Tales from the Red Planet: Corrosion

Philip Bates is a writer at Kasterborous Doctor Who News and Reviews - All the latest Doctor Who news and reviews with our weekly podKast, features and interviews, and a long-running forum.

The survivors had died a couple of years ago now, but that wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. The Indian Space Agency had been ploughing ahead on the project, strictly off-the-radar, half a decade or more. Now, they were finally here.

Corrosion was the key. The ruins around them had begun turning rusty. The atmosphere was largely carbon dioxide, but that alone wasn’t enough. You needed… Well, exactly what they were looking for. The old reports were right.

The survivors never properly spoke out about the circumstances of the explosion. The pair solely talked about their captain – how wonderful she was, how capricious she was, and how she took Action Five. They were too scared to say why, or how they got back to Earth, alive and (mostly) well.

Indira looked back at their shuttle, a black monolith framed by the distant crimson stars, and gave a thumbs-up. She’d found it. Because it wasn’t just the ruins. There was so little left anyway. It was scarred and blackened right at its heart, but towards the edge was a structure, foundations too deep to completely destroy. There had been main hubs then endless corridors leading off into the dark. She slowly descended into the crater. The dust lifted from underneath her, minute rocks tumbling down. Rocks that hadn’t moved for so long now.

The spacesuit would protect her from any trace radioactive elements. The Agency had assured her of that. The soil – no, the rock – was barren, but not useless. If they were right, the human race could take that next step.

As she reached the bottom of the slope, she reached into her external pockets and picked out the scanner.

She could see that glistening, cracked white surface, so close, like a mirage on the blood-hued desert. It was impossible, but there it was. There it was.

A probe extended from the scanner, and she checked the levels around her. Not bad. A bit high, but she’ll be alright. The crews back on Earth could do wonders now.

She put the probe to the sheet of ice. It drilled in, vibration shaking up into Indira’s shoulder, and then whirred with activity. This had to be proof that they could come back here. They could do it. Indira’s name would be heralded as a great space explorer.

When the scanner had finished its analysis and she looked at the readings, a tear ran down her cheek – which was annoying. She couldn’t exactly wipe it away. Nonetheless: it was possible. This was confirmation. She clicked on her internal communicator and the gruff tones of Mohinder echoed in her helmet: “Have you found it, Indira?”

“Yes. Yes, I found it. No radiation detected. The ice field is safe to use. We have water.”

The Earth-based crew at the Indian Space Agency also heard the message, beamed across some 33 million miles:

“We’ve found the remains of Bowie Base One.”

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