Return From Mars

A Garbled Message

The Deep Space Network (DSN – for short) is the system that all space agencies use to send signals into space and communicate with space missions of one kind or another. This same network was used for the Mars Mission.

The DSN has dish antennas in Spain, Australia and California. The reason for this is that as the Earth rotates, at least one part of the network will have any part of space in its view at all times. This allowed us to communicate freely with the astronauts when we needed to.

However there is a time delay, and the further that you get from Earth, the longer it is. By the time the crew reached Mars, there was twenty minutes between each transmission. That meant forty minutes of waiting for a response of any type. In forty minutes, things can go wrong.

The astronauts had been on Mars for a month and the information they had gathered had not only been invaluable to scientists, but also for the 'Atlas' company who funded the majority of this trip. They had also been trialling the new portable life station, and it had worked. This had been the company's greatest success.

N.A.S.A had provided some funding, but with most governments pulling out of the space race in the late 2020's due to food shortages and overpopulation; space exploration had fallen mainly to private enterprise. This had given Atlas the opportunity to make its money. First with trips into the upper atmosphere, then to the Mir Space Station which had been turned into an orbital hotel, and finally the moon where the first moon city 'Helios' had been established.

The mining of Energium now funded the majority of all space exploration.

With the information gathered, the 'Atlas' company had decided to give the go-ahead for planet colonisation. Large quantities of Energium had been found beneath the Martian surface, which would provide 'Atlas' with the money it would need to colonise the planet. With the successful trial of the new 'portable life station' colonisation of Mars was now considered possible. 'Atlas' had billions of dollars invested in the trip.

            It was on the last day of the mission that things went wrong. A surface walk into a canyon adjacent to the life station had been planned, with instruments picking up signs of a large frozen water reservoir at the bottom of the canyon. It was to be the astronaut's job to go to the bottom of the canyon and see how much water was there. If a large supply of water could be found colonisation would be made much easier.

            The trip was planned, the astronauts went, but it wasn't water they found. It was something much much worse...

*     *     *

 

...Mission Control Centre! Helios, May 18th 2057...

It all started with a garbled message. Everyone in the Central Command Centre heard it, but none of us could believe it, especially me. The message was a video feed, but it came in short bursts, with static in between.

...Helios, we have a problem here over...

            The voice belonged to Captain Abigail Price; her anxious face filled the screen, covered in sweat.

...secondary protocol failed...

            Secondary protocol? What nonsense was this?

...we have one astronaut confirmed dead, Chris is KIA over...

            She sounded worried and jittery, and was continually looking over her shoulder.

...Dylan and Josh are comatose but stable over...

            We could see the bodies were lying on the ground beside the communication station.