Short Story: Alone No More

Alone No More

The petroglyphs told the story of an unusual event. Mission Specialist Lynn Majors remembered a lecture from her archeology course at Columbia. The professor, however, was describing petroglyphs discovered in New Mexico, not ones carved into the red rock of Mars.

Majors traced the images with her gloved finger, overwhelmed by the discovery. A geologist responsible for collecting rock samples on the first manned Mars expedition she held additional orders, covert orders. Before departure, two men in black suits and the NASA administrator came to her with what they termed a request, but she knew better.

She wandered off her designated route following the coordinates given for the image Opportunity transmitted to Earth so many years before. Struggling to keep the camera provided to record the petroglyphs steady, Majors took numerous images, then looked up into the Martian sky. She knew what few Earthlings knew, they were not alone.

 Word Count: 149

  Written for the wonderful writing challenge, Mondays Finish the Story. Each Monday, Barbara Beacham posts a picture prompt, along with the first line of the story. The stories must be between 100-150 words and must include the given first line, shown in italics in the story.

Special thanks to Barbara Beacham for sharing her excellent photography skills to provide such challenging prompts. Check out the MFTS blog… some great short stories posted.  https://mondaysfinishthestory.wordpress.com/ 

Direct link to this week’s stories…  http://new.inlinkz.com/view.php?id=546159