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Dr. Herman Cromwell: [Cromwell explaining what he found out about Mars and why it got him locked up] I was doing research on a Mars meteorite.
Dr. Laura Baker: The one found in the Antarctic in '96?
Dr. Herman Cromwell: Fossils in the meteorite convinced us there might have been life on Mars. But these fossils weren't anything organic to the planet. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Dr. Laura Baker: And what was the basis for that determination?
Dr. Herman Cromwell: Carbon-based elements in the fossils, exist only in the Magellanic galaxy. That's 100 million light years away.
Press Lenox: Well, how did they get to Mars?
Dr. Herman Cromwell: By my reckoning, Mars was visited by an alien species approximately one billion years ago. The species was like a plague, a cancer. It turned a thriving planet with rivers and oceans and rudimentary plant life into a useless hunk of rock. When I heard they were going to send a mission to Mars, I strongly urged the government to reconsider.
Dr. Laura Baker: On what grounds?
Dr. Herman Cromwell: On grounds that alien DNA might remain on the planet, that any human attempt to violate the planet would result in biological contamination.
Press Lenox: So, let me guess. They told you to shove it up your ass.
Dr. Herman Cromwell: They got me fired from Stanford. It seems the military had strategic reasons for wanting to go to Mars. Outpost of the future or some crap like that. Anyway, they harassed the shit out of me. I got into a fistfight with a Pentagon general. I broke his god damn jaw.
Press Lenox: Well, that's why they stuck you in here, right?
Dr. Laura Baker: Why do you think that Dr. Orinsky called you the night that he died?
Dr. Herman Cromwell: To tell me I was right. Whatever species destroyed Mars, those poor astronauts brought down to Earth. May God have pity on our souls.
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Debutante's Sister: My God! Get off of me! Get him off of me! Oh, please, get him off of me! Oh, my God! Get him off of me! Get off of me!
Matthew Boylan
Extended Reading
