by Chris Hawley
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CYDONIA
Cydonia lay several hundred kilometres to the North-East of Similaria. We started off in a bubble similar to the one that had taken us to Olympus Mons, and perhaps it was the same one. The bubbles seemed to come in all sizes, almost as if they were made to suit each particular journey. Nothing was going to surprise me, even if Tony Blair suddenly came in saying he was really a Martian and he had been tricking us all these years!
Accompanying Michu and me on this trip was an elderly woman called Zeena, who had studied the monuments for many years. She was short, like most Martians, strong looking, with gray hair and brown eyes. She bowed low at our meeting and smiled broadly, showing a set of uneven teeth. She introduced herself as Zeeeena, pronouncing it as if it had an extra couple of e’s.
The sun was before us in the salmon pink sky as we sped off in the direction of Cydonia. All around us lay the same red desert, littered with rocks and boulders of varying sizes and shapes. We passed several dry river beds and a few impact craters, mostly small.
We had not gone far when the bubble started to lose height and at the same time reduced speed. Michu pointed to something on the ground over to the right. At first I could not see what she was pointing at. Then I saw a small metal thing on thin legs, with arms sticking out in all directions. I realised I was looking at a landing craft. I looked enquiringly at Michu.
‘Something of yours that was left behind,’ she said jokingly.
‘Viking?’
‘Viking I, your first successful landing on Mars.’
‘Since then there have been several more, haven’t there?
‘Pathfinder, which landed over to the South-East of here about five years ago. A remote controlled rover on wheels. It surveyed the area, sending back film.’
‘I was still small but I remember reading about it later. American Spirit was a more recent rover.’
‘You know, Earth people should not litter someone else’s home with junk. Why don’t you take it back with you, Bill?’
I knew she was joking. ‘You could make use of it, Michu. Make it into knives and forks. Eating with your hands is not civilised.’ We laughed and Zeena joined in.
As we left Viking I behind, I continued to look at its remains, a sad corpse that was likely to remain there long after those who celebrated its success are no more, until finally it is lost beneath layers of Martian red dust.
Our bubble climbed higher and increased speed once more. Nothing relieved the monotony of the desert stretched out below.
For some time my mind dwelt on the possibility that before long a manned flight to Mars would become a reality. I could not imagine the Martians would be pleased to have Earth people nosing around on their doorstep. Just imagine the day an American astronaut comes face to face with his double. He will think the Russians have beaten him to it. The cold war would begin again, even colder this time, on the cold surface of Mars. I smiled to myself.
‘It’s no joke, Bill!’ said Michu. She had been studying me for a while and was reading my thoughts.
Suddenly, Zeena called across to me. ‘We are reaching Cydonia. Look ahead!’
I peered out of the bubble in the direction she was pointing. I could see in the distance a group of pyramid shaped objects, and many small mounds. As we drew nearer and the bubble lost height, the objects became clearer. Farther off to right there was a much larger pyramid, regular in shape. My first impression was one of awe. These were the monuments that had caused so much argument back on Earth for the last thirty years, since they were first discovered in photos sent back by Viking I. My second impression was that they must be artificial. I had seen nothing like those shapes since landing on Mars and here they were, all grouped together. They had to be made by someone! But whom?
Zeena was pointing out to Michu excitedly in their language all the different objects. I wondered how many times she had seen these same things and yet she was still like a child with a new toy.
‘The face!’ I shouted. I had spotted it further ahead. ‘The face! I can see the face!’
Zeena beamed and she showed all her teeth. ‘Well? Is it a face or is it just a trick of light and shadow?’ she asked.
‘It’s a face, for sure. I have no doubt!’ I said with utter conviction.
‘NASA has said all along that all these things are natural formations, fashioned by wind erosion.’
‘Then NASA must be blind!’ was my immediate reply.
‘Or maybe they wanted to hide something,’ said Zeena. ‘Governments on Earth like to keep things from the people. Frightened people are not easily governed. You may remember some years ago all the fuss about UFO’s. The American Government squashed all debate because they feared what would happen if their people knew that aliens were visiting Earth. But many people saw those UFO’s and aliens walking about. The military dealt with them. Those who said they had seen it all were labeled as insane. We shall go and have a closer look at the face,’
As if the bubble heard her words, it suddenly swooped down and came to rest on the ground. Around us the varied shapes of the monuments stood out against the sky with their short shadows all pointing to the West.
‘This is the centre of the complex,’ explained Zeena. ‘Your researchers call it ‘The City.’
‘It doesn’t look much like a city now,’ I said.
‘The pyramids of Teotihuacán don’t either, do they?’ she said.
‘You mean the ones in Mexico?’
‘Yes. Once, thousands of years ago, it was a bustling city and the Pyramids of the Sun and the Moon were religious structures, aligned to those heavenly bodies.’
‘And the ones in Egypt too,’ I added.
‘Isn’t it strange that pyramids should occur on Earth and on Mars too?’
I nodded. ‘Some people on Earth say that they are connected in some way.’
‘There is a lot of similarity between them,’ said Zeena. ‘And in Egyptian mythology, Mars is very important.’
‘So who made all these pyramids, Martians or Earth people?’ I asked.
‘Why not beings from another galaxy?’ suggested Zeena.
‘You can’t be serious!’
‘It’s possible.’ She grinned.
‘Do you mean you don’t know who built these things?’ I said. It was hard to believe that there was something these people didn’t know.
‘Let’s leave that till later,’ she said evasively. Then she went on to explain the various features of ‘the City.’ We moved about the central area in the bubble. Each mound was explained to me in detail. We circled the most prominent pyramid. On the South-Eastern side it appeared to have been eroded so that it looked less like a pyramid than from the other side. Then we sped off to the South-East to the biggest and most impressive of the pyramids. Zeena told me it was over one kilometre high and more than two and a half long, making it one thousand times bigger than the pyramids of Egypt. But it was not in the least like the pyramids of Egypt, which were made of thousands of blocks of stone, piled on top of each other. The pyramid before me seemed to be one solid block. How was it possible for someone to build such a massive thing?
‘These monuments were built very many thousands of years ago,’ explained Zeena. ‘If you study them closely you will see that they are built of stone blocks but over the millennia erosion has worn them down, so that the blocks have lost their sharp edges.’
‘And where did the stone come from?’ I asked.
‘From quarries not so far away. They too have been eroded by wind and are no longer very distinct.’ She paused. ‘And now for the face!’
We headed off to the North and soon the face came into view. We approached it at ground level. It appeared as a huge raised structure hundreds of metres long. Zeena told me it was altogether 800 metres high and about 2.5 kilometres long. As we came close to the wall the bubble lifted into the air, until we had cleared the cliff face. Another few hundred metres up and I could see the face clearly.
&nb
sp; ‘Amazing!’ I cried. ‘It really does look like a head, complete with headdress.’
‘A trick of light and shadow?’ asked Michu provokingly.
‘But I still don’t see who could have made such an enormous thing.’
‘Puzzling, isn’t it?’ said Zeena.
‘So you don’t know who made it.’ It was hard to believe.
‘To be honest, Bill, we don’t know for sure. When our ancestors settled on Mars 7445 year ago, these things had already been here thousands of years. We have surfed the Uninet for a website that might give us a clue but there seems to be nothing. I am sorry to disappoint you.’
‘Yeh, I am disappointed.’ I admitted. ‘But you agree that they are artificial and not natural features.’
‘Absolutely, Bill. And whoever built these pyramids also built those on Earth, in Egypt and Mexico.’
‘When our ancestors settled on Mars…’ she had said. So these people did come from another planet. I had suspected it.
Michu gave Zeena a disapproving look, which Zeena seemed not to notice.
‘The elders will put you in the picture when you meet with them tomorrow,’ said Michu.
We spent some more time examining the features of the face, the eye sockets and the lines forming the headdress. More time was taken just drifting around at a higher altitude above the monuments, while Zeena tried to explain how each was aligned to the others and the sacred dimensions and angles involved. It was far too technical for me and I understood very little.
Finally we were on our way back to Similaria. It had been a wonderful day for me. How I would like to stand up in class and tell everyone that I had personally seen the famous monuments of Cydonia, something nobody on Earth had ever seen, except in pictures taken from space. I knew that I would never be able to do that. My Martian friends would never forgive me. And I could never forgive myself either. My unforgettable visit to Mars would always be a closely guarded secret.