The Solution (2nd Edition)

Chon

The face of Raythorpe manifested from a swirl of pixels, and his expressions seemed eager and excited. So, before it consumed Xen, I'd decided to run an errand for my wingman. "Xiōngdi, don't get too embroiled in 'James and the Giant Peach'. Keep Mikey in your thoughts as well. He's dying for an update on the pilot training."

    To confirm he'd taken note, Xen floated a thumb's up.

    Then after a slight nod from me, we turned our attentions to the scientist.

    But pleasantly, an interviewer's voice set the unfolding scene before an introduction of James was made. "Greetings, to everyone of Earth; UNity; Dwarven Earthian Star; and those settled on the Red Planet. I am Michelle Zungai for BTV, and this hour, I bring you a Special Editorial Report to highlight a profound claim being made by James Tayden Raythorpe - the NASA planetary scientist of the Umentes Research Center, who's currently 'Marsbound'..."

    I frowned, then looked at my xiōngdi.

    He smiled, without looking sideways.

    "With the aid of his huge team of experts, the scientist proclaims to have had a significant breakthrough in his Landscape Project," Michelle explained. "We go to the pioneer now."

    "Hello everyone," the old-timer said, "and with regards to The Landscape Project, my team's mission was to return to Elysium, Mars' Equatorial Region. Five years ago, we had started digging here intensively. This was based on results garnered from the final Exomars missions. Frustratingly though, before our scheduled time was up, we had to return to Earth to refuel and resupply. While I waited on the mission to reconvene, I assisted Xen Lai from Mongolia. However, since being back in this vast plateau on the Red Planet, we quickly made our discovery - a penultimate discovery - that the robotic rovers and Valkyries missed entirely..." Taking time to pause, James motioned to the ground.

    Other than aliens, I really tried to comprehend what Raythorpe was alleging to have found?

    I also scrambled my mind, trying to recall what Mikey and I had spat during our Pulp Science Fiction, eons ago.

    But seconds later, James continued as the holoscreen focused in on a live feed of the ionized landscape. "Essentially, here in Elysium, the surface of its plateau is a part of the dried-out ocean floor. But upon a closer look, I believe we have found huge, subterranean, valley-like excavation marks spanning the area. And marks, possibly covering this entire peach of a planet... On a miniscule scale of equivalence, the dried ocean floor is a seed stone, with these prominent crests and troughs, its grooves..."

    'Where on Mars' was he going with this?

    And like The Solution and predictions before its showcase, was this another, 'Red Herring'?

    Copying my xiōngdi, I stood from my barstool, in order to pay closer attention and hopefully find out.

    "...Vigorously, we've analyzed the rock sedimentation covering the area as well. We've found that almost ninety per cent of it has iron, aluminium and copper properties. More significantly," James quipped with a pop, "that these metallic properties have been, 'processed'... With the surrounding natural ores aside, we see faint and precise scorch marks on the microscopic samples, too... In addition, none of these unique marks could have been created by Sol's broad rays. Lastly, all scorches have been cross-referenced with the world's existing databases. No official machine on Earth produced these marks. At this stage, the only likely explanation is a grand galactic hoax. Or, that this microscopic matter is the remnants of some kind of ancient, manufacture... Obviously, we're going to continue on with stringent analysis. But we're confident that this discovery points to some type of sentient activity, long ago.

    "Today," James finished, "the greatest question that mankind has ever asked, might have been inadvertently answered..."

    Michelle's voice concluded the transmission, but I'd received it as nothing more than a murmur. Reason being, I'd siphoned it out in order to try and connect some dots.

    Something told me that Xen had no in-depth grasp on what Raythorpe had shared.

    However, I did get the feeling that someone else I knew, might...

    When the time was right, I vowed to probe.

     But for now, I'd let the scientists' revelation play out, in order to finish my beer and bid Xen, farewell.