Mission Mars (33 page)

Forrest reported to Mars Office CEO Sadao Nakamura in the late afternoon. By then, enough time had passed since
Ciotti's alarm, that the first team of experts had examined the cave and was back with a report. Nakamura told Forrest he was just going through it, and asked him to sit and wait a moment.

Forrest had dealt with Nakamura before, on a case that involved a fairly high-level conspiracy to divert public supplies to private use. He had found the CEO rigidly self-controlled, but generally willing to listen and be fair. In his eleven years as the head of the independent Mars colony, Nakamura had earned a reputation as a skilled manager who could generally see the bigger picture, even when others got hung up on the details.

When Nakamura was ready, he wanted to hear Forrest's assessment of Ciotti, especially his mental state. Forrest summarized their conversation and said that, on the whole, he believed many details of the man's story. There needed to be a much wider investigation, but everything so far led him to believe that the clerk was as surprised by his discovery as the rest of them were.

Nakamura asked, “What do you think would happen if Mars Office had to detain Ciotti for a longer period of time?”

Forrest didn't have to think long about that one, “Just give him his own cell and make sure it doesn't smell of people, and he'll be all right.”

Nakamura asked a few more questions, and then nodded with satisfaction. He asked Forrest to wait for him in the outer office. They would walk together to the Council Chamber, where Forrest had to be ready to answer any questions the Council members threw at him about Ciotti. Forrest had only seen Council meetings on the newsvids, and suddenly worried
that his uniform was a little worn, and that his mustache was unruly, since he hadn't trimmed it in a while.

In the meantime, he used his wristband to edit some of the key interchanges during his interview of Ciotti, and create a short vid that he could show the Council if necessary. Then a clerk brought him one of the longest non-disclosure agreements he had ever seen. The lawyers had been busy, too.

The group in the Council Chamber was restricted to Council members and top Mars Office management. Forrest was by far the lowest ranking colonist present, and he tried to blend into the background, sitting on one of the seats at the rim of the circular chamber. The only other person not sitting at the raised table reserved for the Council and senior staff was a rumpled academic type across the room. Given the age of the typical colonist on Mars, there was more grey hair assembled in that room than Forrest had seen since coming to the red planet. The meeting started only after a tech had come in to sweep the place for hidden cameras and microphones.

The Council president, Karen Beckwith, gaveled the meeting to order and said that the Mars CEO had a matter of extreme importance to discuss. Her stance gave nothing away, and Forrest wondered how much she'd been briefed. Her raspy voice and sardonic questions were well known from the newsvids, but this was the first time Forrest had seen her in person.

Nakamura began by introducing Forrest and the academic, a Dr. Aleyn, who had led the team of experts who had examined
the cave. Nakamura said he had brought them along in case someone had questions. But he began the proceedings on his own, with deliberate authority.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” he said, “I have invoked section 19.12 of the New Mars Charter and called an executive-level meeting. I remind you of the Charter agreement forms you all signed when taking office. What we say here today may have to be kept secret for some time. Investigator Forrest and Dr. Aleyn have also signed our strictest non-disclosure agreement. Everyone else who has seen the phenomenon we'll be discussing is being detained for now, and is temporarily deprived of communication with the rest of our colony.”

Nakamura continued. “I don't think I am being overly dramatic when I say that we may be at one of those pivotal moments in the history of humanity. What we decide here today could well be remembered longer than anything else we have accomplished on Mars since our hard-won independence from Earth's corporate control. I want to give you my best assessment of the situation, but the decision of what we do next is, of course, yours to make.”

Forrest stroked his mustache as Nakamura laid out the broad outline of Ciotti's story for the Council. He couldn't help thinking about how the news would affect his own career—and when, if ever, he would be able to tell Anna about his role in it.

Nakamura explained that Ciotti had entered a “skylight”—a round opening on the side of Arsia Mons, whose network of lava tubes had drained naturally long ago, leaving a web of empty tunnels and caves. This area had not been extensively explored before. Few, if any, of the caves had
been top priority for the early Mars survey teams. “Now, of course, all tubes and caves will have to be explored.”

Several of the Council members, curiosity obviously piqued, sat forward in their chairs. Nakamura turned down the lights, switched on his projector, and a series of holographic images appeared, giving everyone in the room clear details of the cave. “These images were captured by the science team sent to investigate,” Nakamura said over a collective gasp. Forrest stood up to get a better look. The paintings on the cave walls, in vivid hues, were distinct and easily visible. A murmur spread through the Council chamber.

Nakamura spoke over the hum as he scanned through the images taken from various perspectives, “Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is the reason I have called this meeting. You will note that the paintings Mr. Ciotti discovered tell a remarkable story. An alien being, clearly intelligent and, most likely more advanced in technology than we are, seems to have spent time living or working in that cave many years ago. According to the paintings, as best we can tell, it expected to live out its life on Mars and to die here.

“Of course, there is always the possibility of a hoax by some earlier human Mars explorers, but the location of the paintings and the level of detail argue against it. I want to stress that we think the creature was not native to Mars, but came from another star system entirely. Like humans, it may have found the unshielded ultra-violet radiation on the surface of Mars dangerous. Perhaps it didn't have the technology or equipment to build shielded domes like we use. So, the alien sought shelter underground.”

At this point, Beckwith could no longer restrain herself,
“Do you mean to tell me, Mr. Nakamura, that the first evidence for intelligent life beyond Earth, after all the years of searching, is in some cave, inside a Mars volcano? Why there? Why now?”

Forrest could sympathize with her surprise.

Nakamura hesitated and then replied with courtesy, “Well, Madame President, I certainly agree that few scientists would have predicted that our first communication from aliens would take this form. And we don't believe that this is an official message from one civilization to another. It's more like those old Earth stories, where a shipwrecked sailor puts a message in a bottle in a desperate attempt to preserve some record of his existence.”

Beckwith asked, “But why only one alien? And why Mars, rather than Earth?”

“Our best guess at this point,” Nakamura responded, “judging from the contents of the paintings, is that the alien who made them was some kind of refugee or exile from an interstellar ship that was passing through our solar system a long time ago. But really, we just don't know very much at this point. As to why it came to Mars, perhaps the environment here was more congenial for this species than the Earth's. In any case, Dr. Aleyn's team estimates the paintings were done hundreds of thousands of years ago.”

A younger Council member interrupted, “Excuse me, but how do we know it was that long ago? Don't tell me the creature left us some kind of calendar.”

Nakamura gestured to Aleyn, who stood up and came toward him, as he spoke. “In a way, Councilor Oluseyi, he did. I am going to let Dr. Aleyn explain how his team estimated the time.”

Aleyn had to clear his throat a couple of times, but then found his voice. “What helped us determine a timeline was that some of the paintings include scenes of the night sky with detailed renderings of constellations. As you all probably know, the constellations seen from Earth or Mars are accidental arrangements of bright stars on the dome of the sky. We connect the dots to make familiar patterns, such as Ursa Major, the Big Bear.

“As any star moves through the galaxy, part of its motion may be toward us or away from us, but some part will always be sideways to us. Any such sideways movement can, over thousands of years, mean that the star is then seen in a different position in the sky. As the stars move, the constellation patterns slowly change with time, and we can use those changes to date any record that shows the constellations.

“Of course, we don't know how accurately the alien artist is portraying the positions of the stars. Did it make sketches from the surface of Mars, and then transfer them to the paintings, or was it relying on memory? Even if the positions are accurate, we want to do some additional research before assigning a more precise time. But from the ten or so different night paintings we have quickly analyzed, we arrived at a tentative date of some 300,000 years ago.”

Images on the chamber dome revealed the night sky in the paintings alongside the modern constellations. The differences were readily apparent, and Forrest found himself awed by the time scales they were discussing.

“Thank you, Dr. Aleyn.” Nakamura went on, “To continue, then, our first guess is that we are seeing a personal record left
long ago by a single artist. There is the possibility that the alien was dispatched, or left on Mars, specifically to create these paintings.”

Aleyn touched Nakamura's arm and interjected, “However, Councilors, we—the team—think the paintings may not necessarily be the reason the alien ended up on Mars.”

Beckwith broke in again, “But I don't understand! How can something this important have gone undetected and unreported on Mars until now?”

Nakamura replied, “Madam President, I would respectfully remind you that the surface of Mars is roughly as large as the surface area of all Earth's continents combined. Many places on the Martian surface have not yet been explored, to say nothing of places under the surface.”

Beckwith shook her head. “OK. But you're assuming these paintings depict real events. What if this is fiction or propaganda? What if the creature was remembering one of its favorite stories? Or what if it went mad in that cave?”

Nakamura thought for a moment and said mildly, “This is all very preliminary, Madam President, and all those options will need to be carefully considered. But if it's just a story, why bother portraying the correct constellations at all? And we see many other clues in the paintings that portray the Mars we know, including pictures of the four Tharsis volcanoes.”

Oluseyi put in, “So, you're saying some spaceship from an advanced civilization traveled through our solar system and dropped this cave-painting artist off? So, how many other ships of theirs have done this? Why don't we have other records or evidence about them?”

Nakamura replied, “We have no idea if more than one
ship ever came. All we know so far is what we can see in these paintings. If Dr. Aleyn's constellation time frame is correct, they were created much earlier than the development of human writing on Earth. So, even if our remote ancestors somehow observed the mothership seen in these paintings passing by the Earth, there would be no record of it on our home planet. We are very lucky that these paintings are in such good condition after all this time. The fact that they are in a deep cave, and therefore, have not been exposed to Mars' atmosphere and dust storms, has, I'm sure, helped to preserve them

“I don't know,” Beckwith said. “This is a lot to absorb. I keep thinking I want to go to that cave and see the paintings—with my own eyes—before I believe that this is real and not some fantastic story.”