Red Hope

by J J (John) Dreese

  Yeva smiled and said, “Aren’t you glad they kept that mini rover in the budget?”

  Adam sent her a big grin.

  After a few minutes a loud clunk was heard and the ship shook. They looked out the windows and saw that the hallway was now attached forming a bridge to their new living quarters known as Big Turtle. It was pressurizing and would be viable in a few minutes.

  Adam wanted to remove his helmet, but he knew that would be unsafe until they established that the hallway was now an airtight connection between two airtight ships. He opened the door on Little Turtle which gave access to the newly extended hallway. A sound of rushing air lasted just a few seconds; everything seemed okay.

  There were no surprises in sight or sound. He walked carefully to the other end of the hallway, each step causing it to bounce up and down like a cheaply built bridge. Adam found himself standing just outside the door on Big Turtle.

  He grabbed hold of the circular handle on the door and slowly spun it. It opened and he felt a blast of air hit his suit pushing him backwards. He instinctively held his breath even though he was still wearing his helmet. Had he not been holding onto the door handle, the push of air would have knocked him down.

  Adam pushed hard on the door and peered in through the crack. He pushed it wide open and looked around checking a pressure gauge on the wall. Then he turned around and looked back through the hallway at the other astronauts anxiously awaiting his next step. His hands came up and he took off his helmet, slowly at first and then with a big quick jerk movement.

  He gleefully stated, “We’re home kids. Take off your helmets and stay a while!”

  The next hour was a flurry of activity as each astronaut got out their purple checklists and went through them meticulously. Adam was to check all of the safety systems and valves. Molly made sure the life support systems were functioning and they had enough oxygen to supply their 30 day mission. Yeva was opening all of the exploration tool compartments to check their condition.

  Keller, on the other hand, was staring out the window at the red rocky landscape just a few feet away. To him, it looked like Arizona. Being on such a huge planet with such a confined place to survive caused his hands to begin shaking. When nobody was looking, Keller took one of his pills. He calmed down.

  Yeva also had the delicate task of dropping the Mars extra-vehicular transport from the Big Turtle housing unit. The astronauts referred to it as the golf cart. It was belted to the bottom and it had to be slid out on extendable rods where it would drop onto the surface. This golf cart is what they would use to drive around on during their external excursions; it was their main vehicle.

  Yeva sat down at the control panel by the airlock. This gave her a good view outside. She could see the golf cart which was pinned against the side of Big Turtle. She pushed the toggle switch labeled Extend and two large rods extended from the side of the ship carrying the golf cart with it. Next she pushed the button which would release the golf cart. It dropped to the ground and bounced hard a few times. Fortunately they couldn’t hear it due to the thin atmosphere.

  As everybody worked, they began to notice a silence that had befallen them. Nobody was talking; they just did their tasks.

  Adam broke the silence, “Okay everybody. Let’s gather around for a meeting.”

  The astronauts walked over to the dinner table which was rigidly bolted to the floor; they were still wearing the lower portion of their pressure suits.

  Adam spoke in a fatherly tone, “Once we finish these tasks, I think we’ll be in a good spot to start the first phase of our exploration. Yeva and I will go out first. If the golf cart is working okay, we’ll drive around to examine the condition of the two Turtles from the outside. After that, we’ll go find the Curiosity rover and then take a look at the pyramid. Sound good? Great.”

  Prior to leaving Earth, the astronauts had secretly decided who would be the first to step down on Mars. To help choose, they had taken a bowl of pennies and each astronaut chose one. The penny with the oldest year would decide who would go into the history books as being the first to walk on Mars. Yeva and Adam both picked pennies minted in 1973.

  It was decided that they would both descend the ramp together at the same time. A coed landing of sorts. Nobody was happy with this compromise.

  “It’s a green-eyed conspiracy,” complained Keller referring to the fact that Adam and Yeva both had green eyes and were both getting the chance to be the first on Mars.

  Adam wanted to be the one in the history books; mainly because it would guarantee a constant stream of speaking engagements and endorsements for the rest of his life. Keller and Molly were not very happy about it at all, but they accepted it for what it was.

  After touching down on Mars, Keller pulled Adam aside to see if he could convince him to trade places with him during that initial walk on Martian soil. Keller looked over his shoulders to see if he could talk to Adam in privacy.

  He whispered, “Look, Adam, I have an offer for you.”

  “Oh yah? I’m listening,” responded Adam half-seriously as he was transferring a stack of supplies from one cabinet to another.

  “I will pay you two million dollars if you allow me to walk out there first. I’ll go out there with Yeva, everything will look hunky dory, but I’ll run ahead and get to the surface first.”

  Adam looked at the floor, soaking in the offer.

  “That’s a tempting offer Keller. Really. However, I think the potential payoff from being the first would far outweigh two million dollars. Besides, we may not even make it back. Then your money would be worthless to me.”

  “What about your family?”

  Adam halted what he was working on so he could think. He said, “My family already has the million dollar bonus. Thanks to you, right?”

  “Well, what would it take?” asked Keller.

  “I’m afraid there’s nothing you could offer. Sorry Keller.”

  Keller turned away in disgust.

  After the astronauts completed their task lists, Adam and Yeva prepared for their monumental trip. They put on their suits and tested the valves to make sure the pressurization was working properly. All four astronauts walked over to the airlock vestibule.

  Adam and Yeva ducked through the airlock door and stood in the cramped room staring at the external hatch; on the other side of that flimsy metal was the harsh atmosphere of Mars with temperatures of -100 degrees Fahrenheit. Molly closed the door behind them, essentially locking in their fate. They could feel their hearts pounding.

  Adam leaned toward the door and slowly rotated the handle. They heard the sound of air leaking, but it only lasted for a few seconds. Adam and Yeva stepped proudly out onto the catwalk. Stretched in front of them was a surreal landscape like no other. The common description of it looking like Arizona is not correct. It’s as if a huge landscape of bedrock was sprinkled with red sand, dust and loose rocks. On Earth, even the harshest desert shows some sign of life. They could see for miles in every direction here and there wasn’t a single solitary living organism. This place had been dead for a long time.

  “It’s so beautiful and yet so lifeless,” said Adam.

  He turned his head and looked up at the roof-mounted video camera that was beaming their images back to Earth. He waved. Billions of people were watching.

  They both stood there looking down at the Martian soil just three feet below them at the bottom of the ramp. It looked so inviting. History was so close. Adam’s usually complacent ego was going into overdrive. He was ruminating about Keller’s idea of forcing himself into history. Adam’s repressed arrogance flared.

  Yeva turned her head just in time to see Adam leap forward past the end of the ramp and land on the ground. His boots kicked up a puff of dust. It blew away in the thin Martian breeze.

  The ground was as solid as if he’d landed on Earth. He stood up soaking in the pride he was feeling. In that brief betrayal of Yeva, he became the first human to step foot on another planet and ensur
ed his historical legacy. In five minutes, billions of people would see him become a legend.

  Adam turned around and looked at Yeva. She was staring at him with a look of crushing disappointment. She would always be known as the second person on Mars. In other words, she would be unknown. She assumed he had always planned this move.

  Yeva’s look of disappointment changed to rage. She reverted to her Russian and said, “Vy nakhodites' na vershine moyego spiska kormy!”

  Adam raised one eyebrow and said, “That sure didn’t sound like an endearing phrase.”

  Adam could take her derision. For now at least. Only his crew knew what was supposed to have happened, so he was still a hero to Mission Control and to the billions of people watching.

  He pushed the glove-mounted button that opened his microphone up to the Earth video stream feed. He looked up at the camera and said what Neil Armstrong had meant to say all those years ago when he first set foot on the Moon; he added a bit of political correctness too.

  “This is one small step for a human and one giant leap for humankind.”

  Adam’s name would be an answer on game shows. It would be an answer in Trivial Pursuit: Mars Edition. From this moment on, his family would never want for money or medicine. And all he had to do was violate a promise he had carried for many millions of miles.

  Adam looked over at Yeva again. He said, “I am sorry Yeva. I had to do that for my family. It’s hard to explain.”

  Yeva was still stunned, unmoving. She walked down the ramp and stopped before reaching the dirt. She lifted her boot carefully and set it down firmly on the red dust. When she set the other boot down, she looked up at Adam and said, “You can rot for all I care. Now, let us go finish what we came here for.”

  They walked toward the golf cart. Yeva pushed Adam out of the way as she hopped into the driver’s seat. She looked at him and said, “I am driving.”

  Adam climbed in the passenger seat.

  Before Yeva stepped on the accelerator pedal, they both reached behind their seats and pulled out an American and Russian flag respectively. They leaned out of the golf cart and jabbed them into the red sandy soil.

  Adam started laughing.

  “Now what could possibly be funny?” asked Yeva.

  “Did you ever notice that the first two people to walk on Mars are named Adam and Yeva?” asked Adam.

  She stared at him motionless.

  “You know, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden?”

  Yeva looked at him incredulously.

  He quickly added, “Granted this place is hostile and deadly, so it’s not really like the Garden of Eden, but still, it’s a funny coincidence, right?”

  Yeva was thinking. She finally spoke.

  “I would like to remove one of your ribs and beat some sense into you with it.”

  A profound silence emerged. The smile left Adam’s face.

  “Okay, um, let’s get moving I guess,” he said.

  Yeva powered up the cart and drove a slow circle around the Big and Little Turtles to inspect their condition. Everything looked good except for the parachutes that were lying down on the ground. Yeva pointed at them and looked at Adam for his input.

  “I don’t want to waste time re-packing those chutes right now. Let’s continue,” he commanded.

  Satisfied that nothing else seemed out of place, she floored the pedal and the tore off toward the direction of the dead Curiosity rover and the fossils. For several minutes, they wound their way around rocks, boulders and old dry river beds. As they crested a rocky hill, they could see what they came for.

  Down in a shallow valley of smooth soil, they saw the idled Curiosity rover next to some large sparkling boulders.

  “That’s what we came all this way to see,” remarked Adam.

  “Yes,” said Yeva. “Those rocks look just like the ones in our photographs.”

  It was strange to see them from this angle. Yeva was very excited to be able to study the fossils close-up. Up ahead in front of both the rover and the fossil rock was a pyramidal structure that appeared to be made out of large flat granite walls.

  Yeva remarked, “The pyramid sure looks manmade, doesn't it?”

  “You mean Martian made?” asked Adam.

  Yeva laughed and then remembered how Adam had betrayed her. She scowled at him.

  Yeva maneuvered the golf cart down the hill and parked just a few feet from the Curiosity rover. They both hopped out.

  Adam went to the back of the golf cart and grabbed the large replacement power unit and some tools. He moved it over to the Curiosity and started the laborious process of replacing its dead power unit. Since it relied on a radioactive power source, Adam had to be very careful.

  Yeva walked over to the fossil and kneeled down to look at it. She touched her glove to the bony hand fossil protruding from the boulder. It was similar in size and shape to her own hand, but it was millions of years older. She was now the closest a human had ever been to an alien life form. She sat there unmoving as she daydreamed. Yeva imagined this place as a once luscious life-supporting landscape. She ran her fingers over the symbols on the granite block as it lay in the skeleton fossil’s hand. The bony structures were embedded just in the surface of the huge rock. She took picture after picture of this most alien find.

  Adam finished replacing the power unit. “There you go little guy. Wander off and find more amazing stuff.”

  In an hour or so, Mission Control on Earth would direct the Curiosity to continue exploring. It would be gone from view by tomorrow morning.

  Adam put his tools back in the golf cart and grabbed his digital camera. He walked over to Yeva and started taking high-resolution photos of the fossils.

  He stated, “I gotta admit they look posed. Almost like they were put here on purpose to become fossils.”

  Yeva wondered out loud, “Possibly, but how do you think they went about embedding them in rock like this? I hope the person was already dead when they put them here so long ago.”

  Adam examined the boulder closely.

  "I don't think this boulder is a naturally occurring rock formation. It looks more like concrete to me. Except, instead of using gravel, they used greenish gems. Maybe olivine? Why would they do that?" wondered Adam aloud.

  "My guess is they wanted to grab the attention of any future travelers. It sure got our attention, yes?" asked Yeva.

  "Good point," replied Adam.

  The only visible parts on the fossils were the hands, arms, and legs. The head was partially visible, but mostly encased in the gem-infused boulder. Upon closer inspection, the symbols in the granite block were inlaid in gold.

  Adam remarked, “In hindsight, it seems obvious now that these lines represent Pi. Just like Chris said.”

  Yeva was the only crewmember who had guessed that correctly. She ignored Adam’s statement and said, “Look at those leg bone fragments. This person was extremely tall. I suspect seven, maybe eight feet tall? Must be the result of living with lower gravity.”

  “That’s not the only amazing thing here,” said Adam. “Have you noticed how this symbol stone and the pyramid are the only examples of granite within sight? Just look around. All I see are random volcanic stones and some broken sedimentary rocks. There’s some basalt over there. I wonder where they got the granite from?”

  Yeva nodded her head in agreement.

  “There must be a quarry somewhere around here. The ground cover is interesting too. It looks like sand mixed with red dust. I move my hand through it and it’s just so light, yet on top of a very hard crust. It’s like we’re only inches from bedrock.”

  Over the radio came a transmission from Keller, “Hey have you guys found anything yet? Your little jumping stunt has reached Earth and returned. The crowds are going wild.”

  Adam laughed and said, “Yah, I’m not sure what came over me; I must’ve lost my footing or something.”

  Yeva stared at him with hateful eyes.

  Adam continued, “Um, w
e’re at the site. I replaced the power unit on the Curiosity and we’re looking at the fossils now. The symbols are much more impressive in person. Isn’t that right, Yeva?”

  He looked up to see her still staring at him with disdain. She hoped he would fall down and break his legs. Then she would pose his skeleton next to the fossils for the next civilization to find.

  Keller said, “Now don’t go stealing those artifacts. Molly and I want to see them, too.”

  Yeva brought out her toolkit and took a few samples of the fossils from the boulder. She put them in plastic bags to be examined later.

  After taking some more pictures, Adam noted that they had already burned through half of their oxygen. The two astronauts walked over toward the pyramid structure. On one side was a big round disk made of smooth rock that was leaning against the pyramid. In the middle of the door was an engraved square shown floating over a straight line.

  However, there was also a ring of symbols going around the outer edge of the door. This detail hadn’t been visible in the photographs. These etchings were much more elaborate than those in the fossil’s hand.

  Adam remarked, “It looks like the sign on the door has an added bonus for us. Wish I knew what it meant.”

  Yeva used her fossil brush to clean the dust out of each engraving before they documented them with their cameras.

  Yeva questioned, “So, do you think the door rolls open or maybe it swings on hinges?”

  “I doubt door hinges would’ve lasted millions of years, so they probably used the classic rolling slab door. Whatever it is, I sure hope it’s hiding something awesome inside.”

  Yeva wondered, “How should we move it?”

  The two explorers looked around for some clues about how to roll this big round door away. Adam jogged over to the golf cart and pulled the utility shovel off of it and brought it back. He slowly dug away at the sand on one side of the disc.

  Suddenly, the ground shook. It shook a lot. The shimmying lasted for five seconds before fading. Sand shifted away from the circular door.

  Adam stopped digging. He asked over the headset microphone, “Hey did anybody else feel that Earthquake?”