- Fast forward twenty years, and a second expedition to Mars is launched.
- They did get some pictures of Mars's surface and would have sent a second mission earlier, but apparently some pesky World War III got in the way.
- Not to worry, this is just fiction. Right?
- So this second expedition consists of eighteen spacemen and twenty-three other men. New technology allows for a nineteen day crossing. Guess they figured they could survive without women for a month or so. We'll see about that.
- Captain van Tromp sends back three rather interesting messages. None of them are about hills being alive.
- The first says there are no survivors from the Envoy (told ya). The second claims there is alien life on Mars. The third is a correction: turns out there is one Envoy survivor. (Talk about outwit, outlast, outplay.)