MISSION LOG – SOL 162
Hay.
Half a ton of hay. Or, at least, close enough.
The new planting of alfalfa seed hadn’t prospered quite as well as its older brothers- not surprising, since alfalfa plants generate a chemical that inhibits seed propagation right next to them. But it did well enough to contribute to the overall total. Alfalfa salads for all, even me, tonight! (But this time I’m leaving the stalks out. Leaves only, in a beaker.)
And believe me, we’ve earned the fresh meal tonight, after the work we did today. Shifting half a ton of hay by hand through two airlocks is long, hard, back-breaking, time-consuming work. And tomorrow we shift it through two more. And after a day or two to rest, we go back and harvest the potatoes. More fun.
We’ve been crossing over here and there with the food supplies, so my estimates for food duration aren’t exact. The ponies have been eating mostly alfalfa with a bit of potato and the (very) occasional tidbit from my meal packs. I’ve been eating (mostly) one meal pack per day plus two meals of potatoes with all I can stomach (not much) of dried alfalfa leaves.
I dread the day the food packs run out. Microwaved baked potatoes, even encrusted with salt, are sickening day in and day out. I would happily go back to 19th Century Ireland and trade all my spuds and possibly Fireball too in exchange for one packet of cabbage seeds. Broccoli, cauliflower, mustard, Brussels sprouts all would be nice, but I’d settle for cabbage. Because it’s NOT POTATOES.
Of course, I’d die if I did that, because cabbage has a lot fewer calories per pound than potatoes. All I’m saying is, I am getting really, really sick of potatoes.
But getting back to where I was going before my mental airplane got redirected from O’Hare to Milwaukee. Roughly speaking, if the ponies ate alfalfa and only alfalfa, they would now run out of food on… drum roll please?
…. Sol 360! Not bad when, sixty sols ago, they were down to fifty veggie food packs from starvation!
We can’t quit, though. Assuming Sleipnir 1 launches on time, it’ll arrive here on or about Sol 583. We need at least two more hay harvests, plus at least one really good tater harvest, to get that far. And all sorts of things can go wrong. The list of lost Mars probes is a long one. Granted that none of them have been Ares presupply probes (yet), there’s a first time for everything.
And, of course, the growing things are a major morale booster. Cherry Berry and Dragonfly alternate daily trips to the cave. I go once a week, and even months after we began it takes my breath away. And you should see Spitfire smile when she flies, even if she has to beat her wings like hell to stay up.
In other news, Cherry Berry is beating the MDV flight sims into submission. Her English has improved by leaps and bounds, at least when it comes to pronouncing the words on the preflight checklist. She’s consistently getting the simulated MAV to orbit on manual control from start to finish. It’s about time to start giving her in-flight emergencies, which I’ll coach the others on soon. Spitfire and Fireball have taken their turns as well, but they jump out of the hot seat any time Cherry expresses an interest.
The last couple of days I’ve been using Sojourner to teach Dragonfly how to use my electrical tools. Most of them are familiar to her in a slightly different shape. The main difference is that their computer electronics are way behind ours- at least fifteen years behind what was packed inside Sojourner, at least. But she wants to bring the probe back to life. We’ve cannibalized a battery from one of the weather stations which fits a little loosely inside Sojourner but provides enough power- in theory- to let the little rover run. If it’s fixable, Dragonfly will find it.
Finally, a sad note: the last cleaning wipe was recycled today. We ran out of hand soap a week ago. The only cleaning agents we have from here on are water and friction. I’m exploring other options, but the best ones require fatty acids we don’t have to spare.
In related news, I now know that the longest-running series of horror novels and films on the pony homeworld, going back some two hundred years according to Starlight Glimmer, takes place inside a glue factory.
Yes, a glue factory.
I haven’t decided yet whether to stop making that joke… or to start thinking of novel and unconventional applications.
I still owe Spitfire for “crunch crunch crunch.”
I am attending the big anime convention on the other coast: Anime Boston
Ah, a reference to the old joke character Lauren would have loved to include if she still worked on the show, Krastos the Glue Maker. Thank you, Bill Clinton.
Does Equestria EVEN have horror novels? Seems that all the books they have in all the fics I’ve read so far are majority romance.
8831320
THANK YOU!! That's been bothering me for ages.
Kris, I just want you to know that no matter what goes down in my day, logging in to Fimfiction each night before I hit the sack and seeing an update to this story is a highlight of each day that I consistently look forward to. You, sir, are a steely-eyed missile man; thanks for the great story
As noted, they have an endless supply of water and lots and lots of fine sand and dust to use as an abrasive. Sterilization of cleaning sand would be as simple as leaving a container outside for a while to kill off any bacteria. Salts, both sodium and potassium are also somewhat plentiful and could be used to keep skin bacteria under control.
It's still going to smell like a barn, though, especially if they can't find a way to keep ammonia odors under control.
What creative cooking methods have the Hab occupants tried for their alfalfa and potatoes? They have all the water they want, plenty of salt, and external heat via Starlight's horn. There's room for a lot of things besides straight microwaving.
8831040
That'll do,pig. That'll do.
8831360
I mean zombies for mentioned in season one, so I must’ve heart of some kind. I’ve been considering all the mythological creatures well at least little to the imagination
8831403
Speaking from my own experience, they lack just about everything that it would take to make interesting meals from potatos, alfalfa and salt. They have no oils, spices, or flavoring agents of any sort without using up meal packs that must be preserved for emergencies. No direct sources of high heat since fire or even smoke in the hab is B.A.D.
Boo on back corners!
Yay for pre-arranged foot traffic!
Mark seems pretty haunted by the "crunch crunch crunch" fiasco from faust knows how many sols ago wtf did spitfire do to make it so haunting to him?
Is there a reference that I am missing?
well mark has another option for a sanitizing agent... if he grew a little extra of either crop, he could rig a still and brew some very base vodka with what he has on hand, the alcohol in the vodka could be used as a sanitizing agent.
Jesus. I can't really imagine a more horrible food situation than what Mark is going through right now. I mean, I love potatoes... in their many forms. Potato chips, potatoes o'brian, mashed potatoes, french fries, baked potatoes, etc. But almost all of those require resources that Mark just doesn't have. Ewgh... How is he gonna make it to Sol 583 on just potatoes and still remain sane? Salt is a godsend, but it can only do so much to mitigate.
Also, I'm now smirking and very, very interested in how Mark is going to enact revenge on Spitfire.
8831501
Food is not remotely plenty enough that wasting some of it by turning it into alcohol is an option.
8831501
8831514
Also, no yeast. The source of alcohol in most drinks is microbe pee. So unless the right microbe just so happened to stow away in high enough population...
Nah, Kris said Santa's bag is empty now.
I remember going to Sakuracon years ago My Sister, me and her friends won best in show for the cosplay skit show. Hope you have fun.
8831525
Plus he'd have to find a way to malt the starches in the potatoes. I suppose he could chew them and spit them out so that the enzymes in his saliva could convert the starches, but it would be a long, disgusting process, and as you pointed out, there's still no yeast.
8830154
Gentaru is best Karate-Bug-Man. XD
Seriously though, I followed this up by watching GAIM. Was really looking forward to silly, fruit-themed street-dancing shenanigans and wacky friendship adventures. Reeeealy should have checked who was directing first. <<
Dude your giving me evil ideas what that prob with the usb drives inside of it.... and i love it. sent them this
and our factory farming, by 2030s it would have been gone away slowly given clone meat, is giving way now with no need for blood and live anlimes
This was a nice chapter, and it's good to see Dragonfly is going ahead with trying to repair Sojourner.
Also, I remembered that while I did of course have other things for breakfast and dinner (and at weekends), I did eat solely a plate of chips a day for lunch at school for six years. No salt or ketchup, just chips. Potatoes are good
As 30-30 said when he finally bought the farm.
Its Reapin Time.
With the help of the magic of the Pegasus Device
Pam-pam-pabam
Pam-pam-pababam
what if they have more magic does that means they could use it to make new seeds to grow different types of food and also make sure that cave stay there for real this time?
I wonder if Dragonflys new sense can help him with repairs. I mean knowing what the machine feels when you're working in it to know when you're going into the right direction, has to have some benefits.
Having all the salt he could want would make the potato diet far more bearable to me. It's still rough, but salt helps. An alternative cooking method to the microwave would help a lot too though. He might be able to rig up an oven using the Pony space heaters and some scrap from the Pony ship for instance. They don't put out enough heat to be ideal, certainly not nearly enough to grill with, but if he could get enough insulation around them and did a long preheat he could probably make an oven work.
Once the makeshift oven is ready you can prepare the potatoes in somewhat different ways than just microwave-baked potatoes. They could be made in various crispy ways like french fries or potato chips for instance, as those can be baked rather than fried. Potato chips can also be prepared in advanced and stored for a prolonged period for eating later, which would reduce the inconvenience of an elongated cooking process caused by low wattage.
I'd probably run Starlight's ability to extract chemicals from Martian soil that exist in even small amounts by NASA and have them come up with what he could use for soap from it. Though sand as an abrasive cleaner would be a reasonable enough last resort. He has access to all the sand he could ever need.
Amusingly I don't think he needs to worry about the soil depleting like he originally was because Starlight could extract the nutrients he needs again from outside soil. Though he'd want to head to that same location 20km away where they already ruined the soil just to be kind to future explorers.
Does the hab lack that wondrous invention known as a bidet?
Location, Location, Location, where half the population passes—or is often passing something...
>›<
Headcanon accepted. Fear has a name, and that name is Krastos.
Also, given the transit time, there's enough Sleipnir-related tension even without that LOX tank discoloration. To say nothing of the months in which the cave farm could blow.
8831681
In the glue factory, where your fears and horrors come true
In the glue factory, where not a single soul gets through
In the glue factory, where failures pay their toll
Now its awoken, and taking back control
Sadly I'm at the other Seattle con this weekend.
8831493 Glue is, or was, made from the bones, marrow, and connective tissue of livestock- most famously, old horses. Or, as they said on the track: "Roses are red, violets are blue, horses that lose are turned into glue."
8831545 No such luck. It's work all the way this weekend, and I'm having trouble finding time to do any writing.
Does that mean the plants are producing enough of a magic field on their own for Spitfire to fly? Neat. I guess that means she won't have any trouble getting airborne on Earth.
Wut?
8831981
So do the ponies make glue from their own dead?
Is it possible to send soapy water through the pony comms system?
8832127
More likely the changelings did that. Or any other race.
8831593
Dear god. That was a hell of a show.
8831768
Damn, and we thought WE had long-running horror.
8832127
If its made using pony hooves they probably just use hoof clippings and hoof dust from the spa after a hooficure. Otherwise they could synthesize it like how superglue(cyanoacrylate) is completely synthetic
8832015
Imagine the possibilities of fusing human tech effectiveness with pony tech efficiency!!
8832581 The ponies are up to "Krastos 87: The Gods Must Be Crazy-Glue"
8831463
Mark is able to eat a meal pack a day most days, even allowing for him putting aside ~40 meat-based packs for his own emergency use. I've mentioned before that there's probably some stuff in there that can be used as a cooking component, and that they could potentially make "hayburgers" with potato binding alfalfa. If they're careful about it, I don't see why they can't go elsewhere to use Starlight for direct heat, like Amicitas or even the cave. Having spare sheet metal and direct heat means they can grill or bake- it'd be a pretty sad one, but the meatloaf MRE means Mark could conceivably make a (really potato-heavy) Lancashire hot pot, for example.
8832911
Basically, the point I would make is that, once you work with sufficiently complicated stuff, "just go for it" doesn't work. Every step must be good enough. And you learn this by screwing up.
I have a trail of >$1000 repairs for stuff I busted behind me, even a couple >$10,000 mistakes, which informs how cautious and methodical I am as a function of bad a mistake would be. Maybe that just means I have a good education, but that's where I'm coming from, and that's all small potatoes compared to aerospace.
8831477
She hammed it up.
8833113
Huh? I dont really get it...was it the way she said it? If so i would love to see a short animation based on that bit
8832015
It kind of reminds me of "An Entry With A Bang!" Comstar!Earth/Inner Sphere tech is ludicrously durable, but Clancy!Earth technology has insane performance characteristics and output by comparison, even taking into account the gross technological level differences, but at the cost of short lifespan and fragility.
Also, Clancyverse Earth can do really interesting things with long-range, guided missiles and AI drones, and their solution to durable mechs equipped with AMS is to spam the shit out of them with even more guided missiles and autonomous drone swarms. Not relevant here, but I liked it.
8831747
They've got unlimited water. You would think a bidet would be easy enough to rig up.
They've also got an easy way to freeze dry potatoes. With their water supply it might be possible to make their own potato flour. That might expand their food possibilities a bit more.
8833133 Watney was convinced that pony = herbivore, the end. Spitfire put on a show of being carnivorous and laid it on with a heavy hammer. It broke Mark's poor widdle mind.
8833251
I kinda want to see a cartoon style animation of that moment with voice acting just for the laughs