text: CAUSALITY Henry N. Silva Mars, 2157 Dr. Evelyn looks upon the wasteland... Mars wasn’t meant to still be like this. It’s been a century since colonization began. And yet, nothing much has changed. Still a red desert planet, still too cold, still too hostile... The young scientist keeps her eyes fixed on the horizon. Another dust storm is coming, the size of a mountain, thick enough to prevent her from seeing the strong lights of the other colony towers... With a sigh, she turns around, making her way out of her chrome apartment and into an elevator, descending to one of the community floors below. Soon enough, she finds herself sitting at dark bar, it’s walls drizzled with strands of neon. She orders her usual, synthbeer and a 3D-printed burger, and sits quietly, tuning out the hustle and bustle of other colonists all around her, as she waits for her order... And then, a voice appears from behind her, “Dr. Evelyn?” The young woman swings herself around, only to find standing there an aging military general, his uniform covered with flair. He speaks again, “I need you to come with me.” \*\*\* General Victor leads Evelyn across the wasteland... She does her best to keep up, unused to wearing her bulky breathing suit for such a long period of time. “Couldn’t we have taken a travel rover?” She asks, pantingly. Victor briefly turns around, his face completely hidden by reflection, and then faces forward once more, resuming to lead the way. Eventually, the pair reach a small, manhole-sized cave entrance. Victor steps aside, motioning for Evelyn to jump in, “After you.” She follows his orders, finding herself leaping straight into a large, underground chamber of some kind, her fall broken by the planet’s weak gravity. She then proceeds to examine her surroundings. Plenty of other suited colonists have already set up camp there, all of them government officials and military personnel, no doubt. Evelyn takes immediate notice of all the equipment scattered about, before refocusing her attention on the towering walls around her, illuminated by UV light-stands. Her jaw drops as she realizes that the walls are covered in hieroglyphs... Ancient hieroglyphs... Victor lands on his feet behind Evelyn. She immediately turns to face him, “I don’t understand! What is this place?” “This place,” the general begins, “needs to stay off-record. You’re here for a very important assignment, Doctor. One that must be kept secret, at all costs.” She points to the markings on the wall to her left, “Who put those there?” “Who do you think?” The general’s tone suddenly deepens, becoming more serious than even before, “You don’t believe this planet has always been dead, do you Doctor?” Evelyn doesn’t respond. Instead, she proceeds to make her way slowly to one of the walls, taking a much closer looks at the glyphs. Quickly, she is able to make out depictions of Martians, or whatever she’s supposed to call them, “They look much more humanoid than I would’ve expected.” She walks a little further, stumbling upon a much larger glyph depicting two faceless figures, wearing armor of some kind. “Doctor,” the general calls to her. She turns back around, unable to find him in the sea of suited officials, until he waves his arm to get her attention. Evelyn heads back towards Victor, who then leads her into one of several dark, narrow catacombs there in the underground. Soon enough, they find themselves in another illuminated area, much smaller than the main chamber. Only one other colonist is there, a man. “This is Dr. Alan,” the general announces. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Dr. Evelyn,” Alan says with a wave. “I’ve heard great things about your work.” “What work, exactly?” Evelyn asks, still processing everything. “Those fancy seeds of yours, I mean.” “Oh, the genesis seeds.” She pulls out a handful of small, rather normal-looking seeds from her travel sack, strapped around the left shoulder of her suit, “Yes, just a handful of these seeds can generate an entire forest, but it takes centuries. I’m still trying to find a way to speed up the process.” “Which is exactly why you’re here,” Victor explains. “We think we can help you, Dr. Evelyn, and that you can help us. Dr. Alan here has been trying to better understand what the ancient Martians were like, and we imagine that you yourself would like to learn the causality of Mars’s long lost ecosystem, would you not?” “It would certainly help with my research, yes. But how exactly can we do either of those things?” Alan takes a deep breath, before answering her question, “We can... We can go there, Dr. Evelyn.” “Go where? What do you... Oh!” Evelyn nearly faints, as she begins to understand, “But isn’t that... Dangerous?” “Not at all,” Victor chimes in. “Our research and previous experiments confirm that time is, in fact, a closed loop. Everything that is meant to have happened has happened, and everything that is meant to still happen will indeed still happen.” Evelyn breathes in heavily, doing her best to calm her own nerves, “Well, if you say so... But how do we even... How do we get there?” Without saying a word, Alan picks up a strange, metallic device off a nearby table, wrapping it around his forearm. A touchpad plate on the device suddenly springs to life, which Alan proceeds to click away at. He then reaches out his other arm to Evelyn, “Grab on.” She wraps her arm around his. General Victor takes a few steps backwards, saluting them both, “Best of luck.” With a deep inhale, Alan presses the touchpad once more. Instantly, Evelyn’s vision is consumed by white, electric light, which then vanishes as quickly as it came... She and Alan find themselves above ground, surrounded by lush, green forestry. “Wow,” Evelyn looks around, in awe at the sight of it all. “How far back did we go?” “Far,” Alan nods. “Very far... You think this air is safe to breathe?” “We might as well keep our helmets on,” Evelyn answers. “Just to be on the safe side.” Suddenly, the pair hear a cluster of footsteps, not too far away. “Come on!” Alan motions for Evelyn to follow. They make their way through a series of trees, before arriving at a handful of bushes. Carefully, they crouch down, peering their way through. On the other side, they find a dozen or so primitive humanoids, dressed in furry animal skins. The Martians, no doubt. “Amazing,” Alan whispers. “If I didn’t know any better, I would almost say they were human.” His curiosity getting the best of him, he slowly begins to stand back up, “I’m gonna try to get a closer look.” “No!” Evelyn rises with him, trying to pull him back down, but it’s no use. For in that very moment, the natives suddenly look over, noticing them both. “Ah!” One of the Martians screams. He and all of his companions there proceed to run away, howling in fear. Evelyn scoffs, “Nice going!” “Sorry,” Alan lowers his head, sighing with shame. “Should we head back home?” “No, not yet. I still need to get a better understanding of how all this green got here in the first place. We need to go back even further.” Alan lets out another heavy sigh, “If you say so.” They lock arms again, as Alan clicks away at the touchpad on his arm. A familiar white light overtakes their vision, vanishing within seconds... The two scientists-turned-explorers now find themselves in a familiar red desert, still above ground. “I said to go further back!” “This is further back,” Alan clarifies. “You don’t see any settlement towers around, do you?” “Ah, right,” Evelyn acknowledges. Suddenly, they both notice a familiar, mountain-sized dust storm, closing in on them. Alan turns to his travel companion, “We gotta go home, now!” She nods in return, “Okay!!” He begins to set the return controls on his touchpad, as the winds pick up exponentially. In the mist of all the chaos, Evelyn’s travel sack blows open. Before she has time to react, several dozen genesis seeds are blown out of the bag, taken away by the wind... “No!” She tries to go after them, but then Alan wraps his arm around hers, slamming down on the touchpad. The same white light from before overtakes their vision, for another second or two, and then, the pair find themselves back in their underground base. The roaring winds of the storm replaced by sheer silence... General Victor clears his throat, “So... Did you find the answers you were looking for?” Evelyn lowers her head and sighs, “Yeah... I think we did.