Chapter 12

Months before Indiana Jones even decided to go to space, he was continuing his job at Marshall College in Connecticut. His days there had gotten slow. His rival archaeologists out in the field always managed to get in the way, and it had been some time since he had come home with his prize. His interest in going out to the field had begun to wither.

It was on a sunny day toward the end of second semester when news broke about the found ruins on Mars. Archaeologists all over the world, including Indiana, were ecstatic. All of them wanted the chance to go and be the one to discover the history behind the ruin.

When NASA called Indiana about the ruins and if he was interested in going, he leaped at the chance. Of course, NASA had to warn him about all the risks, and tell him that it would be 4 years before he even landed on Mars. Indiana didn't care. This was something no one could steal from him.

A day before he was supposed to go to the training facility, Indian decided to have dinner with his father. Though he didn't expect much, he arrived with a positive attitude. To his surprise, he saw that Sallah and Marcus were there. Indiana didn't know what to expect.

"We're here to… ask you to not go to Mars, Indiana" Marcus said.

"Wha-what? Why?"

"Because… look, we know you are a capable archaeologist, but… well there you go. You're a digger, not an astronaut" Sallah said.

"Son, we care for you. What you are going to face is not an army of deadly Germans or back-stabbing Russians. Its space. It's something that's possibly more dangerous than man" Dad said.

Indiana stood thunderstruck. "Look… I appreciate that you guys care about me, but this is my choice. I'm going. can you think of anyone else who can do a better job than me?"

They stood in silence.

"I'll be fine. Plenty of other people have made this trip before and come back fine. And I'll have 4 years to train for this. I won't do anything stupid."

The others looked at each other.

"Well, you've made your decision. Let's eat" Dad said.

The others stood up slowly. Indiana stayed for a minute or so. They had a point. Space was far more dangerous than anything he had gone up against, but this was something he had to do.