Snippet #1552936

One by one each of the crew members of the L&C arrive to KSC. Once on site each of you are directed to Conference Room 3.

After 15 minutes of waiting NASA heads start to file in. The gentleman in charge of this mission, George Watson, steps up to the podium and speaks to you. "Thank you for arriving so quickly in such awful weather. I understand this is your downtime and were looking to relax before your upcoming mission but unfortunately plans have changed," the short, chubby man in his 40s explained.

George peered down at the notes in front of him, adjusted his glasses and tie and looked back up to you all. "Your launch has been drastically moved up. The launch of this historic mission will take place in three days."

NASA employees and the crew looked around nervously at the news.

"Now I understand a launch has never been done in such short notice and normally I would never give the green light under such circumstances but something has happened and we need to take off immediately," Mr. Watson explained. "Now I have been in long meetings with every NASA expert the past 48 hours and they assure me we can launch safely in three days. They promise every safety check can be accomplished and the Lewis and Clark will be ready."

The NASA head looked back down at his notes and continued. "For the past 30 years we have noticed something near Mars. I say "something" because quite frankly we have no idea what it is. We've never been able to get a decent look at to what this anomaly is. What we do know is it appears for 24 hours once a week for an entire year and then does not appear again for 5 years."

"What we decided to do is equip the L&C with technologically advanced cameras. We think if you are close enough to it when it appears for 24 hours we can get some detailed pictures of this and allow us to figure out what exactly this thing is that appears and disappears in a mystifying way. But in order for you all to photograph it you have to leave in three days. If you launch as originally schedule we'll miss it and won't be able to have another chance at this in another five years."

George Watson looks up at the crew of the Lewis and Clark. "I'm sure you all have a lot of questions. So at this time I will answer what I can or direct your question to one of the other experts behind me. The floor is now yours."