MARTIAN TRIANGLE: PART 7

"Ready, sir," the soldier looked up at General Stapleton.

"One second," the General responded. He then turned to Truman, "You understand that what you're about to be a part of is Classified Information."

Truman, once again, wasn't entirely surprised that a government official, a military official, was informing him to keep his mouth shut about what he was about to see.

"Of course," he responded to the General. He then looked around the room. "What about all of them?" At least a couple dozen scientists had paused what they were doing in the Control Room and were waiting for whatever "the feed" was that General Stapleton had to show up on the Control Room Screen.

"They're clear," Stapleton said matter-of-factly.

"Oh -," started Truman, but he stopped himself. His mind was racing. "They're clear? Like... already?" he said.

"Yes," replied the General.

How could they be clear before I am? he thought to himself. Had his entire staff already been cleared for this information? Did his entire fucking staff already know something that he didn't? What the hell was happening?

It was then that the soldier tapped a few keys on his keyboard and the huge control room screen flickered to an entirely new view. The old rover screen was still on one of the smaller screens on the wall, but up on the the gush main screen, dead center, as if shot for a magazine photo shoot, was the entire rover in a profile view. The three of its wheels in this side showing some where and tear, its instruments poking up and out every which way. The image was incredibly sharp.

"Sir?" the soldier held up a small clip of a microphone and handed it to the General, who clipped it onto his lapel.

"Do you copy?" said the General.

A quick bit of static, and then a voice from somewhere came through the speakers of the control room, "Copy, sir. Systems check is stable."

"Copy that, let's move," the General commanded. With that, Truman's jaw dropped as he saw the feed before him start to bounce and move forward, as if someone was holding a camera, and walking. On the surface of Mars.

His eyes caught the rover feed on one of the smaller screens and he saw the upright image of what could only be a man stepping in front of the rover and walking towards the USS Cyclops. Truman put his hands on his head, he ran his fingers through his own hair. He blinked.

"That's a," he couldn't make himself say it, "You have a -- we have -- people... on MARS?! What is happening?!" he looked at the General, who now didn't even try to hide his smile.

"Don't be crazy, Truman. Mars is a dangerous place. That's a BD587."

"BD587," Truman repeated under his breath. He had heard the letters and numbers, but none of it made sense.

"It's a robot. Made specifically for Mars. They match a human proportions so that when we finally get there, everything will be setup for us to the proper proportions and the like," the General paused before adding, "The 'BD' is for Boston Dynamics."

"You were talking with it... them..." Truman puzzled, "In real time."

"We're remote controlling it from Area 51," the General responded. "I'm talking to the Pilot, Lt. Tavish."

From the feed, the voice came over the loudspeakers, "Hello Dr. Truman!" The robot looks it's hand and moved it in front of its own camera and gave a thumbs up.

"Okay... so there's a robot on Mars?"

"Yes," responded the voice of the pilot. That wasn't too much of a stretch for Truman. He had a rover, a robot really, on Mars. The military had one there too. Sure, that was a surprise, but it was still in the realm of what was possible with a huge budget and a branch of the government called "Space Force." Still, something wasn't sitting right. Something wasn't lining up.

"HOW are you controlling it in real time?" Truman finally got words to match what his brain couldn't fathom. "It should be taking at least eleven minutes for the signal to get there, never mind come back... how are you -"

"The chips are linked," replied the General.

"Entangled," said Tommy. He couldn't help himself.

"That's not a thing," said Truman. "That's like some weird quantum entanglement BS that ILM would be calling me about, saying that they want to know if such a thing is feasible from a -"

"It's a thing, and we're doing it."

Truman looked back up and saw the humanoid figure in the feed from the rover disappearing in the distance, as the large main screen continued to move up and down slightly as the USS Cyclops came closer and closer.