled him to almost blindly re-enter the module and initiate the take off sequence.

  ‘Needless to say, none of the remaining three members of the expedition were over keen to return to the surface, and it was some seventy two hours later, after moving the orbiter out to what they considered to be a safe distance, that they decided between them that two would go down, leaving one in the orbiter as a backup. We didn’t think it was right to influence their decision in any way, but secretly we were very pleased that they decided to return to the surface.

  ‘During the three days in their supposedly safe orbit around the red planet, they reported that on two occasions the craft had received a blow of some kind. Not a violent strike as would be expected from a meteorite, but more like a violent push. They couldn’t explain it, and neither could we.

  ‘As they didn’t experience any further blows to the craft, they put it down to some possible strange anomaly to do with the space around the planet and the incident was soon forgotten.

  ‘The Lander returned to the surface, and the crew emerged for another attempt to solve the mystery of the missing previous exploration team, and their disappearing Lander and orbiter.’

  ‘This time the two explorers, obeying the one ‘hundred metre rule’, went to a point on the valley edge some distance from the previous attempt, and found a gentle sloping path which looked as if it would take them to the valley bottom.

  ‘The word path would suggest that it had been constructed by someone or something, but when we examined the pictures they sent back, it was obvious that it was a fluke of nature, a natural rift in the valley side due to some movement of the substructure.

  ‘Earlier, it had been decided among them, that if the ‘singing’ sound should occur again they would need some means of preventing any influence it might have on their actions, and the ingenious solution they came up with was to broadcast music over the orbiter’s transmission frequency to drown out any extraneous sounds they may be subjected to. If they needed to speak back to the orbiter, they would use a slightly different frequency, so keeping their two way communication system operative.

  ‘The two explorers reached the beginning of the downward slope to the valley floor, and as there had been no ‘singing’ or other threats to their existence, it was decided to descend the slope, keeping a distance of fifty metres or so apart.

  ‘They reached the bottom of the slope safely and began walking along the valley floor towards what they described as a large square block of dark grey stone, nearly twice the size of the Lander, which protruded out from the wall of the valley where it rose almost vertically to the plain above.’

  The Director rummaged in a draw for a moment, and leaned forward to pass several colour prints across the desk for Greg and his team to view.

  ‘This isn’t a freak of nature, surely?’ asked Paul, astonishment showing clearly on his face.

  As the pictures were passed around, the others agreed that the symmetry of the block and its smooth surfaces were not likely to have been a natural phenomenon, and the implications of that clearly rattled their otherwise calm acceptance of the Director’s recounting of events so far.

  ‘The next event was the most perplexing of all,’ the Director continued, ‘and please bear its details in mind before you accept the proposed mission.

  ‘A camera had been placed several hundred metres up the valley so that the scene could be recorded for future analysis.

  ‘As they approached the stone, a tiny pinpoint of light emanated from the opposite side of the valley to illuminate the face of the stone block. The light didn’t cause the surface of the block to glow as it would if we focused one of our lights on it, but was almost as if the light penetrated the block and somehow made the stone glow from within, creating a strange pattern on the surface. The light beam was so small we nearly missed it, only when we re-examined the pictures were we able to identify its source point.

  ‘At this point the ‘singing’ began, and the orbiter’s music transmission was switched on as agreed earlier. The men in the valley reported back to the orbiter that they were able to continue towards the stone block
, as the music drowned out the extraneous noise of the ‘singing’ as expected.

  ‘One of the men got within ten metres of the block when he let out a cry of astonishment, reporting back that there seemed to be some sort of hieroglyphics etched into the surface of the stone, the light from across the valley somehow causing it to become visible. The other man joined him, against the ‘distance’ rule which had been agreed upon by all, and that, unfortunately, brought about their ultimate undoing.’

  ‘One of the men approached the face of the block and began tracing out some of the strange signs with his gloved finger.

  ‘We are still not quite certain of this, but as he did so, some of the incised signs seemed to change colour, but the change was subtle, and may have been a trick of the light.

  ‘As the other man joined him, a section of the stone disappeared, dissolved into thin air, or just plain wasn’t there any more. We have been over the recordings time and time again, and we still can’t see exactly what happened.

  ‘To our horror, both men turned towards each other, nodded, and walked into the opening, the hole in the face of the stone block was suddenly no more. It was just a solid block of stone again, as it was before the light struck it.

  ‘That was the last we ever saw of the two explorers. The Video camera continued to send pictures of the valley floor and the stone block, but they might just have well been still shots, for there was no movement of any kind to be seen.

  ‘The remaining member of the team in the orbiter went frantic, and because of the time delay for the signals to reach us and be returned, we had a very difficult time of it trying to calm him down. Eventually he regained some semblance of normality, or so it seemed to us, and a rational conversation about what to do next was begun.

  ‘We should have spotted it earlier, but we didn’t. The lone member of the orbiter was just a bit too compliant, too eager to accept our suggestions of returning to Earth, and the next thing we knew was that the Lander was on it’s way up to dock with the orbiter.

  ‘We guessed he intended to go down to the surface, and tried to persuade him not to, but after the Lander began its journey up into orbit, he cut all transmissions to us and we couldn't control the craft from Earth.’

  ‘There was nothing we could do but sit and wait to see what would happen next. We had no control over the Lander while the orbiter was functioning in control mode, which it was. All we could do was bring the orbiter back to Earth using an override signal, but this would only work if the person in the orbiter was not controlling it.

  ‘We watched, helpless, as the Lander came up and docked with the orbiter, and we assumed the remaining crew member transferred to the Lander, for it soon began its journey down to the planet’s surface once again. The main video camera was still in place and sent back pictures of the one remaining man we had on Mars heading off towards the valley rim where the last two disappeared, and we could do nothing about it.

  ‘Fortunately, he had the sense to take his own camera with him, so we had a good view of what he saw as he went down the long slope to where the other two found the square block of stone protruding out of the valley wall.

  ‘The camera left by the other two was still working, and sent back clear pictures of the stone block and surrounding area, but the thin beam of light which had previously illuminated the block had been turned off. Suddenly we heard music, and assumed that he had left the orbiter’s transmitter on in case he encountered the singing sounds the others had heard, and had just switched his receiver on to block out those sounds. This of course, meant that we could hear anything he chose to say, but so far he had decided not to communicate to us.

  ‘He had reached the foot of the incline safely, and was just about to walk across the flat bottom of the valley towards the stone block where the others had disappeared, when he uttered a startled gasp, and so did we.’

  ‘At first hazily, and then solidifying as we watched, the valley bottom became populated with plants. Tall frond like palms, very large round and ribbed plants, which looked like squashes, but on a huge scale, and a variety of other growths, the like of which you would find hard to imagine.

  ‘A small stream of clear water cascaded down the side of the valley to fill a large pool just in front of the stone block.

  ‘As our man stopped, dumbfounded, we could no longer hear the music broadcast from the orbiter, but the sound of the water rushing down the valley wall came over clearly.

  ‘We don’t know if he had switched off the music, or some other force had taken control of it. This was the most mind numbing thing we had ever witnessed in all the time we have been engaged in space exploration, and we were completely helpless to do anything about it.

  ‘We assumed the whole thing was an illusion or hallucination of some kind, but we couldn’t understand how it could be picked up by the cameras and sent back to us. Something well outside our understanding and with considerable power was taking control of the project, determined to prevent us from exploring this section of the planet.

  ‘In the middle of the pool was a rock, and on it sat one of the most beautiful females I have ever seen, beckoning to our man, who had begun walking towards the water. As his feet entered the pool, silver splashes rose into the air, wetting his suit and then falling back slowly as if in a dream. The further in he went, the more his body was submerged, until only his head was visible, and then that too disappeared from sight beneath the silver ripples.

  ‘A few moments later, and the whole scene reverted back to how it was earlier, rock, sand, and the big block of stone protruding out from the valley side.’

  ‘Our man was left standing in the middle of the valley where the rock had been moments earlier, dry as a bone and none the worse for the virtual dunking in the phantom pool.

  ‘One theory offered to us later was that whoever or whatever it was that created the illusion of the pool, expected our man to feel that he had drowned, completely missing the point that he was wearing a space suit. From this we concluded that whatever it was, it wasn’t all that bright, and maybe we have a chance to override anything it might throw at us in any future expedition.’

  ‘Is that why,’ began Greg, ‘ we have all been subjected to long spells in virtual reality sessions, trying to carry out tasks when all around us has been set up to impede our completing those tasks?’

  ‘Yes, basically,’ replied the Director, ‘but there is a little bit more to it than that, as you will find out.’

  The glasses were filled up again and emptied almost as quickly, as the five man crew of the next expedition to Mars tried to come to terms with what they had just heard.

  All was quiet for several minutes as each person present thought his own thoughts, and came to his own conclusions on the matter.

  Ben, the electronics engineer of the crew, was the first to break the uneasy silence which had fallen over the group like a heavy blanket.

  ‘If we could electronically block out the singing sound, and accustom ourselves to ignoring anything which doesn’t fit in with what we know to be true, we should stand a good chance of surviving whatever is thrown at us, unless of course ‘it’ uses physical weapons on us, and then we could be in real trouble as body armour is of little use when wearing a space suit.’

  ‘What happened to the others who went into the opening in the stone block,’ asked Greg, hesitatingly, ‘was anything seen of them again?’

  ‘No,’ replied the Director, ‘as far as we know they are still in there, and dead long ago. Their oxygen wouldn’t have lasted for more than twenty hours at the most.

  ‘As for our last man on Mars,’ he continued, ‘we could only watch as he did his own thing, so to speak. He went up to the stone and waited for the light to come on, but it didn’t, so he was unable to see the markings on the stone face and therefore unable to trace out their design and gain entry to whatever was within the block. I think, on looking back, his intention was to try and rescue his companions, but to no avail.

>   ‘He wandered about in the valley for about two hours, exploring every nook and cranny for some means of gaining entry to the stone. In the end he had to return to the Lander as a storm was brewing up, and it would have been fatal to have been exposed to the force the Martian winds can produce. He retraced his steps to the Lander, fired the anchor bolts to hold it to the surface, and waited out the storm.

  ‘I’m sure you know already that the Martian winds can get up to nearly four hundred and fifty kilometres per hour in a really good storm. This accounts for the pink tinge to the atmosphere as the very fine dust particles are swept up and hang suspended for some considerable time due to the low gravity.

  ‘Despite all our efforts, he still refused to answer our radio calls. Eventually the storm died down, and our man set off for the valley, dragging an extra oxygen cylinder. Obviously intending to stay for a while as he tried to puzzle out a means of entry to the stone block.’

  ‘As he approached the rim of the valley, it was evident that some changes had taken place. The camera showed a high rock wall stretching from one side of the valley bottom to the other, and about ten metres high, completely blocking any access to the stone block he had visited earlier.

  ‘Undaunted, our man went down the slope to the valley bottom and approached the sheer sided barrier to his progress. We found it hard to believe our eyes at what took place next. He reached out a hand which disappeared into the wall! It wasn’t really there at all, or so it seemed. With no more ado, he walked straight through it and out the other side, whereupon the wall slowly faded from view.

  ‘What we can’t understand is how a phantom wall can be projected which is not only visible to a person, but also recordable on our cameras. It defies all known science at our disposal, and is another mystery we would like solved.

  ‘That technology could be very useful.’ said Greg.

  ‘Having negotiated the wall barrier,’ the Director continued, ‘it was only a matter of time before he put two and two together, and tried the same approach to the stone block, ignoring the assumed necessity of the hieroglyphics, which were not illuminated because of the missing beam of light.