The Final Word from Mars

For precisely 327 days, Commander Ellis Hale has been by himself on Mars. In order to get ready for future colonization, the 400-day mission was intended to be the longest manned expedition ever sent to the Red Planet. However, recent contact breakdowns with Earth had turned Hale's seclusion into a silent plunge into the unknown rather than a historic accomplishment. As she looked for solutions in the vast red desert surrounding her, Mars, still silent, pressed in from all sides.

Hale's scanner detected an odd signal one day while performing diagnostics on the solar array in a distant area of Base Alpha. A beat skipped across her heart. No one had visited Mars since the infamous Leviathan Expedition, whose crew mysteriously disappeared, and nothing new had been found here in decades.

She followed the signal to a little elevation in the landscape, curious yet cautious. She discovered what appeared to be an ancient data transmitter partially buried in the Martian sand. Although its exterior was rusty and damaged, making it almost distinguishable, the markings were clear: **Leviathan 1**.

Hale felt a knot in his stomach. The Leviathan Expedition had departed in 2039, about thirty years prior. All evidence of the crew had disappeared, presumed lost to a sandstorm, a piece of equipment failure, or some other Martian mystery. Nobody had anticipated discovering any evidence of them, much less a functional transmitter.

She gently loaded the device into her rover, protecting it from the dust, with a mixture of excitement and worry. She brushed it off when she got back to the base, connected it to her communications system, and started decoding the encrypted files. Her screen blinked a faint message: *Leviathan 1 Final Log.*

As she pressed play, her fingers shook. A figure emerged as the television came to life, a man with sunken eyes and a fearful yet determined expression. Commander Aaron Price, Leviathan 1's commander. Before he spoke, his voice crackled and harsh from the decades, he drew a hesitant breath.

"If you're watching this, it indicates that either humanity made a grave error or someone else survived."

An chilly weight settled in Commander Hale's chest as she edged closer.

Price went on, "We discovered something hidden beneath the sand." "Deep in the Marineris Valley." An old building, but not from Earth. We assumed that something was inactive. We were mistaken. His voice trembled, hardly audible. "It's alive." Although it wasn't intended to be, it is.

Hale's thoughts were racing. A construction from another planet? And it was alive somehow?

Price's face became grim. "We organized an event and gathered samples. This signal was displayed.t. It infiltrated our systems, attached itself to the ship, and even entered our own bodies. It is aware of our presence. We attempted to alert Earth, but the signal obstructed us and interfered with our systems.

Hale reflected on her recent failures to communicate with Earth. Did she have to deal with the same interference?

"What will happen if it makes it to Earth is uncertain. You must understand that Mars is not a desolate wilderness. It's a trap. It was constructed to entice and possibly destroy.

Hale slumped back as the message concluded, her forehead drenched in cold sweat. Leviathan had been quiet, but it had not disappeared. To keep whatever had been found from getting to Earth, the entire mission was probably sacrificed. In her imagination, the ramifications spun. What if, just by coming here, she had already set off this threat, rousing it from its slumber?

Hale spent several days going through Leviathan's log data. Maps showing underground tunnels beneath the surface of Mars, chemical readings with chemicals unknown to Earth, and pictures of odd geometric forms were all strewn about and distorted. Every night, she lay in her berth, unable to sleep as her mind raced with images of shadowy creatures lurking in the shadows and dark tunnels wending beneath the Martian crust.

She was startled back to reality by the buzzing of the comm system. A fresh message flashed in from Earth: "We've noticed something strange about the signals you've been sending, Ellis. Diagnostics reveal an odd trend in your most recent correspondence. Please give advice.

An exception. Commander Price's warning was spot on.

Her fingers hesitated over each word as she typed her response, her palms shaking. Could she really risk transmitting a potentially hazardous message to Earth? She would be the very cause of devastation if it turned out to be a signal that could impair human biology, as Price had proposed, or infect Earth's systems.

Hale inhaled deeply before shutting off the transmitter and sitting by herself as the base's quiet hum surrounded her. She understood that cutting off all communication was the safest course of action for humanity. to completely isolate herself.

There was only one option left, though: should she completely forsake Mars and any answers that may be found there? Or should she make one last, perilous trek to the Valles Marineris in order to locate the building Leviathan had found and possibly eliminate the menace at its origin?

Days passed. In the end, she made the only choice she could live with. She concealed her last communication in her own logs, encrypted.

.IIt was intended for the upcoming crew, the explorers who could visit in the hopes of colonizing the Red Planet. And it said, quite simply:

* ""Mars is a trap." We weren't the first to discover it. Don't go back.

Programming the path to Valles Marineris, she got inside her rover. As the base disappeared behind her into the Martian horizon, she was both terrified and at peace. For the sake of humanity, she would confront whatever solutions that were ahead by herself.

And her heart remained steady as she drove into the unending red horizon. Hale was aware that this was her final communication from Mars, a parting cautionary tale sent through space and time.