A/N - What if more events that led up to the Xindi war took place? What if the people behind the sides of the Temporal Cold War continued to manipulate, even though they reached back into different realities? I don't own Star Trek in any way. If I did the Xindi war would be better.
Xindi War.
The Gateway.
The transport shuttle landed just outside the campsite. As always the surface of Mars was a rusty red mixed with orange and brown. As the archaeologists left the transport, gently breathing in the air pumped into their helmets by the environmental systems and they marched towards the camp. Some of the group couldn't help but look into the air, and they had no problems spotting the running lights of shuttles, liners, and freighters lifting off of the planet and heading out into space or down to the planet.
Mars had been colonised over 60 years ago, and already there were several cities and orbital habitats mingling with the space stations in orbit. On their approach, Mars had looked like a lined, pockmarked world, looking desolate and empty. But for thousands of years, Mars had won the interest and the fascination of millions of people. It was the nearest planet to Earth and had been for years the next world in which space explorers were hoping to visit in order to discover new knowledge.
Mars was also a launchpad for probes that sent robots out into space to discover more knowledge about the solar system and to discover new resources, new places where colonists could settle. And it had worked. Thanks to the colonisation of Mars, there were dozens of mines and asteroid colonies. The colonisation of Utopia Planitia and other areas of Mars where the colonial administration and research teams were responsible for the exploration of other regions which led, of course to new settlements was home now to thousands of people. Many of the newborns on Mars actually called themselves New Humans.
But Mars was a treasure trove for other reasons.
It had always been believed aliens had existed on the planet, and ever since the first explorers long since promised to visit Mars and explore it and the first settlers who had painstakingly visited every inch of the surface of the planet in the hopes of discovering new sites in which to begin constructing of settlements which would one day be used for colonists and for the leisure and tourism business which had received a massive boom since the development of warp drive in the late 21st century and had opened up the doors to the stars, had discovered there had been ancient aliens who'd lived on Mars thousands of years before.
The moment the discovery was made, Mars had become the solar systems' prime candidate for study. Many xenoarchaeologists had found fame and fortune in scientific knowledge discovered in the ancient ruins of Mars, which had been so carefully hidden the countless probes launched from Earth had not found them.
Everyday scans were taken of Mars from orbit, while on the ground soundings were made to map out the geology of the red planet. It had only been a matter of time before the underground cities had been discovered, and when they had, human scientists and tourists who came later once they were deemed safe saw the beauty of the ancient Martian civilisation who had left it all behind for posterity.
As he stood on the surface of Mars pausing for a moment, Roman Soong looked around. The old place hadn't changed that much but the mountain range was new, as was the long since dried up riverbed. Dr Roman Soong had been coming to Mars for a good chunk of his scientific career, but even he was delighted when they stepped into the camp dome that had been set up. As they passed through the airlock, Soong had to admire the efficiency of the people who'd discovered the dig site and set this compound up so quickly.
When the team removed their helmets and breathed in the hydroponically created air, Soong took a deep breath and smiled at the group of scientists around, although he frowned a little at the sight of the Starfleet officers. He hadn't expected them.
"Dr Roman Soong?" An attractive woman in her 30s approached with a smile. "Dr Jodie Bailey."
"Yes, that's me," Roman took her hand and smiled at Jodie Bailey. "It's nice to meet you."
Bailey smiled at him, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. Roman sighed mentally and cursed his idiot twin brother for his insane actions which got him arrested. Arik had never listened to reason when it came to augments. The Eugenics wars had massacred millions, did he really think if he suddenly stole embryos of augments he'd change the minds of people who were terrified of another set of wars breaking out?
But what really angered Roman was how he and the rest of his family had been stymied and even mocked for Arik's actions. Arik was a genius, but he wasn't smart if he thought his arguments would work now.
"Did you have a safe flight?" Bailey asked, moving on.
While it made him curious about why she had been so welcoming before, Roman didn't bother forming a different conversation thread with the woman. If she caused problems for him, then he would deal with it then, but if she remained professional despite her clear attitude with him, great. "Not a problem. Is it my imagination, or are there more settlements in this part of Mars?" The last time he had come this way, there had only been three domes to the north if his geography was correct. Now there were three times that number everywhere.
"Yes, that's one of the reasons why this dig site is here. A survey team performed a 2 year-long survey in this part of the mountain range in the hopes of finding underground caverns and caves which we could widen and use to build a city," Bailey paused while she studied Soong for his reaction.
If she had hoped he would be impressed then she was in for a disappointment.
The 'we' gave Soong the first clue he was dealing with a born and proud Martian, but truthfully this was an old story for him so he didn't really bother to pay much attention to it. He didn't care if the people living on Mars were immigrants or they'd been here for the last century since the planet was colonised. The surface of the planet was unbreathable, you could only live on it above or below, or even in space or in the air. The discovery of tunnels and caverns not only gave people the means to expand underground, but they more often led to old Martian cities. It wasn't difficult for human colonists to move in once they'd been fully studied. They likely believed the mountain range, being what it was would be riddled with caves and caverns, making it easy for them to build a new city.
"When we checked the results of the scans and the soundings, we found evidence of something buried deep in the Martian rock," Bailey went on, keeping it short and to the point. Roman was grateful for small mercies.
"How far down was it?" Dr Bishop, who was one of the scientists who'd accompanied Soong, asked.
"It's under the mountain plain. We had to find a number of natural channels just to get close to it," one of Bailey's assistants said, with folded arms.
"Have you got inside it yet?"
"No. The good news is whatever we've found is in the centre of a cavern that shows signs of being excavated through some extremely advanced engineering. The cavern itself is reinforced with a brace lattice of Tritanium, Duranium, and Neutronium."
Roman whistled in admiration. "Interesting mix. What else did you find?
"There's some kind of pyramid or ziggurat in the centre of what looks like a small settlement; why it's underground and so far down, we don't know, so don't ask. The pyramid is composed of a denser form of the alloy that was described as being one of the reasons why the cavern is so reinforced."
"When can we see it?" Roman asked, already hoping to catch a good look at it for himself now.
"Tomorrow morning. We'd like you to go over the symbols we've gathered to see if you recognise them before you go down into the catacombs."
Roman nodded, while he didn't like the thought of waiting for such a long time, he hoped the symbols would be something stimulating enough to really keep him happy for this length of time.
One of the scientists he had brought with him from Earth asked, "How old is it?"
The reply only made Bailey grin. "We need to double-check everything when we get inside; you've arrived just in time, Dr Soong. The structure down there is 200,000 years old."