"Mr. President?" said a female voice from across the oval office.

The President looked up from his desk to see his secretary, Casey, sanding next to a tall well dressed man clutching a large binder overflowing with papers.

"Come in, Come in." the President said while closing a folder marked "Top Secret" and slipping into his desk.

"Mr. President, this is the new director of NASA, Marcus Beckena...Uh."

"Beckenauer, sir." interrupted the young new director.

"Thank you Casey, you're excused." said the President.

The two men watched as the secretary hurried out of the room. As the door to the office closed the President reached into his deck and pulled out the folder he had put away a moment before.

"Have you received the full briefing yet Mr. Beckenauer? asked the President.

"No sir, I was called in before the NSA could get me up to speed."

"No matter, I'll catch you up as we go. Are those the specifications you were asked to bring?" the president asked while gesturing to the binder that Marcus was carrying.

"Yes sir. If I may ask, why do you need all these?"

"I guess its time to bring you up to speed on the current situation." the President started, "I'm sure you are aware or the current black out we have enacted on all satellites and telescopes directed at Mars."

Marcus nodded, he was very aware of the current black out, its all he had been hearing about for weeks from his staff. The entire agency has been in an uproar about it.

"As I'm sure you know, all images taken by your satellites and telescopes are available to the public almost instantly," the President paused for a moment to carefully choose his next words, "what you don't know is that all the images are first checked by a small department under the Department of Defense for anything that may compromise the security of the nation."

Marcus' eyes opened a bit wider. "So the black out..." he began.

"Was enacted because something rather alarming has happened.