A few days had passed. The monotonous routine of maintenance and base expansion would soon come to an end. The dawn of a new era of exploration and discovery is waiting to be unveiled.
Now that Liraz was involved with the crew's routine and had performed well so far they gained more trust from the scientists and Asher. Liraz and Asher sat, looking down into a ravine so deep that the bottom Was hidden by a lack of light.
"Others will visit us soon" Liraz said. His facial expressions were unreadable, as expected as something from another planet, but could be implied.
"That's quite exciting, what are they planning to do here?" Asher replied.
"I'm unsure. I haven't heard much from them but they are definitely coming. Soon, I think."
Asher thought but didn't respond. 'What could they do? I hope it goes smoothly, problems on Mars are the last thing we need.' He thought. 'Could all the efforts and toil be made useless from an enemy threat? Any kind of threat, no matter how small, could have the crew in a chokehold. Any response from Earth would be too slow to any hostiles. Liraz can be trusted, right?' A slight worry washed over Asher but it was short lived. "Is your planet diverse? Are there many cultures and islands?" Asked Asher. Realising they spent a lot of time together but really knew nothing about each other. Liraz hesitated and Asher glanced subtly "Well... There are a few separate regions but they are controlled by the eastern section which has the most power due to its abundance of natural resources. It may not be the most scientifically advanced but it's sheer economic power has hold of the rest of my world. Sometimes it can get a bit... oppressive and invasive into everyday life. However there are resistance movements and groups of scientists and inventors trying to gain an advantage at least but the last 20 years not much has changed. I'm sure Earth was once like that if you look into history." told Liraz.
"That is scary. Yes Earth has been like that before, luckily we are in what seems to be a very peaceful time but who knows what will happen in the future. What side are you on? Are you part of the resistance groups" Asked Asher.
"Yes, unfortunately I am part of the resistance. I was sent her by the group. To test out some machinery and gather data but it was broke on the way here and could not be fixed. This was our hope to become more advanced but now.... I'm not sure what will happen. The news from my partners did bring hope, however. This fast travel method they developed would be equipment that could possibly shift the power dynamic back at my home. We just need to test it and that could be done soon. A small group planned to do a test trial to Mars, we could one day use this method to recruit allies across the planet to help in the fight or even other planets." said Liraz.
Asher took in the lengthy response. 'This doesn't seem good, are we going to get dragged into a war?' he thought.
"Well... we should head back anyways" Asher suggested. They both slowly made it back to base. Asher used the walk back to imagine scenarios and solutions to help Liraz but the type of war and technology of his planet was still unknown it may even be more advanced or involve unknown branches of science and technology.
There was only one correct conclusion he drew - Liraz's visit would not end well.