Melbourne Acliate walked off the graduation stage in procession with his fellow peers after receiving his diploma. His high school days were finally over and his future was looking bright. With a GPA of 3.9, he was a shoo-in to enroll in the Martian Military Academy in the capital city of Olympia with a full scholarship. It was time to move on to better things. No more of his old bullies and no more of the small, quaint little town of Lambdanville. He would finally be able to see the world and eventually even the solar system.
He had already decided that he would train to be a pilot in the Martian Navy as it would give him the chance to explore the frontiers of Sol and navigate space. From facing off against space pirates and oppressive minor kingdoms in the Asteroid Belt colonies to protecting other minor nations from subjugation by the growing threat of the Jovian Empire, life as a pilot for the Martian Republic had long been Melbourne's dream.
"Mr. Acliate." rang a voice from behind as Melbourne walked out the front doors of Lambdanville High for the last time.
Melbourne's feet stopped upon the green lawn under the terraformed sky and turned around to see a man in a business suit.
"Yes?" asked Melbourne calmly. "That is me."
The man smiled almost patronizingly.
"Of course. I know who you are." said the man, reaching out his hand to shake Melbourne's. "My name is Avian Venmonik. I am a representative of Arian Horizons. Our company is headquartered in the wonderful port city of New Venice on the island of Elysium Mons. You've heard of us, I am sure?"
Melbourne nodded. Of course he knew of them. They were the Martian Republic's most successful scouting and asteroid prospecting company. They also handled some interplanetary trading and ferrying and owned some of the most acclaimed space hotels in Low Martian Orbit.
"Yes, of course." said Melbourne, returning the handshake. "How may I help you, sir?"
The man smiled pleasantly. "I have a business proposition I would like to give you. You see, we know of your scholarship to the Military Academy in Olympia and of your desire to become a pilot. It is outstanding that a person from a town as small as this was able to achieve such an honorary scholarship. In the meantime, I understand young, aspiring graduates such as yourself are generally interested in interesting summer internships that match their preferred field of study and career goals. I think I have an offer for you that would be most pleasing. You see, we've had our eyes on you since you developed that robotics project about three months ago. You are exceptionally talented in the field of programming and robotics design for your age. Granted, a wandering autonomous drone with XRF scanning capabilities for materials scanning is very easy to make for an expert and certainly nothing new on the market, it is certainly impressive for a high school senior."
"Really?" asked Melbourne, blushing in excitement.
"Yes, sir." said Avian. "I am a recruiter from the Olympia branch of Arian Horizons. I am reaching out to you to see if you would like to go on a summer archaeology expedition into space? You would arrive back on Mars by the time college starts in August, don't worry."
Melbourne's jaw dropped in awe at the opportunity.
"I would lo---. Wait, where are we going exactly."
"Oh, just in system to Earth." said Avian.
"Isn't that suicide?" asked Melbourne. "I mean, the planet is lethally radioactive almost everywhere."
"Oh, of course you won't be landing on Earth." said Avian. "Everyone knows that's suicide. The orbital bombardments by the TSA in the 21st Century left that planet completely unlivable to humans. It won't be safe to land there for another thousand years at least. You'll just be going into Low Earth Orbit to explore a derelict ship that has started giving off a unique radio signal. I was hoping you could design robotic systems en route to autonomously scan the ship and act as a ship mechanic's assistant during the course of your internship. What do you say? It's very rare for high school graduates to get assignments aboard actual space expeditions. Rare opportunity for you and you'll receive ten thousand crypts upon your return. That's a years salary for most crewmen aboard privateering vessels, though we at Arian Horizons pay our employees much more than most space industries do."
Avian extended his hand again, offering Melbourne to accept or refuse the deal.
"I accept!" exclaimed Melbourne excitedly.
"Great!" exclaimed Avian. "You will report to the Arian Horizons HQ in Olympia in exactly one week on June 1st by 4 P.M. You will be briefed on further details of your assignment and we will book you in one of our orbital hotels that evening after you ride up the space elevator to Gateway Station. You depart on June 2nd. We will pay for your flight to Olympia aboard the Vacuum Balloon docking in Lambdanville tomorrow. You must catch the airship by 6PM tomorrow evening or you will miss your flight at which point you will be responsible for paying your own fare to Olympia or you can call our office and request a deduction from your internship payment in exchange for a regular airline. Does that sound agreeable to you?"
They would be leaving so soon. Incredible.
"Yes!" exclaimed Melbourne excitedly.
"Good." said Avian, pulling a clipboard with a number of papers out of his briefcase. "In that case, since you are already 18, I will need you to sign a few papers including liability waivers in case of some unfortunate accident. Space travel can be dangerous, you know. Also, a few other agreements."
***
Melbourne skipped along his favorite hiking trail overlooking the Isidis Sea to the south of his hometown of Lambdanville, a gentle breeze flowing from the Utopian Ocean about one hundred kilometers to the north.
Melbourne looked up at the stars twinkling brightly in the Martian sky as he dreamed of his future adventures in the frontiers of humanity. Phobos was at full moon, showing its full splendor at this time of year. Deimos was at one eighth crescent and receding. Both were presently visible in various sections of the Martian sky.
A moth zoomed by, flying out of the dense forest nearby. Several fireflies darted about. This region was far more temperate than the hot and arid Hesperian Plains that his parents had moved him from about five years before.
After about an hour, a familiar sickly bluish green light came up on the horizon. Melbourne felt a familiar faint existential dread as the reminder came into his mind. Over three centuries ago, a time when this planet was nothing but a red, barren wasteland upon which he would have needed a spacesuit to survive, that world was teeming with life and civilization. The planet was called Earth, the ancestral world of humanity. Now, in 2410, the radioactive ruins of a world destroyed deliberately by those who feared the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence was still too poisonous to step upon even with the most advanced mobile spacesuits available. To think Melbourne would be traveling very close to this world in only a few days.
Melbourne was about to finish his celebratory walk when a meteor came crashing down from space, impacting roughly three kilometers south of his present location. Dust and debris came flying his way and he ducked into a hole to let the effects of impact blow over.
Oh well. thought Melbourne to himself. I'm lucky I didn't die. I should go check out that impact crater. Some meteors are worth quite a bit of money. I'm sure Dad won't mind if I take a little extra time.
Melbourne jogged southwards as frightened flocks of birds soared northwards from the impact, chirping wildly.
After about a twenty minute jog, Melbourne finally arrived at the crater and went down in to find what he expected to be a valuable rock. What he found instead sent him kneeling in shock.
The metallic black space capsule gleamed in the light from Phobos as some ancient automated process caused LED lights to show an insignia Melbourne had only seen a few times before in history books. A neon green rendering of the Vitruvian Man showed up with wings added to the back and orbital lines around similar to popular diagrams of electrons orbiting around an atom. This was the insignia of the Cosmists, the image they put upon their flag. This was an artifact from the war left over from those who created supersoldiers and artilects, those people society now called heretics and monsters.
A camera suddenly swiveled upon a ball and scanned the vicinity.
"Impact registered." said an automated voice. "Scanning region. Terrestrial environment indicates Earth. Incompatible with navigational diagnostics. Navigational diagnostics indicate time capsule to be on Mars."
The camera scanned its area of view and stopped on Melbourne Acliate.
"Detecting strange human with slender, taller features. Hypothesis: Mars has been terraformed and humans have evolved to the lower gravitational force of this planet over the generations this capsule has been floating through space. Human seems to be unmodified. Ejecting serum. Place the needle in your temple and your initial upgrade will commence. I will be able to give you further information afterwards."
Melbourne Acliate reeled back, horrified as a small hatch opened and a plate extended on a linear actuator with a syringe filled with a strange gray liquid inside. The strange machine that had probably been dormant in space for centuries just activated and was now telling the first random individual it met to inject highly illegal cybernetics into his body that would result in him being put to death if he was ever discovered.
"Are you crazy? The government will kill me!"
"Processing." said the strange artificial intelligence. "Understood. Information from subject suggests that the enemy has won the war and now controls the solar system."
Melbourne tilted his head curiously as the ancient machine casually said "the solar system" instead of "Sol" as was customary in the modern day.
"I cannot force subject to accept the enhancement, though it would improve your cognition and give you vast amounts of data that you may find useful."
What do I do? What do I do? Melbourne's thoughts spiraled. If I report this, I'll be accused of treason. If I leave it, I look guilty. Why did this have to happen to me?
Stories on the exonet flashed through his mind—people who stumbled across Cosmist relics and then simply vanished. Melbourne desperately wished he could just walk away.
"Lookie what we have here! Someone found our cache before us, boys!" yelled a voice from the south.
Three men in black hoodies stalked toward the crater, knives glinting. Melbourne's hand darted to his pocket—empty. He'd left his knife at home.
"Well, would you look at that," one of the men sneered. "We were hoping for a meteor. Instead, we get a Cosmist artifact… and a little teenage idiot who opened it."
He stepped forward, tapping the blade against his palm. A small scar on his face spoke of knife fights in his past.
"You know, kid… if we murder you and take your stuff, we can just tell the cops you were a Red Cyber terrorist. Opening Cosmist tech? That's death penalty no matter what. Easy story. They'll probably even give us a bounty. If it weren't for you we'd have just sold the parts on the black market."
The men fanned out.
Behind Melbourne, the capsule's LEDs flickered.
A mechanical whir rose from inside.
"Threats detected," the AI said calmly. "Initiating mandatory preservation protocol."
A hidden panel snapped open. A syringe shot forward and buried itself in Melbourne's temple, flooding his skull with a coldwhite liquid.