Grand Adventures Along the Anova Trail with Mason and Bella

Tourist Trap Part 3

Tourist Trap

Mason

"Set a course for the Cydonia region, please"

Fenton C23

"Any particular site within Cydonia? It's quite a large area."

"When you get there, we will pick up a weak beacon signal, which should be the Anovan site Bella is looking for."

"Very well, I will increase the range of the sensors. We should be there momentarily."

"Outstanding." grinned Mason turning to Bella.

Bella

"How beautiful, thanks for taking this route above Valle Marineris."

"My pleasure, it is quite astonishing."

It was then that sensors picked up a signal straight ahead and slightly north as the Ariel III passed over the last cliffs at the western end of the mighty Martian canyon. Once they were within ten kilometers of the beacon, seven other smaller signals shown on the screen. "Take a look at that pyramid! The entire east side is collapsed! Oh, we have to look at that. Set us down by it if you can." said an excited Mason. "You got it." said Fenton. "Let's get on our head gear and get out there." said a giddy Mason. "Absolutely!" agreed Bella. "The rover is ready for you in the cargo bay." said Fenton. "Thank you, hit the outside lights please, Fenton" said Mason with a thumbs up. "Flood lights on."

The two-person rover lowered almost to the ground then dropped with a thump. Mason flipped on the forward lights and looked at Bella with a huge smile. He pushed up the power to one quarter and all the rover did was hunch down. Mason added more power and it just sat there humming and whirring. It was then that Bella noted the [BRAKE HOLD] was on and reached to turn it off. Mason was just about to say, "NO!" when she pressed it and the rover leaped forward violently. Had Mason not quickly steered the joystick and pulled back the throttle, (with Bella screaming the whole time) the rover would have gone wildly into the massive landing gear of the Ariel III. Once all stopped, they sat there and belly laughed for a while.

["Are you two alright?"] asked Fenton.

"Yes. Just figuring out the control parameters of the rover."

["You have to take the brake hold off before you can go."]

"Yes! We figured it out. Thank you, Fenton!" laughed Bella.

["No problem. I'm here if you have any questions."]

"Got it! We're off to the pyramid now." said Mason shaking his head.

Mason accelerated away towards the base of the pyramid that seemed to grow farther away the closer they got. It was huge. Bella took out a set of optic enhancers and measured the pyramid. "This thing is 500 meters at the base and 473 meters tall!" said Bella with excitement. "Look at the size of these!" exclaimed Mason as he slowed the rover and made his way through the labyrinth of strewn multi-ton blocks of stone. "Let's stop and I'll take a sample and some spectral analysis of them." said Bella. "Alright, this looks good right here. I'll aim the flood lights at it." said Mason. After letting the pressure out of the rover, they grabbed a couple of kits out of the back and went for a closer look at the block that had a broken corner and was partially sunken into the ground leaving the broken corner up in the air. "This is perfect." said Bella taking out a rock hammer and a collection bag. She carefully selected a place inside the broken area and with a good whack chipped off a piece she placed into the sample bag. She then brought up her Viz and connected it to a hand-held analyzer. She placed the analyzer flush against the flat surface and started the process. In a few moments the test was done and uploaded to her Viz.