Shades of Grey: A New Dawn

It certainly wasn't there last time they looked. Then again when was the last time they looked? Nearly a hundred years ago now. Whatever it was had one hundred years to just appear.

The five most powerful human beings on Earth sat in the dome-roofed room: President Marcus L. Fox of the United American States; Prime Minister Martin D. Davis of HM Commonwealth; Chairman Li Su Zan of the South East Asian Coalition; Premier Cornelia Bellona of the EU; and Ayatolla Papak Khorshid Bahram of the Islamic Nation. Together they effectively controlled the entire world and it's moon. There was a sence of tension between them. And there should be. They had all just signed a pease treaty only a few months ago to stop the blood shed. None of them wanted to say a thing.

The uneasy silence was broken by the arrival of Professor Fungai Thabo. He was the South African head of the Lunar observitory that had spotted the anomaly a few weeks before. He, and the world leaders, had now gathered in the Sea of Tranquility Research Base, in one of the conferance rooms. He was carrying a memory core, which he put down on the computer table. He flicked a switch under the table, causing the thick plastic panels that made up the roof to darken. The image on the computer table was now projected on to the dark panals.

'Ladies and Gentlemen', he began, taking care to speak slowly and clearly for the leader's translators, at least for the ones who didn't speak english, 'the last surface scan of Mars before the war was in 2109, only weeks before the tragic attacks in the cities.' He activated the memory core, bringing up a static, rotating picture of the Red Planet. 'The scan showed nothing out of the ordinary. A few dust storms, that's all. As we all know most space endeavors beyond Earth's orbit were stopped during the war. When the observitory and deep space probes were reactivated earlier this year, we looked at Mars again. And this time we found this...'

He twisted the memory core. A window popped up with another picture of Mars. It didn't look any different. The scientist zoomed in on a specific part of the picture. Just south of Olympus Mons. The colour was a contrast to the rusty red of the surrounding rocks. It was a patch of light green. The leaders started murmuring to their translators, or amongst themselves. It was the Ayatolla's translator who raised the question they all wanted to know. 'What is it? Is it plant life?'

'We don't know', replied the scientist, 'we have an expert looking at the picture, but she isn't sure. We haven't had the chance to send something which to could check the atmosphere of the planet, as NASA are unwilling to give us the plans...' He looked at the American President, who looked at the others.

'Oh alright. We'll share the plans.'

To be completed...