Chronicles of the Martian Underground is a story that takes place in the near future of contemporary time. It depicts man's first attempt at putting a human presence on the surface of Mars. The time is early to mid-twenty-first century, and the mission consists of an international crew of seven. During the course of the flight, the Earth and the crew are subject to a freak cosmic phenomenon—a maelstrom of gamma rays emanating from the Cygnus and pulsar. Mars, because of its orbit at the time, was unaffected, but the event was reaping havoc with time and space surrounding the Earth, twisting the reality of the crew and the perspective of the mission. The story develops at first from the mission director's vantage. He's a man nearly broken, agonizing over the possible loss of a crew and friends. The story moves on to the mission itself, and the crew struggle for survival as they land on the surface and discover that they have been caught in a repetitive time loop that has duplicated their mission five times in twenty-year increments and left them marooned.