An article about the huge reservoir of liquid water discovered below ground on Mars:
Oceans of Liquid Water on MarsIn the presence of H2O, life as we know it has the potential to evolve and thrive. Therefore, this revelation enhances the plausiblity of living organisms on Mars, even if only microscopic. According to data collected by the Mars rovers "it has become more and more evident that the red planet was once loaded with water. Minerals, terrain, and features such as ancient dry lake beds and deltas suggest that Mars was once pretty soggy." Maybe the obsolete belief in ancient artificial canals on the Red Planet isn't so farfetched after all, even though they would've existed so many eons ago as to leave no traces for us to find. Suppose, during the period of surface liquid water, advanced life developed -- even to the point of intelligence and a technological culture? And what if the ancient Martians didn't go extinct, but left a remnant who retreated underground and built subterranean cities, whose inhabitants are deliberately hiding from us?
Highly implausible, sure -- but impossible? That scenario could make an intriguing premise for an SF novel.
In Diane Duane's A WIZARD OF MARS, teenage wizard protagonists Kit and Nita learn of and visit a Martian civilization that existed in the unimaginably distant past. The Wikipedia overview of the novel:
A Wizard of MarsSuppose that society had secretly survived into the present? I don't know of a published fictional work on that premise, but it wouldn't be much of a stretch from Duane's plotline.
Margaret L. Carter
Please explore love among the monsters at Carter's Crypt.
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