“But seriously, what did we locate immediately beneath the diamond encrusted dirt?” We found, extended drum-roll please…” Together Brandon and Carl both started beating rhythmically on the console with both hands. “…The source of the diamonds! Hold on! First, let me tell you a little story. Once upon a time, ‘a long ago, in a galaxy far, far away…’ a huge comet came zipping through our solar system and ran smack into Mars. WHAM!!” he exclaimed and clapped his hands together, with a loud crack to illustrate.
“That collision whacked a few million diamonds off its surface which then wound up embedded in the soil and now, thanks to the dearly departed robot, many of them are massed all around the impact rim. By the way, it has been proposed that the Sponsors take back their five million dollar per person retainer, in lieu of 1/10 of one percent of the value of the diamonds as a finder’s fee. Perhaps you can negotiate that compromise for us,” Tom smiled and winked broadly at Ty.
He continued the tale, “The remainder of the comet augured into the terrain and either melted into a huge underground reservoir, or became a part of a much larger reservoir that was already there. Tomorrow, we’ll go out and take soundings at ten to fifteen clicks out from the rim in several directions. If we still find water, it’s an underground ocean. If not, well this lake appears to be roughly eleven and a half kilometers in diameter and a minimum of ten fathoms deep. That’s as much as we could tell from the soundings we took. It could be a lot deeper. What that signifies is: As soon as FP2 has safely landed, we will never need to send hydrogen to Mars again!
Grinning, Tom kept going, “So, to recap, we can now pay for, not only this mission, but most likely all future missions. Plus, from now on, they will all be cheaper to launch by not lugging around 2.6 tons of hydrogen! On a more serious note, the robotic device which was here had been collecting diamonds for… well, who knows how long, and they never even had a clue about the water beneath the surface. The Bolo One party is on planet less than twenty-four hours and we have discovered the ‘Holy Grail’ and it is overflowing with water.