Mission To Mars Page #2

You too, buddy.

Okay.

I'll see you

when I get back.

Hey, Luke.

Have a great ride.

I always do.

Luke, you read me?

Here, Renee.

Luke, I just got ARES-8

on-line, and...

Well, we think you're gonna

want to see this for yourself.

Okay, copy that.

- Now, is this the cinder cone?

- No, it's too smooth.

- It's too angular.

Volcanic upwelling, maybe.

- No. No fissure, no caldera.

No, it's an upwelling for sure,

but maybe not volcanic.

Look at the color and how shiny it is.

That almost looks like...

It looks like ice.

- This far south?

- Impossible. You can't

have ice at this latitude.

I mean, not unless

there's, like, a...

Okay, how far away

is that?

Sixteen kilometers, northeast.

Take us 20 minutes to get there, chief.

We're gonna send a packet to Micker.

We're going out there.

- Keep working.

- Okay.

Careful. Watch your step.

- Is it possible to take picture?

- Oh, picture.

- Here we go.

- Let's have a picture.

Say, "Cheese."

This is a truly anomalous formation.

It's unlike anything

ever seen so far.

The structure appears

to be crystalline,

at least from the angle that's

displayed by ARES-8.

We're trying not to go too nuts up here,

but we think there's a good chance...

that this could be an extrusion

from some subsurface

geothermal column of water.

And, of course,

if that's correct,

then we may have found the key

to permanent human colonization.

- We think it wise

to suspend judgment...

- Let geology and hydrology...

know we need to scramble

on this... full court press.

So we're gonna head out there ASAP

and take a look at this thing,

try and get an idea

of its composition.

By the time you receive this,

we should just about be on site.

Anybody else hearing that?

Yeah. What is it?

I don't know. It sounds like

interference from the rover.

- Can you fix it?

- Hey, skip, I can fix anything.

Love that modesty.

Break out the radar.

Let's see what this thing's made of.

Oh, there's one more thing.

This is a very important, very special

day for a good friend of ours back home.

We know he's there right now.

He hates it when anybody

makes any kind of a fuss about him,

so I'm not gonna

mention his name.

Because the last thing

I would want to do would be...

to embarrass someone

like Jim McConnell!

Was that loud?

Oh, well. It's done now.

It can't be right.

It says there's metal under there.

- Solid metal.

- No, that doesn't make any sense.

- You're reading a vein of ore, Renee.

- No, it...

It says it's under

the whole mountain.

All right. Move it closer, up the

power, and we're gonna try it again.

Hey.

Okay, everybody.

I want you to take a look at Jim.

Is he all red with one of those

fake "Oh, I'm-a-good-sport"

grins on his face?

That's right.

Now, everybody, take a look at Ray.

Does he have one of those...

"This-wasn't-in-my-mission-plan"

looks on his face?

Uh-huh. I thought so. There's nothing

you can do about it, Ray.

We're a hundred million miles away!

Okay, let's blow it out.

- We're all set here, chief.

- Let's crank up the juice,

see what's in this sucker.

What happened?

Oh, my God!

- Are you getting that, Sergei?

- Uh-huh.

Oh, my God!

Renee!

Oh. Oh, my God.

Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus.

Ahhh!

Problem:
hatch door malfunction,

backup power fail,

manual override fail.

- Solution?

- Replace optical relay.

Piece of cake.

God, who dreams up these nightmares?

- Don't try to change the subject.

- I'm not.

- We're talking about

your sister's wedding.

- No, we're talking about...

dancing lessons

before my sister's wedding.

Do you mind? I'm in the middle of a

catastrophic power failure here. Check.

- Not effective.

- Not effective?

- Replace optical relay.

- You're distracting me.

We're a married couple.

Would it kill you to invite me...

out on the dance floor

just once in a while?

- We danced at our wedding.

- No, that's not dancing.

That's you shuffling your feet around

while you grab my butt.

I'm talking about

real dancing, you know?

Cha-cha-cha, rhumba,

jitterbug.

Darling, face it.

Some couples dance, some go to Mars.

That's life.

- Test.

- Effective.

I'm serious. As soon as we get

back home, we're starting lessons.

Woody, if we never dance, people are

gonna think there's something wrong.

If they see me dance,

they'll know there's something wrong.

This is highly unprofessional.

"This is highly unprofessional, sir."

You keep forgetting that "sir."

Cockpit, this is Control.

- Cockpit, this is Control.

- Control, this is Cockpit.

Terri, it's Phil. They want

us all to report to Micker ASAP.

- Who says to report to Micker?

- The little men who live in my head.

That's a negative.

We're in the middle of

a catastrophic power failure right now.

Yeah, Woody, it was Ray Beck.

He told me to round up the team, now.

The exact same moment

we lost the data stream,

they picked up this intense

burst of energy from Mars.

- What do you mean "intense"?

- Catastrophic.

What about the crew?

The level of energy

in the pulse...

didn't seem survivable.

How about the REMO?

It went into Mars' orbit last week.

Maybe it could give us some clue.

That's just what

we tried next.

Right. The, uh,

resupply module checked out fine.

No instrument failures. Orbit holding

steady. But there was something else.

The REMO's computer

contained an uplink message...

a very faint, highly-distorted

transmission from Mars One base camp.

- Someone's alive.

- Yes, yes, yes. Put up the message.

Still concentrating on the audio,

but we've got a long way to go.

Show us whatever you've got.

Show us.

I have to make this...

make this fast.

I may not get another chance to...

to make...another chance...

chance... to the site...site.

There was a low sound that...

a low sound...sound...a low sound...

Something came out of the top

of the mountain, and it hit us.

And... it hit us...

it hit us...

Oh, my God!

They're dead.

God. Nick...

Man! Dead.

That's it.

I don't know.

Luke must be in pretty bad shape...

if he hasn't just blasted out of there

in the Earth Return Vehicle.

That thing's designed so even one

crew member can fly it back to Earth.

Even if Luke was in great shape,

he couldn't get home.

An energy pulse of that magnitude

would have fried the E.R.V's computers.

Other than the computers,

how do we think the E.R.V. fared?

So far, our modeling says

it should be in pretty good shape.

Which means it's gonna be up to us

to get new motherboards,

drives and software to Mars

as fast as we can.

- Right.

- Slow down, slow down, slow down.

- It's gonna take us weeks

just to analyze this data.

- Right.

But in the meantime, we've

gotta be working up a mission plan.

- Luke needs us now.

- Luke may already be dead.

And even if he's not, it's doubtful he

is going to be able to transmit again.

So... we wouldn't know

whether it's safe to land...

until we were almost there.

What about SI MA?

What about SI MA?

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