Unification

Iteration 1: Incarnadine Twilight

Dr. Sarah Hutson awoke with a quick, sharp gasp. Her brow was covered with sweat and her short, dark brown hair was a mess. Her breath was coming in short, ragged intakes, as she tried to orientate herself within her quarters. Her sleeping bag floated, just as it has for the past several months. Carefully, she undid her harness and released herself, making her way towards her washroom with a single push. A soft fluorescent glow emanated from the corners of her quarters, and along the edges of each wall, as the infinitely empty vastness of space flew by her window. She wiped her face with a pre-moistened cloth and ran her fingers through her short, auburn hair. Her green eyes glanced over at the LED HUD upon her mirror: 4:12:22 and counting down. It would not be long until the vessel she was on would enter martian space. Shortly after that, they would proceed with a high orbit trajectory over the red planet. From there, her team hoped to discover what happened to the martian base, Ares Prospect-1, and why their communications had suddenly gone dark.

Sarah eased herself back into her bedroom and began to suit up. It was 08:35 Earth time, not that it mattered much to the crew. Their schedule was on something else entirely; long before they launched from Earth, they trained themselves to be acclimated to martian time, with its slightly longer days, almost twenty-five hours, and a six hundred and eighty-seven day year, the crew of the Marathon had to put themselves into the mindset of Mars and Mars alone. After traveling at 800,000 kph for nearly four months, the fastest object ever launched by humans was approaching its destination.

After she checked a few systems and reports, Sarah made her way to the bridge. The Marathon, aptly named for its speed and urgent mission, was a vessel unlike any other. Long and sleek, many of the designers nicknamed it The Silver Arrow, with its triangular bridge and control station at the bow of the ship, environmental controls and other vital systems scattered throughout an elongated and cylindrical neck, and coming to a halt at the quarters, recreational area, and engine room. Some even mocked at how it resembled the vessel, Discovery One, from the 1960's film 2001: A Space Odyssey, but that is where the similarities would end.

As she entered the bridge, she was greeted by her crewmates, doctor David Baltimore, a computer scientist, and commander Jonas Salk, an astroarcheologist. Sarah herself was a microbiologist, and they all had been specifically chosen for this mission because of their particular skills, though the reasons why were kept classified to them. All they knew was that they were to investigate why Ares Prospect-1 had gone dark, and if possible, re-establish communications with them. Regardless of the outcome, the crew of the Marathon was given one overriding command: stay alone; stay alive. Those were the final words received from Ares Prospect-1. The reasoning for the ominous statement was never clarified. Whatever the case may be, there was something that kept dancing around in the corners of Sarah's mind, too many coincidences between her dreams and the findings on Mars; the running boar, the monolith, the resemblance to the A.L.M.A. artifact, everything seemed to be interconnected, and yet none of it made any sense.

The A.L.M.A. artifact itself was the reason for everything that had been done on Mars to date. Found deep beneath the surface in the Ares Vallis region, the sable structure was unlike anything ever seen by humans anywhere. When people finally set foot on Mars, establishing Ares Prospect-1, they discovered that the structure was somewhere between eighty and a hundred million years old. The only difference was that the object in her dream appeared to be much, much newer. The imagery still disturbed her, but she dismissed them as just a side-effect of excitement, anxiety, and an overactive imagination. Dreams were strange, after all, and never came true.

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"And set," spoke a man in a calm and experienced tone. He eased himself back into his chair as he flipped several switches and inputted a few commands into the computer. Shortly after, a mechanical female voice came over the intercom stating that the autopilot had been engaged. "Ladies and gentlemen, we will be arriving at Mars in just under four hours. All inflight movies have been canceled and meals have been restricted to basic needs only. I would like to thank you all for choosing Marathon Rescue Flights today." The man smiled with a wide flash of teeth as the other two crew members laughed and shook their heads in disbelief.