Here is a short story written by student and writer Konstantinos Karavasilis.
DISCOVERY
By Konstantinos Karavasilis
PART ONE:
THE DISCOVERY
Mars! The Red Planet is a dead planet, but it may not have always been that way. Rovers and satellites have found clear evidence that the dusty Martian plains once flowed with rivers, which pooled into giant lakes, and perhaps fed into a global ocean. Warm and wet, ancient Mars may have offered a comfy climate for any emerging microbes, much like Earth did.
How times have changed. Billions of years later, Earth remains a blue marble while Mars has become a dry husk of its former self. While most of the desiccation resulted from the calamitous loss of Mars’s atmosphere, the planet has kept some of its water. But even that meagre supply is leaking away.
Elon Musk was sent in 2026 after the coronavirus pandemic, and I could not be happier that I was one of the people to go to Mars, this is so exciting!
A young lady around twenty five years old is recording her thoughts on a voice recorder, which obviously enough is going to be a huge part of the story. Her name is June. June is pacing around the room holding the voice recorder as we see throughout her bunker that it is messy; it is like there is a dog living there; everything is scattered around including old science fiction novels that her father gave her as well as a whiteboard with some kind of equation being written; this is explained much later in the story.
June is still in the bunker, continuously recording her thoughts about Elon Musk’s plan for colonizing Mars until her mind begins to wander somewhere else; a theory that she has been developing ever since she arrived there.
I’ve been dancing around many theories and one of them is about time loops; granted I do not have enough proof to confirm that a time loop exists, however ever since I arrived on Mars there was this feeling of … some kind of deja-vu. Maybe we already arrived on Mars and then everything has reset? Or maybe I might be jumping into conclusions and overthinking this?
Before she can finish her thoughts Commander Dallas, a man around mid to late forties, enters the room. He is the leader of this operation and I obviously have named him a main character from Alien (1979).
DALLAS: So do you have anything important to tell June, or are you still going to keep talking to yourself?
Dallas asks this in a more sarcastic but still being genuine. June and Dallas have more of a father daughter/ mentor protégé relationship.
JUNE: Uh… nothing, nothing… why do you ask ?– June tries to make up excuses as well as trying not to tell anyone about her theories because she likes to keep to herself.
DALLAS: Good, because you have to see this! – Dallas tells her, as we see June, Dallas and a group of explorers looking around! June is both shocked, and surprised… but with a lot of curiosity about what she has seen…
PART TWO:
NUCLEAR WARFARE … ON MARS!?
June, tries to explain to Dallas about this discovery and to release it on to people. Dallas, obviously, disapproves.
DALLAS: No. – Dallas says instantly
JUNE: No? – June asks in disbelief.
DALLAS: You know why.
JUNE: Yeah, but this is different, and it’s been a few years ago. There’s no way in hell that people will ignore that as well.
DALLAS: Even if they did not ignore it, do you realize the mass hysteria that would happen, if this was leaked?
JUNE: Oh come on the reaction might not be that bad
DALLAS: What about with the pandemic years ago? people were killing each other over toilet paper – why am I bothering with this conversation? . Look we won’t have this conversation again.
JUNE: How pig-headed could you possibly be? You do realise that—
June is interrupted by Dallas, he does not raise his voice but he clearly has a certain level of authority over her. Kind of like a parent scolding a child.
DALLAS: how dare you having the nerve to speak against me like that? We are not releasing this information and this is final.
June returns back to her bunker recording her thoughts about the encounter.
There were bloody skeletons all around the area. It was like a graveyard; but the most peculiar thing about all of this, the thing that raises the most questions is the writing that says ‘’do not fall into the same mistakes. What could this mean?
Everything that I have known for my entire life, years of research studying UFO’s prove one, important, thing; aliens officially exist. I mean this is true, it could not be something else, are you kidding me?
However there was something that is really strange – almost too strange. This warning, this premonition, this prophetic extract written is obviously in English. In not just some bizarre language. Actual, clean English. I don’t know what to say about it. it’s just… aliens speaking, and writing, English? And warning us not to make the same mistakes? What is actually going on?
Then her thoughts shift from curiosity, enthusiasm and exploration to frustration and annoyance from Dallas’s warnings.
I can’t believe what this …ugh… how dare you having the nerve to speak against me are you kidding me? There is documentation of extra terrestrials’ existence, and best of all it explains everything about why Mars is in this situation that it is as of right now, and now he is telling me that I defy him? What would it take to finally open his eyes?
It’s actually strange though… the way they died. It seemed like it was some kind of nuclear warfare. And it does not sound that crazy now that I’m thinking about it.
A former NASA advisor, who also happens to be an extreme conspiracy theorist has shockingly claimed, that Mars once thrived with developed alien civilisations until a devastating nuclear war wiped out all evidence of life, and everyone around me thought that he was insane, but I always stuck my head up high believing that it might be legit, although I’m not crazy about conspiracies. Such a discovery would not only have serious repercussions on how humanity will evolve for the better, but also because how much it will make sure that the threat of nuclear warfare will be eased.
June, then came up with a great idea; and of course she had to execute it behind Dallas’s back…
PART THREE:
INDIFFERENCE
Thanks to having the internet to connect to other planets besides earth, June sends an email to the former NASA advisor and full time conspiracy theorist about his notes. However she had to do that behind Dallas’s back, because if he found out he could remove her from the colonisation process, and June will not risk that.
Two weeks later she sees an email from the advisor about the discovery, the email writes:
Dear June.
I appreciate that you decided to contact me about alien information, and I would gladly want to share my theories and information with you.
With Kind Regards
Allen Wright
Two weeks later, June prepares to watch from her camera the former advisor’s conspiracies. She is interested to hear what he has to say. The video is with an old man around early seventies as we see him setting up the camera; he is ready to talk about his experiences:
Wright rambled on and on about his own conspiracy theories and saying that lizard people live among us.
After finishing the video, June decided to record her thoughts once again about her experience.
Well that was … interesting! I just can’t comprehend what I have just read about his thoughts and his ideas. The first thing that he has written down is that, of course, aliens exist and that they are monitoring earth. He said that some of them are living among us but they are hiding it. So long story short his theories were implying the reptilian humanoids theory, which being quite frankly is quite absurd, ridiculous and out of this world.
Based on this theory he actually has interpretations of the moon landing and 9/11, which he claims that ‘’they were simply anomalies’. After learning more about him I learned that he was fired because, according to him, he was ‘awake’ and everyone else was a sheep, with no sustainable proof whatsoever. Why did I ever decide to believe this guy? I mean, I know he might be right about Martians, but how do the other theories make any logical sense?
After doing developing my research to confirm that they are aliens, and after feeling that I have disobeyed the Captain’s warnings what should I do? Should I inform it to the public, or should I leave it just like that?
June, watches videos from different people who have alien experiences, UFO sightings, as well as reading comments from YouTube and other social media platforms and how people do not really care at all. Some do but the majority does not, and the minority that cares believe in bizarre conspiracies. Stumbling upon a video by a former space advisor she finally understood it: Humans are not ready to learn about aliens; it would not cause mass hysteria, but something worse: Indifference.
PART FOUR:
HUMANITY IS NOT READY
June decided to dispatch the information regarding the alien massacre. She then arrives at Dallas’s bunker to explain that he was right. Dallas is glad that she realised the repercussions of leaking the information, and that she did not do anything stupid.
DALLAS: So, let me get this straight, you almost leaked this information?
JUNE: Well there is the word ‘’almost’’
DALLAS: FFS why was it a good idea to hire you? – Dallas said this in an almost sarcastic tone.
June smirks a bit, she then jokingly remarks
JUNE: Well you thought about it alright.
June and Dallas are in good terms again, with June realising the repercussions of her actions.
Back at her bunker June is recording her thoughts again. She reminisces back at the world’s reaction to certain events. Out of this experience she became wiser. She no longer is naïve and idealistic. While she still is optimistic and enthusiastic regarding the universe she learns not to leap before you look, and that humanity will be ready regarding learning about extra- terrestrials or not. It is that it is not the time right now.
What’s quite funny is that in movies when there is secret information the government would do their best to keep them secret in order not to cause any mass hysteria, however as of now this is not the case. Six years ago, shortly before the Covid-19 pandemic was declared, when there were leaked UFO videos nothing happened. They acted like nothing has ever happened; leaked footage of UFOs, and possibly answering the questions of whether we are alone in the universe or not, but nothing happened. Everybody pretended like it was nothing. Is it necessary to unveil this revelation to fellow humans? Are they going to take this seriously or are they going to shrug it off?
Even if they take it seriously it would cause mass hysteria and we still are not ready to meet them. Kind of like how we were not ready with the pandemic. But we will be. And I am quite positive about it.
EPILOGUE:
JUNE’S FINAL RECORDING
It was all a dream; a very realistic dream, sort of like… a lucid dream. It all started in the near future; two decades from now.
The planet which was beautiful; just like Earth; better than Earth in fact, we have learned our mistakes and we strived to do a much better job with our new home rather than how we did with our old.
But then – everything turned like hell. Missiles were launching everywhere, people were running left and right; just like Hiroshima and before an atomic bomb goes off I write something; ‘’do not fall into the same mistakes’’. Everything makes sense now! Too much sense in fact. The bomb went off and before I knew it I was caught in the explosion.
I didn’t feel any pain. My brain did not have the time to process the agony that I would go through because it was incredibly fast. However I knew what would happen. My skin melted off my whole body leaving only my live flesh and bones. Surely but quickly my bones turned into ash and my eyeballs started popping off my sockets, and then I have woken up.
What was that about? Was this some kind of nightmare? I got up shocked, and then my shock has worsened into some type of hysteria; now I know everything that happened.
The aliens are humans that colonised Mars. An atomic bomb went off killing everyone, and I was the one who wrote that message. The feelings of deja-vu; the message, the corpses, the alternate timeline theory, it all makes sense now; it is all a TIME LOOP!
This short story was written by student and writer Konstantinos Karavasilis. Karavasilis was born on March 12th of 2003 at Ioannina, Epirus, Greece. From a young age he was interested in filmmaking and creating stories in general, also partaking in drama classes, although he is not that crazy about acting. He is also interested in Art, particularly in drawing although he does not draw as much and he only does when he is bored . His favourite authors include Rick Riordan, J.K Rowling and J .R.R. Tolkien and thanks to these writers he was inspired to develop a passion for writing. He was inspired for writing “Discovery” after taking an interest in absurd conspiracy theories although he does not believe in them, and including real life events.
