Red Phoenix

Red Phoenix

(STARTING POINT: ANY LANDING YOU CAN WALK AWAY FROM…by John ReiherJohn Reiher  Feb 15, 2015 )

© 2015 - Vanessa Ravencroft

'''Six years on Mars. '''

'''He was a young man  back then when the idea of being among the first on Mars was a great idea. Being a brilliant geologist with lots of field experience in the most remote regions on Earth made him a prime candidate, '''

'''He was picked. The long flight to Mars, a distant memory just  like his fading memory of oceans or something really green.'''

Yes he made many discoveries and he, as everyone else at Lowell City was a household name back on Earth, but he hungered for being able to breathe unfiltered air, the smell of fresh hay as he remembered it from the New England farm of his grand parents.

The plants underneath the plastic tents carefully tended and trickle irrigated did well, but there was just not enough green.

Now Lowell City seemed as distant as Earth.

He stood there on a ridge overlooking the endless ocean of rocks and dust of a nameless valley somewhere near the northern pole of Mars.

'''He turned and saw  Raquel Zorento coming. Not quite in a Lunar bunny hop, but stiill in a stride that would made a Kangaroo jealous. Behind the approached woman, the mangled wreck of  SOARER III. Just two days they had left Lowell in a pressurized capsule and performed a low orbit ballistic jump to investigate strange signals eminating from the red planets pole. '''

'''Thirty two years ago, in 2008 to be precise, Mars lander Phoenix stopped transmitting data. It was expected as the crafts batteries had run out of energy.'''

'''However two month ago, Earth received new data transmissions from Phoenix. Data that made no sense. '''

'''A forgotten, thirty three year od robotic probe suddenly working again was a mystery all in itself, but was explained  that it solar panels were moved by strong winds and it recharged its batteries. What could not be explained that the craft initiated contact and started sending messages,messages that begun with “! and long sequences of digital data. Identified as sequences of Prime numbers.'''

Lowell was contacted and a mission was prepared, Since the destination was beyond the reach of their rover,they decided to make a low orbit jump….

'''Phoenix was NASA's sixth successful landing out of seven attempts and was the first successful landing in a Martian polar region. The lander completed its mission in August 2008, and made a last brief communication with Earth on November 2 as available solar power dropped with the Martian winter. The mission was declared concluded on November 10, 2008, after engineers were unable to re-contact the craft.After unsuccessful attempts to contact the lander by the Mars Odyssey orbiter up to and past the Martian summer solstice on May 12, 2010, JPL declared the lander to be dead. The program was considered a success because it completed all planned science experiments and observations.['''

“Any sign of a rescue, Alex?” asked a female voice over the comms.

'''Looking around carefully, Alex scanned the sky. “Nope,” he said in the Mare Tranquility drawl. “Nothing as far as the horizon.”'''

'''Climbing out of the capsule, Raquel Zorento swore as she somersaulted to the dusty red soil. “Frak. I hoped we got that mayday out before we turtled. The others don’t look too good. Brian’s leg is broken, and Keiko is still unconscious. Sid… we need to bury him or something.”'''

Alex looked to the West and the lowering sun and said, “Lowell City is that way, we overshot them… by a bit.”

Looking in that direction, Raquel frowned, and asked, “When you say ‘a bit’, do you mean a few klicks?”

'''Musing on that question, Alex replied, “Maybe a hundred-two hundred kilometers. Give or take a couple of klicks. Get the capsule’s oxy tanks, make a sledge. Make it inna week, week anna half.”'''

“You’re not suggesting that we walk to Lowell City?” exclaimed Raquel.

“Yup.”