Chapter 22: Spelunking

Daria looked out the rover window. It occurred to her that this was not all that useful an action. They were in a cave (or more precisely a lava tube) after all! Still, there was some light filtering in from the mouth of the cave and she could see Herman standing next to the rover. He was back from exploring the lava tube. Today would mostly be filled with setting up equipment and furnishings inside the habitat. Then maybe they would do some exploring deeper in the lava tube. Julie and Ian were especially excited about collecting samples farther inside.

After last night's dinner, breakfast was pretty dull. They had granola bars and tea. It took all of 20 minutes and that included heating the water and steeping the tea. The next task was to don their surface suits. Even though the inflatable habitat showed no signs of leaking air, still they would work in their surface suits until everything was installed. This protected them just in case a leak started while they were moving equipment. Since they were attached to the rover they were able to carry only small emergency air tanks. There was a setting which allowed them to breath the air in the habitat and the suit would only switch to the tank if the air pressure started dropping. Tom briefly communicated with the colony to let them know that they successfully survived the night and what the plan was for the day. Finally it was time to get to work.

The morning was spent moving pieces of equipment, assembling things like beds, and installing plumbing. This was still going much faster than building any hooch! By lunchtime they were done. Once their work was completed they were able to remove their surface suits and just walk around in a decent sized shirtsleeve environment. It was a nice change.

As they finished their first lunch in the new habitat Tom said, "We should look at what Herman found wandering around the cave last night."

"Lava tube," Julie said.

"Really Julie," Ian stated. "You don't need to correct Tom."

Julie pleaded, "But we need to make certain our terminology is correct in all the records. Right Daria?"

Daria deadpanned, "I'm not getting drawn in on this! I am sure that future generations looking at the record of our conversations will be able to determine from the context that we use 'cave' to refer to this particular lava tube. It is properly recorded as a lava tube in the mission directive."

Tom chuckled, "OK. OK. I will try to remember to say lava tube rather than cave. Fundamentally Julie is right. Daria is right as well. Let's move on and see what Herman found. Ian and I set up the virtual reality room over there. Go have a seat and let's get started."

The four explorers settled into chairs in the virtual reality room of the habitat. They had 360 degrees of screens and put on VR goggles to see the inside of the cave just as Herman had seen it. Of course, Herman took pictures in multiple wavelengths of light and illuminated the cave in infrared and ultraviolet, as well as in visible light. He also used radar imaging to get additional detail. The data was all fused in what they would be viewing. The result was a walk through a dark cave in what looked like daylight. It was definitely better than wandering through the cave with just a bright light mounted to your forehead! They could proceed at any speed desired. They began at 10 meters (33 ft) per minute.

"Look!" Ian exclaimed with great excitement. "This lava tube has been here since Mars had running water. Look over there. That is a small stalagmite!"

"Amazing!" Julie responded hardly able to contain herself.

Clearly Ian and Julie knew what features interested them. When Tom zoomed in on the feature, Daria could see it. Still, to her the cave looked like a very smooth edged rock tunnel.

Over the next two hours there were four features cataloged for further investigation: the stalagmite, what may be an exposed vein of ore, a possible area where water had once pooled, and a branch in the tunnel where one side seemed to have a significant dropoff. Daria was glad that there was only about an hour of material remaining.

At about 1900 meters (6200 ft) into the lava tube Herman had entered a large room. While such rooms were common in caves produced by water, that was not so true of lava tubes. Not unheard of, however. Daria remembered Lava River Cave in Arizona. Spelunking in that cave was part of their training. They had used it to learn about lava tubes and it did have a large room.

All four stood and started looking around the room.

"Look at this!" Julie exclaimed. "The ceiling must be 50 meters high!" (165 ft)

Tom remarked, "This is impressive!"

Ian stated, "Note what looks like a lot of rubble on the ground, but the ceiling is so smooth! Where did it all come from?"

Daria spoke up and in a tentative voice said, "Uh, you might want to come over here and have a look at this. This does not look natural."

The other three joined Daria and looked at a feature across the room. It appeared to be four large smooth rectangles that stood next to each other. They looked like they had been carved out of the wall of the cave. There also appeared to be something on them.

Tom ordered the projection system to zoom in on the feature. Unfortunately, it was not clear. Still, it looked like there were regular inscribed lines on it. The room was just at the end of Herman's path.

Daria stated emphatically, "We need to go and see this ourselves. This could be a major discovery."

Ian turned to her and said, "You realize it may be nothing. It looks like something, but since we do not have a close-up view it could be the angle we are seeing it."

"I understand," Daria said. "But we need to go and see it."

Julie turned to Ian and said, "We need to go and see it sweetie. Now."

Tom had to contain himself from bursting out laughing. The tone of voice that Julie used with Ian when she called him 'sweetie' was exactly the same as the tone Daria used whenever she called him 'dear.' Tom knew that in that case surrender was the only option. Besides, whatever this was needed to be investigated and recorded. No one was saying what they all were thinking – aliens.

22.2

Everyone was assembled just outside the airlock at the back of the habitat. They were all wearing their surface suits. They were expecting a 6 hour expedition into the recesses of the lava tube. They each carried 8 hours of air. Herman carried two extra tanks that could be used to partially refill the humans' tanks if the time was longer. Also, Herman would be leading the way and providing light sufficient to light the way. Each person also had lights, just in case Herman had a failure.

They started off. The ground was smooth initially and it was like strolling through a tourist cave. They stopped briefly at the stalagmite so that Ian could take some additional pictures and sample rock on the ground. At the ore vein Julie took a small rock sample. Again it was a brief stop. More photos and samples were taken at the possible water pool and point where the tunnels branched.

It was about 200 meters (660 ft) from the great room that the floor of the cave started becoming rocky and passage was more difficult. Everyone stepped carefully and avoided what might be very sharp volcanic rock. It still took a full half-hour to cover the final distance to the great room.

With Herman standing in the middle of the room, the four explorers entered. It was breathtaking! A room like this would make an excellent place to put a large habitat. It would not take much to make the tunnel useful as a vehicle tunnel. Depending on the ability of the rock not to leak air, it would almost be possible to seal off the ends and directly pressurize the space without building an interior structure.

Daria stated, "Come on. Let's go have a look at those slabs." It had been years since Daria had been so excited. She would have liked to have broken out in a run, like a kid running for the ice cream truck. She knew that would not have been prudent. A fall could damage or puncture her surface suit and possibly injure her. Still, her adrenaline was pumping and her curiosity was peaked. She moved as fast as she could and was the first one to stand in front of the slabs. The others came up behind her.

22.3

Daria stood and looked up at each of the four slabs. She really could not believe what she was seeing. Each of these slabs was filled with writing. The writing was neatly formed and very clear. It had certainly been inscribed to last for eons.

"Can you tell what it says?" Ian asked Daria.

"Well, the first slab is clearly Latin. My Latin isn't very good, but I think I can pick up a few words. The second slab is definitely Greek. The third is Chinese. The fourth looks like an American inscription. It might be Mayan."

"So what does this say?" Julie asked.

"Just a second," Daria replied as she tried to scrutinize the Latin inscription. Herman had the slab well illuminated. "It appears to be a salutation, something about 2000 years and a visit. It ends with something about a gift and a guest. That is the limit of my Latin. If I was going to take a guess, then I would guess that these other slabs contain the same text in their respective languages. Sort of like the Rosetta Stone."

Tom piped up with, "Let's get these texts recorded and take them back to the rover. We can access translation software there. We also need to decide how to break this discovery to everyone. Think about this: we need to speak with Mia and she needs to decide what we say and to whom. This is big. It basically says that aliens have visited at some point."

Everyone took their pictures and Herman made a detailed recording of the site. Then they started back. It was clearly going to be hard to sleep tonight.