strange structure)…
(Colonel Pike)…Carol set up the ground radar imager against
this ‘door’,, lets see if there’s anything behind it…
(Carol Stafford)…roger….according to these images the ‘door’ is
about 12 inches thick and there appears to be a hollow space
behind it…my guess would be its some kind of shaft,,
as we thought last night…
(Colonel Pike)…OK,, lets dig out the bottom of this “door’ and see
if we can pry it open… Jim use the boom to have a closer look at
that switch up there,, maybe its a control button…
(after about 35 minutes of digging and removing crusted layers
of Martian sand against the ‘door’,, the bottom is finally cleared…
the dirt and sand around the edges of the ‘button’ have also
been removed)…
(Colonel Pike)…what’s that ‘button’ look like now?...
(MS Jim Borman )…hard to say…should I push it?...
(Colonel Pike)…yeah,, push it…lets see what happens…
(the robotic claw pushes the ‘button’,, and there seems to be
some movement…again the claw pushes…this time it snaps
backward into place and a great rumbling within the structure
can be heard…everyone steps back,, not knowing what to expect…
suddenly there a loud clang and the doors slowly move to one side…
a darken hole now appears where the reddish stained doors
used to be)…
(Colonel Pike)…lets get some light in there…
(the four astronauts each direct their zeon flash lamps into the opening)…
(MS Jim Borman )…damn its big,, a lot bigger than I thought it would be…
(bang,, bang,, bang)…Colonel Pike strikes the floor with his
Geo-hammer…sounds solid enough…wait here,, I’ll go in first…
(Colonel Pike enters the room,, it seems to be about 56 ft wide
by 56 ft wide with a ceiling at about 60 ft,, the walls are rust colored,,
stained from the Martian soil,, there are two ‘buttons’ on the door wall)…
(Colonel Pike)…send in the rover…OK that’s good…
Steve…stay up here while we investigate where this thing goes….
(MS Steve Scott)…yes sir…
(Colonel Pike)…all right everybody lets find out what this is…
(MS Jim Borman )…doesn’t seem to be much corrosion or
decay Colonel…
(Colonel Pike)…probably due to the fact that there very little
moisture on Mars,, I would guess that once you build something
here,, it’s going to be around a long long time…the power must
be geothermal or maybe fusion of some kind to still be operational…
have the rover claw push one of those button up there…
(the front doors close and the room starts its decent)…nice guess
on which button,, Carol…
(Carol Stafford)…50% percent chance sir…
(the decent takes about 20 minutes,, it’s a noisy ride,, with the
sounds of cables or wires banging against the cab…occasionally
there is a prolonged scraping sound on a side of the car…
the ‘elevator car’ comes to a sudden and uneven stop…the doors
automatically open into a darkened room)…
(Colonel Pike)…lets do a radio check…Steve can you hear me?...
(MS Steve Scott)…yes sir,, a little bit of static but clear…
(Colonel Pike)…. Aries are you there?...
(Captain Yuri Kahn)…yes sir…no problem with reception…
we’ve heard ever word…
(Colonel Pike)…good make sure you keep recording…
Send the rover out about 15 feet,, lets see what we have here…
(the rover slowly moves out into the vast darkened room ahead,,
its tracks leave their impression in only about ½ inch of Martian soil)…
(Colonel Pike)…anything on the radar?...
(Carol Stafford)…looks like a large wall of something to the left with
circular columns just in front,, and to the right appears to be a
lot of smaller columns….the room is huge…too many obstructions
to get a definite size...
(Colonel Pike)…OK…lets raise the xenon lights on the rover and
give ourselves some light…everyone stay alert and in sight of
each other…lets go…
(MS Jim Borman )…Colonel,, I’ve reached one of the circular columns…
they appear to be metal about 7 ft across and are capped with some
kind of mushroom structure about 25 ft above the floor…
the wall appears to be made of a stone like material…there’s a metal
bar along the floor that’s about 1 ½ ft in diameter,, running along
the wall bottom….
(Carol Stafford)…Colonel…look up there…what do you think?...
(Colonel Pike)…could be some kind of switch mechanism…
lets have the rover arm move it up and see…
(the rover claw arm is positioned near the switch mechanism
which projects from the wall about 4 inches and is located about
30 ft above the floor surface,, the claw arm pushes the
devices’ lever up)…
(there’s an almost instant high pitched whining sound as if
huge electrical generators were suddenly started…the floor has
a slight vibration to it and it seems that there’s some movement
to the atmosphere inside the room)…
(MS Steve Scott)…Colonel sir,, can you hear me?...
(Colonel Pike)…yeah,, go ahead Steve…
(MS Steve Scott)…I don’t know what you guys did down there,,
but you must of started some kind of chain reaction…
the whole southern face of the plateau,, is starting to vibrate and glow…
looks like large chunks of Martian dust and rock are starting to
fall away from the cliff face,, there appears to be some kind of
structure underneath… I think you had better get out of there fast…
before the shaft is closed off by falling debris…
(Colonel Pike)…yeah we feel it down here too... we’re starting back up…
everyone back inside the elevator cab…hurry…
Leave the rover…
(MS Jim Borman )…can’t reach the buttons sir…we need the rover…
(Colonel Pike)…here take a rock and see if you can hit it…
Try again…
(the Martian rock smashes against the button and the doors close…
the metal cab starts its rise back to the top,, falling debris constantly
hitting the top of the cab,, making the walls vibrate and echo…
about 20 minutes later the cab reaches the Martian surface and
the doors open once more)…
(Colonel Pike)…Steve what are you still doing here?...
(MS Steve Scott)…waiting for you sir…
(Colonel Pike)…you should have left…Yuri how’s the ship?...
get her ready for immediate lift-off…
(Captain Yuri Kahn)…yes sir…we have already started primary
start-up sequence…
(Colonel Pike)…everybody back to the Aries…take only what
you can carry….
(once everyone is safety back inside the command ship Aries,,
everyone straps themselves in and Captain Yuri Kahn guides
the ship off the Martian surface…thru the front and port windows
a large reddish dust cloud can be seen along the southern edge
of the plateau,, and what appears to be an ominous glowing
vertical surface)…
(Colonel Pike)… Yuri,, where is the Hercules?...
(Captain Yuri)…she’s about 35 minutes away on the far side of
the Northern pole…when she comes around she should have a
clear picture of what’s happening along the plateau…
(Hercules)…sir I can clearly see the Southern face of the plateau now…
it appears that most of the Martian dust and rocks have fallen away,,
exposing a glowing structure… transmitting images now…
(Colonel Pike)…what the?...Oh God…I’ve seen this type of
structure before…not this big,, but I know what it is…I grew up in
Youngstown,, Ohio…and on the corner of 5th and Walbash
there was a structure just like this…at night it would illuminate
the whole block…Carol can we still communicate with the rover
inside the structure?...
(Carol Stafford)…I think so sir…
(Colonel Pike)…good,, have the rover pull the switch down…
to shut this off….
(Captain Yuri)…Colonel what is it?...
(Colonel Pike)…it’s a diner sign,, it probably says something like
“Eat at Joes”…just like the neon signs when I was a kid………..
.............The end............
Special Editors Note:
Stop your groaning...What's the title of this story?...
Aliens have to eat too you know...............
