by Robert L. Jones III
To a growing number of observers, it seems obvious that our interplanetary supervisors have spoken. The restrictions of their purported directive notwithstanding, some among us consider the mere possibility of their existence a much greater imposition, for it implies the presence of deity, ultimate authority, and judgment, someone to whom we must answer. The problem is simple enough. Constituent members of our population resent being told what to do.
It is as if we have awakened to find ourselves in the middle of a story, perhaps nearer its end. Our efforts to anticipate its outcome are hampered by limited perspective and an inherent difficulty in understanding events and forces greater than ourselves. Developments which seem sudden and unexpected can be decades or longer in the making, and often as not, their interpretation is marked by ambiguity. The true beginning of this cosmic and ongoing drama is difficult to ascertain since none of our kind were present to witness it; therefore, for a chronological starting point to this narrative, we must resort to describing events within our more recent history.
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Human beings exhibited a propensity for dropping metallic objects onto the surface of Mars, and over a period of decades, a number of instrument-laden machines successfully touched down and transmitted their data to scientists on Earth: Viking 1 and 2 in 1976, Mars Pathfinder with its Sojourner rover in 1997, Spirit and Opportunity in 2004, the Phoenix Lander in 2008, Curiosity in 2012, Perseverance in 2021, and so on.
From various missions to the red planet, we received images of sunsets, panoramic landscapes, and the time lapse capture of dust devils as well as confirmation of limited surface water, evidence of past microbial life, and recordings of Martian wind. Only many years later would we learn that the real action was underground, in the lava tubes of the volcanic region of Tharsis, where life was protected from radiation passing through the thin atmosphere. It was there that an advanced but diminishing civilization was exhausting what little remained of its resources. At least that is what many would end up thinking in retrospect.
In the absence of this knowledge, the astronomical littering continued until the first manned mission to Mars. It took nine months to get there, three months to explore a limited patch of terrain while awaiting an optimal alignment of the planets, and nine months to return. While those intrepid men and women were on the surface and absorbing elevated levels of radiation, they collected samples and made several videos of one another bounding along in the lower gravitational field.
Before the first mission returned, a second — this one an attempt to establish a sustainable colony — departed. The target was one of the aforementioned lava tubes,
those extensive caverns formed by outflows from the immense shield volcanoes in Tharsis. After rapidly flowing lava had cooled and hardened on the outside and drained out from the inside, these passages remained until long after the volcanoes were dormant. Such structures existed on Earth, but they were much larger on Mars due to its lower gravity. Ironically, scientific advancement was compelling a small segment of humanity to resume living in caves.
The delivery vehicles of that second excursion touched down, and rovers bearing human passengers deployed. They reached the mouth of their designated lava tube within a month. Their last transmission confirmed they were entering the chamber, but after this, they went silent. Two years later, it was generally assumed that the colonists had met with calamity. Meanwhile, members of the first manned mission to Mars were dying on Earth from a variety of incurable cancers.
Three years after the last transmission, several observatories around the globe reported sightings of unidentified objects approaching Earth from the direction of Mars. More detailed analysis revealed these UFOs to be spheres measuring an estimated thirty meters in diameter. They appeared to be metallic, and they were moving with astonishing speed. International reports of what happened after that varied slightly according to atmospheric conditions and geospatial time of day but otherwise were remarkably consistent.
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That the vessels collected primarily over major cities was confirmed by radar and satellite. Telescopic observations were independently reproducible. Where skies were sufficiently clear, sunlight reflected brightly off the alien spacecraft as they hovered and
circled far above the surface, and their reflective exteriors showed no signs of scorching from friction during entry into our upper atmosphere.
In retrospect, what happened next was of even greater surprise. Onlookers at ground level and equipped with nothing more than binoculars beheld the sudden appearance of lights which were too far away for determination of their identity or nature. In a wave, these bright pinpoints swept through the potentially menacing fleets, instantly converting them to fragments which glittered like confetti in the sun. The debris flickered and disintegrated into nothingness, and then the myriad lights vanished.
Videos collected by advanced telescopic instrumentation revealed chilling imagery of much greater effect. Individual sources of radiance were distinctly hominid in shape, and renderings of adequate magnification and resolution showed them to have discernible faces, visages of stern and frightening intensity. Although critics have dismissed this semblance as anthropomorphic interpretation, many commentators deem the appearance, activity, and disappearance of such familiar figures profoundly unsettling.
If they are real, what are we to make of those shining hominids, of their apparent ability to materialize and vanish? Are they inter-dimensional beings, or are they angels? Must there necessarily be a difference between these two possibilities? What is the mechanism of their apparent conversion between ethereal and atomic substance? Might it involve teleportation or the creation and destruction of matter by circumventing the law of the conservation of mass? Could emergence from a nonmaterial state involve an expansion of quantum effects that create the smallest subatomic particles from nothing, and could the reverse process be a contraction of the nuclear fusions that convert matter to energy in the interiors of stars?
Whatever the answers to such questions might be, the powers of creation and annihilation would reside within the bodies of such remarkable creatures, and they could effect dramatic physical change as borne out by multiple and recent corroborating accounts.
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The emerging explanation of what happened is that attempted colonization of a Martian lava tube had betrayed our presence and the habitability of our planet to a hostile and desperate race with superior technology. Their cities and spaceports were concealed within those enormous caverns in Tharsis, but circumstance renders such speculation moot. On-site verification poses an unacceptable risk.
That Mars once had a thicker atmosphere and flowing water and that its inhabitants wanted our world after having depleted their own remain formal possibilities. The general consensus is that we were spared, and to this day, many harbor doubts as to whether or not we deserved it.
In light of these recent events, certain facts bear repetition. The heliosphere around our solar system and the magnetosphere set up by Earth’s core act as shields by absorbing radiation. Jupiter’s gravity sweeps up many asteroids and comets, and our moon has absorbed multiple meteor impacts in the course of its revolutions. The ozone layer in our upper atmosphere provides protection from ultraviolet rays damaging to organic molecules.
In total, these layers of defense might very well imply that we are meant to remain exactly where we are, that we haven’t received authorization to spread our particular brand of corruption across the galaxy. The medical consequences of our first manned mission to Mars, the disastrous failure of the second, and the obliteration of a retaliatory response allude to an ominous message.
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For any intelligent species anywhere in the universe, your home world is all you get. Try not to mess it up.
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Bio:
Robert L. Jones III holds a doctorate in molecular biology from Indiana University, and he is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Cottey College in southwestern Missouri, USA. His speculative poems and stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Star*Line, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, and previously in Sci Phi Journal.
Philosophy Note:
As a boy in the 1960s, I grew up among triumphant visions of the glories of space travel and the colonization of other worlds. As an older adult, I have explored the flip side of this issue, and I have examined the following premise: our history here on Earth indicates that we are not entitled to such expansion. What if an ultimate authority forbids it?
