My story is based on the topic #astrobiology, of the contest of @onstellar

The plot of the story is about the transcription of the audio of a biologist and his colleague of the mission to Mars "terraformed Mars", which is in possession of a group of agents of the World Bureau of Investigations, a global agency of the future.

Source

                                       The last records of Dr. Romano.

Transcribed audio files about the incident of the project "external life" of the SpaceX-Techlife association, by Dr. Fazio Romano, of the team of biologists of Italy.

Year 2074, August 14, day 4 of the exploration of sector 11 of terraformed Mars. Time: 10:24 am.

Neither I nor any other member of the biology team has been able to catalog several of the "cultivated" life forms on Mars. It makes no sense that only 2 decades and a somewhat different environment have impacted so much on the genotype and phenotype of so many specimens (at least 24 between "animals" and "plants", if you can call them that), and others follow exactly the same, apparently, to his peers on earth. We suspect that there has been genetic manipulation, but from whom, for what and why we were not informed? Who on the team are capable of something like that? Any of my team or the Russians? None definitely. This alarms me too much, and there is a tense atmosphere between the team. Nobody seems able to talk openly about this.

Year 2074, August 14, day 4 of the exploration of sector 11 of terraformed Mars. Time: 2:47 pm.

Talking with dr. Sokolov of the Russian biologist team, to whom I trust most of all, we agree that these changes of the genome of the specimens could not have taken place by themselves. In the last two days they sequenced the genome of specimen 7, a rare type of insect (although it does not fit like an insect), which I have already discussed in detail in notes the day before yesterday, seems to have many more alterations than I could have known. With my team we did not have enough work to emphasize the genome of this specimen, particularly, it was so busy with the 7 new species of plants brought by the explorers that we could not focus on the others ... "insectoids". The director and the second administrator in charge did not allow us to analyze even the "insects" until corroborating that they are not infected with any germ, the "plants" were analyzed by pathogens on the 1st day, so in them we have concentrated.

Less than a week on the planet and this is already crazy, definitely one of the other two explorations, terraformed Mars 1 and 3 should know something, but their settlements are about 800 and 3,200 kilometers, it will be impossible to reach them less With authorization, and due to the protocol, another damned inconvenience, we can not contact them for another 6 days. I have no idea why.

Year 2074, August 15, day 5 of the exploration of sector 11 of terraformed Mars. Time: 11.24 a.m.

Sokolov was sleepless all night, after talking to a colleague of his. This was altered long after his talk because apparently talked too much while drinking vodkas after work, and what he told is hard to believe, but seems to fit with what happens.

Apparently so many governments within the project it was impossible that at least one of them did not have interests different to the spirit of the project: Fill with life Mars so that the colonies that have been two decades can spread through more territory and depend exclusively on what is produced by the planet .

According to this colleague of Sokolov, ... It upsets me even more that she did not want to tell me her name or surname, ... Russia or some organization in that country is plotting something about the planet, but she does not know for sure what. I spoke too quickly with Sokolov and the lack of sleep did not help him to express himself better, besides that Russian accent that complicates it even more ... "there is something on the floor of Mars" is what he repeated several times. Sokolov must now be collecting samples from the outside of the facility, and I am going back to work right now, I am suspecting too many things that I can not express now.

Year 2074, August 15, day 5 of the exploration of sector 11 of terraformed Mars. Time: 5:48 pm

The "insects" are not insects and the "plants" are not precisely plants, the alterations are massive, none of the "plants" has the same amounts of cellulose as those we know from the earth, they do photosynthesis but apparently they are also heterotrophic , the membrane of your body seems to be designed to absorb nutrients according to two colleagues who noticed these pores and checked a little, but did not check it at all, you have to perform precision tests and see what happens with these nutrients, how they are processed ... Oh how incredible! ... and the "insects" ... have different amounts of legs, the 5 has only 4 legs, 3 more including the 7 have 8 legs and 2 mini limbs on the sides of their jaws ... the size of their cells are larger than usual, 243 microns, but do not agree with eukaryotes, much less with prokaryotes, have organelles that we had never seen. According to my colleagues they have many more mitochondria than usual, as if they needed more energy than their size indicates and also the "plants" have more, in addition to their tissues resembling muscles, I had forgotten to mention! ... There are so many, ... so many differences that I do not have time to count them all ... The amount of sclerites in the insectoids is greater in almost all and they seem to be thinner, as evolutionary traces, none have antennas, the specimen 7 ... oh for God the specimen 7 he has no eyes, but he can clearly see that he attacked Dr. Ruzzo's finger but luckily he does not have the strength to drill gloves, and it seems that a large part of his head, if he can be called a head, is an eye or a set of these. I could not distinguish I was not more than a few minutes watching them under the microscope of a dead specimen (he was killed by the other two!), I can not be more than a few minutes concentrating on anything, ... it always occurs to me to compare some detail of a specimen with another, to find relationships, it's so incredible, so radical!, ... oh ... I had already forgotten how tense this situation ... What do not they want to tell us? Why are they watching us so much? Why do not they still let us communicate with settlements 1 and 3? I do not dare to speak with the director, others have been sent to obey or be suspended, I do not understand anything. I will continue with the investigation.

Year 2074, August 15, day 5 of the exploration of sector 11 of terraformed Mars. Time: 23:31 pm.

Sokolov found a strange compound in the ground, several actually, it looks like DNA but with two nucleotides that we could not recognize! Oh no, no, ... I do not have to shout, I'm too upset I need to talk about this with someone else but Sokolov's talk with his colleague has me very worried, are the Russians or some Russian institution making genetic alterations without warning? Sokolov believes that they have taken advantage of the legal vacuum that we are on Mars to carry out these acts, but if this is true there is no way to explain, at least for us, how they achieved such a piece of genetic engineering art, we certainly have tried, I tried! And in decades we could never do anything more than transgenic and some changes in the production of certain compounds by various animals, chickens with teeth, regeneration of skin with high probability of cancer or the failure of the creation of antibodies for humans in pigs , and of course thousands of patents that have revolutionized human health, but achieve this ?! I do not know what to think, today was a very long day. I'm going to try to sleep a bit, but I do not think I'll make it. I would continue with my studies, which is what I most want is impossible; we have limited access to the lab and its tools, and now that I think about it, that's suspicious too, I know! ... (End of audio).

Year 2074, August 16, day 6 of the exploration of sector 11 of terraformed Mars. Time: 00:53 am

I just met Dr. Sokolov, doctor, tell you.

-Alexey Sokolov: I'm Alexey Sokolov, head of the biology team of the Russian expedition. I just hacked and accessed without permission from superiors to the records of the director of the Russian team of researchers and what I found should be denounced at whatever cost. These bastards are planning to stay with our investigations and I read that they have permission to use the security forces against us if necessary, in order to defend their secret: the virus that I found on the Martian soil called "EAA", which is It has gone out of control, apparently it was on Martian soil, but I do not know and apparently they also do not know its origin ...

- Dr. Romano interrupts: That can be proof of extraterrestrial life ...

-Dr. Sokolov: Do not interrupt! We're not sure about that! ... I'm sorry, I'm stressed, but let's not talk about what ... my God ... maybe you're right and maybe he's also right about the origin of these mutations, ... this pathogen, ... this damned virus it can be the cause of everything.

-Dr. Romano: Right now our goal is to find out more, and at the relevant time send these video records to the command center on earth, we want to excuse ourselves from betrayal by not sending it before, but without the intention of offending we have to know who is in our part and who does not.

-Dr. Sokolov: Only if we manage to collect the amount of evidence enough will it be then that they see this message, otherwise we will have failed in the attempt, and only you will know what happened ... (They knock loudly on the door)

-Voice of unidentified individual: Open the door! (knock on the door)

-Dr. Sokolov: Who is it?! Send it, send it!

-Dr. Romano: Yes, yes, yes!

Shots are heard, apparently the door opens. End of video records.

Top secret investigation file of section 142 of the WBI (World Bureau of Investigation)

Link of the contest