The Gossamer II rose gently in an ever so weak thermal updraft, and James gently compensated- almost unconsciously. The canopy bounced slowly up and down in response, James glanced down at the airframe stress indicator- it remained green. Just to be sure he glanced out the side panel and looked at the wing… It slowly bowed one way and then another as its 30 meter length adjusted to the mild change in forces. Its upper surface black and smooth with the solar-film that powered the odd looking propellers, and the underside capped in the almost opalescent N-T composite film. He could see the vague outlines of the Gossamer’s spare skeleton through the cloudy film. The wings and fuselage were evacuated to provide just a little more lift in the tenuous atmosphere. Looking at the props, James smiled remembering his first exposure to flight had been on his uncle’s crop-duster in Nebraska… No crops here…but maybe someday….?

James shook his head grinning and the image relay system fought to adjust- producing an unsettling stilted view of the horizon ‘back to work slacker!’ he chided himself. Satisfied that all was ok he returned his gaze to the landscape. The observation target was still 30 minutes away but the view was already stunning. He looked down, at his altitude of 300 meters he could see the boulder-strewn landscape, it all looked the same- yet it was always fascinating.

From this altitude- even with his limited knowledge of geology- he could see that a truly cataclysmic flood had shaped the red surface here. Down hill of the small mesas of hard solid stone, debris from the ancient river had collected in streamlined crescents. Rocks of varying size ordered according to the eddies that had formed.

James looked to his left and saw a dark red thread slowly writhing on the horizon, and grimaced. In another month the dust storms would start forming and his job would get much tougher. The dust devil danced in his vision for a bit and the slowly faded as the weak winds lost the strength to confine the powdery fine red dust. He did a 360 scan just to be sure no vortices were a threat to the Gossamer and then returned to the task of guiding the delicate craft to its assigned destination.

“James?” a voice called…He jerked in surprise- yet again he had let himself feel that he was IN the Gossamer… he grinned and said “Ummm, yes? “ still feeling a bit foolish…

“The doc insists that you have some coffee” Anna said
Still recovering his wits James smiled “Oh? Well cant upset DOC can we? “
DOC stood for “Dispenser Of Coffee”

“You have been flying for eight hours straight…” her voice dropped into a conspiratorial whisper….”I think they are worried about you getting VR addiction…”

James smiled…”well they’d be right…<sigh> ok I have a few minutes I will rejoin the real reality for a bit… hold on”… James set the autopilot and then, reluctantly, raised the visor of the VR unit… Anna set a cup of “coffee” before him and he picked it up… he gingerly sipped at it. The greatest sin of the mission was that the “coffee” had been loaded with electrolytes and vitamins, making it taste like Gatorade-coffee… but at least mission control allowed the caffeine. James rapidly became aware that he needed the boost…
“So are the other teams liking the data so far?” he asked wryly…it was a long-standing joke that no flight plan he chose satisfied all the different research teams. The problem was they had so many different interests that many of them were mutually exclusive. After many days of almost violent argument chasm #134 was decided on as the current target… This was based on the fact that it showed what appeared to be sedimentary layering… The fact that we had already lost Gossamer I made the debate fiercer…

“Yes, actually the egg-heads are VERY happy” she said with a grin. The data now supports the “wet Mars” view…you don’t look at the out of visual band data much do you?” James laughed at the “egg-head” term- they were all “egg-heads” with a minimum of two doctorates apiece…his were in physics and geology and a minor in American 18th century literature… the last, he was pretty sure, did not play a part in his getting on the mission.
“I tend to stick with the visual spectrum, yes…I prefer the view…the rest is recorded so it doesn’t matter”
“Well, the GR data shows you flew over a lake you couldn’t see…”
“seriously?!?”
“Well a frozen lake 3 meters underground… actually only at a density of .3 grams of water per cc but still….” Anna shrugged.
“Wow…” he sipped his coffee “that almost beats the record…how big was it?”
“Best we can tell almost 50 square kilometers”
James whistled…”How deep does it go?”
“That’s the best part, all we can tell is it goes deeper than 10 meters, beyond that the GR detector can’t say…”
He smiled in surprise, then chuckled “Let me guess, Sanjay has already started lobbying that excavator 4 go there immediately!?”
“Yup, and this time I doubt anyone will argue with him- he is very ummm adamant…” she smiled…
James grinned “I bet…he is an odd chap” he said emulating the mannerisms of Dr. Rajesekhar Sanjay… they both laughed…
“He started this mission downplaying the idea of Mars life but in the past 20 months
he has become obsessed in being the first to find life…. I sometimes worry that the trip has…unbalanced him a little”
“We have all changed a bit, Anna- we won’t know how much until we return to Earth…”
“I guess you are right… and I hope Sanjay gets his wish….”
“Me too I think it would be…” The Gossamer control panel bleeped indicating that the observation target was near….James smiled ruefully, “sorry, duty calls”
Anna smiled and got up, “Have fun!”
“Naaahhh seen one mars canyon you’ve seen ‘em all…” he winked and put on the visor.

He was immediately immersed in the view from the gossamer… The canyon was now visible- maybe 10 minutes away at this speed. Technically, the Gossamer II’s AI could handle the whole flight- but after the unexplained loss of Gossamer I, mission control insisted on human monitoring of all flight missions. Canyon cruising was the most challenging… and even the original mission specs called for human control when canyon cruising… problem was the humans were used to flying on earth, James wondered if it wouldn’t be wiser to leave it up to the computers…

The cliff edge slowly grew nearer…he could see the strata on the opposing cliff face… James started a slow turn to steer the gossamer down into the canyon…. He was sweating a little even though the room was cool…

There was a bounce as the Gossamer passed over the cliff wall- thermals buffeted it weakly… he gently dove down until he was just below the cliff walls… he watched the 500 meter high red walls slowly slide by…

“Ok, everyone on line?” he asked
“Yes, all systems are communicating fine” Sarah responded through his earpiece…
He stared at the massive wall sliding away beside him….it was so red…it reminded him of the Kaibab sandstone layer… a relic of the oxygen “catastrophe” that occurred on Earth when microbes released free oxygen which combined with the iron rich soil(geologists PLEASE correct me if I am misremembering my geology classes!!!)… was it life that had rusted this red planet?