The Mission From Mars-Introduction

The Red Rock Facility for Industrial Sciences was founded during the fourth year of man’s colonization of Mars. Now, after seventy years of living on the planet, the Martians could enjoy a prosperous life with peace. There were no wars on the planet and crime was limited. Very few people remained who could actually talk about Earth. Contact with the planet which created man had been cut off shortly after the first wave of humans reached the red planet. Shortly after their arrival, the final two waves of people arrived. Communication between the two planets stretched for the span of almost a year. When the message from Earth came, only the founders of the colony knew what it said. They decided to keep the message quiet.

The only known copy of the tape which had the message sent from Earth was kept in the Sciences vault, deep within the catacombs of the building. The tape had been accidentally played once by Spiro Agnew Wilson, a young technician who stumbled across it while moving storage items to the lower vaults. When Spiro played it, he thought it was a worthless video tape which could be taped over it. Who would have missed a tape that might not have anything worth wild on it? After watching the tape though, Spiro knew it had to stay in the vault. He never breathed a word of what was on the tape, but now his mind was beginning to think about taking the story of the tape to the press.

Spiro was now eighty five. His head had a thin covering of hair, liver spots on his skin, and blood shot eyes. He slouched over when he walked, which could only now be classified as a shuffle. If he had a choice in the matter, Spiro would have been more than happy to die with his secret, but the news reported that Industrial Sciences was planning on sending a ship back to Earth. Details on the mission were kept secret, but Spiro knew he could stop the mission if he announced the existence of the tape. He was the only person left alive who knew where the tape was. He needed to do something. He was going to call the press.