A COSMIC SIGN part 3...............

(28 months later…at Cape Canaveral,, Fl)

“Hello sports fans,, Dan Hack here reporting to you live from
Cape Canaveral,, Fl…we’re only about ten minutes away from
the historic launch of the twin Hercules/Saturn 3 rockets which
will be blasted into obit to form the fuel tanks for the 22 month
long journey to Mars by Colonel Pike and his 7 person crew…
the Hercules solid fuel tanks have been prepared and the
three Saturn booster rocket will be ignited to blast them into orbit…
Hercules 1 will be followed by Hercules 2 and then once an attitude
of 8 miles high is reached the Saturn boosters will detach and
the momentum should if all goes right safety carry the
Hercules fuel tanks into orbit…Where their internal computers
and navigational systems will slowly use the onboard thrusters
to achieve a stationary orbit of about 11 miles…When the two
giant Hercules fuel tanks are safety in orbit NASA will use ground
control computers to link them up for their mission to Mars…
Everyone here is praying for the weather to hold and that
everything goes as planned today…if everything goes as scheduled
then on Wednesday two days from now…Commander Pike and
his crew will be blasted into space from the newly constructed
launch faculty near Houston and will link up with the fuel tanks
to start they’re 2 year journey to Mars…

6, 5, 4, 3, we have ignition,, 1….we have lift-off of
Hercules 1…

Dan Hack here,, the roar of the Saturn booster rockets is
deafening,, the ground is shaking even where we are at 20 miles
away…there she goes…
Hercules 2 is starting its booster rockets now and has cleared
the towers…it looks like a great lift-off for both Hercules rockets…

(22 months 8 days and 14 hours later the combined Hercules
fuel tanks and the command ship have reached the Martian lunar
system…the first of the Hercules fuel tanks was jettisoned
8 months ago and now just the Hercules 2 fuel tank and the command
ship prepare to establish a stable geosynchronous orbit near
the Northern polar region)…

(command ship Aries)…Houston starting our ORM…all systems
normal…releasing mooring clamps from command platform
Hercules gt281…starting roll maneuver at 15 % …
Forward 5…down 4…Cable separation complete…forward 30…
down 5 %...thrusters only…42 forward...clear of Crane arm…
all systems normal…roll 82 %...all stop…

(it will take approximately 8 minutes each way for communications
between Houston and Mars,, plus decoding time…communications
have been coded due to the Secret nature of the mission,, all the
public knows is that this is the next step into the vastness of space…
Colonel Pike has now told all the crew members the real reason
for the haste and secrecy surrounding the mission…The crew has
once again become excited about Mars and the mission…
after 22 months in the void of space an adventure into the
unknown of possible first contact with another race has everyone
aware of the historical significant of each of their actions and
the mission itself)…

(commander Bill Collins,, and mission specialist Sandra McDivitt
have been left in charge of the orbiting command mother ship,,
Hercules gt281,, Colonel Pike and the others will descend to the
surface of Mars and investigate the strange structure seen on
the MRO months earlier,, little else has been learned about
the mysterious structure since those first few days)…

(Houston command)…Mars Aries…all systems are go for
MLM…Mars weather tracking clear…proceed with MLM
and exploration of the Martian surface…

(command ship Aries)…Houston…main decent engine start…
GR activated…maneuvering jets at 20%...1580 down…
forward 785…down at 33…forward 580…down 710…
speed 18 forward…maintain decent Angle 6 down …
Vastitas Borealis plateau… structure at 12000…forward 140…
down at 6…forward 60…down 2…forward 10… Forward 10…
kicking up some dust…landing lights…left 20…left…
down 5 left 10…forward…forward…down 2… left a little…
contact lights…cut engines…left…left… contact…

(Captain Yuri Kahn has set the command ship Aries down within
300 ft of the strange structure,, much closer than anyone
could of hoped)…

(day 3 on the Vastitas Borealis plateau of Mars…
the “one small step” speeches are done and six national flags
have been planted in the Martian soil…soil and rock samples
have been taken and various scientific instruments have been
placed about the Martian landscape…its now time to investigate
the strange structure)…
(Colonel Pike and 3 other astronauts stand near the giant structure,,
Captain Yuri Kahn and mission specialist Karl Young remain inside
the command ship Aries,, just incase
something or perhaps ‘someone’ unexpected appears)…

(Colonel Pike)…damn its big…Steve...what do you make of the
construction?...
(MS Steve Scott)…not sure,, texture appears to be like poured
concrete on Earth…but its starting to lose its cohesive nature…
obviously formed in someway…you can see the joint lines…
(Colonel Pike)…see if you can break off a sample for analysis later…
Jim go around back of the structure and see if there are any other
openings or markings…Carol go with him…nobody wander
around alone…and stay alert for loose rocks or fissures…
remember this is where the landslide occurred…Steve what
about this recess?...a door maybe?...
(Colonel Pike bangs on the ‘door’ with his small hammer he normally
uses to break off rock specimens,, a dead metallic sound,,
banging again he gets the same result)… Steve…what’s that up
there?...see if you can use your camera to get a closer look…
(MS Steve Scott)…can’t really tell,, a lot of red dust covering it,,
maybe a switch of some kind…I’d estimate its about 28 ft above
ground,, and about 3 inches by 3 inches…need to get a closer look…
(Colonel Pike)…yeah,, that’s going to be a problem…
Jim,, Carol,, get back here to the front…we’re going to go back to
the Aries and compile our finding and start again tomorrow
morning with a new plan…

(inside the command ship Aries,, everyone is seated at the
crew table,, looking over the photos,, radar images,, maps,,
and discussing what each of them saw)…

(MS Steve Scott)…Well,, I’m not sure what it is…but I will tell
you this,, its old,, very old…
(MS Jim Borman )…Yeah,, I have to agree with Steve,, if that
thing was buried just by the Martian winds and now as hard as
those sand particulates have compacted,, I’d have to guess that
its been buried for at least 1 or 1.5 million years…
You know something,, as a kid I grew up in Cleveland and we’d
always play on the apartment roof tops…well,, that thing out there
reminds me a lot like the top of an elevator shaft that goes
to the roof…
(Carol Stafford)…That’s one big elevator shaft…
(MS Jim Borman )…Yeah well,, you know not everything in the
universe is built to human scale…
(Carol Stafford)…Well,, it should be…(laughter)
(Colonel Pike)…Take it easy,, I agree with you…it looks like the
top of an elevator shaft tower to me too…
The question is how do we get in and where does it lead…

(during the night,, a plan was decided on and the needed equipment
was lower from the command ship and made ready for the
next exclusion,, most important among this,, were the three
Mars buggies and a telescoping boom arm with a robotic claw
that could reach to a height of 60 ft)…
----------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF PART THREE…………