Red Hope: An Adventure Thriller - Book 1

by John Dreese

  “We have top mathematicians and paleographers here in this building, trying to decipher this language as we speak. Wish us luck.”

  After ending the teleconference with Chris, they started the night-time process of shutting things down. The astronauts had been awake for a long time now and could barely keep their eyes open.

  “I have a feeling we’ll find something amazing in that other room tomorrow,” admitted Adam to the group.

  “Hopefully. Good night,” said Molly.

  “Good night,” said Yeva.

  “Good night, John-Boy. Good night girls,” said Keller.

  The Sun set and pitch black darkness took over the cabin interior. They fell asleep quickly and easily for the first time in over a month.

  Chapter 18

  “Rise and shine slumber heads,” said Adam as the automated window blinds rolled up. “I’ve got hot liquefied waffles and milk for everybody.”

  Rays of morning sunshine cascaded through the Big Turtle’s interior. One by one, the other crewmembers pried open their eyes to see breakfast set out on the main table.

  “Yummo,” said Keller.

  The astronauts gathered around the table and ate their boxes of goo and drank their bags of milk, water and coffee.

  “Have you thought more about what you saw in the pyramid?” asked Molly.

  Adam glanced at Yeva and said, “I still don’t have a clue what those engravings meant, but I’m sure it was an alphabet. Very similar to the pronto-Laminate language.”

  Molly laughed and said, “I’m sure you mean proto-Elamite.”

  Yeva interrupted, “Yes, that is what I taught him yesterday. His inflated head makes him forgetful. Please pass the coffee bag.”

  Adam tried to redirect the conversation.

  “Anyhow, inside that pyramid it felt like we were surrounded by tombstones and epitaphs. I suppose they had to write in stone to preserve the information for so long.”

  Keller looked at Molly and said, “Tombstones and epitaphs? On that cheery note, Dr. Life Support, do you have our oxygen tanks ready to go?”

  Molly smiled and put her hand on his arm.

  “Why, yes, Keller Murch, they are ready for you to use on your pyramid adventure today.”

  Adam interjected, “Great. We’ll get cleaned up and get ready to go. Today’s job is to photograph the secondary room in the pyramid. While we’re away from the Turtles, why don’t you two drop the caisson and start on the soil experiments?”

  The group cleaned off the table and ran through the daily checklists. Adam set up the video chat link with NASA for their first post-Mars-walk interview with the media. Only Yeva and Adam were requested for the chat.

  They once again realized that a ten-plus minute roundtrip delay wreaks havoc on interpersonal communication. NASA arranged for the astronauts to receive a list of questions ahead of time and would answer them nonstop in a stream. The questions ranged from the mundane (How do you pee in space?) to pretty extraordinary (What color is the sky on Mars?).

  Adam completed the media conference with, “Okay, folks, I hope you enjoyed our little talk. I know that we did.”

  Adam looked over at Keller and said, “Are you ready to walk on an alien planet?”

  Keller smirked and asked, “Are you going to jump in front of me, too?”

  Adam stared at Keller for a long time.

  They put on their pressure suit and walked over to the airlock. Adam opened the door and stepped in, quickly followed by Keller. Each astronaut inspected his oxygen gauge and gave Molly the thumbs-up sign through the window. She flipped a big switch and turned the handle that evacuated the airlock. They heard the whoosh of the air escaping. Adam turned the big handle and the door to the outside popped open.

  Keller walked out only to be blinded by the Mars sunrise. The sky was a mixture of colors, from pinkish red to bluish gray. This odd morning sky was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen. Keller stared at the horizon, barely blinking as he consumed this panoramic sight.

  “Wow…,” whispered Keller.

  Adam put his glove on Keller’s shoulder and said, “Now that is a sight to behold, isn’t it? Let’s go.”

  It was obvious to Keller that Adam didn’t care much about what they were doing anymore. Adam had completed his goal of being first on Mars; now, he wanted to get home and cash in those chips. This was just a stop on the journey - an item on his to-do list to check off.

  Adam folded down the solar arrays and they both climbed into the golf cart. Keller sat in the driver’s seat.

  Adam pointed toward the sunrise and commanded Keller, “Just follow our tracks from yesterday.”

  Keller accelerated, following the tracks exactly. It was the easiest path he’d ever driven. The cart’s wheels threw up a rooster tail of red dust.

  “Man, this is just like driving on my beach back home.”

  They crested over the ridge and coasted down toward the pyramid. Keller stopped just a few feet from the big circular stone door. He stepped out of the golf cart and walked over to the fossil boulder. Keller leaned down and carefully examined the fossils, being careful not to touch them. After a short time, he felt something was missing and stood up.

  “Where’s the Curiosity rover?” asked Keller.

  Adam craned his neck around to look.

  “I guess it already left on another adventure. That replacement power unit gave it a new lease on life.”

  Each astronaut grabbed a handheld camera from the golf cart and crawled back into the pyramid through the small door opening. They both turned on their helmet-flashlights and video cameras. Adam turned on the floodlight-tripod. Bright light illuminated the entire pyramid interior.

  “Whoa!” said Keller as he drank in the ancient museum ambiance.

  “I agree with that sentiment. Look around. Check out all of these engravings. It’s amazing stuff.”

  The two astronauts walked over to the walls and ran their gloved fingers through the engravings. Adam showed the large table-top block to Keller who quickly leaned over to examine all four sides. After showing Keller all that he and Yeva had found, Adam walked over to the floodlight and picked it up.

  “I gotta move this light over to the other side. Follow me.”

  Their shadows wobbled all around as Adam carried the floodlight. They eased around the large divider wall. The style of the symbols carved into the new walls was different. These looked more mathematical in nature: lots of right-angles and circles. Adam couldn’t decide if it looked more like geometry or chemistry. He set down the floodlight.

  “What the heck is that?” asked Keller as he pointed to a small black cube floating just a few inches above what looked like a granite nightstand.

  They walked directly over to it and stared quizzically. The small black cube floated above the table surface. Keller poked it and the cube drifted across the top of the nightstand. He poked it from the opposite side to keep it from falling off.

  Adam lifted one skeptical eyebrow. He repeated what Keller had just done, poking the cube with his finger. Once again, it started to drift across the table. However, this time he didn’t stop it. He let it drift. And it didn’t fall off the table. In fact, it just kept on gliding at the same height. Adam poked the bottom, and it started to drift upward at an angle. He stopped it before it got too high. This little cube seemed to completely ignore gravity.

  Keller and Adam looked around again noticing this time that the room seemed to be dedicated to this cube.

  Adam pondered, “You know: I can’t figure it out. Is this room a gift to future explorers or some kind of shrine to this cube? I mean, this thing looks like anti-gravity, but that’s not possible. If I remember my physics class, Einstein’s General Theory states that anti-gravity can’t exist.”

  Keller put his glove on Adam’s shoulder and said, “Either you’ve got a crappy memory, or Albert was wrong.”

  With new excitement, Adam took a slew of photographs of everything on the walls. Keller
continued playing with the floating cube.

  Adam paused his picture taking and said, “Wow, wow, wow. This could be the biggest thing to ever happen to science. I don’t understand the drawings here, but they must be trying to explain how this cube works.”

  Keller quipped, “I’ll admit, this is probably bigger than sliced bread or the keyless chuck.”

  As they were photographing the peculiar cube, a crackly message from Yeva arrived over their headsets.

  “….. Adam…. Kell…. We just got some news from the NSA on the language. They cracked it overnight. They sa… that it is a short hist….”

  Adam and Keller looked at each other and shook their heads side to side. Neither one understood her message.

  “Yeva, we’re having a hard time hearing you. Hang on, we’re going to walk closer to the door.”

  The two astronauts walked over toward the door opening. Yeva’s voice became crystal clear.

  “Okay, Yeva, you said they cracked the language code already? How’d they do it so fast?”

  Yeva explained, “The NSA paleographers sent the photographs out to universities around the planet. A grad student at the Moscow State University cracked it. My alma mater. Go me!”

  Keller remarked, “So they crowd-sourced it? Very clever.”

  Yeva said, “They think it is a history lesson of some kind. It talks about how they created something and it caused their society to run out of food and water. We haven’t deciphered what that creation was yet, but it is related to the extra signage found on the circular door. Those phrases are repeated several times.”

  Adam and Keller looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

  Yeva continued, “By the way, you will laugh, but these ancient Mars people are now being called The Curiosities by the media, named after the rover.”

  Yeva chuckled after stating the new name.

  “Anyhow, so the Curiosities planned to move many of their people to the third planet from the star. Obviously, we can assume they are referring to Earth. It had more land and water and could be used as a farming colony. However, that planet had some rather intelligent, yet violent, animals that needed to be dealt with before it could be a safe place for them to inhabit. They were also worried about the intense gravity on Earth.”

  “Are they referring to the dinosaurs?” asked Keller slowly.

  Yeva paused. Adam and Keller heard the muffled sounds of Yeva talking to somebody else.

  She continued, “Okay, sorry. Molly had a question. So these Curiosities sent a team of explorers, but never heard from them again. It says they are still waiting for their children to return. It keeps referring to the explorers as their children. They miss them dearly.”

  Adam and Keller sat silently contemplating the sad message.

  Adam replied, “Sounds like things didn’t go well for them. Thanks, Yeva. Is that, uh…, is that everything?”

  “No, there is more,” added Yeva. “Do you remember that Rosetta stone block with the alphabet on top and the serrated columns under each letter?”

  Adam pointed his head-mounted flashlight toward the large table-sized block.

  “Yes. Keller and I can see it right now.”

  “Well, those serrated columns are audio strips. They encoded the sound waves required to pronounce their letters. They wanted to preserve not only their written language, but also the spoken form of it. That is very arrogant, yes?”

  Adam started laughing.

  “Why are you laughing?” asked Yeva.

  “When I was a kid, they had birthday party balloons with hard plastic sticks as handles. Well, the sticks had serrated ridges on them and when you ran your finger nail down the edge, it would literally sound out messages like ‘happy birthday.’ They never worked right and it always sounded like ‘yappee wormway.’ I guess there is nothing new under the Sun.”

  Keller said, “Maybe they wanted to preserve as much of their culture as they could before the end came. They must’ve had time to see it coming. How awful.”

  Yeva added, “One more thing. I saved the best for last. I completed a dating analysis on those fossil bone samples. There is a problem with our original theory. They are not two million years old.”

  Keller smiled proudly and said, “See, I told you. Dinosaurs. These fossils must be sixty-five million years old! Heck, these Curiosities are what killed off the dinosaurs!”

  Adam questioned, “Anyhow, how far off did we get the age?”

  “To our surprise, they are still mostly bone. Not fossils. Our dating analysis says they are only about two hundred thousand years old. Not two million. And certainly not sixty-five million. Sorry, Keller. A meteor still killed the dinosaurs.”

  Adam furrowed his eyebrows in concentration and asked, “Are you sure? Only two hundred thousand?”

  “Yes, give or take a few thousand,” said Yeva.

  Keller grabbed Adam’s shoulder and asked, “I don’t get it, what does that mean?”

  Adam stared into empty space and said, “That uh. That turns everything on its head, but it explains a lot. The timeframe coincides with the sudden development of Homo sapiens on Earth.”

  “Us,” said Adam and Keller simultaneously.

  Adam thought for a moment and continued, “So, this culture was having problems and sent explorers off to our planet at around the same time modern humans appeared on Earth? And they waited for their explorers to return?”

  “That is correct. That is what the report from the NSA says,” replied Yeva.

  Adam grinned as he looked at Keller and said, “I think we just fulfilled that promise.”

  They both stood there with their mouths agape, trying to comprehend all of this new information.

  “There’s a lot of explanation for our own history if that message is accurate,” said Adam.

  There was silence from everybody.

  Adam questioned, “So, Yeva, they haven’t deciphered what the creation was that caused their own demise?”

  “No, the university expert said that the concept, as written, has no translation in either English or Russian. At least not yet. Whatever it was, they were very proud of it. Don’t worry, we have hundreds of world experts trying to figure it out.”

  Adam sighed and said, “Okay. Thanks for the update, Yeva. That’s a pretty heavy message. Um…, we’re gonna keep working here for about another twenty minutes or so.”

  “Okay, guys. Be safe out there,” said Yeva before signing off.

  The two explorers walked back to the anti-gravity cube room. They continued trying to photograph every granite panel they could see. The engravings went from the floor up to about ten feet and stopped. It would require a lot of photos to capture every detail.

  When they finished taking pictures, Adam collected the memory cards from the cameras. He put them securely into his pressure suit pocket and zipped it shut.

  Rather than leave right away, they began to play with the anti-gravity cube. For such an advanced piece of technology, it sure was fun. Just as Keller flicked it with his index finger, the ground began to shake. The floodlight tripod rocked back and forth, sending shadows bouncing on every wall. Another Marsquake. They felt a grinding roar and a clunk. Dust fell from the ceiling, followed by silence and stillness.

  Adam and Keller looked at each other, frozen in fear.

  The two astronauts ran toward the door. Their helmet-mounted flashlight beams bounced erratically, illuminating the ground, the ceiling, then back again. There was no light coming through the door opening anymore. The round slab of granite had rolled back over the entrance.

  They were trapped.

  Chapter 19

  Big Turtle Housing Unit

  Mars Landing Site

  In the middle of the Big Turtle housing unit was an inexplicable round wall. It was only about six feet in diameter, but there it was like a giant redwood tree growing up through the room. This round enclosure was the droppable caisson room. It was a hollow elevator shaft of sorts, sealed
everywhere except the bottom. At the top were windows to allow ambient sunlight in. On one side was a hatch that would allow access to the empty shaft. The entire contraption resembled an upside down cup.

  Any poor astronaut who wandered through that caisson door right now would instantly be exposed to the Martian atmosphere. They would fall out the bottom of the ship to their death.

  Molly was listening to Yeva explain the NSA report over the microphone to Adam and Keller.

  “Okay, guys. Be safe out there,” said Yeva.

  She put down the printed report from the NSA.

  “Adam and Keller are busy at the pyramid. Shall we lower the caisson?” asked Yeva.

  “Of course. Let’s play in the dirt,” replied Molly.

  With the flick of a few switches, the caisson started lowering toward the red soil very slowly; a low-frequency whirring sound filled the Big Turtle.

  Molly and Yeva were surprised at how much the moving caisson momentarily shook the entire Big Turtle vehicle. However, it didn’t shake very long. With a loud clunk, the caisson’s bottom hit the ground and drove into it a few inches, powered by the entire weight of the Big Turtle on top of it. The whole building trembled momentarily.

  Yeva typed a code into the wall computer near the caisson hatch. With the caisson floor now sealed off by Mars itself, this new outdoor room with a sandy red floor was slowly flooded with breathable air.

  Yeva checked a few old steam gauges and declared, “Pressure looks good. The temperature is still a bit cold, though. Let us give it a minute.”

  The pressurization process was loud. Everything about the caisson was loud.

  Yeva plastered her nose to the observation window looking down into the brightly lit cylindrical room. It was surreal to see the red dirt with shadows cast across it from the skylight window frames above.

  The temperature in the caisson finally rose to just above freezing. Humid air was injected into the chamber to keep dust levels down. Yeva grabbed ahold of the big round door handle and spun it repeatedly. Once the mechanism let go, a wisp of air escaped through the opening. She held her breath, stuck her head through the hatch, and looked down. Red dusty dirt. Yeva took in a deep breath hoping to get the first sense of what Mars smelled like. It smelled like rust with a touch of rotten egg. Each dramatic exhale of the cold air now sent a cloud of condensation from her lungs.