DIAMONDS ON MARS_by Marco Pappagallo

After years of research and attempts, the astronauts had finally landed on the Martian soil. They had immediately begun to drill the ground, because they knew there was a net of underground rivers just beneath the surface. But none of them was prepared to what they saw the minute they reached the first underground cave.

It was similar to the Terrestrial caves, with stalactites and stalagmites, the difference was that these formations weren't calcareous, they were made of diamond. There were stalactites and stalagmites in different colours: ruby, sapphire, emerald, all shaped like spikes. They were all around the cave, which was illuminated by their presence, as if they had a light of their own.

The astronauts gazed. They saw that the cave stretched for a while, so they began to head towards the other end. When they finally came out of that colored and lighted hallway, they saw something wonderful. There was a huge pit with a great number of tiny houses lit by the coloured diamonds the astronauts had seen in the hallway. It looked like a tiny city on a Christmas celebration.

The astronauts went down a narrow flight of stairs to get to the miniature city. They saw small silhouettes made of light moving through the streets. They had human-like features, they looked like children, but the light they emitted was so strong that you could barely make out their contours. All those little figures began to run at the sight of the astrounauts, but without making a sound. They looked like ghosts.

One of them was courageous enough to slowly approach them, looking at them with small black eyes.  When they were close enough, the little alien reached out pointing his little finger at the astronauts. The humans were perplexed, but one of them knelt in front of the alien, and the astronaut's index touched the alien's. The alien smiled, and all the other hidden little aliens came out from their hiding places and surrounded the astronauts. The astronauts began to show the aliens a few objects they had brought with them. The aliens looked surprised, especially after they were shown an electric battery.

One of the aliens gave the humans a big pile of coloured and bright diamonds. In the head of the astronauts, a tiny childish voice resounded happily: "This is our energy source. It is clean and everlasting. Take it with you and show it to your fellow humans on Earth. Stop fighting over energy sources, live in peace like we do. Go back to Earth and share these stones. There is no need to fight, there is enough for everybody. And if you need more, come back and we'll give you some more to you. Share the love, live in peace." The golden child smiled, his pretty face beaming with a light so peaceful that all the astronauts smiled back to him. All the other shiny children began to sing a sweet tune. "Leave in peace, share the love, live as brothers".

The humans returned to Earth, happy for their peaceful encounter with the aliens and for the wonderful things that they had seen. All of them had received a handful of beautiful diamonds. They sat smiling in their spaceship, still mesmerized by the beauty of those little shining figures and by the sweetness of their voices.

But as their journey back to Earth went on, the warmth in their hearts began to dissipate, and more practical thoughts crowded their minds. "Do you think we should share this energy source with the Russians and the Chinese, captain?"  "Of course not. We could build weapons that could finally subjugate the other nations for good." He smiled. He thought it wouldn't be too hard to come back to Mars and build a mine in the caves, so that more diamonds could be taken. All diamonds actually, so they would have the monopoly of this incredible source of energy.

He wasn't quite surprised, after talking to the colonels on ground control at the NASA station in Houston, that everybody on Earth had had approximately the same ideas about the diamonds. The final establishment of the superiority of one nation over the others. For good.

Ground control was waiting impatiently for their landing in Houston. They applauded as the spaceship touched the ground. That was about the time when the diamonds went off. The explosion erased Houston in a second, irradiating a light so bright that it was seen on Mars with clarity. The next second, the whole Earth exploded.

"We have watched them for milleniums_ said a sweet child-like voice on Mars. "We all know that they would have destroyed us like they did with entire civilizations on their planet. It was either us or them." The other tiny silhouettes smiled a sad smile. Then they went back to their little peaceful lives.