“Irene,” Venkat asked, “what is going on with my astronauts?”
“You’ll have to be more specific,” Dr. Irene Shields said, slipping into a chair in Venkat’s office. “Hermes or Mars?”
“Mars. The Hermes crew appears to be fine for now.”
“Well,” Dr. Shields said, ticking off points on her fingers, “they’re stranded on a planet hostile to all forms of life. They’re eating a diet so monotonous a lot of people would give up and starve themselves to death rather than continue it. Their life support infrastructure has failed in one way or another on multiple occasions. One of their number is effectively comatose and might die. Their nerves are shot, they’re heartsick, they’re homesick, they’re miserable, they’re taking it out on each other… oh,” she said, holding up the thumb on her left hand, the last finger she had remaining. “And some bright boy decided, while the crew was having a catastrophic social breakdown, to order them to do the single most mind-numbing chore imaginable short of inspecting Hab canvas for weak spots.”
“Well,” Venkat shrugged, “at least it united them again. They all bitched me out and then went on strike.”
“Venkat, I’ve spent the last two days using the Pathfinder connection to play email ping-pong with all of them,” Dr. Shields said. “They’re not united. They’re as far from united as they can get. And they don’t understand why.”
“Can you at least give me some pointers?” Venkat asked.
“Well, part of it is that the alien crew was more or less thrown together,” Dr. Shields said. “You read the reports, you know that. It was going to be a short, simple mission. Half the crew were veterans from the first days of their world’s space flight. So their bosses put them together more based on politics than crew dynamics, and in the process they pretty much ignored long-term personality compatibility.”
“I remember all this from your earlier reports, yes,” Venkat said. “But that was months and months ago. They pulled together as a team since. Why did it fall apart like this?”
“Two reasons,” Dr. Shields said. “First, they lost the bug. I can send you the raw emails, but to sum it up, Dragonfly was actively working to hold the crew together. So was Mark, but he’s not trained for it. He does it naturally, when he has the mental energy. Dragonfly, by contrast, was literally born and bred to be an emotional manipulator. The others knew this, and knew they were being manipulated, but she made it work anyway.
“But when Dragonfly collapsed, that left Mark alone to smooth over the rough edges. He’s not trained. He gets along very well with people. He’s friendly to a fault. But he doesn’t manipulate. He doesn’t counsel. And when he hits confrontation or anger or hostility, he pretty much shuts down.
“Which leads into the second part- they’re all tired, Venkat. They’re mentally and emotionally exhausted. They’re lashing out at each other for no apparent reason, and my guess is it’s because they’re too tired for normal socialization. They have full work days between farming, caring for Dragonfly’s cocoon, working on the Whinnybago project, and generally staying alive. They’ve had one close brush with death after another in close succession and they haven’t been given any down time.”
“Their EVA time averages about six hours,” Venkat began.
“Don’t measure it in hours, dammit,” Dr. Shields said. “They need days, not minutes. They need some time to feel a little safe again. And that means not worrying about the MAV or Schiaparelli or the next Martian disaster.”
Venkat opened his mouth to deliver another defense of the current schedule, then shut it again. “How bad is it really?” he asked.
“All of them are exhibiting signs of mental and emotional exhaustion,” Dr. Shields said. “Mark’s too tired and upset to even snark anymore. That alone should tell you it’s serious. He says he feels like he’s shutting himself off from the aliens, which means he probably is. In fact, the past two days he says he just doesn’t feel like doing anything, like someone’s tied weights to his body. That’s clinical depression, and if there was one member of the Ares III crew I would have certified as immune to depression, it would have been Watney. So I’m worried about him the most right now.
“Fireball writes like a teenager, right down to the bad English. He says everyone hates him, and he hates everyone, but that’s fine because he’s pretty much useless anyway. He feels the guiltiest about being mad at the others.
“Spitfire says she has two modes now- pure rage and indifference. She diagnoses the problem well enough, again allowing for bad English. She compares it to soldiers who have just come through a bad battle, which is a fair way of describing living on Mars long-term. But she has no useful ideas for coping with it, since back home the cure was R&R as far away from the sources of stress as possible.
“Starlight thinks the others are looking for reasons to be mad at each other, and it makes her mad. She has this notion that if the others just tried hard and focused on their work, they wouldn’t get on each other’s nerves. She’s not seeing them as people right now, and that’s a bad sign. In her current mental state she’s going to be toxic to the others.
“And Cherry Berry sees all of it going on and feels like she’s the only one trying to hold things together. The general breakdown three days ago revived her feelings that she’s not qualified for command. She sees this as her failure, and she keeps asking me to tell her how she can fix it all.
“The one thing they all have in common are symptoms of exhaustion- inability to concentrate, lack of energy, lack of willpower. In their condition, the last thing they needed was a request from JPL to go back and re-do the full inventory of all spare parts and scrap metal down to the fasteners in the trimmed-off portions of the alien ship.”
“They’re going to have to do it eventually,” Venkat said. “JPL needs that information for the MAV modification sims.”
“Now is not the time. They need a few sols to rest- no duties aside from their daily cave trip. Ideally they need a break from each other, but that’s not possible. Keep the email channels open- I can continue to counsel them until they’re ready to deal with each other again. But aside from that, let them alone, Venkat. They’re not far from something really bad if you keep pushing them.”
Venkat considered this. “In about two months we go into solar blackout,” he said. “Three weeks with no communication with Mars, maybe more depending on solar activity. Data transfer to and from Pathfinder is pretty ratty already. We don’t know how much guidance they’ll need on the conversion protocols. And then there’s the question of what Mars will throw at them next.”
“Venkat, if you push them any more there’s a chance they’ll just roll over and die,” Dr. Shields insisted. “It’s time to let them set the pace. And don’t make any requests for a few days. I’ll work on getting the band back together.”
“I’ll try,” Venkat said. “I can’t make any promises, though.”
“You’re director of Mars operations,” Dr. Shields said, standing. “You report directly to Teddy Sanders. I think you can find the authority somewhere to make at least one or two small promises.”
Venkat watched the Project Ares psychologist depart. Then, after a few moments of thought, he picked up the phone. “Annie?” he said as soon as the line picked up. “Strip today’s Pathfinder logs out of the press releases. All of it. File it under ‘personal matters.’ It’s not as amusing as I thought it was…”
Status update: I did some additions and revisions today!
i.imgur.com/dlHcO74.jpg
Like the Martians, don't press yourself too hard, Kris! :)
Do you have any shows in Colorado this summer?
When even the class clown is clinically depressed, you know that's a shitty situation. The astronauts had darn well better get a good few days' rest. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: thank goodness for Dr. Shields.
8960003 Nope. The only show that might be viable for the 1000 miles each way is Nan Desu Kan, which is the same weekend as San Japan in San Antonio.
Telling is allowed, and even useful, when showing would bog down the pacing. It's about striking a balance so we're told what we need to know and shown what we came to see, as I understand it. If we were shown all of this, we might not have been able to comprehend how it was fitting together in a total collapse of morale.
Wichita is a nice town. Food options are kinda 'meh', but the driving was at least pleasant.
It's an interesting point that I like seeing highlighted here. Dragonfly was made for this sort of thing. Even knowing you're being manipulated isn't necessarily a defense against this degree of skill and capability, especially when you know she doesn't really mean any harm by it.
Once again I can only think of how incredibly good Changelings would be at being psychologists. They are literally bred for it. No human psychologist can claim that really. They also have a vested interest in seeing you happy, rather than just taking more of your money.
You know when you think about it from the perspective of this being only a week or two long mission, having 3/5 of the crew being veterans of space seems quite reasonable. Though admittedly they should have done more testing on the Sparkle Drive before considering the use of it a simple mission.
Ah, but you arn't telling instead of show. You showed us how the Mars crew is acting, and how they are responding to it. Now you've show us how NASA is reacting to that. What was actually in the e-mails isn't important as how they react to the them.
While having the e-mails would have added to the story, nothing is lost by stepping over them in this case.
Huh, one would expect NASA to have learned a thing or two about stress and overwork by the time the story is set.
As for the chapter, I think it was a pretty legit use of telling instead of showing.
8960005
But Doctor I am Pagliacci... I mean Mark Watney
Aren't these the same symptoms of a changeling overfeeding?
They are seeing AND feeding Dragonfly every day. If she's got the ability to feed through that she may be overfeeding.
Them people skills, Venkat.
'let them alone' - either let them be or leave them alone
8960070
The problem is that NASA's never really handled a life threatening disaster on this sort of time scale before, and their institutional protocol for handling emergencies is that it's "everyone burns the candle at all the ends to get our people home safely, we'll all rest when it's over". And before you criticize that as short-sighted, keep in mind that this methodology successfully achieved the rationally impossible task of getting Apollo 13 home alive.
I feel like the recovering crippled changeling has some effect on this as well, she's feeding on their positive emotions in addition to the raw magic, which makes it more difficult to get along.
8960249
Let them alone is actually a perfectly acceptable, if old-fashioned and formal, way of saying those.
If theyre going to lose contact fully for 3 weeks because theres no L4, L5 relay points, then wouldnt it be a good idea to get as much rest and recovery in now, so that Mark and co have the stamina and build up to be able to handle three weeks alone? Where abouts is Hermes in its trajectory at this point, given its moving fast and close to teh sun but playing catch up?
8960249
I was hoping he'd change this, too. I forgot to point it out in my original comment.
8960204
All hail Queen Johanssonlis!
Hugging the positive emotion sink isn't doing them any favors either, but there are plenty of stressors even without feeding Dragonfly. A shame the bandwidth isn't anywhere near good enough for voice chat.
Really good to see this was a natural reaction to their own bodies trying to cope with it all, rather than something more magical
Fireball being the one who feels guiltiest about it was a sweet touch, too.
8960249
AnnieIrene was obviously quoting Matthew 15:14. She must be really unhappy with the jpl guys, it's probably the extra work they cause her.Or she refers to the whole prunell plan. I wouldn't even disagree with her.
8960501 Irene. Irene is the shrink, Annie is the cusscyclopedia.
My god... she's turning into Vegeta!
Ah! Kansas! Sadly, my only memories are of the "majestic" Flint Hills and throwing up lunch out the car window as we passed by the Iowa Beef slaughterhouse in Emporia, long...long ago. ºQº
8960489 Well... there's nothing to say that it isn't Dragonfly amplifying the effect. Those on Earth have no way of knowing how subtle magical emotion draining might manifest.
Imagine if Discord had twisted the Mane 6 slowly, playing upon and pitting the weaknesses in each ones' character against each other over a longer period of time rather than forcefully breaking most of them (which meant they didn't internalize the inversion of their primary attribute, the alterations were merely layered over and smothered their normal personalities, which were still intact beneath), thereby actually creating genuine fissures and animosity a few letters wouldn't so easily sweep aside.
Even if Dragonfly is only passively siphoning a little of their good feelings at a time... think of how that would affect them day after day in such a dire situation as they're in. Eventually, they'd be drained, and far more quickly than if they were safe and sound at home.... or even if they were in a dangerous place at home. There'd be hope and familiarity and room to move. On Mars, they're trapped. No place to run, no place to hide, no place to feel safe, and a long wait until the first hope of rescue on a planet that seems constructed by that bastard Murphy and his Law. What little positive emotion they could salvage wouldn't last long even without a mutating love vampire stealthily leeching from them as it assumes its ULTIMATE FORM!!
we need everypony to pray for a miracle as hard as we can... Dragonfly needs it... I refuse to let my favorite astro-changeling die... they need to literally create a spirit bomb and channel the energy directly into dragonfly... and after they do that they need to find one of the old Martian hydrogen accelerators used in the beginning of the Martian war... that's how they got the cylinders to earth in only 10 days
8960044
She hasn't shown that fault for at least a season and a half. She's gotten over it.
We need to make a spirit Bomb of positive energy. We are dealing with multi universe theory folks enough of us decide to do it, and something might happen!
8960001
Can't read sheet music for the life of me--so I thought I'd go online and find a music synthesizer that'd play it for me. Couldn't find a one! Just I'm just gonna have to wait until you're done.
8960826
And Quees observed same, but much more powerfull effect when she was in orbit over Equus. Possible conclusions: 1) that universe is more alive. and inhabited planet was "happy"; 2) being in direct sight for changeling causes them to "read" emotions regardless of range (maybe attenuated?) and Queen had "read" entire planet, every being in direct sight, as a whole.
I consider latter is less likely.
NB Never allow a changeling anywhere near a Death Star
8961178
*Chrysalis in a Space Pod over the DS1 Orbital Battlestation* : "I don't FEEL this thing's mood... I HEAR IT."
Twilight: "What's it sound like."
Chrysalis: "Beginning sound projection spell..."
Twilight: "Why does it sound like an ominous symphony orchestra?"
Chrysalis: "I think the fact that it's a planet-destroying giant battlestation might have something to do with that."
8961139
I'll help you out in a PM.
8960204
I'd say yes immediately but when I think on it, wouldn't the subject become lethargic to the point of no emotions at all? In fact, we know what a complete drain looks like when Mark was attacked. No, this is something other than Dragonfly.
8961492
That's an active drain. This may be a passive/subconscious drain.
huh Dragonfly is reviving herself
Huh? What, when?
Ugh, true. She was their team psychologist, or at least the closest thing they could get.
Yikes. That is very serious.
Yiiiiikes. Been there, yes. That is bad.
Well, in dragon age, he might be. Older than 'teenager' probably won't fit in any pony-sized spacecraft
That at least means she'll be very open to suggestions from Dr. Shields
...oh
Psh. Mark did fine on his own without guidance, in the original story
Well, since it's a psych evaluation of the original writings, it kind of works, actually. Doesn't feel too tell-ish. A bit recap-ish, perhaps.
8960071
That poor clown. When even Rorschach feels sorry for someone, you know there's trouble.
Dragonfly was patching ship,suits & nerves. So i think we readers need our hearts patched...
In this version of reality. NASA actually listened to the voice of reason and didn't go through with their stupid SLS rocket plans
Hug the Bug and hug the Cocoon are simply not the same thing ...
This is what saves my mood in bad days.
Music...
There was once a 8 bit Version of the song. Even that one worked.
Low tech music for the win: