The silver pod landed in a big cloud of gray ash. Inside, the astronauts waited for the air to clear. “We made it!”exclaimed Al. “We’re the first humans to return to Earth in 500 years.” 

“Wait! We must be careful,” said Elwood. “We have to check the air quality before we go out.” 

Elwood and Al looked at the screen: 

SEPT 7, 2589 

Dust Level: High

Protective Gear: Required 

Outside Temperature: 44C 

Al walked up to the first hill and tested it with a metal probe. “I think it’s hollow,” he said. “Should we excavate?” 

Elwood and Al told the robot to dig into the side of the hill. In a very short time there was a small entrance into the hill.

What do you think those hills might be?

Elwood spoke into the microphone again. “We have exposed a small opening into one of the hills. Do we have permission to enter?”

Elwood listened, then announced to Al, “We 

have 20 minutes, but we must be very careful. If 

there is any sign of danger, we must return to the pod at once.” 

The robot disappeared into the hill and the two 

astronauts followed, not sure what to expect. 

“What is this?”asked Al. 

“It seems we’re in a room or a cave.” 

“Light,” Elwood commanded the robot. Al and Elwood blinked and 

looked around. In the middle of the room, there was a table with four chairs.

Attached to the wall there were lots of small cabinets, made of a 

brown material that the astronauts didn’t recognize. 

What is the brown material, and why didn't the astronauts recognize it?

Elwood pointed to a large box-shaped metal thing with two doors. “Look at this!”he exclaimed.

“A person could probably fit in here.”

He slowly opened the larger of the two doors. Inside there were lots of containers that were all different shapes and sizes. 

“This must have been some kind of storage compartment,” explained Al, as he opened one of the containers. “I wonder what these were,” he said, 

looking inside at small bones and black powder. 

“Be careful,” warned Elwood. “That might be poisonous.” 

The metal box a man could fit into was probably a...

Al quickly closed the container and put it back. “I bet this room was a lab,” 

Al added. “It has all these storage cabinets and containers and a work table 

and chairs in the middle.”

“You’re probably right,” agreed Elwood. “I hope none of this stuff is dangerous.” 

At the end of the room, there was another small room with two 

strange-looking white “boxes”, one on top of the other. They each had a door with a small, round glass window. “I wonder what these were used for,” said Elwood. 

“This one looks like it could have been used as an oxygen machine,” suggested Al. 

What were those boxes?

“Back then, people didn’t need oxygen machines. They could breathe the air,” Elwood reminded him. 

The astronauts followed the robot into another room. Al bumped into some shelves and something fell to the floor. He picked it up. “Look Elwood, I think I’ve found a book!”said Al excitedly. “Wow – look at it. 

I’ve never touched one before.” 

Five hundred years earlier, when the people from Earth were rushing to leave before the meteorite hit, they could only take what was necessary for survival. But one person had smuggled a few books onto the spaceship. 

Those books are now in the National Gallery of Mars.

Al rubbed the dust off the book with his glove. “This one says: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

I wonder who Harry Potter was and why somebody wrote about him.”