Chapter 10- Sol 43 (2)

Several feet below the surface, Indiana Jones lay on the ground, unconscious. From his helmet voices could be heard from the radio. Slowly, he began to stir. His head ached terribly.

"Guys, I'm fine" he said in a slurred voice.

"What happened?" Marcus asked.

"I guess I fell through some loose sand. Guess I was expecting too much if I wanted this cave to be completely solid."

"Just like the time you ventured off from the boy scouts and-"

"Dad…"

"Or the time you wandered too far in the desert and-"

"Sallah! In case any of you care, I could have died! Luckily my helmet didn't crack. I landed on my side instead."

"Yes, very lucky" Dad said."Can you see anything?"

"Umm, yeah. Stalactites and the sort. What you would expect in a cave."

"Except bats" Dad said.

"Or snakes" Sallah chuckled.

Indiana shivered. That was a high point of being on Mars.

"I'm gonna keep on walking. If the signal lets up let me know."

Indiana started to head toward the lighter part of the cave. The blood red stone set him on edge. Nothing was welcoming. Indiana reached the light.

"Woah.."

"What?" Sallah, MArcus and Dad asked.

Indiana jones was suddenly immersed in a giant underground lake. Or rather, a frozen one. It was remarkably clear. The red cave suddenly had shades of blue streaking across it.

"It's… a frozen lake. It's beautiful."

"A lake? There's never been so much water discovered on Mars before" Marcus said.

"Well, then I guess it's safe to say there has been life there at some point" Sallah inquired.

"You mean living organisms, along the lines of humans." Dad corrected.

"We'll never know unless I go further" Indiana replied.

Indiana examined the lake. It was too big to around. He stepped carefully on the ice.

"Hard as a rock. Ok" he said to his team."I'm gonna see if I can walk across the lake. The ices seems to be stable."

"Be careful" they all replied.

The lake appeared to be a half mile in width. Indian began to slowly walk across. After a few minutes he reached the halfway mark. Somewhere along that point, his confidence grew, and he began to walk at a normal pace. The n faster, and faster, until he slipped and landed back first. Then there was a sudden crack.

"Uh oh."

The ice slowly began to crack more, until it began to swallow itself up. Indian hurried and lifted himself up and began running as fast as he could. The breaking ice began to catch up to him. He ran faster and faster until he could finally see the other side of the lake. At the last second he dived for the edge. He made it, and the cracking of the ice stopped.

"Great, I ruined something beautiful"

"You tend to do that" Dad said.