“I think they’re brilliant, Mom,” exclaimed Olivia. Duncan nodded in agreement.
Duncan and Olivia thanked their parents enthusiastically, then played with their N-Bots while Mom and Dad went off to cook dinner.
When dinnertime came, the twins rejoined their parents. They had a fabulous meal with all their favorite foods. Baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, and hot, fresh rolls. And chocolate ice cream for dessert, of course.
After the family had finished dessert and cleaned off the table, Miranda Grey made an announcement. “Children, we’re going somewhere very special for our holiday this year.”
Every school break, the Grey family was in the habit of visiting one of the other space settlements, like the moon base or the Martian colony. Sometimes they would even go off world to do special research for their Dad’s terra-forming experiments.
“Great, where are we going this time?” asked Olivia, her eyes shining with excitement. Even Duncan looked on with interest - he loved these field trips almost as much as Olivia.
The parents looked at each other, and Gregory Grey said, “We’re going to visit an Iceberg on Mercury,” Greg Grey said mischieviously.
“Huh?” Duncan said. “How could there be an iceberg on Mercury?”
Olivia said, “Duncan is right. There aren’t any icebergs on Mercury. There are no oceans or ice caps like on Earth. There isn’t even any water. The surface temperature is always over 100 degrees Celsius.”
“Well, this really isn’t an iceberg, like on Earth,” Greg explained. “The colony on Mercury is called the BERG, because it is shaped like an iceberg, and because ninety percent of the structure is underground. Here, take a look at the holo-image, and you’ll see what I mean.”
Greg touched a button on his commlink. An image popped up, which appeared to be a blue colored iceberg buried in the ground. It does look like an iceberg, Duncan thought. An iceberg floating in a sea of rock. Only a small building was above ground, while a huge, irregularly shaped structure extended hundreds of feet below the surface. As the image rotated, Olivia could see that there were over a hundred floors, like an office building, inside the BERG. And what’s more, the center of the BERG seemed to be hollow.
“We’re going to the BERG to confirm some interesting data that we extracted from our new acquisition - that satellite we salvaged earlier. We’ve named it the Magellan satellite, by the way. It had some interesting information in its data banks. And we have been asked to consult with our Mercury colony about the long term implications of the data.”
“What kind of data?” Olivia asked.
Greg Grey explained, “Well, we checked the Magellan satellite’s memory banks, and there was a lot of usable data despite the advanced age of the equipment. So far we have decoded a kind of map - a very interesting map that shows the solar system in incredible detail, with all the known planets and moons, and with a few surprises as well.”
Miranda Grey activated their holo-projector. “You are the first citizens of the HUB to see this map,” Miranda said sharply. “We reconstructed this holo-view based on five year’s worth of data. This is all top secret, so no sharing with anyone outside the family.”
An enormous holo-image of the solar system materialized over their heads. The image was a perfect three-dimensional replica of the solar system, like a giant egg of glowing blue light that completely filled the living room. The Sun was in the center, with the planets slowly moving in elliptical orbits around the giant yellow globe. Mercury, small, brown and fast, sped silently near the Sun. Cloud shrouded Venus, all white. The blue marble of Earth, with patches of green and brown. Red Mars, angry in the sky. The asteroid belt, with millions of asteroids separating the inner planets from the outer planets. Striped Jupiter and ringed Saturn, the gas giants in space. And finally dark Neptune and black Uranus, farthest from the Sun. Olivia felt like a giant standing in space, gazing in wonder at the glory of the universe all around her.
Greg continued, “When we downloaded the map from the Magellan satellite, we realized that there were coordinates of other satellite probes embedded in the data. These satellites had apparently been sent out to every corner of the solar system on some unknown mission.”
As Greg was talking, the holo-image exploded with burning red lines erupting from the Earth’s surface. They launched almost simultaneously, circled the Earth a few times, then sped out in different directions around the solar system.
Miranda continued, “More specifically, the coordinates show the flight paths and orbits of these probes. Or, at least where they were supposed to go over thirty-five years ago, when they were launched. Our theory is that these probes were sent out to some of the planets near Earth, to survey them for later scientific study.”
“But what were they looking for?” Duncan asked expectantly, a glimmer of excitement and a faraway look in his eyes.
“We aren’t sure exactly what their purpose was, or what they were searching for,” admitted Greg. “We don’t even know if they were actually launched, since the Magellan satellite was shot into orbit before the probes launched. However, the map does show where the probes were headed - at least the first one.”
As they watched in growing anticipation, one of the fiery trajectory lines finally intersected with the nearest planet, which happened to be....
“Mercury!!” shouted Olivia and Duncan, at the same instant.
“Yes, Mercury,” confirmed Miranda. “That’s why we’re going there.”
“It’s like a treasure map for space explorers,” said Olivia, who was fond of her history lessons about explorers from the 18th century. “We can follow the trajectory line directly to the proposed landing spot on Mercury’s surface.”
“But,” Duncan said, frowning with concentration. “The trajectory isn’t precise enough to tell us where exactly the probe landed, is it Dad?”
“Right you are, Duncan,” Greg said. “But we have a relatively small area to search, based on the computer simulations we’ve run. And our scientific team is still working on the map data. They may supply us with more data after we’ve landed on Mercury.”
“I don’t know,” said Olivia. “In school, Mr. Garrity told how the environmental conditions of a planet destroy man-made objects. Even if the Earthers did launch the probes and they made it to their destinations, there won’t be much left after all this time.”
There was a gleam in Greg’s eye when he said, “Ah, but where’s the fun in that? Just think, Olivia - we can have a real live treasure hunt! Even if there isn’t much to find on Mercury, won’t it make our vacation more fun to follow an authentic treasure map, and to maybe find a buried treasure?”
“It does sound exciting, when you think about it,” said Olivia. She pictured herself leading the Mercury probe expedition, arriving first at the site of the hidden probe, her family following behind. Finally, she thought, a chance to be a Space Explorer!
After a few minutes of excited discussion about the upcoming trip, the children went off to bed. Miranda waited a few moments in silence. Then she pulled out two other boxes, one green and one gray. She handed the gray box to Greg and kept the green one for herself. “I hope these will be scientifically advanced enough to complete our mission,” said Miranda.
Greg smiled tiredly. “They’ll be good enough, Miranda,” he reassured her. “Anyway, we probably won’t even need to use their military functions. We’re just searching for REE’s, not going on a suicide mission.”
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