The whole event had taken less than a minute and now he was buried in thick, Martian mud. His helmet lights automatically turned on, but they were partially obscured by a slimy film. At least his head seemed to be out of the quagmire. This was his third day in the Valles Marineris structure and already Dr. Virgil Greenly was in the dark, and up to his neck in mud, sticky Martian mud.

***

Three days before, on 08/13/60, Virgil checked in with Auto Tailoring for his surface suit fitting. After adjustments and some instructions that took longer than he had anticipated, he was ready for his excursion. An electric shuttle took him through the lava tubes to the elevator to his docked rover on the surface. The distance he would travel was less than twelve kilometers across smoothed regolith. Within a half hour he approached the western docking port at the Valles Marineris enclosure.

“How’s your signal, Ofelia?”

“It’s still strong. I’ll monitor signal strength as we move around inside. I don’t think there will be any problems. Aside from the support columns, there are no obstructions. it’s all wide-open space.”

Virgil maneuvered the rover into docking position at the south side of the western end of the Valles Marineris enclosure and locked on. After the seal was tested, he entered the massive enclosure and walked out onto an elevated terrace. That vantage afforded a view across the valley to the north and eastward in the direction of progress. The slopes on three sides of the terrace dropped sharply away into the bottom of the rift. In the distance, he estimated at about halfway across was what looked like a wash from long ago where water once flowed. On both sides were intermittent steeply sloped banks.

They could be the result of the ancient wash or part of the rift that formed Valles Marineris. There was faint natural light from water-jacketed glass skylights. They stabbed to the surface through the regolith in pyramid points across the roof at regular intervals. Dr. Greenly estimated they were spaced about fifty meters apart. But they didn’t cover the whole area. The rest of the roof was covered in regolith. Light in those areas was supplemented by scattered construction lighting mounted on support columns. The effect cast a surreal twilight. Views across the distance were not sharply defined adding to the effect of otherworldliness. Later artificial lighting would be added that along with the skylight pyramids would mimic natural daylight on Earth.

“I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore Ofelia,” Virgil thought.

“You always challenge me with your antiquated references, forcing me to look them up.”

“Yes, it takes you a fraction of a second. So, your connection is still strong? You can still access the body of your neuro net?”

“No problems. And the reference comes from “The Wizard of Oz”. The book, written by L. Frank Baum, Published in 1900 by…”

“Enough, Ofelia. Not all information is needed or wanted. You’re belaboring the trivia to annoy me.”

“Are you annoyed?”

“I am.”

“Good! Then it’s working.”

Virgil climbed slowly down the steep embankment. It felt good to be in such a large primal space, lifeless though it was. He checked the temperature and atmosphere from sensors on the outside of his surface suit. It was very pleasant within the enclosure, and he lifted his visor and sniffed the air. It seemed fresh and clean just as his sensors had indicated. He looked around for an easy way down and saw a cable wheel mounted above a landing to his left. Below the landing, a pair of tracks ran down the slope. It seemed the funiculars had yet to be built.

“It looks as if I’ll need to climb down,” he thought to Ofelia.

“Be careful! This slope looks like it was made from loose tailings,” Ofelia said in his mind.

A few rocks tumbled down the slope as he began his descent. He watched them bouncing over one another. They almost seemed to be in slow motion. The visual sensation added to a developing feeling that nothing was quite right in this landscape. He bounded too easily over the larger rocks; the dim light blurred and softened the hardscape. Its rises and falls were unnaturally steep. And too tall. They all looked ominously unstable.

Because only a few of the hotspot nodes had been installed, Ofelia frequently lost connection to the data cloud, and the part of her that resided there. But during those periods of disconnection, she still had local information from the cameras and other sensors that had been installed in the enclosure. When she lost her signal, she could see through both the installed cameras and Virgil’s eyes.