Mars Encounter: Prequel Stories Read online

  Chapter 1

  10:30 EDT, March 4th 2010

  Student Halls, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Massachusetts, Earth

  Daniel awoke are realised he was hungover. This surprised him as he hadn’t been drinking the night before but had been in the lab. Then Daniel remembered just how many cups of coffee he had gone through. This was going to be a tough day. Daniel’s head continued to hurt as he got up and showered. An hour or so later when checking his emails his head was still hurting although at least the rest of him was now awake. To his surprise and horror, he found an email from the Dean’s office summoning him to a meeting at the earliest moment. Daniel thought about this for a moment and tried to figure out why the Dean would want to see him. He decided to take a look later in the day. Then another email popped up with the words ‘THAT MEANS NOW!!!’. Daniel quickly finished getting dressed and headed over to the Dean’s office, panicking that he was in serious trouble. He burst in through the office doors to find the Dean’s secretary looking as flustered as he did.

  “You must be Daniel.” The secretary asked and informed at the same time.

  “Yes.”

  “Go right on through, they are expecting you.” The secretary said, motioning Daniel towards the door. He walked in and immediately saw the Dean of the college sitting behind his desk laughing. It took Daniel a moment or two longer to notice the man with his back to the door. From what Daniel could tell it looked like the man was wearing a military uniform of some description.

  “Agh, Daniel, you’ve joined us.” The dean said, raising from his seat. “Thank you for making yourself available to us at such short notice.” The dean walked from around his desk and towards Daniel with his arm extended, ready to shake hands. “It’s good to see you again.” The dean spoke with an almost convincing enthusiasm in his voice. Daniel shook the Dean’s hand, confused by the apparent familiarity the Dean addressed him with, after all to Daniel’s knowledge the two men had never actually met before. “This is Captain Lowheart of the US Marine Corps and he’s here to speak to you.”

  “The US Marines, I’m not interested thanks.”

  “Now Daniel don’t be quick to judge, you may want to hear what he has to say. I’ve known Captain Lowheart for a few years now and he’s actually taken some of my best students away from us to serve our country.”

  “I don’t really see my future serving in a uniform, sorry for the wasted trip.” Daniel said dismissively.

  “Just hear him out.” The dean said with a smile before steadily walking towards the door. “I’ll leave you two alone.” The dean walked through the door and closed it behind him, making a big show of the act.

  “Can’t say I blame you about the uniform.” Captain Lowheart said as he rose from his chair, twisting as he did so to face Daniel. He spoke in a deep authoritive tone which filled the otherwise silet room. “My name is Captain Lowheart of the United States Marine Corps and I’m here to talk to you about last night.”

  “Last night, you must have the wrong guy, sorry for a wasted trip.” Daniel replied. “I was in the radio lab all of last night working with a telescope out of Hawaii.”

  “I know.” The Marine said crisply. “That’s why I’m here. You picked up a signal last night right, something you didn’t understand.”

  “How do you know that?” Daniel asked, suspicious.

  “You logged the transmission as unknown.” Lowheart walked towards Daniel. “The people I work for get told about these sorts of things.”

  “The Marine Corps?”

  “Another part of the government, I represent them.” Lowheart walked towards the Dean’s desk and looked down at the open file sitting on it. “How are you finding it here at MIT?”

  “It’s difficult but you know.”

  “Your freshmen year straight A’s but since then very mediocre grades.” Lowheart looked up at Daniel. “Struggling?”

  “It’s been a tough year.”

  “Finally had to work for it did you? College sure can be a shock for some smart guys like you.” Lowheart sounded cocky.

  “My sister is sick, cancer it’s been distracting shall we say.”

  “I understand. Family is important to you.”

  “It’s important to everyone, isn’t it?” Daniel was starting to tie of this guy. “Look are we done here or what?”

  “It was a satellite.” Lowheart said abruptly. “The transmission it was from a top secret military satellite, I need you to sign a non-disclosure agreement. It’s a matter of national security.” Lowheart reached into his jacket pocket. “School and cancer treatment, your parents must be loaded.”

  “I’m on a scholarship.”

  “You’re on a partial scholarship.” Lowheart handed the document to Daniel. “It says so in your file. You should realise, you’re not that bright kid.”

  “Whatever.” Daniel snatched the document, gave is a cursory glance before signing it. “Look you can say all you like about secret satellites but that was no satellite.” Daniel handed the document back to Lowheart. “It’s not on any satellite database. Even the ones composed by amateur satellite watchers and they always know.”

  “It’s extremely classified, we keep it off those lists.”

  “How come it stood still for over ten minutes then?” Daniel asked.

  “What?”

  “I went to make myself a coffee and when I came back the signal was still in the same place.”

  “That wasn’t in your log.”

  “I didn’t think it was relevant.”

  “And you checked all military databases?”

  “Including the classified ones, I hacked my way in, I’m good with computers.” Daniel stood smugly for a moment. Lowheart looked back down at the folder on the dean’s desk. Daniel could tell the Marine was thinking for a moment. “Do you play chess?”

  “What?” Daniel asked once again confused by the twists and turns of this conversation. “A little, not much why?”

  “Nothing really.” Lowheart had obviously changed his mind about something. “A colleague of mine swears by chess as a way of judging a man’s character, I personally never much cared for the game myself.” Lowheart came back from behind the table. “You checked all those databases to make sure.”

  “I like to be sure.”

  “I see.” Lowheart started walking towards the door. “Daniel will you take a walk with me, there’s something I want to tell you and I need to be sure that this room isn’t bugged.”

  “What, why?”

  “I promise you it will be the most amazing thing you have ever heard.” Lowheart smiled as he opened the door and Daniel stepped through it.