Echoes of Mars

The fiery sun of Kepler-186f drifted down towards the horizon, splashing the desiccated Martian surroundings with long shadows. Captain Zara Khan fiddled with her helmet. The filtered air had a soothing buzz against the thin veil of red. The team was looking at a holographic map, around which they were huddled, on a very small scale compared to the towering, monolithic things that occupied the alien city.

"They are so huge!" mumbled Kai, the mission geologist, his voice reverberating the silence. And ancient. Carbon-14 dating has them at...something we cannot grasp at all.

The female protagonist Zara, who had been away in space for years, brushed her short grey hair with a hand. "No we are not out for sightseeing, Kai. We are here to locate the source of the signal."

The irregularity, an impulse detected by a normal planetary survey, had brought them here to an abandoned planetary colony that had been long dead. Rumors of a pre-human civilization on Mars have always been considered fringe theories, but this signal is undoubtedly real.

When they moved deeper into the city, the monoliths were replaced by more intricate, organic structures. The runes glowed behind them with an unearthly light that advanced on them. The air became pungent with a peculiar, metallic aroma.

In the middle of town was an enormous building, bigger than anything they had ever seen. The black obsidian surface gleamed with an internal luminance. The ominous heart of the pulsating sphere, the transmitting organ, glowed in the middle.

"That's it," gasped Dr. Anya Sharma, their xenolinguist."The energy signature."

Carefully, Zara walked towards the sphere. There was a warm feeling about it, the beats gradually working their way into her bones. A wave of dizziness swept through her head, followed by a rush of images - spinning galaxies, advanced technologies beyond their imagination, a lost civilization in time.

All of a sudden, the ground they were standing on burst into bright light. Confused and dazed, they found themselves in an empty chamber of white, with no surrounding features. Anya suddenly gasped and pointed to the wall. Symbols, similar to those on the city walls, were gently lighted.

"An inscription," Anya whispered, following the characters she could not identify with her finger. "Seems to be a warning...against misuses".

Before she could make sense, the room burst with life. Like a twister, the symbols evolved on the wall forming a virtual image – a dreamlike alien. It knew speech, not with words, but with feelings. An overpowering sense of emergency invaded their consciousness.

"Danger," the image projected. "The core. Unstable. Destroy it."

The message struck them hard, it was a numbing sensation. The energy source that summoned them here was a ticking time bomb.

Panic seized Kai. "We can't even say we have enough technology to understand it, let alone to destroy it!"

But Zara remained calm. The picture, the message, it was a cry for help from a vanished civilization. I couldn't just turn away. "We may not understand it, Kai, but we can change it."

Thinking quickly, she asked Luna, the wiry young engineer, to identify the sphere’s energy signatures. In the blink of an eye, Luna's fingers flew across her console, efficiently checking the device.

"Sir," said Luna, her voice full of enthusiasm. "There is a vulnerable point. A particular sequence of power-ups could lead to a vicious cycle and instability

Anya cut in, her tone full of concern. "However, playing with unfamiliar technologies could cause serious disasters!"

Zara locked eyes with Anya, the resolution tightening her face. "The message was loud and clear. The sphere is the enemy. We don't have any other option but to combat it."

The Luna breathed deeply and got ready to engage the console. When Zara looked, the gravity of their choice falling on her was too much to bear. The chamber vibrated.Time was running out.

Having a couple of specific orders, Luna triggered the procedure. The room resounded with a multitude of voices. The sphere sucked in great bursts of energy, causing the walls to twist and warp violently. After which, with a heavy crash, it imploded, going out on itself in a flash of eyeblinding light.

Silence. The chamber was holding its breath. When the light disappeared, they found themselves in the heart of the city, with the sun setting above the landscape of Mars. The city, though, was changed. The creepy light was extinguished, replaced by a peaceful calmness.

Relief washed over Zara. They had averted disaster. However, the sorrow of the event persisted. A vanished civilization, a last option to survive, and a power more than their understanding.

Back on their spaceship now and speeding back to Earth, Zara looked at the red planet receding in the viewport. The very presence of the alien city became a visual representation of what they had encountered and survived.

"Captain, now what?" wondered Luna in very small voice.

Zara turned and her lips uttered a faint smile.