The game online continued.

Mission Failed

110 kilometer from Crater

Lives Remaining: 11

Mission Failed

233 kilometers from Crater

Lives Remaining: 10

Mission Failed

54 kilometers from Crater

Lives Remaining: 9

Mission Failed

20 kilometers from Crater

Lives Remaining: 8

Mission Failed

23 kilometers from Crater

Lives Remaining: 7

Player Ranked #6

Unlike the previous four players who refused to sit in the seat of the co-pilot, the Bulgarian player did. His strategy was rewarded as he landed the banged up craft merely two kilometers from the Fuller Crater.

He moved quickly to unload the little rover, clip in the launcher and the hundred rockets. At the heart of each ball moved the cloud of particles forming the creatures. He began his walk and as he got closer, very close to the rim of the crater, in the upper layers of the magnetosphere arrived the energy from the sun. It moved at 400 km/s and took about ten hours to cross the distance between the star and its first planet. Looking up, the Jester could see the edges of solar flares over the dark horizon. The spectacle was breathtaking.

"What about the creatures in the balls?" he asked the voice in his helmet of the player.

"That's a good question. We don't know. Out testing on earth suggests there might be some interference. The balls are vulnerable to magnetic fields. Once inside the rim, the levels of magnetism will drop. Pass the rim before the vortex forms, we know in the eye the vortex the sand clouds should be fine."

"Very reassuring."

Christian began the climb up the rim. It was soft and long. With each step, his feet began to sink in the ash and sand. Soon, he was waist deep in the ash. A moment later, the little rover was covered in dust and he was waist thick in the dust.

"Houston, we have a problem," said the Jester stuck in this quicksand.

He wrestled.

There was no solution.

Mission Failed

0 kilometer from Crater

Lives Remaining: 5

Mission Failed

0 kilometers from Crater

Lives Remaining: 4

Mission Failed

2 kilometers from Crater

Lives Remaining: 3

Player Ranked #3

Marie-France Lalancette

The player ranked #5 tried in vain to climb the rim of the crater. The lander was equipped with equipment to face almost any adverse landscape. Behind one door were snow boots. These were flat plates several sizes the size of a shoe that could be used to walk on snowflakes. To her dismay, the small grains of the sand made the dust act more like water than snow. The low gravity also did not help in allowing the weight to stabilize the ground below her steps. The player's game ended in the same predicament. The player ranked #4 had no better luck. He tried to bring along some type of compressed air to blow his way past the edge. Once in position, it was easy to see the futility of the endeavor. Ahead was something longer than many football fields.

After Marie, only Laurent and Emilio remained. Of course, the mission was impossible and suicidal. The point of the exercise was merely to create the theoretical framework for the Emilio, Laurent, and Christian to work. They had to land a crashing ship after multiple impacts into the center of the crater. The simulation began. The player followed the main timeline established by the other players until the Jester sat in the co-pilot seat.

"Houston?"

"Yes."

"How high is the edge of the Fuller Crater?"

"Our data is partial. The shadow cast appears to suggest it is 100 meters high."

"Is that larger than this craft?"

"Yes, of course. What do you have in mind?" The Jester only giggled to himself. He pushed the static generator and then regained control close to the planet's surface. He jerked up the stick. He aimed directly for the crater rim instead of the ground around it. "Sir, you are projected down at three and a half degrees, an impact above three degrees will destroy the ship, that is certain. The edge has an upward angled of four degrees which makes the effective angle closer to eight. You will be pulverized on impact."

The man removed his helmet and ate a couple of pistachios. "Yeeee-haawww," yelled the Jester as he ignored the base and directed the ship directly in the rock formation of the crater’s rim. He hit the rim full on.

***

The dust, at that speed, reacted like thick fluid. It splashed high on both sides of the lander. There was sufficient energy for the craft to push its way through the first rim. It then rolled over the glacier and with the velocity remaining. The metal object crossed the entire Crater rim, then the flat portion to go rest, like a dead rock in the dust forming the opposite edge.

"This is unbelievable!" said the voice in Christian’s helmet. "How could you know?"

"Why do you think this is a crater? The middle is flat. Craters are never flat.” The Jester made perfect sense. “This is not a Crater; it's a circle of dust. That vortex makes that clear."

It took five full minutes for the dust to settle in the low gravity. As if by miracle, the main hatch of the lander was on the Crater side. The ship had cleared a path behind it. The solution was pure brilliance. As the Jester walked out, rockets in hand the magnetic vortex began to form above. He was already where he needed to be. At first, the glacier surface was covered with ash, but the vortex collected the sand. He walked to the center of the disk in an area where the ice was white. The Jester quickly assembled the launcher. The three legs of the base slammed on the ground, locked, and fired exploding anchors into the ground. Some of the ice cracked. The cannon was ready to shoot. These creatures had a door opened to their home world.

Mission Command spoke in his helmet, "Launch direction fifteen degree up and nine degrees to the left of where you point. Earth is the blue dot; the trip will take two weeks so you are launching to its left by about four degrees."

The Jester placed the launcher sleeves on the ground. The nearly one hundred balls were exposed. With great pain and difficulty, as the vortex collected energy above, the creatures residing in the glacier finally pushed out from below the ash and out of the cracks.

The creatures began to swirl and move. They seemed to ignore the Jester and the balls. The man walked around, waving the balls and trying to touch the puffs to the aliens. The Jester was surrounded by the creatures like a kid lost in a forest filled with fireflies. The energy and lights were beautiful.

He even unclipped one and let it roll next to the ice fissure from which the creatures came. He had a way home. The one way trip was inches from these creatures, yet, one by one, the creatures returned below the ice passing around the undisturbed ball. They ignored the Jester. The vortex closed, the ask dropped and hope was gone.

Mission Failed

0 kilometers from Crater

Lives Remaining: 2