As It Is On Mars

During the rest of the morning, and throughout the afternoon, Mars Mission Control in Houston did everything possible to regain contact, but with no success. NASA's giant dish antennas could pick up nothing, except random radio noise from deep in space.

That evening though, there would be a message.

MEANWHILE, in Kasei Valley, the wind strengthened near midday, enough to allow light dust to eddy around the rocks at the wrecked and lifeless landing site.

CHAPTER ONE

The Seventh Lander

EARLY ON Wednesday afternoon, on February 03, 2038, the day after the disaster on Mars, the seven members of the U.S. Congressional Joint Committee on Space Appropriations filed into the hearing room in Washington. All of them were lawyers. On entering, each took a few moments to acknowledge the presence of colleagues in the chamber. However, as befitted the gravity and urgency of the situation, the usual smiles and pleasantries were absent. The seven took their places behind the wide, slightly- raised, crescent bench, as journalists jostled for position, and network camera crews transmitted their entry to the world.

Across the United States, most people were watching a video screen or listening to a radio. At the White House, a worried President, along with his Chief of Staff, sat silently in front of a wall-panel screen. Both were wondering how to put the blame on the President's predecessor. On Wall Street, trading volume dwindled, as they attention of traders and investors, unable to fathom the implications, was drawn to the hearing.

In Europe, it was evening, well after dark, and everywhere there was deep concern. At the Vatican, the Pope and his advisors were watching attentively, anxious that events in the heavens should be seen to involve the Church. In France, almost the whole nation had come to a standstill. There was hardly any traffic in the streets, as a worried French President and population waited for the hearing to begin. In Germany, it was the same, only there the mood was more one of despair. The presence of Dr. Franz Hofmann in the hearing room did not help; Dr. Hofmann was the current German director of the European Space Agency.

Across Russia, the time varied from late evening to very early morning, but, from St. Petersburg to the Pacific city of Vladivostok, the nation was in shock and not asleep that night. Most people were in front of a video screen. Dr. Igor Levshinsky, head of the Russian Space Agency, was also in the hearing room.

In Japan, it was four in the morning, but many had risen early to watch. There the mood was one of modest, unspoken triumph--but tempered by compassion. At the Deep Space Mission Control Center south of Nagasaki, the Director of the Japanese Space Agency, Dr. Takeshi Ushida, and his staff were also watching. His Deputy Director, 47-year old Dr. Fumiko Hasegawa, the highest ranking woman in JSA, and the person who had directed the JSA Mars mission, was in the hearing room, and was expected to testify.

In the peaceful grounds of an eight-hundred-year old Zen Buddhist monastery, north of Kamakura, some thirty miles from Tokyo, there was a shrine with a reading room attached, containing a collection of ancient Buddhist books and documents. In the reading room that morning there was also a small, half-hidden video screen, intently watched by a group of elderly monks. The monks had ignored the sound of the board, calling them to an early recitation of the sutras. One of their own, the venerable Zen master, and retired professor of physics, Dr. Ichiro Sato, had become a world celebrity. It was thought that he might have something for the Space Committee, or for the world, or for his fellow monks.

The elderly Zen master was not present in the hearing room. He was on Mars, at the JSA landing site in Ares Valley, near the 33rd meridian, about 600 miles north of the equator, and about 1700 miles east of the NASA landing site in Kasei Valley. As the monks would soon discover, he would indeed have something for the world, but not what anyone expected.