High in the red sky, the sun poured radiation along the entire EM spectrum onto the seemingly endless Northern Plains.
They are a caravan of four. Jericho and Michaels, the Americans. Gergiev and Pimenov, the Russians. Each rides in their own individual vehicle, soaking in the abundant solar energy and siphoning it into fuel cells. Efficient electric engines reap the benefits of the planet's lower gravity and the four cut across the red dust at a clip, leaving four long orange plumes that linger above the ground for a kilometer behind them.
Ahead of them, in the far distance, the object awaits. It is just barely visible to the naked eye from where they are, a point of light, still a dozen kilometers away. But from the Gagarin it appeared clear as day not an hour after touch down on the surface. The object announced itself to Johnson and Malinov, up in Martian orbit, firing a high-powered radio signal straight at the Gagarin, a signal which contained exact coordinates. They decided to wait the roughly 36 hours for the Gagarin to pass overhead of the location, to see if a visual inspection could be conducted, and when the time came, there it was, chrome, standing straight up like a giant silver bullet in the middle of the Northern Plains.
It would be a 12 day trip for the four astronauts, but the risks were deemed well worth it, by the away team and by Houston/Moscow. Whatever trepidation leaders back on Earth might have felt at making contact with the object was put substantially at ease by the sheer distance of the threat. Four men was a small price to pay for the possibility of encountering alien technology, perhaps even alien life, in the galaxy's homemade isolation chamber.
The four embarked on 3/24/2036, packing enough supplies for 2 months, and setting out from their location 600 kilometers south of the object. Their vehicles could only traverse 50 km per day while still maintaining enough battery life to heat their packs at night. For 11 days they traveled, taking copious photos and samples as they moved, sending back information on their surroundings, checking blue-green algal tanks and periodically cycling CO2 from their suits for O2 from the hungry algae.
1 km out the object is clearly visible, standing alone and tall, surrounded by flat dust in every direction. it is cylindrical according to the Gagarin's photos, but to the approaching astronauts, it appears only as an incredibly bright source of reflected sunlight. Gergiev does a scan with his visor and finds, oddly, that although it is reflecting an astounding amount of visible light, it is reflecting almost no radiation in any other frequency.
Stopping about 50 meters away, the men bridge the final gap by foot, taking care not to use too much force in their steps, lest they rise too high and come back to the pebbled surface at an odd angle. In small hopscotches, they arrive at the base of the object, its chrome surface less than a meter away from their faces.
Michaels radios to the Gagarin.
Gagarin, we have arrived at the beacon. Permission to set up scanners.
Communications to Earth are all routed through a single, international encrypted sattelite feed, before being sent, in duplicate, to Houston and Moscow mission commands. The astronauts wait 14 minutes for their answer - 6 minutes for their question to travel to the planet Earth, 2 minutes for a dozen or so people to make a potentially species altering decision, and 6 minutes for their answer to come back.
Ground team, you have permission to deploy sensors.
Copy.
The men did not speak unless necessary. They were taught to be terse, to preserve oxygen, at all times. Instead they set to work, methodically, until all of the equipment was set up. By sundown the beacon was surrounded by a vast array of sensors, attempting to derive any and all possible information from the object. However, aside from large amounts of reflected visual light, and the initial radio announcement, the object appeared completely inert.
The sun went low in the Martian sky, drifting downward, toward and then over the horizon, until all sunlight disappeared and the chill Martian night overcame them.
Thermal tents came out of packs. As the men were in the process of setting them up, Pimenov noticed something, high up on the side of the object, perhaps half way up its length, maybe 20 meters in the air. Pimenov was so astounded by what he saw that he mindlessly spoke it aloud over the radio.
Pozdravlyayem s zaversheniyem pervogo shaga. Dopolnitel'nyye mery bezopasnosti budut udaleny. Udachi.
On the ground the other three men turned to look at him, Gergiev in particular finding the statement particularly strange. Soon the Gagarin responded on all bands.
Corporal Pimenov, English is the agreed upon language for this mission. Alexei, you know better.
Pimenov seemed to snap from a reverie and, without responding to the Gagarin, got Gergiev's attention and pointed up at the beacon. Michaels and Jericho followed the Russians' gaze only to stare up themselves, slack jawed.
The Gagarin came back over the radio, Malinov's voice filled with concern.
Ground team, your vitals are skyrocketing. What's happening down there?
It was Michaels who came to his senses first. He snapped a picture of the beacon, but when he looked at the digital photo in his visor, the side of the object was totally blank. After conferring amongst themselves, the four men agreed upon what they were all seeing, impossible as it seemed, and a message was sent by Michaels.
Gagarin, send word to command. The object at night has visible writing on its side, about half way up its length. It appears, to me and Jericho in English, but to Gergiev and Pimenov in Russian. We've compared the two statements in both languages, and it translates to roughly the same thing. "Congratulations on completing the first step. All spawn protections are now disabled. Good Luck."
Photo Credit
[By NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS (
