The Ruins of Mars (The Ruins of Mars Trilogy Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

flatly. Then, “Do you think they chopped them down?”
          Kneeling, Harrison swung his backpack off and unzipped it. He rummaged around inside for a second, then pulled out a long silver stake with a black rubber grip.
          “My guess is fire,” he said as he stuck the pointed tool into the soft ground and pushed down on the grip.
          A slight metallic whir emitted from the cylindrical device, and a long-gauged drill bit descended into the ground, packing a neat soil sample into the hollow of its core. Nodding, Bailey removed his own backpack and produced an identical silver tool.
          “Right,” he agreed. “And a deep-soil sample would tell you if there had been a fire here.”
          Leaning on the soil sampler, Harrison puffed, “My bet is there was a fire here and that it’s probably the reason why the Nazca stopped using this site. A fire in the rainforest is a bad omen.”
          Smiling, Bailey set off in the direction of the next pit.
          “You know,” he smirked. “If I find any dead bodies in my pit, you owe me a drink.”
          Groaning, Harrison tossed a rock after Bailey, then reversed the direction of his soil sampler. When the hollow bit had fully retracted out of the ground, he slid a hard plastic tube over the end of the sampler and released the layered soil into the container. Labeling the sample, he tucked it into his backpack and moved on to the next pit. Within two hours they had collected enough deep-soil samples to run tests and make their case to Professor Tobin. As they started back towards the Jeep, the afternoon sun baked the hot stones of the ancient ruin, and the cicadas hummed feverishly from the twisted jungle around them. Despite the oppressive heat, there was a bounce in Harrison’s step. He was in his element, and part of him wished he could stay out at the site all night. Working in places as ancient and mysterious as this gave him a feeling of being grounded—a sense of belonging in the rapidly evolving history of humanity.
         

CHAPTER THREE
     
    NASA
     
          One-and-a-half weeks had passed since Remus and Romulus first began their scan of the planet Mars. Project Mars Map Mission Commander James Floyd leaned back in his office chair and placed his bare feet upon his desk. His job was one wrought with stress and constant worry, so whenever he could afford himself the time he liked to remove his uncomfortable loafers and socks and let the plush carpet of his office poke up between his toes. James was a bony man with graying hair, which had started to thin at the top. His lined and dogged face gave him a much older look than a man on the cusp of his fiftieth birthday, yet he still carried out his work with youthful exuberance.
          Scanning mindlessly through emails on his LightHouse Tablet, James cleared his throat and said, “Copernicus?”
          “Yes, James?” came a smooth reply from the air around him.
          “Do you have a minute?”
          Copernicus was NASA’s AI, and, like Alexandria, he was capable of being in multiple places at once. However, unlike his sister, Copernicus was also tasked with the primary operations of NASA’s systems as well as with tracking all of the agency’s satellites in Earth orbit and beyond.
          “Proceed,” replied the AI amicably.
          “Are you sure?” asked James. “I know you’re probably busy at Bessel right now.”
          In the last two years, NASA and a joint assembly of other international space programs had undertaken a mission to build a permanent base on the Moon. Much of the design and function of the base acted as a precursor to what was eventually envisioned for Mars. Due to his nearly infinite knowledge of space and its lethal environment, Copernicus had been drafted to help design the various systems and functions of the base. In fact, it was at his suggestion that the location for the structure