“That should not have happened.”
Venkat leaned over Mindy Park’s shoulder and tapped her computer screen with the back of his pen. The screen showed the immediate aftermath of the previous day’s Hab breach. By day’s end Watney had changed his rock message to read, “Sol 88: Hab breach. Repaired. One injured. Crops set back. Att contact via Pathfinder.” Now NASA was in full post-incident analysis mode, with Mindy leading the image analysis team while Venkat himself took a personal role as investigator.
Venkat liked his new role. Teddy wanted a preliminary report by 3:00 PM today. This gave Venkat an excuse to use his scientific training… and, just as good, an excuse to turn his phone off for the duration.
“Why not?” Mindy asked. “The air pressure not strong enough to lift the airlock?”
“Oh, no,” Venkat shook his head. “There was enough air pressure in the Hab to make the world’s deadliest potato cannon. If the entire force of the escaping air had been applied to the airlock, the acceleration would have turned Watney and White Boxy to soup.”
Venkat tapped the screen again. “But that could only happen if the system were designed to do that, with a rigid gun barrel or at least a collar. But the airlock canvas anchoring system stayed with the airlock. The canvas ripped around it. And an escaping fluid under pressure always seeks the path of least resistance. The escaping air should have shredded the canvas but left the airlock alone.” He traced the outline of the hole in the sagging Hab canvas. “Instead the canvas tears around the airlock as neat as you like, compressing enough of the escaping air to provide about twenty meters per second of acceleration. That’s a lot less than its full potential, but it’s still a lot more than it should have been.”
“It’s not impossible,” Mindy pointed out.
“No,” Venkat admitted. “But we could simulate this a million times and never get anything like this result. I don’t trust it.”
“Okay,” Mindy said. “Can we do anything about it?”
“That’s a question for the engineers,” Venkat said. “I’m a physicist. But there are a couple of obvious things we can do, if Mark gets Pathfinder working and we get a solid communication link. We can give him procedures for inspecting the Hab canvas for other flaws, telling him what to look for. And we can have him alternate between Airlocks 2 and 3 for all future EVAs to reduce stress on the canvas.”
Venkat tapped the screen again. “But this will be more useful for Ares IV and V. We’re going to spend months re-testing the Hab canvas and its connection to the airlocks. We might have to redesign the airlocks themselves, maybe give them the same rock anchors the Hab floor uses. That won’t help Mark, but it might save the lives of future crews when we do extended missions.” He stood up straight, stepping back from his perch over Mindy’s shoulder. “Next image, please.”
Mindy advanced the sequence of photos of the Hab. For several stills, taken at various angles by passing satellites, nothing changed, except for one still in which White Hen was visible walking around the Hab in the direction of the alien wreck. Then a picture showed three of the aliens- Tall Boy and the two Oranges- standing next to the detached airlock. “What’s that red on Tall Boy’s suit?” Venkat asked, pointing to the image.
“No way to tell,” Mindy said. “It’s only a few pixels. But if I had to guess, that red looks a lot like our EVA suit color.”
“Show me the next picture.”
Mindy clicked her mouse, advancing the sequence to the next picture.
“What’s that discoloration on the airlock?” Venkat asked.
“I don’t know,” Mindy said. “I noticed it yesterday when the pictures came in. But it’s not a satellite malfunction. All the other photos taken by that satellite are normal.”
Venkat pointed at the discoloration. “That one little spot makes it impossible to see what’s going on there,” he said. “Any chance of a hack? Of outside interference?”
“The picture went up on the big wall the moment it came in,” Mindy said, pointing to SatCom’s main projection screen. “We all saw it at the same time. If someone altered the image, they did it on the satellite end.”
“Double-check with IT on security anyway,” Venkat ordered. “Next image.”
The picture changed.
“Yes, there’s Mark!” Venkat said. “And that must be White Boxy he’s carrying out. And which Orange is that?”
“Not enough behavior clues to know,” Mindy said. “Leader and Random look exactly the same from orbit.”
“So at some point one of them entered the airlock after it detached,” Venkat murmured. “How does that work?”
“Is something wrong with that?”
“Something big is wrong with that. We were never able to replace those stupid safety-glass helmets for the Ares missions. When the airlock detached it would have been about like getting hit by a semi truck at between forty and fifty miles an hour. No way Mark’s helmet could have withstood that impact. So when the airlock opened, there’s no way he could avoid exposure to Mars atmosphere.”
“He seems to be okay here,” Mindy said. “Maybe he was able to open and close the airlock quickly enough to avoid decompression sickness.”
“Maybe,” Venkat hissed softly. “But how? He reports one injury, and from the look of these photos it was White Boxy. But we’ve known the helmets were flawed for years. We just haven’t been able to get the money for replacements.” He tapped the computer a little more forcefully than the image warranted. “Well, we’ll get it now, for sure! This is exactly the sort of contingency that we need shatterproof helmets to prevent!”
“We can’t confirm that Mark’s helmet was broken in the breach,” Mindy pointed out. “All we know for certain is that the Hab breached, and that Mark and four of his guests are okay, and that Mark walked them through the Hab repair procedure.”
“But we can make some good guesses,” Venkat said. “That red on Tall Boy’s suit. You said it looked like the color of our surface suits. Assume it is. That would suggest that Mark’s suit was damaged in some way. Maybe he repaired it well enough for it to last until he could receive a new suit from the aliens.” He pointed to the screen, which showed five splotches of color around the inner airlock door. “That’s what I’m going to report. It’s the best guess we’ve got until we start testing.”
“If Pathfinder works, we can ask Mark directly,” Mindy said.
“That’s true,” Venkat replied. “But the way Mark’s luck is going, I wouldn’t bet on that.” He considered the bad luck of the Hab breach with the good luck of being suited up when it happened. “One way or the other.”
MISSION LOG – SOL 89
No repairs today. Yesterday hit us all a lot harder than any of us realized.
I didn’t get much sleep last night. We all had repeated training on how to repair the Hab in case of something exactly like this happening. I walked my helpers through the procedures step by step, using the spare hab canvas and the fresh seal-strips and resin to do it right. We tested the repairs for pressure and eliminated any possibility of a leak. The Hab was stronger than ever. But that didn’t stop me from waking up from night terrors and cold sweats, expecting a new blowout at any moment.
But it wasn’t PTSD or whatever that woke me up the fourth time. It was sobbing.
Cherry’s English has improved a lot since Starlight and I left on the Pathfinder trip, but it’s still rudimentary. Starlight’s eagerness for new words and proper grammar spoiled me. But the two of us managed to have a long, quiet conversation in the pre-dawn hour. She blames herself for the accident, for not warning us about the potential leak. I tried to take her mind off of it, to tell her it was an accident, but she wouldn’t hear it.
Right now Cherry reminds me of Lewis more than ever. I can’t imagine what Lewis is going through right now. She has to think she left me behind to die. But whatever is in Lewis’s head is also in this alien pony’s head. I’m pretty sure Lewis wouldn’t break down into tears in front of the rest of us, which is why Cherry saved it until the rest of her crew was asleep. But the threat of losing Starlight and me was too much for her to swallow.
Eventually everybody else woke up. It was almost that time anyway. So I decided to get everyone together by Starlight’s bed for an impromptu post-accident inquiry. I figured it was the best way to get Cherry beyond her guilt and get everyone else moving forward again.
Most of the conversation was in English. Starlight’s getting pretty fluent and Dragonfly’s not far behind her, but the other three are talking in a mix of isolated words and catch phrases from Lewis’s TV collection. Occasionally the conversation broke down into a rapid-fire exchange of pony talk which Starlight or Dragonfly translated after the fact.
The first part of the inquest went over what I was told yesterday, fleshing out details. Cherry still thinks they knew something was wrong with Airlock 1 days ago. The rest of her crew disagrees. They all say they didn’t know anything at all for certain. Spitfire had a strong suspicion for about the past two weeks, but no evidence. Fireball insists that they only stopped using Airlock 1 because of excess caution- my words, not his. And Dragonfly kept repeating that none of them had any way to know in advance what would happen.
They’re right. The seal where the hab canvas panel attaches to an airlock is hidden on one side by the flange that the canvas is glued to and by a locking gasket on the other side. A small tear could form in between the two metal pieces, and it would be totally invisible. The gasket isn’t designed to be removable once clamped down- why would you weaken a seal you want to keep airtight? The metal and resin would slow any air leak that formed to a point that it wouldn’t trigger an alarm on the atmospheric regulator.
And so I told them: if I’d been alone, I would never have seen the accident coming. What happened was just bad luck. Just like the accident that stranded me here was just bad luck. I don’t think Cherry bought it, but it’ll take time. Worst case, her whole crew agrees with me.
Anyway, I knew when it was time to stop beating the not-at-all-dead horse. I moved on and asked the others how Cherry did after the accident. All of them told the same story. Cherry took command immediately. She got her crew organized in seconds and put together a solid plan using the available resources to get me and Starlight out of the broken airlock. She did everything a commander’s supposed to do.
I don’t think we really convinced Cherry. I do think hearing what we all had to say made her feel better, though. She felt even better once we ate breakfast. She gave me one of her meals today. It looks like a chimichanga, but instead of meat it has dried cherries and cheese inside. It’s a long way from delicious- chimichangas are not the kind of food best suited to sit in a vacuum-sealed package for months at a time- but it wasn’t bad. I tried to give her half of it, but she insisted I eat it all.
After the inquest, nopony felt like working. So, as senior NASA personnel on base and King of Mars, I decreed a vacation day today. No work for anybody. I pulled out all the surviving computers and set up a networked game of hearts. (It comes preinstalled with the operating system, along with solitaire and Minesweeper.) We watched some TV, beginning with a marathon of Sanford and Son. The pony language skills are just about up to it, with some occasional translation from Starlight and a bit of explanation about racial issues from me.
And that’s how we pissed away a totally uneventful day. I’m hoping we all sleep better tonight, because it’s back to work tomorrow for certain. Tomorrow’s the end of the pony food packs.
It wasn’t quite a total loss of productivity. I finally got the straight story on Dragonfly today. It began when Fireball asked Dragonfly if she wanted another of his food packs for lunch. I’d been so used to the bug not eating that I asked. It didn’t take long to realize Dragonfly didn’t want to talk about it, but this time I insisted on straight answers, and I got them.
It turns out Dragonfly is actually the most magical creature in this Hab. She doesn’t eat food, except for a few scraps here and there and some water. She lives on- you will not believe this- she lives on love. Now I understand why she acts so puppy-like around me: she thinks she has to in order to get enough to eat.
But, in addition to being some sort of Star Trek emotion alien, Dragonfly is also the next best thing to a 3-D printer. NASA considered sending a printer along with the mission, just like they use on the space station, but they decided the weight wasn’t worth the limited use it’d get during a mission. Well, I haven’t got a printer, but apparently I have all the slime, goo, and rubbery substances I could ever want, provided I give Dragonfly food to make it out of.
We spent a lot of the afternoon talking, with Dragonfly almost glued to my side. Strangely, it was Dragonfly who pushed away from me. I thought it was about my smell- I haven’t fixed the water reclaimer yet, and with that offline so is the decon shower. But although Dragonfly agrees with everyone else that I really, really need to clean up, that wasn’t the reason she put distance between us.
Apparently it’s dangerous when a bug-pony takes too much emotional food from one subject too fast, and Dragonfly doesn’t want to knock me on my ass by overeating. She also said if I find myself feeling tired or “not-want-do-nothing-at-all” (depressed), that’s a warning sign. Ditto with bells on if I find myself unable to think of anything except her.
Well. So Dragonfly is a soul-sucker, and the ponies now know the English word for “parasite”. Good educational moment all around, then.
But given the choice between worrying about a big-eyed bug pony who actually knows which end of a tool is which, and the cold, hostile, impersonal planet just outside the canvas dome, I know which I’m going to waste my energy on. In fact, I’d like a plush Dragonfly to cuddle like a teddy bear while I’m thinking about how we’re all one more Hab canvas failure from sudden painful death.
On second thought, make that a plush Spitfire. Dragonfly might be able to stop the leak, but she’d give me warning.
Ah, who am I kidding? If I could copyright all their images and license them to toy companies, I’d be a billionaire overnight. Cute alien plushies for all!
Anyway, we’re all tired and it’s time for bed. Tomorrow I fix the water reclaimer and begin waking up Pathfinder. In the meantime… g’night.
Yeah, I don't know why Dragonfly was worried.
Have you SEEN our porn?
So, if a non-changeling should ever fall in love with a changeling, they cannot be sure if it's really true love or just a love draining effect. Well, that's ... problematic. And it's something you don't read very often in MLP fanfics.
Even more problematic, when we mix a little bit of paranoia into the equation, when suddenly someone begins to think that even the tiniest bit of affection towards a changeling may be a sign of overfeeding.
Never has one situation called for that one Lion King song more than this.
You know, the one with the words love , Twilight, the truth about my past, and Harmony in it.
Seriously, that song would be a perfect fit for MLP.
It happened, it finally happened! Mark finally got answers on what Dragonfly eats! It only took him 83 sols.
Poor Cherry... she really is a great commander. (And come to think of it, the member of the Amicatas' crew who would've been most likely to make it into a non insane space program.)
8743248
No idea what you're talking about.
I second this motion.
Also, I am quite jealous that you got to meet the good Admiral in-person.
And yay for adorable soul-siphons/3D printers!
Really looking forward to Mark attempting to explain freaking magic to his superiors on Earth.
8743280
Yeah I can't wait for Pathfinder. Really want to see Earth's reaction to the Equestrians. To bad Starlight won't be in the photos.
You are not alone in this wish, Mark (though perhaps you'd have second thoughts if you knew how much they cost). And I love that she's known on earth as White Hen, which she'd hate
Though, of course, Mark could just cuddle the actual ponies. Spitfire and Cherry, at least, and Starlight once her leg is all healed.
Hero!
8743295
She could still be. Just have Fireball or Mark carry her. All that was said that Starlight couldn't do any labor intense stuff anymore.
Plus, I would think the people at Earth would want to see she's ok.
8743280 Admiral Tigerclaw... I wonder if that's the same person I bumped into frequently at Anthrocon.
You know, with Starlight not being able to do much for a while, maybe she could use the time to refine some spells and make them better and more magic efficient? Sne's not a magical prodigy for nothing.
8743248
No Internet on Mars.
(Also, no Bonnie Zacherie ponies, but that's not the biggest issue if this Earth has furries.)
8743255
He's more referring that Spitfire NOTICED something was wrong WEEKS before the accident, when NOBODY else did...he's referring that Dragonfly would repair the hole, but SPITFIRE would WARN him about the needed fix first.
A Scutter, properly coded, with decent servos, a FreeD style extruder head etc would make a decent semi autonomous test, repair and sample drone.
As for Dragonflys slime, goo, rubber, epoxy, those are just blends of various forms of chlorosilane in one extreme, with water as the polymeriser. Silicate, Chlorine and water. Mars has a lot of that. You end up making stuff out of quartz fibre reinforced silicones which has excelent low temperature behaviour. Or at least temperature on Mars. UV cant remember, but thats what multiple layers are for, stress ones buried inside, in the shade.
Hope someone marked it down. Im suprised I havent seen an image of BTTF with Mars, Mark and the Airlock.
When this baby hits 88, youre gonna see some serious st.
What was it I saw a while back? A zigzag accordian disk pattern printed on paper, demonstrating how a mostly rigid material could be made so in this case the outer edge could expand and shrink, and the centre would remain a constant size?
An Airlock changes, a Room doesnt. Therefore you use an interfacing adapter between the two. It also means that changing the airlock design only changes the interface and hot the rest of the structure?
Seen this effect all over. Called Impedance Matching. Or Mismatching if you want to reflect stuff away. Think optical coatings on lenses?
vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/mlp/images/e/e1/FANMADE_Luna_I_see_what_you_did_there.jpg
I really enjoy this story. Keep up the awesome!
8743381
Ah, okay. Then I interpreted the sentence in a wrong way: Wanting a changeling plush could be the first warning sign of a love drain based affection. Even though I never considered these thoughts to be serious. The problem I've mentioned were of a more general nature anyway. If obsession with a changeling is a warning sign for overfeeding, then affection could be a warning sign for a later obsession... at least for people who are paranoid enough, making it difficult for them to befriend changelings.
It won't be much longer now. Soon, Pathfinder shall awake from its long slumber, and our glorious pony overlords shall reveal themselves to their unsuspecting subjects! ALL HAIL OUR NEW PONY OVERLORDS!
You know, it's a good thing nobody had some Manuel on their flash drive...
ACIDALIA DURIFTO?!
(Yeah, I just woke up.)
Also: Was a pleasant conversation with Kris.
I love how huge a of a clusterfuck this whole thing has become. In the begginning, it was all regulation. Using proper words, doing all sorts of NASA-y shit. Now he's just like 'night yall' on an official report. You go Matt Damon.
8743431 I was thinking of Shining Armor under Chrysalis's influence with that.
Meanwhile, on Mars.
mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/1/p/5000/1P572061819ESFD1B3P2418L2M1.JPG - an image from the Opportunity rover, on its 5000th sol on Mars.
https://mars.nasa.gov/mer/gallery/all/opportunity.html - current list of all of the unprocessed images.
8743443
Better than pretty much any other choice.
I mean, after Bush and Trump, who wouldn't be relieved to have a pony overlord.
Shame all images are public, else Mark could do it. And I doubt the ponies would have a problem with it... for a couple years.
8743462
Ok. That episode always bugged me. If Crystalis had control, why didn't she have Shining, oh I don't know, drop the Damn shield instead of having her troops waste energy breaking through it?
8743462
Ah, okay. However, I always thought that this was something Chrysalis did intentionally to him. In "The Times They Are a Changeling" Shining Armor even said, that he was under her spell. So, for me it sounds like something that wouldn't have happened if Chrysalis didn't want it to happen.
8743472
I seems that he couldn't actively deactivate it. All he could do is to power (or not power) the shield. Well, I've played enough RPGs where you cannot end a spell before it naturally fades away. So, maybe this may be the reason why I never questioned it.
8743467
Forget Trump -- install a new pony regime in North Korea! Nothing could possibly go wrong with that!
8743479
All world leaders replaced by ponies.
8743486
Good idea: Flim, Flam, unreformed Starlight Glimmer, unreformed Sunset Shimmer, Gladmane, Dr. Caballeron, Svengallop, King Sombra, ...
Based on the evidence, it would be reasonable to conclude that the aliens are from another solar system. The ability to transport at least four across interstellar distances in a ship capable of enduring an impact they can make educated guesses on based on the trail it left on the surface with passengers alive...it's reasonable for NASA to start asking what else their new friends are capable of.
8743502
Still better than what we got. On average.
Sombra- not a pony.
8743248
Pretty sure it'd be one hell of an eye opener to the Equestrians. I wonder what they'd have to say about furries and the sudden explosion of cute alien plushies on every shelf across the world?
8743510
Of the five, they'd probably be the most interested in Starlight. If she gets to Earth, and her magic gets back to anywhere near normal.
Finding someway to copy even a small part of what she is capable of.
I hope Mark and them find out a bit more about what she could do at full power. Time Travel, cloning, Superspeed, size manipulation, Invisibility, flying, shields, teleportation, transmogrification, photocopier, vortex, ect. What she can do would be a goldmine.
Mark doesn't have a clue yet just what she can do, does he? Besides the basics, I mean.
8743541
Not a snowlfake's chance on Canis Majoris.
Just a few of the more exotic stunts she's pulled would be more than enough to cause every traditional scientist on the planet to have seizures and/or start speaking like a satirically dubbed Asian film.
"IMPOSSIBORU!"
8743462 on the toy of dragonfly he would have added "as you hug it, it makes a cute sound"
Kinda want to see Starlight turn herself into a filly and for Marks heart and those on Earth to just melt.
The face that unites the world.
derpicdn.net/img/2017/10/23/1568085/full.jpeg
The comparison of Cherry to Lewis seems pretty apt. Poor Cherry.
At this point it's taking a colossal force of will not to start reading Changeling Space Program. I'm planning to wait until at least one of these stories is finished before reading that one, but it's hard. Cherry and Dragonfly are really compelling and I want to know their story.
8743467
you left out Obama, Clinton, and Carter!
You know the funny thing about this is that it's essentially the same thing that happened in the book, and no one in the book questions it this way.
I find it odd that they never thought that the aliens might have done something. I mean whether they think a forcefield, or an air tight tarp even thrown over the airlock (and Orange) to let them open it and get inside without depressurizing it. I mean if you're hauling excess air tight canvas around, why not the aliens?
I bet the only one sleeping like a baby was Spitfire. She's really the only one that had warning of it. Dangerous events that you know are coming are far less psychologically damaging than those that take you by surprise. So she's probably fine. Though if Starlight is on Pony prescription painkillers then she's probably fine with everything right now.
It's good that Dragonfly was able to get a good meal here. I'm concerned that the negative feelings from the PTSD will taint her food supply.
Amusing that Dragonfly was so worried about it but Mark took it with no problem at all.
8743647
And just to show I'm not a total right winger, you can have Nixon, Ford, and Bush 1!
8743654
Heck, lets get rid of them all (left and right, legally) and install our
master raceAlicorn Overlords! (why are there no Celestia and Luna emojis?)8743648
Actually, it's kind of something you should expect. Emotions to humans, especially highly trained and scientific humans, aren't a tangible, material thing. Thus, we don't psychologically treat them as a resource like say, blood. To someone like Mark, the changeling might as well be drawing life from incense as far as emotions are concerned.
8743541
NASA doesn't know about Starlight yet. They have seen a spaceship that isn't from the local solar system.
As for Mark, yes he's seen Starlight perform telepathy and telekinesis of countless tons worth of material, but she's not even the most impressive phenomenon at work here. Consider the pony life support system. It is, at a minimum, real-time, faster-than-light, casual teleportation across at least interstellar, possibly interdimensional distances. Earth-to-Mars radio transmission time is measured in minutes. They can deliver water and air fast enough to use it to hold conversations with their homeworld. Instant delivery of matter in excess of the speed of light and through solid objects was more convenient for them than building air and water tanks.
Mark is clearly too busy staying alive to consider the implications.
now am worry NASA being dumb asses they are at times will rush it so PLZ for the love of any god don't fuck this one up with the rocket and plz use the IM chat thing they use to tell them don't rush the rocket because the last thing they need is it to blow up and all the must needed food and new data to keep them busy and not go crazy
8743700
NASA would NEVER rush something like that in real life
8743724
1986: Space Shuttle Challenger
8743696
What I mean is that Mark doesn't know about her more advanced stuff yet.
8743724
If anyone is rushing anything it's SpaceX with their boosters, probably will launch but won't be recoverable
8743747
true.
but can i say this i trust SpaceX to sent food to them then nasa
"Cherry.I do think"
"Cherry. I do think"?
"We haven't heard the last of Cherry's guilt trip yet."
Yeah, I wondered if we'd get that...