Questions and Answers

“Every day is like the day before—wash, rinse, repeat. At least I only have two months left on this rock before I’m homeward bound.”

“For someone who wanted to come here, maybe more than any of us, you’ve changed your tune, Jack.”

“You’re right, Mattie. I did want this. I wanted to be the first to discover something new, maybe change the course of humanity. The only thing we’ve found so far is that Mars is a dusty, cold, inhospitable planet.”

“Boy, did you wake up on the wrong side of the cot this morning, Jack? True, the surface is rather desolate but, the caves are amazing. It’s almost like they were carved into the planet’s core by some massive auger. They go on for kilometers and intersect at right angles. I think mother nature outdid herself when she created them.”

“If I may make one small correction, Mattie. Mars, is named after the god of war so, this is a male planet. It’s father nature, not mother nature.”

The two continued in silence as their Mars dune buggy bumped along the rock-strewn surface of the red planet, leaving a small cloud of dust in their wake. Today’s assignment, explore the cave in sector 287-5. As much as Jack hated to admit it, each time he entered one of these unexplored caves, he got a rush of adrenalin. Maybe this would be where the discovery of a lifetime lurked.

As per protocol, they stopped at the cave’s opening and radioed back to base. Once inside, the dense Martian rock blocked all radio and telemetry signals. In her transmission, Mattie pointed out that this cave opening was unusually large. “You could fly a rocket out of this place,” were her exact words.

Transmission sent and acknowledged; they piloted their rover into the cave at a crawl. The Martian daylight quickly faded to black, so Jack activated a bank of LED lights that neutralized the darkness. This cave was unlike any they had visited. Not only was it massive in dimension but, had no visible end. They turned the rover in a slow circle shining the lights on the cave walls and floor.

Mattie broke the silence, “The walls and floor and even what I can see of the ceiling have scorch marks on them. I wonder if we’re in the lava tube of an ancient extinct volcano?”

“That would be the logical explanation, but it doesn’t add up. If this is a volcano tube, the walls and floor should have remnants of slag, and scorch marks would be over every surface. There is no slag, and the burn marks have a definite pattern to them. No, this is something else. I don’t know what else, but it’s no volcano. I spotted an offshoot as we were turning. Let’s check it out.”

They continued into the shaft about a quarter of a kilometer when Mattie called for Jack to stop. The entrance to a smaller cave lit up when she swiveled one of the lights in its direction. The duo positioned the rover directly in front of the smaller opening for maximum illumination, dismounted, and walked in.

This ancillary chamber was large enough to accommodate four, maybe five people.  It extended back far enough that the rover lights became ineffective, so they turned on their helmet lights and kept walking. The chamber ended abruptly with a perfectly flat wall. It was too smooth to be created naturally. Jack and Mattie moved forward then stopped, staring in disbelief at what lay ahead.

Human remains, mummified by the thin Martian air and still covered by flaking pieces of clothing, rested on a stone pallet. The mummy’s face displayed a peaceful expression of contentment. One finger pointed toward the opposite wall. On that wall was a message, Atlantians Tibi Domum Rediit.  

Jack was the first to speak. “This can’t be real! How in the world did this guy get here before us, and what does that message say? It’s written using our alphabet, which makes no sense at all.”

“So, what you’re saying is people from the lost continent of Atlantis built a rocket and traveled to Mars? That’s crazy, Mattie!”

“No, Jack, what I’m saying is the Atlantians traveled from Mars to Earth, and we are their descendants. Welcome home, Jack!”