by Ablaze Publishing, 11222 SE Main St. #22906 Portland, OR 97269. TRAVELING TO MARS, created by Mark Russell and Roberto “Dakar” Meli © 2022 Arancia Studio s.n.c., Mark Russell. All rights reserved. Ablaze TM & © 2022 ABLAZE, LLC. All rights reserved. For the English edition: © 2022 ABLAZE, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Ablaze and its logo TM & © 2022 Ablaze, LLC. All Rights Reserved. All names, characters, events, and locales in this publication are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events or places, without satiric intent is coincidental. No portion of this book may be reproduced by any means (digital or print) without the written permission of Ablaze Publishing except for review purposes. Printed in Canada. For advertising email: info@ablazepublishing.com
Mars.
Perseverance II, the rover that told the Earth about the deposits of natural gas sitting below the surface of Mars, the largest single pile of treasure in human history…
…is thirteen years old.
Perseverance II contacted the Earth with its frenzy-inducing discovery ten years after its mission had officially ended.
And yet, it was still out there, taking samples no one wanted.
Transmitting data no one cared about.
Not realizing, perhaps, that no one was listening. Because the people who sent it to Mars understood what the rover did not—
Seven years past its life expectancy on Mars.
—that it had been sent on a suicide mission.
The rover had exceeded all expectations of its lifespan on Mars because its top objective was selfpreservation.
I’m not sure whether anybody ever considered just how cruel that was.
To be programmed to hold onto life at all costs–only to be sent on a suicide mission.
As, I suppose, we all had.
Was this proof that there was no God?
Or merely that he’s no better at thinking these things through than we are?
We believe that what we do is in service to something greater than ourselves.
Because when life is so short and death so eternal–
–whatever we spend the pain of living on is, by definition–
—so much smaller.
Which, in all likelihood, is just what we tell ourselves so we'll do it.
When I got up that morning, if it was indeed morning, Albert was all abuzz.
After getting hit with the meteorite, Albert lost the ability to communicate in English. And I couldn’t understand his binary buzzing.
The ship had been equipped with replacement brains for the rovers, for events such as these.
I considered replacing Albert’s chip, but that would mean rebooting him from scratch.
Besides, it’s usually the damage that makes us interesting.
I soon discovered what it was that had Albert in such a pretzel. Something had shown up on the ship’s proximity sensors.
Bzzzzrrrrrrt!
Taking from him his memories. Which, in the end, is all any of us have.
What’s goin’ on?
BZZZZZZLT BRRRZZZT BRRRZZZRRPPP!