Trey Remington was exploring for rocks on the surface of Mars. But, suddenly he came around a large puddle of water. So, he radioed his partner Jonny Zaggler and then kneeled down to get a sample of water.
"Jonny, you there?" Trey asked on his radio.
"Yeah,Rem," as Jonny called him. "What do you need?"
"I'm taking samples of the water now. Get the tech ready. "I'll be there soon."
As he finished taking samples, the water began to ripple and glow with radiance. Jonny was startled and stumbled backward. Glowing water? How bizarre!
SPLASH! A hairless, moss-green... What should we call it... Creature, emerged from the puddle. It was as tall as Trey, maybe even taller. It's skin was tightly stretched over its bones, and it had dark gray eye color. "Zag, are you seeing this on my live feed?"
" Yeah I see it! I'm recording your video." Then the creature lifted both arms towards Trey , palms up , and held them outstretched. A good twenty seconds passed. Then the creature descended slowly back into the puddle.
" I'm on my way back now," said Trey as he turned and headed back to their mission base station, planet Mars 1. As he walked back, Trey wondered what the creature was doing before it submerged itself beneath the water's surface. Trey entered the station and saw the excitement on Jonny's face.
"What?" Trey asked.
"Hello? Are you blind?! New species! A scientific discovery! We'll be rich! Rich, Trey! Rich!"
Jonny kept ranting about limousines and jacuzzis while Trey checked the stats of his sample of water. As Trey analyzed the water, he found cellulose and a high concentration of chlorophyll. "Huh? This is plant material. There are no plants here."
Jonny responded, " we have to go back there. We have to know more. Let's report this back to Earth immediately."
"I agree. And make a request that we revisit the site."
Jonny radioed the request to Earth. The request was immediately approved, and they agreed to return to the site on that same day. This time, Jonny would go with Trey. They prepared their air tanks, water, and scientific gear. Then they set off on the walk.
The observation site was a kilometer and a half from the base. As they approached, they found that the water had nearly dried up. "I don't understand. There was enough water here to cover a football field. But now there are only drops left," said Trey.
"Look! There's some more drops over here," Jonny exclaimed.
"maybe they are footprints!" They followed the footprints through a canyon and descended into a valley. There, they were stunned to find thousands of creatures standing in puddles with their arms outstretched to the sun. The scene resembled a forest, except for some occasional motion when a creature opened its arms sunward.
"Whoa," Jonny whispered. "You don't see THAT every day."
"Roger that," Trey murmured. "What are they doing?"
"It looks like they're...," Jonny faltered for an answer, " sunning themselves?"
"There isn't much sun."
"Then maybe they're... Sleeping."
"Okay,"Trey said. Trey and Jonny received direction to return to the "forest" daily. They gathered mountains of data. They observed the creatures rising, outstretching to the sun, and descending to the water daily. They saw births and deaths and movements of large groups of creatures. It was a huge discovery. Extraterrestrial life! Aliens!
The Martians had shown some signs of communication among themselves, such as by watery gurgles and snorts, and by physical communication such as pushing and submerging into their puddles. Aliens.
Trey said, "unfortunately, it's time for us to head back to Earth. Let's leave a rover at the forest and we'll monitor the activity from Earth via the video feed."
Jonny said, "Sounds like a good plan."
They walked back to their mission base, only it was gone. They weren't sure what had hit them. Or what had hit their base.
Then they got their answer. The tail of a Martian slipped into a nearby puddle, almost Jonny said, "Good thing that relief mission will be here in two days. We will ride back with them."
Trey said, " OK, I will radio a warning and they will be ready."
THE END
