2 weeks passed since Niels' discovery and no-one except him knows. No concerns or suspicions were raised; to the crew Niels is innocent.
WIth all 3 oxygen zones set up the newly terraformed Mars was now habitable. The rewards from the team's work is now coming to life and it is time to expand and explore. It's only a waiting game until the oxygen zones are all fully operational and then the space suits will no longer be needed at base. Mars' atmosphere composition is now more suitable for human and animal life but the problem of overnight freezing is still too high, the atmosphere of Mars is simply too thin. For now, inside the suits or at the base are the only safe options for overnight.
Back at Earth, the base of the scientists is broadcast live with a CCTV style picture. A payload of smaller bases and buildings to set up will be sent soon and is estimated to arrive in 9 months. Reluctantly the cree will have to set up another base and more powerplants to fill the atmosphere with gases to terraform Mars further, making it habitable. A separate, secret surprise will arrive too.
Now that everything was set up the crew sat idle before the daily routine commenced.
'What are we expected to do now?' asked Niels. 'Everythiing is set up, we are merely waiting for the next rocket to arrive full of more infrastructure to build. We have a limited food supply but luckily we can harvest sections of the plants we have growing but can we really keep it up if more people arrive?'
As usual Rosalind understood the plan and laid it out for everyone. 'Luckily we won't have any food shortages, the next rocket is programmed to arrive and land without any pilots. With the current crops we can sustain ourselves with no problems. After eating the plants, remember to keep the seeds separate so they can be replanted. Mars' ground won't have enough nutrients to endlessly grow so we will have to keep changing the location of the plants but using the nitrates we brought, we can make the same spot reusable. The only problems we have are to maintain everything and make sure the oxygen zones are working well. For now we shall just stay safe together we have some knowledge of Mars but as always things can be unpredictable, the probability is very low but we don't know of any natural disasters that could occur here so it's best to not take any risks for now.'
The crew all went to work, only this time Niels would accompany Asher. Asher willingly took the job of harvesting and maintaining all the crops, usually on his own whilst the others checked all the equipment and cleaned, however the monotonous routine had gotten to Niels and he wanted some variety.
'Are we really alone in the universe? There is so much to explore but there is no sign of any life anywhere. What makes Earth so special? At least no one suffers outside of our solar system, it must be calm to just not exist and worry.' Blurted Asher.
Niels paused but soon responded, 'We might not be alone. What do we really know about Mars. Have we checked everywhere on this planet? There is too much uncertainty to make any predictions of what could be out there. For all we know, we could be under observation by something living deeper in Mars. We could be playing right into their game.' Asher nodded but pretended to go along with Niels' response. 'Has the loneliness of our mission started to get to Niels?' Asher thought. Asher noticed Niels was acting off but assumed it was from being stuck together as a team for so long. There is only so much socialising a group of 4 can do together. This assumption would soon be a grave mistake.