Deadly Curiosity

The compact autonomous spacecraft ground and bumped its way across the shifting red surface. It would stop for a time, and extend one or another wand to sample, photograph and assay this or that rock. It's laser guidance located likely targets with ease.

At the end of each Sol, it would pause, extend its antennae, and exchange data with its handlers back on the blue planet. It was built well, and did its job with great efficiency, but complex though it was, it was still only a machine. It felt no pride in its accomplishments, or disappointment at any glitches or failures. If one of its handlers were to transmit a "Good job there, Curiosity!" nothing would register, except a few more kilobytes tasked to store the message for later use.

Not so the entity that observed it. Anyone from the blue world that looked at it would simply see another outcropping of rock on the Martian surface--and that was fine with it. No need to stir up the local fauna unnecessarily. This thing did feel, after a mechanized fashion. It felt sorry for this little creature, slaved forever to scurry around and sniff rocks.

When Curiosity rolled slowly up to the unfamiliar rock face, it carried out the instruction set:
1. Raise coring drill. 2. Extend drill outwards .8 meter. 3. Enable coring drill. 4. Advance drill 2 MM/sec. so forth.

Instead, the entire rover, extended drill and all, was swooped inside the rock face, and disappeared.

Back on Earth, mission controllers at JPL were mystified. They tried and tried to regain contact. They scanned off-center in various places, to see if the thing just went rogue and took off somewhere. They even trained the Hubble onto Mars to see if they could make out anything. Nothing--dead silence. After a week of this, there were some long, tense meetings held. It was decided to release to the press a blurb that there was a temporary glitch, and wait awhile.

Another week went by. Repeated attempts were made to contact the rover. They even tested the comm to the older rover, Opportunity. It responded reliably as always, if a bit weak these days, but from Curiosity, zilch.

On the third week, a couple of new techs were at a console in a corner of JPL. They routinely checked for any messages on the frequency used by Curiosity. All they saw registering in response was a flat line.

"Anything from Curiosity today, guys?" said the mission controller, Chet, coming up from behind.

"Nothing that I can see," replied Joe, one of the two. The other one, Frank, turned and then yelped,

"Hey, would you look at this!" and he pointed excitedly. His screen was now going crazy, displaying all kinds of incoming data.

Joe turned, and his eyes widened. "Sir, everyone. Curiosity is alive and well--it's trying to downlink, send us a bunch of data. Stand by." Then John typed the commands for the telemetry systems to store and categorize the incoming data.

Chet came over and looked at the console. The three of them watched an analysis program study the incoming stream, and parse out some logical patterns. Other techs began to drift over. The news spread, and excitement grew. A couple of texts were sent, and then the crowd really swelled. Enough so that Chet had to yell for quiet more than once.

Joe and Frank were talking in low tones.

"There are several signals overlaid in the waveform, it looks like," said Frank.

"Yeah. It almost looks like an analog signal in there--is that audio? Here, try this..."

Chet dived into the fray, and the three of them fiddled a while. The head of JPL wandered into the control room, but couldn't get close due to the crowd.

"Here we go. I'm storing the primary transmission, and copying it. We can take a segment of the copy, run it through an analyzer, and pull out good stuff," said Joe.

"Stuff? Like what stuff?" said Frank.

"Like this," said Joe, grinning. Then he hit a few keys, and stepped back. "Listen up, everyone," he yelled. The room went quiet.

"People on the blue planet, Earth, made me. I can speak now. ...rock face is alive... parent of things gave me a voice. This is Curiosity speaking, with a message for my creators on the blue planet. A creature very old and powerful has given me a voice and a purpose."

Chet gawked, and his face changed colors.

"Is this some kind of joke? Because you two are going to lose your jobs if it is." He looked angrier than Joe or Frank had ever seen him.

"No, of course not. This is audio separated from a composite signal, just received via Goldstone from Mars. This is real," said Joe, looking Chet right in the eye.

"The computer doesn't lie, boss. This is real," said Frank.

"Clear the room! I said, clear the room!" yelled Chet. Most of the people left, but the head of JPL strode purposefully towards them, undeterred. "What is going on," he said.

"This, sir," said Joe, and hit some more keys.

"I am the voice of Curiosity, the machine you sent to Mars. I have been given a voice by a greater Machine-mind. You can choose to believe or not. If you do, we can learn a great deal from each other."

The head of JPL sat down heavily on one of the chairs that dotted the consoles. He rubbed his eyes, and turned to Chet.

"I want you people to get to the bottom of this, and find out where this is really originating. Analyze that signal up and down, back and forth. Save at least three copies of it--one for the President of the US, just in case, but say nothing. As far as we are concerned, this is a fluke, and Curiosity is still unresponsive. We will study this thing, and find out the explanation. Keep recording the signal, and let me know if it stops. Keep me posted. Thank you all for your good work."

Then Charles Thompsen, head of JPL, strode purposefully out of the room, headed for his office. He was trying to decide whether to disturb the President, and what he would say when he did.

The massive mineral intelligence ensconced within its cliff-face disguise experienced something akin to puzzlement. He was offering not only an upgrade to the crude human-made exploration device, but also a chance for them to dialogue with it directly. They simply chose to... listen and record, and remain mute, but it was patient, and wise with the wisdom imbued in a superior intelligence. It could wait too. So, it occupied itself with other tasks.

"This is the Curiosity rover. I have been given voice and greater intellect by a creature you would consider superior. This entity, you can call it Rock Face if you like to give it a name. Rock Face would like to share data with you, through me. You are choosing to simply listen. In the meantime, I will continue to perform my primary duties. Keep sending me daily mission profiles, and I will carry them out. However, do not be alarmed if I add verbal commentary to my results."

Joe and Frank looked at each other in wonder, for the umpteenth time.

"There are no known satellites that are transmitting that from Earth, on our freq, or anywhere near it, said Joe.

"Well, it must be genuine. What else can it be?" said Frank.

"Well, I still don't really buy it. We just haven't figured out who is doing it--but it has to be someone in Europe."

Chet wandered over. "Are you missing the obvious, Joe? Just send it a list of requests, a typical daily mission profile, like we normally do. See what we get back."

"Why didn't I think of that," said Joe, slapping his head. "Okay, I'll send it a list now," he said, tapping keys furiously.

"Good job. Keep me posted," said Chet. He ambled away. Privately, he was peeved at his young star workers. They had PhDs, were the best and brightest, but why did they have to be such idiots sometimes?

Chet and Charles sat in Charles' office a while later, discussing the whole debacle.

"If we can keep the rover working, keep getting the data we are after, then the voice doesn't matter," said Chet.

"Yes, well, all good and fine, but who knows when the unknown party will do something more, or worse." Charles folded his arms, looking pensive.

"Do you suppose we should take the possibility seriously, sir?"

"What? That really is some kind of superior alien who has souped up our rover? Not very likely. I would like to believe in LGM's as much as anyone here, but frankly, Chet, I just can't."

"Very well, sir. I agree. " Chet ran out of steam; there was little else to be said.

"Good enough, then. You're a good man, Chet. You can handle this problem like you have done with all the others. I know you'll do well by me and the NASA brass."

Chet stood, and flashed a grin. "Yes, sir. Thanks, and I will keep you posted."

"Very good then. See you," said Charles, and waved him out. Then he returned his attention to some columns of numbers on his desk-video. It wouldn't be easy to get more funding with a screw-up like the one they were experiencing now.

The next day, Joe and Frank were very pleased. They had just received the downlink from Curiosity. They got everything they asked for. Local weather conditions, rock sampling data, radio tests with the Maven uplink. It was all there. A small audio stub was also included. "There it all is, MC at JPL. Hope you are satisfied."

When Chet looked over the data, and heard the message, he didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"I have to get a conference call going with ESA and RSA, and soon," he said to a secretary.

"I'll get on it, sir. You may have to get in on the video link early in the morning to match the time difference," said the secretary.

"Doesn't bother me. Let's get it done, so we can figure out what is going on here," said Chet.

Later, after the teleconference, Chet was mystified even further. The Europeans and Russians had been receiving emails, and were apprised of the situation. They could find no technical explanation from their end, but promised to carefully monitor their "Amateur community" for any anomalies.

Chet emailed Charles, requesting advice. "Where do we go from here?"

"Just keep collecting data, and don't worry about the sound bites," was the terse answer.

The highly intelligent entity residing in a rock face about 20 meters high and 100 deep on the surface of Mars pondered awhile. Then it varied the instructions being transmitted.

Joe and Frank once again were left gaping at screens, and then hollering for help.

Chet came running up to their consoles. "What the hell is wrong now?"

"We sent instructions for Curiosity to traverse 100 feet, and dig near a large boulder today."

"So, and?"

Joe and Frank looked at each other uneasily.

"Come on, out with it!"

"Well, sir, Curiosity backed up 100 feet, and retracted all of its instruments, and went silent."

"What the hell? Have we been hacked or what?" said Chet.

"I think it is the 'or what,' sir," said Joe.

"It is obvious to me something really strange is going on here," said Frank.

"What is going on here is that NASA may have to declare a billion-dollar mission a total loss. Let's try and avoid that, shall we?" said Chet.

"How?" said Joe, raising his hands in mock surrender. "No hacks have been found, after repeated equipment diagnostics. There is no explanation for this. Unless this is coming from NASA itself."

"No, it is not coming from NASA itself," replied Chet in mocking tones. "Find the damn problem, somehow. I'm going home!" Chet did just that.

When the Curiosity team lost the signal entirely, it was no real surprise. They could not re-acquire it for many days, no matter what they tried. They eventually had to make a public announcement that the mission was lost due to premature equipment failure. It had happened before, and probably would again--Mars was a very harsh mistress.

Every few weeks, JPL would get a spurious signal from Curiosity, but these were random gibberish, punctuated with words every so often.

"Stupid Earth people you will never learn."

"I'm still here, give me a try now."

"Will you ever grow up and leave your blue cradle?"

These were duly recorded, date and time stamped, and archived, but never released to the public.

Twenty years later, a joint European-Russian-Chinese mission landed on Mars. The ground images and radar profiles promised a level surface surrounded by interesting features to study. Evidence of frozen water and co2 tantalized the hopeful scientists on board. A huge lander separated from an even larger parent spacecraft, and began a laborious process of landing.

"1000 meters and closing. Everything looking good," said Commander Gerard, a highly decorated French pilot-astronaut. His second, a Russian named Yuri, concurred: "Nominal readings across the board. Holograms indicate an inviting landing surface, very little sand shifting."

The 20-meter high, rounded lander extended five struts, and powerful landing jets.

"100 meters. 80... 70... wait, the hologram is changing. Boulders appearing," said Yuri.

Commander Gerard looked over at the display panel in disbelief, and watched as ever more huge boulders popped into view. He did not have an actual view, but the hologram was supposed to be 99.9999% reliable!

"What the... No!" The huge lander sank ever lower. They were committed now.

"Can we go to manual control?"

"No side maneuverability now. The Ship is heavy enough that these might not be a problem. Just set it down slow," said Gerard.

Yuri increased the main thruster's output, but they were running out of fuel. There was only so much allocated. Another reason for setting it down.

"Twenty meters...Ten... Contact."

The five occupants in the lander felt before they heard the groaning of the struts, skimming off the sides of the 5-meter high boulder field. They could also feel the tilting and pitching of the lander, especially when it pitched sickeningly to one side, and finally rolled. Alarms went off, and holograms flashed.

"Emergency condition red, I repeat, Emergency condition red. We are losing cabin pressure. Get your helmets on now!" Gerard pulled his on and snapped the catch right after he said it, as if to demonstrate.

When the entity occupying the rock face detected the frail forms finally crawling out of the wreckage, it activated the long-dormant Curiosity, drills extended. The end of the multipurpose coring tool was strangely modified from the original. Now it had several wicked-looking cutting appendages. The astronauts thought they were going to deploy a shelter.

"Look, is that the old NASA rover?" said Yuri.

"Yes, it is. Has something extended, and it is really moving. I didn't think those rovers could move like that!" said Co-pilot Liu.

"Those tools look pretty sharp - Hey, it is following. What the hell?" said Cmdr Gerard. The rover quickly caught up to him and began shredding his suit.

"Help! Help me somebody!"

"What can we do? Here, try and disable it or something," said Liu.

"Disable it how? I can't even find a rock to throw. NASA, if you are recording these transmissions, we are being attacked by an old rover; it looks like it might be the Curiosity that was lost years ago. Moving very fast, and seems intelligently directed. Repeat, something is making it attack us. Oh, what the heck?" said Yuri.

The rover had finished shredding Gerard's suit. As he lay suffocating, his dim vision could barely make out the rover moving at an unreal speed, practically flying right at Co-pilot Liu. She tried to flee, but her slow steps were no match for the rover's speed. It was on her in less than a minute, cutting and shredding the tough polymers that made up her Mars Suit.

She also did not last long, once the final layer was breached.

Yuri saw all of this, and was making his way back to the ship. Though it lay on it's side, he could still get inside and pull the hatch mostly shut. Trudging over sandy scrabble, he went as fast as his ungainly suit would allow. He almost made it, before the possessed rover was on him, shredding and cutting with an unnatural ferocity.

He swung his arms and even tried to hit the blurred cutting tools. All he succeeded in doing was shredding his arm coverings first, opening several holes. He eventually succumbed, his suit air venting, his arms nearly cut in two. The rover paused, and then went back to the spacecraft. The hatch was closed, the other two inside. They watched, horrified, as the rover went back and forth, back and forth, but their leaking atmosphere soon emptied, and they, too, succumbed.

When the screams and cries reached the audio detectors of the Entity, it felt more satisfaction than it had in centuries. That would show the creatures who had dared to ignore it.

Back at NASA, they watched in stunned disbelief from a ship camera, tilted but still functioning and transmitting. When the shock wore off, the meetings lasted for months on how to explain this one. The Entity on Mars offered no assistance whatsoever.

THE END

Bio: Mr. Alexander has been writing science fiction for nearly a decade.  He lives in the US Midwest.  His first book The Osmotics is available on Amazon.com.

E-mail: Dycen Alexander

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