Martian Republic: The Fateful Secret

Chapter 5: Sentience

Location: Enceladus

Time: 6:30am +8 GMT 8th February 2115

On Enceladus, it was still dark, an Enceladan day being about a third longer than Earth's. However, it wasn't an excuse for the pioneers who intended to discover what lay in the murky depths of Enceladus' underground cave systems.

Mike and Aarav were back in the depths of the cave, returning to where they had nearly died last night. Mike mentally flashed back to what he had said before leaving the docking bay of the Explorer earlier in the morning.

"Let me tell you all something. If Aarav and I don't come back by 8 a.m., don't come looking for us in person. Send the rover out to rescue us. If a rover rescue isn't possible, leave us stuck in that Enceladan cave forever."

Indirectly, he was implying that he was willing to die in order to discover what lay in there and did not intend to endanger the rest of his crewmates.

Alright, focus on the mission.

He looked ahead and quickened his pace, eventually reaching the large water-filled chasm. The water glowed blue in some areas, signalling the prescence of dinoflaggelates.

Aarav produced a gleaming white angular device about 10cm long from his utility belt. He pressed a haptic touch button. A flat beam of light shot out from the pointed front of the device and skimmed across the surface of the water, roving across it in a uniform manner, as if they chasm was divided into strips of equal width.

Two beeps emanated from the device.

"I'm loading it onto our holographic visors now," he said as he selected a few icons on his wrist-mounted controls.

A full-colour topographical map of the chasm appeared on the holographic visors of Mike and Aarav's helmets.

"Are you ready to swim across the chasm?" Mike asked Aarav.

"Yes," he answered, selecting an icon on his wrist controls.

An amazing piece of engineering, thought Aarav as four oblong hydro-thrusters with propellers extended from flaps on his suit. The engineers of the EVA-3 suit definitely had functionality in mind, but from the dark accents that stretched from the ankle to the shoulders and the artistically shaped ring of glowing blue LEDs that framed the visors of the helmets, it was clear that the designers had an eye for beauty too.

The two men dived into the water, the hydro-thrusters enabling them to swim fifty percent faster than an Olympic gold medalist.

"Better watch out for that jagged rock twenty metres ahead," said Mike as buzzers in his helmet beeped frantically.

They swerved around the rock, increasing speed as the other end of the chasm neared. As they reached a ten-metre range between them and the end of the chasm, the hydro-thrusters began to slow, allowing them to safely grab the rock wall and haul themselves onto the icy floor.

"Good thing whatever was in the water yesterday doesn't seem to be around today," said Mike.

They ventured deeper into the depths of the cave, keeping an eye out for any kind of ling that wasn't the moss and the bioluminiscent microbes that they had been seeing scattered throughout the cave system. So far, nothing.

"I can't believe that there aren't any more, how do you call it, interesting life forms apart from the glowing stuff and moss," said Aarav in exasperation.

"Well, there's always the monster that we ran away from yesterday just after hearing its howl."

"I mean, other than that too."

"Wait, did you find anything in your topographical scan just now?"

"Nothing. Seriously nothing."

"Wait, what's that?"

Mike pointed a shaky finger at a section of ice on the wall that appeared slightly transluscent. However, what was intriguing was that it didn't glow blue or green but had a source of yellowish light behind the ice.

"We should check that out," said Mike.

He extracted a small cylindrical device from his utility belt.

"Miniaturised impactor," he said nonchalantly. "Grabbed one of these from the utility rack before we left just in case we need to break through blocks of ice."

He positioned it in the middle of the transluscent section of ice and pressed the activator button. The electrically powered piston burst forward and smashed into the ice, revolving backwards a split second after impact.

"That's pretty powerful for such a small device," said Aarav.

"Designed and manufactured by Raed Technologies. They make great stuff, at a price."

The ice was already cracked in a half-metre radius around the impact point. Mike smashed the ice again with the impactor.

The results were amazing. Jagged splinters of ice flew in all directions, streaking by just centimetres away from the two mens' heads.

Aarav carefully stuck his head into the jagged hole and gasped.

"The subterranean sea inside. It's full of ..."

He swallowed, unable to process the things that he saw before him.

"It's full of sentient life!"