Eye of the Beholder

Chapter 2.3 Volcanoes of Mars

As they left the lounge, Kore asked Sedna, "Are you going there tonight?"

After a glance at Newt, she said, "Yes, we'll give it a try."

Soon they are in bed, sharing the Q dream. As usual in the Q, the experience seems timeless. The Q links to Mars that they got from Black Beauty are some two billion years old. But Sedna knows that on the Mars of today there are similar rocks, still linked in the Q to the same events. Newt, too, reassured by what Tengri said, now understands this.

So by recalling their own Q links to Black Beauty, and focusing on that as a link to Mars, they instantly find themselves at the stone's place of origin, an ancient volcano.

The event they witness there is the eruption that blasted Black Beauty into space. But Sedna quickly connects them up with current events, in which Black Beauty's long-lost cousins are scattered around the now dormant remains of that volcano. Which they easily confirm is one of the Tharsis volcanoes, with many lava tubes.

The excitement of this success is enough to arouse their bodies, so for a time they are back on Earth, in bed together. "We did it!" Newt exclaims, but Sedna shushes him and they manage to contain their excitement together in their Q dream until morning.

During the following day they searched for photos of the Tharsis plateau. There are three volcanoes in a row there. They knew that the one called Arsia was the one Black Beauty led them to. It has the biggest crater, and the most extensive network of lava tubes off its flank.

Ray came by and was peering over their shoulders as they examined these photos. "That looks a lot like Orion's belt," he said, pointing to the way the three volcanoes were lined up in perfect symmetry with the bigger Olympus Mons volcano.

Sedna saw it too. Her mind was hinting at another link, but it was obscure and she finally just ignored it. Having oriented themselves to the current geography of the region, they returned to their QAR chairs and resumed their link to Arsia.

As their viewpoints descend into the Arsia crater, they find evidence of the presence of other drone explorers.

So we aren't the first, Newt says within their Q dream.

I suppose we should be surprised if we were, Sedna replies.

Seeing the evidence, Newt has to agree. He knows that droners tend to fly most of the time, leaving no traces. But here there are wagon tracks. The tracks emerge from some of the larger lava tubes opening onto the crater floor, and converge on an equipment stash. There are rock drills and several wagons, some of the wagons laden with rock debris.

No one is around, so they follow the newest looking tracks inside one of the tubes. It soon becomes evident that the droners are in there. They have stopped flying and are on foot, slowly and methodically walking along close to the walls, examining and possibly recording every inch.

Newt says, I hear voices!

Yes, I hear them too.

How is that possible? There's not enough air here for sound to carry this well.

We're picking them up through the Q. They are using QAR communicators.

Of course. Now I'm surprised we didn't hear them sooner.

I think it's because we aren't actually using QAR. At first we didn't have very good clues to link us to them. But now we've followed their tracks for a while and know a little about what they're doing here. So we've picked up a Q link.

Before long they overtake the explorers. But instead of drones they see a group of quite ordinary looking people, dressed in typical work clothes, with sturdy shoes.

Newt does another double take, then says, It's like being in the dome in Houston, with everyone projecting avatars!

Except here it seems to be less artificial.

I guess it's true that people tend to project their own image of themselves.

The same one they project in body.

They can be their true selves, maybe only somewhat enhanced.

Their dream selves. The way they subconsciously think they look to others.

The conversations they overhear are clearly linked to the individuals they see. But they aren't at all informative about what they are doing. Instead it is more like the talk you would hear on any jobsite, mostly joking, off-color remarks completely unrelated to their work. Newt wants to interrupt them and ask some questions.

But he quickly finds he can't interact with the drone operators.

Sedna explains. They are using QAR, not fully in the Q themselves. They have no hint, no clue that we are here. It would be very unkind, and possibly quite upsetting, if we were to force ourselves on them.

So instead of following the droners they begin exploring on their own.  After following the seemingly endless lava tube deeper into the mountain, Sedna stops.

What? says Newt.

This is pointless. It's already obvious that any stretch of any tube like this would be fine for setting up a farm. Obviously closer to the mouth of the tube will be better. So why go on?  Now that we know these droners and probably others have already been here, we need to find them and talk to them, find out what they know.  Then we can decide better what to do next.

You mean launch our own drones and guide them here?

Unless we can find these droners themselves on Earth. Or others like them.