The Red Venus

by Antonio Bellomi

Part 1 appears
in this issue.

conclusion

“His vehicle had sunk in a sort of little lake of these sands and we found it by chance when a team of geologists took samples for a study of the thin sands. Just for your information, it was found in the Albany crater.”

Uriel Qeta was rather intrigued. “This story is very interesting and explains why the poor professor had not been found at the time. But it is not clear to me why you asked me here. I don’t understand how I can help you at this point.”

“You can help us retrieve the Red Venus,” answered the director of the museum.

Uriel Qeta frowned. “The Red Venus?”

“The extraterrestrial statue Professor Gutiérrez had found,” Doctor Joska interjected for the first time.

When she realized the planetologist had not understood, she went on. “You see, just before he disappeared, Professor Gutiérrez sent a message to the Martian Communication Center on Deimos. An incomprehensible message, actually. He said he had found a small red basalt statue, surely manufactured by an alien race.”

Doctor Qeta frowned. “An alien race?”

Doctor Joska nodded. “So he said. A statue that remarkably looked like the Venus de Milo. He said he had hidden it, because he was being pursued by the Hyksos. The extraterrestrial race wanted to kill him and get the statue back to avoid its becoming the property of Earthmen.”

Doctor Joska paused for a moment and then went on. “Unfortunately, he had deactivated the transponder because he feared being located by the Hyksos. Thus it was impossible for us to detect his position.”

Uriel Qeta exhaled slowly. “You said ‘Hyksos’? What have the invaders of ancient Egypt to do with Mars? No indigenous civilization ever developed on Mars, and no traces of any extraterrestrial civilization were ever found.”

“That is true,” Director Kun conceded. “Up to now we have found no traces of an alien civilization, but Professor Gutiérrez was convinced that one day we would find them. He was absolutely obsessed by this idea. And this was the reason he kept roving in the desert with his tractor. As for the Hyksos, we think this was simply a name he himself made up to call the aliens.”

Doctor Joska shifted her position, uncomfortably. She crossed and uncrossed her shapely legs a few times.

“Professor Gutiérrez might have been a bit mad, but we are sure that if he said he had found a statue, this must be true. And we want to find it, whatever the cost.”

“He must not have explained clearly where he had hidden it, because in this case you wouldn’t need my help,” the planetologist said quite logically.

“That’s right,” the director said, spreading his arms. “Professor Gutiérrez’s message said he would tell where he had hidden the statue in such a way that only an Earthman would understand. Thus the Hyksos would be unable to retrieve it.”

“And the clue is?”

Doctor Joska unfolded a paper she had in her hand. “I buried the Red Venus in the crater of the Admiral of the two worlds,” she read. “It is just in the center point. Don’t let it fall into the Hyksos’ hands!”

“Just this?” Uriel Qeta asked, a bit dumbfounded. “It is not much of a clue.”

“Rightly so,” Director Kun said. “The rest of the transmission, or at least the preceding part, is an absolutely delirious message in which he said he had found the Red Venus, chiseled in red basalt. But he also said that when he had dug it out, he had awakened the spirits of the ancient Hyksos that now where pursuing him in order to recover the statue.”

Uriel Qeta’s eyes went back and forth a few times from the director to Doctor Joska, then he softly asked: “Isn’t it possible that our distinguished Professor Gutiérrez had simply and suddenly gone mad?”

“We can’t rule it out,” Director Kun said. “But we believe the professor really had found something. And we are curious to see what it was. Unfortunately, his directions led us nowhere.”

“The Admiral of the Two Worlds...” Uriel Qeta grumbled pensively.

Doctor Joska smiled at him. “We think we have solved this clue,” she said. “We discussed the matter and we concluded that the Admiral of the Two Worlds of whom Professor Gutiérrez spoke is Christopher Columbus, the man who discovered America.

“The fact he is called Admiral is strongly supportive, since this was precisely the title that was conferred upon him. And there also is a crater named Columbus. Unfortunately at the center of the crater, where we have been digging, we have been unable to find anything.”

“Perhaps the Hyskos took it away,” Uriel Qeta joked.

“Perhaps,” Doctor Joska admitted with a bitter sweet smile. “The rub is, we don’t believe the Hyksos story.”

She shrugged. “There is something else. On board the tractor, we discovered that the electrical system had a gas leak. We think the leaking fumes could have generated hallucinations in his brain.”

“It is therefore possible that he dreamt all of the story,” the planetologist suggested again. “But you don’t believe this.”

The director of the museum nodded. “Exactly. Though he could have been hallucinating, we believe the professor could not have dreamt all of it. No, we believe he truly found something... The Red Venus. But where did he bury it?”

Director Kun patted the top of the desk with his fingers. “But there is more to the mystery. Crater Columbus is at 29 degrees South latitude, 166 degrees East longitude, that is very far from Crater Albany where the professor sank. Crater Albany is at 23.3 degrees North latitude and 49.8 East longitude. It is impossible that he could reach Crater Columbus with his tractor and then come back. But his directions are clear.”

After a short pause, she went on. “Actually, we have another interpretation. The first Earth probe that safely touched down on Martian soil was Viking 2. It fell at 48 degrees North latitude and 226 degrees West longitude. That probe could be considered the Admiral of the Two Worlds, the Earth and Mars.”

Uriel Qeta looked at her quizzically. “And...”

She shrugged again. “And nothing. An investigation on the spot did not yield any results. The statue is still hidden somewhere.”

The director rose to his feet and began pacing to and fro. “You see, Doctor Qeta, we strongly believe the statue is real and we want to find it. We owe it to Professor Gutiérrez, whom we still consider a genius even if a bit maniacal, and we owe it to Mars.

“If the Red Venus exists as, I repeat, we believe, it must find its proper place in this museum.”

Nobody spoke for a long time, then Uriel Qeta raised his eyes and broke the silence. “There may be another possibility that you have not considered. May I have a map of the craters of Mars?”

The director turned swiftly and took a big volume from the bookshelf behind him. He opened it in front of Uriel Qeta. “Here. Do you have an idea?” he asked anxiously.

“Maybe.”

Uriel Qeta slowly turned the pages and stopped finally on a big table. Then he raised his eyes to Kun.

“The professor’s name was Miguel Gutiérrez,” he said. “I gather he was of Spanish or Latin American origin.”

Doctor Joska nodded. “Yes, he told me that a few times. His great-great grandparents lived in Argentina. Why do you ask?”

Uriel Qeta smiled and pointed to a place on the map. “Because the crater the professor mentioned might be this one,” he said. “If I were you, I would immediately start searching here.”

* * *

“The Red Venus,” Director Zoltan Kun said reverently, placing the red basalt statue onto the stand mounted at the center of the grand room of the museum. “Doctor Gutiérrez was right. It strongly resembles the Venus de Milo.”

Doctor Joska’s eyes were shining, as were the other people’s behind her.

Uriel Qeta shared the same moment of excitement, but he felt compelled to curb his imagination.

Actually, the statue was a block of red basalt that was only roughly shaped and had only a vague resemblance to a human image. You needed a great deal of imagination to liken it to the Venus de Milo. Truly, the outlines suggested such a similarity, but the planetologist did not feel like raising the possibility that such an item could be just a joke of nature.

It was possible the waters that had once upon a time flowed on Mars had accidentally polished the block of basalt into a shape resembling the famous Venus of Earth.

Maybe. Or the professor might have been right and there had been a Martian civilization and a sculptor had really begun to sketch out a statue but had been compelled to stop working on it for some reason.

But one day new discoveries might bring to light new findings that would completely change what was written in the books that told the history of Mars.

A reporter from the Mars Tidings approached Uriel Qeta with his palm video camera on. “Doctor Qeta,” he said, “would you like to explain to our viewers how you were able to pinpoint the location of the crater where professor Gutiérrez had hidden the statue?”

Uriel Qeta smiled in front of the camera. “A guess,” he explained, “and the knowledge of history matched with my love for languages. For the Anglos, the man who discovered America was Christopher Columbus, but for Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American people, he is known as Cristóbal Colón.”

The reporter looked mystified and Uriel Qeta went on: “Crater Colón is placed at 23 degrees North latitude and 47.1 degrees East longitude, not very far from where poor Professor Gutiérrez was found.”

“Do you think the Red Venus is really the work of an ancient Martian artist?” another reporter asked.

Why destroy such a hope?

“It might be,” Uriel Qeta replied. “Perhaps one day the future will tell us.”

Proceed to The Critics’ Corner