2 Minutes to Midnight (5 page)

"OK, sounds like a plan. What happens
if I don't know how old any of this is?" John asked.

"Oh, nothing, there will be more teams
up there in the future; we needed initial boots on the ground to
see what we're dealing with. That's all from me for now. Have fun,
and let us know when you find something. Oh, and watch out for the
dust storms, they can get pretty bad down there." Tom ended the
transmission.

James removed the mp4 player from his
right breast pocket and set it to play Orion, by Metallica on a
small portable speaker, as Mars grew larger. While the instrumental
masterpiece built up to a frenzied climax, James thought about the
treasure trove of lost secrets waiting for them below. Moments
later, Endeavor entered the red planet's atmosphere and the
astronauts glided over the ruins of an ancient civilization
littered across Mars surface.

The tiny red blip appeared on their
map showing the location of Mount Sharp not far off.

"We're almost there you guys," said
John.

Mount Sharp Loomed over the horizon, a
three-mile high mystery rising into the Martian sky, submerged in
red dirt and large boulders.

"Mount Sharp could be the largest time
capsule in existence, and we're going to be the first people to see
it in a very long time. If mission control was right, that is, and
there were people on Mars." James said.

Endeavor raced toward the mountain,
touching down no more than twenty yards from where Curiosity sat in
a stalemate against the massive stone door. James and his crew
donned their protective helmets, lowered the ramp and walked out
into sunny Mars afternoon.

"It looks like Arizona out here." Kate
said.

"Yeah, the sun's just not as bright."
James replied.

James and his crew wore protective
suits with seals between their hands and arms, allowing their
gloves to be removed while simultaneously preventing oxygen from
escaping their suits. They would need the ability to place a human
hand on the carved stone plate.

"The only question now is what happens
to our skin when exposed to the Martian atmosphere." Kate
said.

They gave each other a cautionary
glance and James shrugged and removing his right glove. To his
surprise the environment was dry, and cool.

"Well, here goes. Let's see if this
trip was all for nothing," said James.

James placed his hand on the panel,
and a wave of nausea suddenly washed over him, accompanied by the
feeling that he had been hit in the stomach hard. It dropped him to
his knees.

"James, are you OK? John Grab his
arm." Kate said.

"Must...be some kind of defense
mechanism. Don't touch me or the same might happen to you." James
whispered.

"Hey you guys, the doors moving. Looks
like you got us in James!" John said.

Kate was helping him to his feet as
the wave of nausea passed and he removed his hand from the
reader.

"Thanks for the help." He
said.

"Don't mention it. It's what we're
here for, to bail each other out." Kate replied.

"My God, I never believed we could do
it. I mean, I wanted to but, this is..." James trailed
off.

The trio walked into the structure and
as they did, lights miles above them began to click on illuminating
a vast ancient city. What they were looking at resembled a cross
between Czarist Russia, and modern day New York City. Skyscrapers
reached high into the artificial daylight, while beautiful spiral
building tops added an artistic, almost spiritual aesthetic. Their
feet echoed between buildings, and somewhere music began to
play.

"This place is about a 10 on the
creepy factor." James said.

"I like it, but what if this city is
not as dead as they thought?" Kate asked.

Aside from the eerie, unexplained
music, still silence was their welcome from the Martian
city.

"It's like we’re walking inside a
tomb. I don't think anyone is here." John said.

The entrance sealed itself again and
James could tell by the O2 sensor on his wrist that there was
oxygen outside their suits. After some debate, James took the lead
and removed his helmet first. He breathed in air as fresh as a
spring morning in the country back home on earth. Images of Arnold
Schwarzenegger in Total Recall being blown out the airlock into a
harsh, and oxygen free Martian landscape entered their minds, but
James did not choke, and his face remained the way it was. The
others removed their own helmets a moment later, and breathed with
ease.

A large hologram, like a street sign,
appeared above their heads, displaying a map of the tetrahedron's
internal complex, and it was massive. Many towns existed under the
angular walls of this gigantic structure, and as they began to walk
along, technological evidence of how advanced Martian culture had
been lay everywhere. Bicycles with no wheels hovered in front of
small shops and bodegas, waiting for their owners to return.
Strange vehicles lined the streets designed like a cross between
nineteen fifties cars on earth and hovercraft.

"Aside from the fact that we're inside
a giant pyramid on another planet this could be 'any street' USA."
James said.

"There's a big building up ahead. It
may be the library we're looking for. Let's go check it out," said
John.

"We have time for our mission later;
instead why don't we go check out some of the houses. I want to
explore. Who knows, our benefactors may never let us come back."
James said.

"Yeah, I kind of feel like a kid in a
candy store." Kate smiled.

"Looks like there were people here at
one time and some of them are lying in the street." John
said.

About a block away, bodies were
sprawled on the ground. Kate knelt beside one of the corpses. The
man was on his back and staring up with odd looking pustules on his
skin.

"I'm not touching this guy even with
my gloves on. Yick" Kate said.

"Their appearance is...human." James
said.

"Get a picture of this. I think this
is that something Tom said he wanted to know about." Kate said to
James.

"I got it! You two ready to go look
around? I have a feeling we're going to see a lot more of these
dead guys. This place looks like a war zone, and we don't have a
ton of time." James said.

"Hey Kate, check out the 3D graffiti
on the wall over there. It's amazing. Do you know what it says?"
John asked.

James pointed to a red brick wall
covered in strange symbols. Kate paused for a moment.

"It looks like an ancient
Mesopotamian style alphabet.
The end...
is... nigh
?" Kate said.

"OK, so the apocalypse happened here.
I'm ready, James." John said.

A humble trio, they walked along city
streets, amazed at the complexity of Martin architecture. A
restaurant, with a sign out front resembling a slice of pizza, had
been constructed out of glass, and they could see through the
entire structure all the way from the dining room to the
kitchen.

"It looks like they had a great diet.
I've often thought pizza was an intergalactic food." John
joked.

Brooms lay discarded in front of
homes; children's toys had been abandoned on the sidewalk, and they
could almost hear the echo of laughter that had suddenly turned to
fear. Strange markings on the ground resembling hopscotch had been
scrawled in chalk. The silent emptiness of this city made them
realize how alone and far from home they all were.

"Check this out. Think it still
works?" James said.

James had a pistol in his hand
resembling something a kid would buy from a toy store. He turned
away from the group and fired down an alley. What came out of the
barrel was a blue beam about twelve inches long that zipped away
down the alley knocking a brick off one of the houses.

"This gun is so cool. You guys have to
get one of these."

"No one bothered to clear the bodies
when these people died. This must have been bad." Kate
said.

James shot the dead guy in the street,
blasting a hole in the husk of his body, and what came out of the
hole looked like giant spiders with radiant, glowing blue eyes on
stalks. They skittered in every direction hiding from the light.
One of them ran up to Kate, who quickly smashed the alien bug with
her boot.

"Oops, sorry little guy. Real
scientific, James." Kate said.

"This must have been what Ziggy
Stardust was talking about." James replied.

The other two were looking at him with
flat expressions.

"The spiders from mars? Nothing? You
two have no culture." James shook his head.

"I think they had a resource scarcity,
and started fighting." John said.

"Pure speculation, John. You don't
know what happened. It could have been anything." Kate
said.

"There's a house. Let's go in and see
if they left us any clues." James said.

The home they entered resembled a
brownstone with beautiful granite facing, and carved wood columns
supporting the front porch roof. Two rocking chairs sat like
timeless placeholders of an era lost, covered in layers of dust.
James thought the interior had an aroma like an old book as it was
waved beneath his nose. Nostalgia swept his senses.

"I know there's nobody home, but I
still feel like a trespasser."

James noticed a black box standing
about six inches tall and wide on the living room table with a
blinking green light.

"What do you suppose it is?" Kate
asked.

John entered the room with a device
appearing to be a cross between a toaster, and griddle.

"Look what I found, it's a toaster
thingy. Hey, what's up with the box?" John asked.

James walked over and picked the box
up. When he did a small eight inch tall figure of a woman garbed in
an ornate silk robe appeared. She had been crying, and was speaking
to the camera.

"Your department, Kate." John
said.

"Shhhhh, I'm listening." Kate
growled.

"She's saying if you see this message
the doors have been sealed to Rasga, and we have three months of
food left. The newsmen said the planet's atmosphere would be burned
away in twenty-four hours. If you are a family member, please go to
Hashbeth Hall on the far side of Tetjran city, and meet us there.
Most of the planet is evacuating, but we have chosen to stay, and
pray we survive. This is our home." Kate said.

The transmission ended. The three
earthlings stood in a circle around the blinking black box, their
mouths agape.

"How horrible. They were trapped
here?" John said.

"It sounds like it was a choice they
made. Probably not wise, but I don't know what I would do if
something was about to happen to earth." James said.

"Now, I have to know what happened to
the Martians." Kate said.

"Well, we can keep looking in here, or
go to the large building at the end of this street. I say we go out
and look around at the cliffs with Endeavor, and maybe I can do
what they sent me here for, look at some rocks."

A decision was made to explore the
structure at the end of the street. Once the astronauts reached the
large granite building, they walked up a wide staircase, marveling
at architecture which modeled ancient Roman construction. Columns
carved from solid black stone of unknown origin held up a granite
triangular roof, and across a short marble tile landing the team
was confronted by a thick, ornately carved, and lacquered oak
door.

"Where did they get the wood for this
door, its amazing!" James said.

The giant door creaked open when he
pulled the handle, and once inside James and the others realized
they had found what appeared to be a library or hall of records.
One foot tall holographic images of a well-dressed Martian woman
sat in the center of long tables. She appeared to be waiting for
someone to speak to her.

"The lady on the table is freaking me
out. You two see how her eyes follow us?" John said.

"I feel like this entire place is
haunted by ghosts. You know, like zombies might pop out at any
minute and get us for trespassing on their grave." James
said.

"Will you two stop,
please? You're freaking
me
out, and it's bad enough we're on a dead planet.
I don't need the two of you stirring up images of horror movies,
too."

Kate found aisles of books, and began
looking through stacks of ancient, but well preserved tomes. John
discovered what appeared to be a computer but it had only a
keyboard attached to a small black cube with a crystal on top. He
hit a button on the keyboard and a holographic librarian appeared.
She began speaking, but he did not know what language it was, and
the characters on the keyboard were hieroglyphic.

"Guys, I found some books that might
be interesting." Kate said.

She walked over the table where John
was sitting.