KK’s square-shaped eyes look strenuously through the lens. “Hey, I thought there was a smoking ban on Mars!”
GG holds legs crossed with feet on the table for a short breather. “Does this mean that the cigarette factories have moved their headquarters to Mars?”
KK adjusts various wheels and once again determines with the greatest certainty what can be, but must not be: “There is smoke.”
“How can it burn on Mars when oxygen is scarce far and wide”, complains GG bored, and the crumbs fall into the already cooled coffee.
KK blinks. “I didn’t say it was burning. It’s smoking!”
“The heads of the astronauts, who crush their heads as they find their way back home,” GG makes fun of.
“The smoke rises to an estimated height of 90 miles and gives the impression of a narrow column of smoke from an Indian fire.”
“This should be more than just a little scout adventure,” GG acknowledges.
“… the current cartography of Mars”, KK reflects loudly.
GG laughs. “The green Martians are having a barbecue?”
“I had a hunch,” whistles KK triumphantly.
“What?”, grins GG. “That they only grill peppers because green men are vegetarians?”
KK remains serious. “26 miles high and almost 5 miles deep.”
Smirking gives way to an astonished expression. “Say that again!”
“The presumably largest volcano in the solar system is causing trouble.”
GG reaches for the communicator. “Mars Mission Control. GG here. Switch to the aLigo. Find out if Olympus Mons is breaking out in the next few days.”
The colleagues listen in disbelief, remain calm as usual and are already calculating any impact on the billion-dollar mission. The hundred most important brains are working.
The aLigo, also known as the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, first demonstrated the fusion of two black holes in 2015, thus proving that gravitational waves propagate in space at the speed of light, as predicted by Albert Einstein. GG’s order is confirmed and processed in a matter of seconds.
“And?”, asks KK. “Does the Mars Mission Wisdom lose its landing permit?”
GG swallows the last bite. “They’ll be taking pretty pictures for a few days. Then they’ll be happy with the boring northern hemisphere.”
“That means the boys return without having entered the Martian rock,” translates KK.
“Wait and see,” says GG. “The copilot is a volcanologist. BB has cracked the seismological code of the Californian problem.”
KK raises his right eyebrow. “Nevertheless, he will not be able to prevent the eruption.”
“The explosion of life. The pyroclastic flow alone must have apocalyptic proportions,” says GG happily. “They are lucky that we discovered the outbreak before the planned landing.”
“We?”, KK gives in. “I discovered it!”
“And I am your boss. Already forgotten? We will both go down in history.”
Mission Wisdom will take her name into account: systematic thinking, judging and acting.
Oh, forget it …