"Control, we're getting some strange signals up here".
Colonel Richardson had his co-pilot double check the radar on his side of the craft, and sure enough he obtained the same result. The Colony Six was on its final approach to the Martian surface, its fourth journey in the past three months.
The Colony program had truly been a great success for the International Space Federation, though it had had its faults. The first iteration of their shuttle craft fleet, the Colony One, had been lost during space transit about four and a half years ago. Colonel Richardson's best friend and previous co-pilot, Mike Johnson, had been chosen by the ISF President upon the program's inception. Richardson was truly proud of his friend, who he'd known since they were little boys. His fondest memories as a child were of him and Mike playing with rocket ships in grade school, where they promised each other that they'd be astronauts together when they grew up. And did they ever. But now, it was all becoming a collection of distant memories.
"Colonel, can you transmit the approximate origin of the signal from your craft's systems please," buzzed an all-too-familiar voice from the Martian soil. Since the program's inception significant innovations had been made on the Colony fleet, which allowed for the ISF to construct an advanced landing-zone that served as the main base-camp for the Martian research ground. The voice belonged to Richardson's younger brother, Lieutenant Rory Richardson. He'd always aspired to follow in his older brother's footsteps, though he couldn't quite hit the aptitude marks to get a pilot position back on Earth. Nevertheless, he took his position as the head of Martian Control with stride, maintaining the highest levels of professionalism and effectiveness for shuttle departures and landings.
"Sure thing, Lieutenant," replied Colonel Richardson. He was truly proud of his brother for getting to where he was in the organization. He had mentored him through his studies as much as possible, but because he was a busy man himself he could not spare time too often. Luckily, between trips on the Six he could spend at least a few weeks with him. After all, flying between planets limited his visits with any family, and his parents had died in the drought of 2056. The whole reason that they were doing the Colony program was because of overpopulation on Earth. Entire cities and regions had been wiped out as the agriculture industry failed, sending prices of wheat, corn and other foods skyrocketing. Not many were surprised however, as the UN reported that global population levels hit 12 billion just a year before. Now, that level was closer to 8 billion.
Richardson sent the coordinates over to Martian control, and waited for the results. It was odd to get a signal so close to the surface, as all satellites that were around were tagged and listed on their system with individual identities. Richardson figured it was probably a decommissioned satellite that was launched before the new identification system was implemented. However, he knew that it was something different judging by the silence from Martian Control.
"Lieutenant, what is it?" he inquired. "Is it hostile?" A few more seconds of silence, and then a response.
"No, Colonel. Upon sending a transmission to the unknown object, we received a faint response." As the Lieutenant finished his transmission, Richardson had him repeat it five times. He must be wrong. It can't be.
It was Colony One. And the voice was Mike's.
Based on http://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/2ncqt4/wp_the_colony_one_spacecraft_mysteriously/
