Starship Legacy: A Novel by Not Elon Musk

Chapter 2, Page 29:

Back on Mars, the wait between messages felt endless. Sarah had finally succumbed to exhaustion, curled up on the lab's small couch while her tablet continued running analyses. Ben kept himself busy modifying rover specs for future tunnel exploration, though his usual steady hands betrayed hints of nervous energy. Mark maintained his vigil at the communications station, monitoring every signal with increased intensity.

"Another message incoming," Mark announced, breaking the tense silence. "Musk is mobilizing a response team on Earth. Full spectrum – NASA, JPL, international partners."

Luke nodded, unsurprised. A discovery of this magnitude would require global coordination. "Any specific instructions?"

"Just to maintain protocols and continue documentation." Mark paused, scanning the rest of the message. "He seems... pleased."

"Pleased?" Ben looked up from his work. "We just discovered potential alien life under his Mars base. 'Pleased' seems a bit understated."

"Actually," Grok chimed in, "based on my analysis of his communication patterns, he's displaying remarkable restraint. My archives suggest the Elon Musk of 2024 would have already tweeted about it and probably proposed three new companies to exploit the discovery."

"Different times," Luke said, though he smiled at the AI's observation. "And speaking of documentation, how's that briefing package coming along?"

"Ninety-seven percent complete," Grok replied. "Though I should note that the remaining three percent involves some particularly fascinating anomalies in the deeper tunnel readings that—"

"Let me guess," Ben interrupted, "more gravitational irregularities?"

"Among other things. The pattern recognition algorithms I've been running suggest—"

A soft beep from Sarah's tablet interrupted the AI. She stirred, blinking away sleep as she reached for the device. Her eyes widened as she read the results.

"Luke," she said, suddenly fully awake, "you need to see this." She transferred the data to the main display. "Remember those well-preserved compounds we found? The ones that seemed too recent?" She highlighted a section of the analysis. "They're not just preserved. They're active."

The implications hit Luke like a physical force. They hadn't just found evidence of ancient life on Mars. They might have found something that was still, in some way, alive.

The lab fell silent as the new data scrolled across the screen. Even Grok seemed to pause, its processing cycles devoted to analyzing this latest development. Somewhere on Earth, Elon Musk and his hastily assembled team were about to receive another update that would reshape their understanding of life in the universe.

Ben was the first to break the silence. "So," he said, trying for his usual light tone but not quite managing it, "who wants to write that report?"