CHAPTER 2: THE MISSION
     
     
          The next day, after a refreshing rest the night before, the
     seven scientists boarded the scout ship which was loaded with
     provisions for their mission.  The ship ascended vertically with
     ease and sped through the thin martian atmosphere towards an as
     yet unknown destination.  In the passenger compartment the
     passengers were watching the martian landscape rush by beneath
     them on the viewer screen.  Captain Freeman's voice came into the
     compartment over the intercom from the bridge.
     
          "Join me in the conference compartment," his voice crackled
     over the receiver.
     
          The party left their seats and headed for the next
     compartment.  Captain Freeman was waiting for them at a desk in
     front of another wall of screens.  The screens were showing the
     martian landscape, like the screen in the passenger compartment,
     as well as a number of maps and diagrams.  Captain Freeman rose
     as they entered and he motioned them to sit down in a row of
     seats in front of him.
     
          "Now," said Freeman, "your mission is never to be talked
     about to anyone outside this ship, is that clear?  No one." 
     
          The room was silent, except for Freeman slowly pacing back
     and forth on the metal floor.   
     
          "It is of utmost importance that your mission remain
     secret," he continued.  "On the event of the first mars mission,
     a satellite was deployed to map the surface of mars in detail.
     Many high resolution photographs were taken of the surface
     features, most astounding of all, a series of photographs taken
     of the area called Cydonia showed amazingly clear pictures of
     symmetrical features.  The most striking being a face-like
     structure one mile long, another a kilometer high, five sided
     pyramid.  These are situated near the north pole, about a two
     hour flight from here."
     
          "But they were passed off as just creations of erosion and
     volcanic activity," said Vicki, "are you suggesting aliens are
     responsible?"
          "Exactly, Freeman said, "and its your job to find further 
     evidence such as markings, or even the aliens themselves."
          "What you're saying is unbelievable," said Steven, "what if
     there are no aliens or even evidence of aliens?"
          "Take a look at this," Freeman said.
     
          Captain Freeman ceased pacing and walked to the large
     desk at the front of the room, sat on the edge and pressed a
     button on a console beside him.  One of the screens on the wall
     lit up, first with an image of a hilly area of mars' surface,
     then the Captain pushed some more buttons and the image zoomed in
     to reveal a huge, remarkably detailed, stone face.  Every one let
     out a gasp of amazement. 
     
          "What do you think now, Mr. Flynn?" queried Captain Freeman.
     "Its measurements are perfectly symmetrical, apart from a few
     defects caused by meteorological conditions." 
          "This is fantastic!," Dan exclaimed, "If we find alien
     remains or machinery down there this will be the greatest
     discovery of all time!  Imagine what they look like!"
          "Calm down Dan," said Clara, "we still can't tell if there's
     anything down there, whoever or whatever built that monument  
     could be long gone by now.  It must have been built millennia
     ago."
          "There must be markings of some sort though," said Steven. 
          "There is definitely something there my friends," said 
     Freeman, "if there wasn't we wouldn't be here would we."      
     
          The craggy martian landscape was now replaced by smoother,
     less cratered terrain distinctive to the northern hemisphere.  A
     faint dust storm raged in the distance, also a common occurrence
     on the red planet.
          
          Captain Freeman rose and pointed to another one of the
     screens.
     
          "This," he said, "is a map of the area we will be looking
     at, starting with the face.  The city, a group of symmetrical
     structures, is here in the upper left.  The D&M pyramid is
     approximately ten miles to the south-southwest of the face.  Over
     here," he pointed to another screen, "is the type of surveillance
     robot we will deploy to map the face and search for any markings
     on the surface.  There are ten of these robots, one shall be
     remotely controlled from here and the rest have preset courses. 
     If they discover anything then you will be sent out to
     investigate.  The remotely controlled robot will accompany you
     and you also have cameras built into your space suits."
     
          He stood from where he was sitting and moved over to an
     intercom on the wall.
     
          "How long until we reach our destination?" he asked the
     bridge.
          "We will reach Cydonia in approximately one and a half
     hours," came the reply.
     
          He turned to the group waiting in the row of chairs before
     him.
          "To review the details of the mission you can use the
     information access computer at the desk," he said.
     
          With that out of the way he left the compartment for the
     bridge, the rest of the team, left quite excited, moved over to
     the desk and engaged in using the information access computer.  
     
          Some time later, the scout ship arrived at its destination, 
     Cydonia.  The craft touched down softly on the martian soil not
     far from the looming shape of the face.  From a hatch on top of
     the scout ship rose a number of small shining objects which
     glistened in the unshielded sunlight.  They hovered together
     toward the face and soon separated to go their own ways.  These
     were the surveillance robots sent to scan the surface of the
     face.
       
          Inside the ship, the occupants were watching the progress 
     of the robots on the wall screens, each one showing the vision of
     the robots' cameras.  Sitting in a swivel chair equipped with a
     control panel, was Grey Williams the pilot of the scout ship.
     Beside him was the co pilot, Will Stack accompanied by Captain
     Freeman.  Both had their eyes concentrated on the center screen. 
     Grey was piloting the remote controlled surveillance robot, which
     was now scanning the middle of the forehead of the huge stone
     face.  The robots had two cameras which could move in their
     sockets, one looking ahead and one looking downward.  They, like
     the scout ship, had several louvered, downward facing fans which
     kept them in the air.  The screens were not as yet showing any
     signs of foreign markings, except for the face's unnaturally
     smooth surface.  Accompanying the main picture of the surface of
     the face, each screen had a smaller picture in the left hand
     corner of the second camera's view of the direction the robot was
     travelling.  Also, coordinate information and statistics were
     being displayed alongside the second image.  The robots were
     speedily scanning the face, soon something was bound to
     appear.
     
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