The Day We Went To Mars - Sidemen Fanfiction

**Chapter 4**

~SIMON~

T minus : 44 hours

"I think I'm right," Simon continued to mutter to himself for some time, leaving Tobi to speculate the reason for his sudden outburst. The boy was still holding the latter's arm, keeping his eyes fixed on Ethan's computer screen which still displayed the wrongly decoded email. Simon isolated the text as it descended into nonsense and copied it into a separate document.

"I worked in Malaysia for a while," he finally began to explain, "The local people speak Malay and I managed to pick up the basics. I'm sure this is written in a different language." Tobi frowned slightly but gestured for Simon to continue. The boy in question stared at the original text and edited in the words he recognised.

Amerika menyimpan rahsia di bawah Musytari. Tinggal di semua kos. Hantar hadiah apabila anda menerima mesej ini. Cal

The Americans menyimpan rahsia under Jupiter. Tinggal at all costs. Send hadiah apabila you receive this mesej. Cal

"You know what Jupiter is in Malay?" Tobi questioned with raised eyebrows. Simon laughed softly at a memory that resurfaced in his brain and nodded.

"It's a long story," he replied, "But do you believe me now?" Tobi also nodded, pointing at one of the words that was still in the wrong language.

"Surely mesej means message," he suggested, "Although we have no idea what we're meant to send now we've seen this." They sat in contemplative silence for a moment until the opening door interrupted them again. Harry walked in and eyed the screen curiously.

"It was a coded message?" he asked, his adventurous streak making a rare appearance as his face lit up youthfully as he reluctantly seated himself at his own desk, copying Simon's swift actions and contributing to the report.

"Well, it was in a different language," Simon explained, underlining the words they still couldn't work out, "I don't suppose you can read Malay?" Harry rolled his eyes and laughed a little at Simon's hopeful gaze.

"I've never really left Guernsey to be honest," he replied sheepishly, "Never mind going to a different continent on the other side of the world. Although, I'm a long way from Guernsey right now so I guess you could call me well travelled." Simon cast his eyes towards the window as he often did, just to see the sky, a deep blue if you looked closely, rather than black, and remind himself how far away from his home they were.

"Hey," Harry's voice returned, breaking through Simon's stupor, "Beneath Jupiter is a reference to Mars isn't it? I'm guessing you knew that already though." Both Simon and Tobi turned in unison, surprised to see the younger member knowing more about something than they did. The latter shook his head, inviting Harry to elaborate.

"So there's a story Vikk told me once," he explained, "You know what he's like; always coming out with nerdy facts and talking about one myth or another. Mars was the Greek god of war and his 'parents' were Juno and Jupiter, the god of the sky."

"And 'beneath Jupiter' is like a reference to their family tree or something," Simon picked up his train of thought, confidently nodding his head and changing the text in front of them again.

The Americans menyimpan rahsia Mars. Tinggal at all costs. Send hadiah apabila you receive this mesej. Cal

"Call the other boys in here," he continued in a rare display of authority, "We'll see if anyone can work anything else out." It took a few moments to assemble the remaining half of the crew and they were soon onboard with the idea of a secret message.