[ WP ] In search of life on Mars , NASA 's newest rover has stumbled upon a badly eroded monument . The almost unintelligible inscription reads : `` What you are , I once was ; what I am , you will become '' .

**The Future Perfect** 
 
 Mars rover *Colbert* is rolling across the surface of Mars when the right wheel stops on something. The scientists are surprised: this should n't be an area with any stones larger than pebbles. They pull out the rover's seeing glass to examine the object. It's a small plaque on a stone. It reads: 
 
 What you are, I once was; what I am, you will become. 
 
 There is a furor as English words are discovered on Mars. Theories are proposed, fact-finding expeditions are carried out, and the world goes nuts. But nobody ever finds out anything, and so eventually the public loses interest. Then the government loses interest. Then the funding goes. 
 
 One hundred years after that humanity establishes its first interstellar colony on Mars. It's a good thing, too, as global warming has made Earth increasingly uninhabitable. The colony starts off small, but, as soon as it's obvious the colony's viable ( and before ), millions of people come to Mars. 
 
 The city, then cities, cover the surface of Mars. Before long Mars is in danger of being made uninhabitable. But a religious environmental group recalls the example of the monument and leads an environmental revival. Disaster is averted. Mars is clean. 
 
 There are now talks to establish another colony on Planet X, which looks to be almost Earth-like in its environment. The successor of NASA is tasked with exploring Planet X with a rover. The rover's official cargo list lists a variety of scientific instruments, as well as a list of materials necessary for terraforming a small plot of the surface as a test. 
 
 If anyone had weighed the rover, then weighed the materials, they would have noticed a discrepancy. That's because there's another object on board the rover, one stashed away in a secret compartment. At a specified time, it will be launched far away from the rover, to be found at a later date. It's a monument, and this is what it says: 
 
 What you are, I once was; what I am, you will become. 
 
 
 
 *Written by Stranger_andStranger* 
 
 If you enjoyed this story, and would like to read more of my writing, check out my subreddit at r/Stranger_andStranger!
