HuckleBuck411
Echoes of Olympus Mons
This is similar in theme to H.P. Lovecraft's short horror tale From Beyond but located on Mars and using modern physics' theories about dark matter and quantum entanglement. The setting is a Mars settlement college campus where exceptional students are given the chance to travel to Mars for their studies. The main character is an insufferable young man with personal theories about dark matter that question the location of human consciousness. He consistently rebels against his teachers, who dismiss his theories and, in the process, he alienates most of the other students. A female student is his roommate and only real friend that is willing to work with him to build a camera that he believes will be able to reveal the dark matter of our universe that is invisible to the human eye. Breaking the rules, the two students make off with a shuttle and set up the camera at the top of Olympus Mons. Later when viewing the images from the camera scenes from an ancient Martian past are revealed in which the inhabitants of Mars were annihilated. These are ghostly images that repeat over and over, but then other mantis-like creatures appear that are all too real and the inventor finds by having used the camera the creatures have become connected to him. Soon students and staff begin to be brutally murdered by an enemy they cannot see, and the inventor is faced with the dilemma that he is the one drawing in these creatures and must try and find a way to disentangle his connection to them. It's an interesting premise, but the story is spoiled by the very unlikable nature of the main character. Secrets are revealed toward the end but really add little to the story that ends abruptly without a very satisfying conclusion.
This is similar in theme to H.P. Lovecraft's short horror tale From Beyond but located on Mars and using modern physics' theories about dark matter and quantum entanglement. The setting is a Mars settlement college campus where exceptional students are given the chance to travel to Mars for their studies. The main character is an insufferable young man with personal theories about dark matter that question the location of human consciousness. He consistently rebels against his teachers, who dismiss his theories and, in the process, he alienates most of the other students. A female student is his roommate and only real friend that is willing to work with him to build a camera that he believes will be able to reveal the dark matter of our universe that is invisible to the human eye. Breaking the rules, the two students make off with a shuttle and set up the camera at the top of Olympus Mons. Later when viewing the images from the camera scenes from an ancient Martian past are revealed in which the inhabitants of Mars were annihilated. These are ghostly images that repeat over and over, but then other mantis-like creatures appear that are all too real and the inventor finds by having used the camera the creatures have become connected to him. Soon students and staff begin to be brutally murdered by an enemy they cannot see, and the inventor is faced with the dilemma that he is the one drawing in these creatures and must try and find a way to disentangle his connection to them. It's an interesting premise, but the story is spoiled by the very unlikable nature of the main character. Secrets are revealed toward the end but really add little to the story that ends abruptly without a very satisfying conclusion.