ANCIENT WHISPERS FROM TOMORROW takes us to a Mars of a not too distant future.  Still inhospitable, yes.  Dry on the surface, a virtual vacuum saturated with deadly radiation outside the protective enclosures of the colony buildings and caves, science centers and outlying farms where colonists eke out a hard-earned existence.  Death rides the shoulder of every man, woman and child.  There it waits for even the slightest of errors to claim its due.  Then...it came, turning everything on its head.  It being an alien artifact.  Something like nothing ever encountered.  Of course, being alien, one couldn't expect it to be familiar, could one?  That's where the story begins and where it leads, well, that's another thing.

 

ANCIENT WHISPERS FROM TOMORROW

First alien contact. We’ve dreamed of what that may be like over a long time and several answers have been proffered. None of them have been as bizarre as this. None of them taxed the imagination as much as "Ancient Whispers from Tomorrow" does. It is difficult enough to take in the idea of coming face to face with something truly alien, but this book gives us a ringside seat to just such an event. Walk the regolith of Mars and see the "thing at North Head City". If you dare.

Tina Tamran, Chief Areologist for the Martian Colonial Council at Ascreus Station, is heading up a group of scientists who have been sent out to a small crater north and west of North Head City. They are charged with investigating the sudden presence of an alien structure that sprang up there almost overnight. Where it came from and what its purpose is remains unanswered. It is known simply as "the thing at North Head City".

Tossed unwillingly into the mix is Dr. Michael Baird of the Earth Allied Council’s Central Command and World Astronomical League. He is known as Earth’s foremost authority on Alien Contact Protocol and is largely responsible for writing the book on the protocols and providing the foundation for the WAL Accord on Alien Contact.

He does not want to be on Mars...but he was given no choice. That the Martians do not want him there, either, is made abundantly clear from his arrival at Ascreus Station and onward.

It does not take long for him to realize that the less he tells his colleagues and enemies alike on Earth about the thing at North Head City, the better.

The alien structure remains curiously silent and inactive, raising suspicions that its purpose for being there may not be so friendly. When it begins making noises and producing vibrations, fears and concerns mount. It fires a small sphere at Earth, then goes dormant again.

A week later, another structure similar to the thing at North Head City goes up in a small crater named Bruce on Earth's moon. Tensions grow on Earth and the government controlling the Western Bloc of Earth decides, unilaterally, to do something about it. That proves to be a disastrous mistake.