by John Dreese
Keller was still breathing heavy. He warned, “We have to collect all of those pills.”
Adam was still hunched over trying to catch his breath.
“What is wrong with you! What is going on? You’ve been squirrelly ever since we left Earth!”
Keller squeezed his eyes shut to think.
“Let’s just say that I have extreme claustrophobia, okay? This medicine helps when I need it. Being in this ship though… I need it constantly. Look at this place, I keep hitting my head on these short ceilings! I tried to go without it, but that didn’t work. If we find them all, then I might have just enough for the trip there and the trip home. Without them, well, it’ll be bad for everybody. You might throw me out the escape hatch.”
Adam was still filled with anger, catching his breath.
“You pick up all those loose pills yourself. Why didn’t you tell us about this before we even started the mission?” he demanded.
“Well the medical team said it was okay, as long as I only used them occasionally.”
Adams eyes bulged.
“But you’ve got enough to tranquilize an elephant!”
Keller shrugged his shoulders.
“Not everybody has the same definition of occasional.”
Molly moved toward Keller to talk with him about this, but stopped short.
Keller walked back across the room and meticulously picked up each pill, dropping it in the bottle. Molly joined him. She noticed that several had fallen through the cracks in the floor panels and would not be retrievable. She said nothing. When they’d found all of the visible pills that could be picked up, Keller tightened the lid and stood up to talk.
“Look, if I would’ve told you guys about this before, you would’ve booted me off this mission.”
Adam finally calmed down.
“You’re right. But you’re here now. You’ve got enough to last?”
Keller paused; he noticed that the bottle was less full.
“Possibly. I’ll go upstairs and get to my checklist.”
Keller climbed up the ladder and started his morning checklist in seclusion, albeit a few hours late.
In just one hour, the crew would have a classified video conference with the head of NASA. Chris Tankovitch would finally reveal Photo D and tell them what it meant to both the mission and mankind.
Chapter 14
“Can you hear me?” said the shaking image of Chris Tankovitch on an iPad. It was sitting on a table in the Little Turtle as it raced toward Mars. The astronauts were gathered in front of the screen.
“Yes, we can hear you fine. The picture’s kind of blurry right now though,” responded Adam. He would have to wait another ninety seconds to get a reply.
“Okay, hang on. We’re making some adjustments,” said Chris to the iPad. He walked out of frame for a while and came back holding a Coke. He started tinkering with something near his camera lens. Suddenly, he was in sharp focus.
Chris looked into the camera and said, “Okay, this time delay is going to make this tricky, so I’m going to talk for two minutes, and then you can talk for two minutes.”
Chris reached down to his table and pulled a photograph out of an envelope.
“Guys, to the left of your upper escape hatch door is a locked pink cabinet. I’m going to unlock it right now, remotely.”
The astronauts could see Chris typing a code onto a console on his desk. They heard an audible clunk sound come from the command room above them. Keller scurried up the ladder and came back down with a big brown envelope. He opened it and pulled out the stack of photos.
Chris continued with his two minute talk, “You’ve seen most of these already, but you haven’t seen Photo D. That is the most important image, and it will guide this entire mission. This is the photo I showed the president last year that caused this entire Mars mission to become a reality. What you’re looking at is a fossilized hand holding what we believe to be a granite slab the size of a credit card. On that slab are some symbols. A vertical line followed by a circle and then another vertical line.”
Keller laughed under his breath and said, “So their ‘LOL’ took two million years to get to us? Okay, I guess my cellphone plan isn’t the worst after all.”
Chris didn’t hear Keller due to the time delay, so he continued right along. “At first, we believed these to be a number sequence, but note that there is a third vertical line inside the circle. And if you look closer, there is a small horizontal mark on that vertical line inside the zero. It looks like a tall cross. I’ll give you a minute to soak these in.”
The astronauts stared intently at the photo.
“It’s Calvary,” whispered Adam.
Keller looked confused and asked, “You mean… like with the bugles and the horses?”
“No, no, no; you’re thinking of the cavalry. I’m talking about Calvary. Didn’t you guys ever go to Sunday school?”
They stared blankly at Adam.
Adam didn’t want to trot out his conservative Southern upbringing, but he decided now was a good time to explain.
“Okay, so there’s a hill outside of Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. It’s called Calvary. There were two other guys crucified next to him. One on his left and one on his right. I don’t know what the circle means on this thing, but this symbol, with the three vertical lines, is very similar to what’s used to represent Calvary nowadays. Normally, it’s just three crosses though. You see it along the side of freeways a lot, you know? Three crosses next to each other? These carvings in the granite, though, are missing the two horizontal bars on the side crosses. It doesn’t make sense. And anyways, how would Martians from millions of years ago know about our religious symbols?”
After a long delay, Chris started up again.
“Adam, I admit that’s what I thought too. I was convinced I was having a religious moment. However, if you look closely you will see that all three of the vertical lines are the same length as the diameter of that circle. The top bar on that middle cross is really short, roughly fourteen percent of the length of the vertical lines.”
“Could it be Pi?” asked Yeva. There was a long silence as the message went to Earth, and Chris replied.
“Yes, Yeva, excellent conclusion. We think so,” admitted Chris. “If you wanted to prove to some future explorer that you were an advanced culture, then you might present some advanced-thinking information. Like ‘the Sun is round’ and then you might tell the future travelers that you’re familiar with the number Pi. If you know about Pi, then your math system is very advanced.”
Keller admitted, “Okay, I don’t quite understand. I consider myself pretty tech savvy, but I slept through geometry class. What is Pi again? Why is it important?”
Adam thought for a moment and explained, “Well, no matter how big a circle is, if you wrap a string around the outside of it once, and then unwind that string into a straight line, the length of it will always be equal to about 3.14 times the width of the circle. It works for any circle of any size.”
Keller looked unimpressed, “And?”
Yeva answered, “And it is absolutely crucial for advanced math. The kind of math that gets you launched off the Earth in rocket ships. You cannot leave your planet without knowing about the number Pi.”
Keller was suddenly overcome with regret about sleeping through high school geometry. He blurted out, “Look who was paying attention in math class!”
Silence. Lots and lots of silence.
Chris piped up, “We believe this granite slab with symbols was meant as a calling card to say, ‘We know our stuff; pay attention to us.’ However, we are really interested in what’s shown in the background of the picture.”
The astronauts looked closely and could see a pyramid-like structure with a circular door on it. It wasn’t very large, but it all seemed to be made out of granite or smooth rock of some type.
Chris continued, “Once you establish your living quarters on Mars, we’ll have you take some better phot
os of the fossils. However, after that, we’d like you to focus on that pyramid structure. We want to know what is behind that door.”
Keller questioned, “So do you think we’re going to find little green men behind door number one?”
A minute and half later, Chris came back with, “Probably not. Uh, there is one more thing. A few days after our NSA experts analyzed the photos, they found that the round door on the pyramid structure actually has a symbol carved on it too. It’s right in the middle, so look closely.”
The astronauts leaned in to see if they could detect some other image on the black and white photograph. There it was; a drawing of a square with a straight horizontal line floating underneath.
Adam looked perplexed. He asked, “So what does that mean?”
Chris answered him after a long delay.
“We don’t know. Our guys are stumped. We’ve got a team of mathematicians trying to decipher it. Whatever it is, I hope it’s wonderful. And friendly.”
“Thanks. I guess we’ll find out soon,” replied Adam.
Chapter 15
When done correctly, space travel can be quite boring. The remaining portion of the voyage went without any major stumbling blocks. The astronauts went through their checklists. They ate. They slept. They talked. They didn’t die. They didn’t kill each other. The big blue ball got smaller and the little red dot got bigger.
The Little Turtle was no longer hurtling through the vast emptiness of space. Right now the only sound onboard was that of the various computer cooling fans. Several days earlier, the MM10 motors had been turned around to help slow it down, eventually using the outer Martian atmosphere for auxiliary braking purposes.
Each of the four astronauts commandeered one of the porthole windows. They stared out at the giant red sphere floating in front of them. After nearly 28 long days, they were now in a stable orbit around the Red Planet and would stay there until the landing sequence was initiated.
For the first time since they left the International Space Station, the astronauts were once again floating inside the cabin. It took some getting used to. Adam and Keller goofed around with the weightlessness by doing body flips. Loud static sounds suddenly emanated from the speakers followed by the sound of talking.
“Little Turtle, this is Mission Control. Do you read me?”
The crackly voice was barely intelligible over the intercom.
Adam broke away from the floating fun and wandered over to the communications panel. He turned on the microphone and adjusted some of the knobs.
“We hear you loud and clear. We’ve achieved a stable orbit around Mars. We plan to start the landing sequence in 30 minutes. Please advise.”
It would take nearly five minutes for that message to get to Earth and just as long for NASA’s reply to reach them with further instructions. This was very different from the Moon missions where the messages only took about one second to travel between the astronauts and Mission Control.
Keller was standing in front of the large porthole window. He said, “I can’t stop staring at it. The giant red orb. It’s just, big... and rusty.”
Adam replied, “I hear you. And just think. We’ll be walking around on it very soon.”
Keller looked at Adam to say something, but he stopped and turned back to stare out the window, afraid he would miss something.
Adam and Yeva floated up to the flight deck. He pulled out two green three-ring binders and gave one to Yeva. They began to go through several checklists; if all went well, they could consider initiating the descent process. Once it was started, they could not stop. In a very short time, they would either be on the surface of Mars or in the surface of Mars.
Adam had forgotten about Mission Control already. Suddenly, he was startled when the long awaited reply arrived after it’s long transit from Earth.
“Congratulations crew. Everybody is going crazy down here with tension. All systems look good. Proceed with the landing sequence at your discretion.”
Adam replied, “Roger that, Mission Control. We’ll send you a message once we land. Little Turtle, out.”
The astronauts made their way to their closets and put on their space suits and helmets. They floated back to the flight deck and strapped themselves into their seats in preparation for landing.
“Just think, we’re about to land on a planet that is completely inhabited by robots,” joked Adam to release some tension.
The crew snickered.
Adam closely watched a display on the computer screen that showed their approximate position over the surface of Mars. It consisted of some satellite imagery overlaid with a grid. Once the ship passed over the mountain named Aeolis Mons (Mount Sharp), he would start the descent sequence. This would put them down at right about where the housing unit had landed, not far from the fossils.
He stared intently at the screen and waited. Over the horizon came an enormous mountain. It passed under his target site. He lifted the protected toggle switch cover and pressed two red buttons. The Little Turtle jerked, and a few mechanical clunks were heard. Those were the traditional rocket engine landing systems coming alive and filling with fuel. The astronauts felt a slight deceleration as the small retro rockets fired off and on for a period of a few seconds. After a few cycles, the engines turned off and stayed off.
Adam looked at the others and said, “That’s it. We slowed down enough for gravity to start pulling us in. Once we get low enough, we’ll fire the main descent rockets full blast and navigate our way to the Big Turtle.”
The descent started out very smooth. The atmosphere was so thin they didn’t experience the same type of buffeting that the space shuttle experiences when returning to Earth. After a few minutes, the ship started to creak and moan. Aerodynamic stresses on the structure were causing the metal bulkheads to oilcan, making popping sounds. The noise made Adam nervous.
Please stop the noise, please stop the noise, he whispered to himself.
Molly monitored the life support systems.
“All support systems are good!”
The astronauts no longer saw the edge of the planet. It was all red from their view, with streaks of dark brown and some black. The ship was descending into the Martian afternoon haze.
The occasional shake turned into a constant vibration. The noises got louder by the second.
“Our altitude is about 2200 meters!” yelled Adam.
The other astronauts looked at each other. The shaking was getting more violent than they had expected. Adam stared at the screen intently; something wasn’t right.
“We’re falling too fast! Our descent rockets won’t be able to stop us.”
Keller’s eyes were wide open now, and his heart pounded. He would be the first rich man to die on Mars. He assumed they would name the impact crater after him.
Adam had a hard time focusing on the computer screen due to the shaking.
“We’re going too fast! I’m gonna to have to use our return parachutes!” yelled Adam.
“But those are for the landing back on Earth. If you use them now, we’ll be doomed!” yelled Yeva over the noisy ship.
“And if I don’t, we’ll be dead!” screamed Adam.
He reached up to a panel on the top and grabbed a big red handle marked Parachute Override. He yanked down on it. Nothing happened. He tried again and his hand slid off the handle. He grabbed it again and yanked. Nothing.
The ship bucked violently. He grabbed the handle with both hands and pulled so hard he lifted himself against his seatbelt straps. Clunk! Three long ropes deployed from the top of the Little Turtle. At the end of the ropes, three enormous parachutes exploded open and filled with the thin Martian air. The vehicle slowed down so quickly that the astronauts’ heads slammed backwards.
The buffeting stopped. The rattle stopped. Keller’s heart stopped (or so he thought). Adam started breathing again.
They dangled beneath three giant parachutes, but nowhere near the surface housing unit.
Adam ca
lled out in a rushed voice, “Okay, we’re at about 400 meters, I’ll be using the descent rockets. We’re still hanging from parachutes, but the rockets are going to do the steering.”
He flipped two red switches on the panel and grabbed the joystick which controlled the rocket direction. His eyes squinted while he tried to watch several charts on the computer screen simultaneously with instruments on the control panel. Adam carefully guided the ship as it descended with the help of the parachute canopies.
Yeva looked out the window and saw the housing unit.
“There’s the Big Turtle! Keep going forward. We’re not far now.”
“I see it on the navigation screen. We’re almost there,” said Adam.
He throttled up the engines. The rumble echoed throughout the interior of Little Turtle. The engines kicked up the red Martian sand and gravel. A huge cloud of dust was now obscuring the windows.
“We’re at ten meters. Eight meters. Hang on... okay, four meters. Here we go, folks.”
Clunk.
They were no longer floating. They were on something very solid. The sound of the parachutes falling on top of the Little Turtle was loud; like ropes falling on the roof of a school bus. Adam turned off the engines. All was quiet except for the sound of their own heartbeats.
Adam had never been so relieved. He picked up the microphone.
“Mission Control, the Little Turtle has landed successfully on the surface of Mars. I repeat, Little Turtle has landed. No system faults are being reported as of right now.”
Adam stared at the blinking red light that signified the parachutes had been used prematurely. No need to explain that part of the descent to Mission Control just yet. They would figure it out. It was time to breathe.