Crates and consoles wrapped in plastic littered the small warehouse on the grounds of Jet Propulsion Laboratories in Pasadena, California. Interspersed among them stood seventeen JPL engineers: software specialists, hardware engineers, testing specialists, and four octogenarians who had been called back from retirement to contribute their expertise as the last surviving members of the original Pathfinder team.
And in the center of it all stood Bruce Ng, standing next to a freshly uncrated, just retrieved from the Smithsonian, duplicate Pathfinder. This had been the fully operational duplicate used to test fixes for problems that came up during the surface mission. Until now it had been a museum piece, part of the grand exhibit celebrating Project Ares and the history of Mars exploration. Now it, like the old men, had been called out of retirement.
“Okay, here’s what we know,” Bruce said, barking out facts machine-gun style. “Mark Watney is driving south-southwest of the Hab. He’s on more or less a direct route to Pathfinder. There’s only one possible reason for him to go there- to salvage the radio. And we have until the day he gets back to the Hab to figure out how to receive whatever message he sends us and send one back he can understand.”
Bruce pointed to Pathfinder. “We’re going to have to assume that Pathfinder isn’t significantly damaged by forty years on the Martian surface and that it’ll reactivate with no problems once it has power again,” he said. “If Pathfinder can’t boot up or produce a signal, we can’t do anything to help, so we aren’t going to test those scenarios. But everything else is fair game.
“In the next two weeks you’re going to put together whatever you need to get this machine working and talking again. Then we’re going to learn the operating system and how to tweak it. We’re going to simulate malfunctions with the memory, with the imagers, with the high-gain antenna tracking system, and Sojourner. We’re going to brainstorm and test ways to produce actions on Pathfinder that Watney might be able to interpret as communication. And we’re going to do it knowing that two-thirds of the original technology we used forty years ago was thrown out as obsolete while most of us were still in grade school.
“All right, everyone,” Bruce sighed, “think of this as the biggest retro-gaming project of your lives. If you can build a MAME arcade cabinet, we can do this. Let’s get started.”
Crates were opened.
Plastic was tossed away.
Things were plugged into wall sockets.
One of the old Pathfinder hands paused when his cel phone rang. He shrugged at Bruce, who gave him an exasperated look little different from his usual look, and took the call. “Hello, sweetheart,” he said. “Grampa’s a bit busy right now.”
The phone’s speaker buzzed in the old man’s ear.
“No, I’m going to have to miss your party,” he said regretfully. “NASA called me in to help them work on something that’ll help that poor man on Mars.”
Excited buzzing.
“Yes, and his cute friends too.”
More excited buzzing.
“Well, I don’t know about that, darling. We don’t even know if Orange Leader speaks our language.”
Buzz, buzz.
“I’m not surprised. Tall Boy is the biggest, and Jimmy always had a love of anything big.”
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
“Honey, there are a lot of people here with me who are going to do their absolute best for all of them. But they’re kind of waiting on me, so-“
Buzz, buzz!
“Well, I haven’t really thought about it,” he said. “I figured I’d wait until we could talk with the astronaut and maybe get better pictures.”
Buzz, buzz.
“Don’t listen to him. For all we know they could be puppy dog aliens. Or kitty aliens too. What does he think they are?”
Buzz.
“Well, it’s possible. Why does he say that?”
Derisive buzz.
“Kitties are not girly. And ponies are not manly. You can like whatever you like, and don’t let Jimmy tell you any different. Now you tell him to behave, and once my job is done here we’ll all go up to the mountains before the ski season ends.”
Buzz buzz!
“Love you too. Bye-bye.”
He put the phone away. “Sorry,” he said.
“Can we get on now?” one of the other engineers said tonelessly.
“Not helpful, Tim,” said Bruce. “Roger, we all understand, but please turn off the phone for now?”
The work of reviving Project Pathfinder resumed.
Hopefully she finds out that three of the cute friends are ponies. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
"Grandpa, can I ride the pretty pony?"
Starlight: Now, wait just a second there..... Mark already has dibs. 😈😈😈😈😈😈
That phone conversation was the the most adorable thing in this story so far. when the pictures of the amicatas' crew are released it will be known as the "squee heard 'round the world"
8727632
Nah. Fluttershy isn’t there yet. Sure, gasps of surprise, stares of shock, and cries of “adorable!” But true squees need yellow quiet.
Yeah, all their phones should be either do no disturb or outright airplane mode. They got far more important thing to focus on while in that building.
One of the things the movie didn't showcase very well is how reflective the helmet faceplates are. In the book it's pretty clear they can't see his face at all, but in that same set in the movie... yeah, there's a bit of glare across it but you can actually see Watney's face just fine.
Unfortunately, Pathfinder is too big to fit inside the Hab, so pics without helmets...
...wait, how big is the farm airlock set? Pathfinder's what, about five feet high overall when folded up, and about the same across the triangle base? Would that fit in the farm? Might get facial imagery that way...
8727646
Inb4 Dragonfly takes Flutters' form to farm planet earth for love.
8727619
Yeah, I can see ponies in general acting like most adults here when a strange child that they don't know asks (some random level of excitement tossed in) to ride on their back. What about Pinkie Pie you say? Flim and Flam would be all over that selling tickets and managing the line, heh.
Still, could be a possible crossover with the Pony Petting Cafe story-- it's all about pay to pet (scritch, groom, etc) a pony starring various ponies from the show and their interactions with random human customers.
p.s. I doubt there'd be many humans that would say no to an adorable filly asking to ride on their back however...
8727632
The moment when all the little girls ( and some little boys) around the world decided they want to be astronauts when they grow up. 😂😂
I can't wait to see how the humans of earth will react to seeing the ponies when they arrive on earth after they are rescued from Mars, thought it would be good if they could somehow get parts of the pony's space ship back to earth with them so the humans could help reverse engineer pony tech in hopes of opening a portal back to Equestria then.
What an adorable distraction!
Looking forward to second-contact between man and alien.
8727648
Would the radio still work in a cave? I'm fairly certain the world will use the biggest radio telescopes it has to communicate but if they're anything like the crappy Motorola radios we use at work-- their "2 mile!" TX distance doesn't count for squat when trying to go through an entire store's contents (at the limit of range when taking from one corner or the store to the other, sometimes too far).
And about the suit faceplate being opaque. What about the Equestrian gear? Would any of theirs be opaque rather than clear?
p.s. Just did some fact checking. The Pathfinder rover is 65 cm long by 48 cm wide by 30 cm high. Unless this ruler is terribly mistaken, it could fit on my desk with room to spare. How small is that airlock again?
8727569
O s ns fic I read suggested mares can hide privates with a layer of hair and willingly show it off.
Also I. Season one , rainbow dash said “ oh horse apples “ aka oh shit. During fall weather freinds
And now lets check in with the media. "Never let facts get in the way of a good story!"
8727648
Wonder if starlight might have some magic to reduce the glare. Good pictures are going to be a bigger priority here than they were in the original book. (For the people on earth anyway)
I wonder if the Equestrian experiments with cross-dimensional travel will lead to them meeting Earth before anyone gets rescued from Mars.
8727669
The radio work inside the cave? Probably not. I should have elaborated though - if Pathfinder fits inside the farm they might be able to turn it on, and program it to take a pic and store it in memory, then take it back outside, and allow the probe to upload the image.
As for the little rover itself... I headcanon that while it did get to roll around in the movie its camera was borked, being far more exposed than the main probe's camera assembly. In the book I don't recall if the rover got a mention at all at the moment...
For the pony suits... why would they have clear faceplates? They have to deal with the same things human tech did, and while they magic'd a lot of it to work they way they like, there's no indication they have magic faceplates that do the same job while being perfectly clear. Opaque faceshields (at least, from an exterior view) would seem to be the order of the day.
8727648 Pathfinder needs to stay at the Hab, where most of the power is.
8727669 Sojourner is the small rover. It can only communicate with the Pathfinder lander. And it's Pathfinder, which is much bigger, that communicates with Earth.
8727707 Mark's helmet glare reflector is a permanent part of the faceplate in the book. The ponies have retractable glare shields.
8727669
Those measurements are for the sojourner rover. The important part (the part with the radio) is the lander. Can't find exact measurements on Wikipedia but it looks about 8 feet wide and it does say it weighs 582 pounds. Even after he hacks off the solar panels it's still a substantial piece of equipment.
I can see it already the alien conspiracy theorist are going to go wild when they see fireball
8727758
Would like to see Starlight make a forcefield so Mark can take off his helmet for the photo. Imagine the heart attacks at NASA. xD
Ohhh I'm getting more and more excited to see where this goes! Xd
That was such a tease. I suppose Earth is guessing ponies kittens or ponies already for some reason going by that. No idea how they would possibly guess that. But it's a tease because you kind of have to guess, and the children are going to be thinking animal-like even if the adults aren't.
It occurs to me that Watney might not break Pathfinder at all this time. He might have brought Starlight with the idea that she could lift it to the top of rover without disassembling. It also translates to shaving a day or so off his original trip time since getting Pathfinder on the rover took him so long.
8727730
In the book Watney was never able to get the rover to start up at all (though admittedly he put little effort into it).
8727810
Watney won't break it. Im calling it now Pathfinder dies in hydrazine explosion.
8727758 ...thus leading to the first closeup glimpse of aliens was a picture of Cherry Berry's left nostril while she was inspecting the Pathfinder.
8727619
"If anyone's going to ride me, it's going to be Mark-EEEP!" Starlight, right before she shoved a hoof in her own mouth.
Sorry, I had to. I don't really ship the two, but I did find their awkwardness cute in the previous chapter, although I imagine it'd be identical if I were in that situation.
8727288
You did excellent. I tried to come up with a response, but I can't top that.
Idle pondering...
Does Twilight have enough of a grasp of Mark’s nature to consider recalling Sunset Shimmer back to Equestria for a part-time cultural consultation gig?
I expect that one of the first things she did after finding out about the universe-hopping was to check with Sunset.
(Given that the S6 finale isn’t part of this fic, I expect “Mirror Magic” didn’t happen either.)
8727653
derpicdn.net/img/2015/11/22/1027641/medium.png
You try saying no to a face like that...
8727875
Nah it's gonna be Dragonfly with a flathead screwdriver and a mallet.
8727896
Seeing as Starlight didn't recognize the similarity between Mark and Human Sunset, I'm also thinking no.
8727652
vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/meme/images/f/f9/Mother-of-god-meme_3997206.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20140417165010
Her power levels would be off the charts...
8727896
If the mirror actually goes to Earth then there's way more useful things than having Sunset Shimmer's help that you could do with it.
Ooooh boy it is either a media firestorm or a shitstorm when they figure out the aliens are ponies because here on earth half the people love ponies half to death and half hate them with a fiery passion so the forums and all other sites better prepare to crash and burn under all the traffic and they also better prepare for "the war of the forums"
8728000
As EqG appears to be roughly equivalent to 2013-ish earth, the fact that the Ares project is in the 2030s and the distinct lack of equine pun-names strongly suggests that it is in yet another parallel universe.
I remember that NASA was considering having Mark use the fuel plant to fuel a new MAV for a rescue, which he could easily do with unlimited water. I'm just waiting for him to get Pathfinder working and have NASA go "Alright, we have a plan to rescue you, you just need to use the fuel plant to have enough fuel ready" and then have him glance over at the pile of parts the ponies left of the fuel plant.
Something is only obsolete, if its replacement can duplicate and replicate all its possible functions and capabilities, at least an equivalent behaviour.
Like the PS3 40 gig model that included the PS2 Emotion Engine chipset for backwards compatibility.
Or WinUAE with PPC if you want to emulate Curiocity.
8727896 Actually, I overlooked that. I'll need to think about that. However, since EqG is a parallel Equestria where they share a language, the language barrier would stay in this story regardless.
8728206 A thing is also obsolete if its main or sole function is no longer desired.
I know your worried about having a buffer, but I think we will all understand if you took a couple of days to get ahead. I think we can all be patient for more of this amazing story.
8728328
I'll echo this guy. Better to have a break once in a while than getting burned out.
Also Dragonfly x Mark otp
8728239
am not going to lie to you i want to know the computer tech and games of the the other story, becasue i rember dragonfly saying "like the video games i play" i would love to see that
Dirty filthy horse-fuckers. You nasty shippers you. I'm kinkshaming you. Shame on your kinks, and shame on you.
NYEEEEEEEH, REVEL IN THIS MOST ENTERTAINING INSULT THAT IS TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY ONE HUNDRED PERCENT SERIOUS AND IN NO POSSIBLE OR REMOTELY FEASIBLE WAY IS IT TO BE TAKEN AS A LIGHTHEARTED JOKE.
8728737
*TRIGGERED*
8728737
images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20121219171651/mlpfanart/images/f/f7/Mother_of_Me.png
8728239
I said “cultural” consultation: i.e. insight into how humans think more than any linguistic assistance.
Considering your perfectly understandable desire to limit how much we see of how things are on the Equestrian side of things, we would only get a tiny glimpse of anything Sunset has to contribute anyway.
8727399
That's likely my unfinished story, "Metamorphosis". I got stuck trying to write the finishing chapters in which they discover their powers. At any rate, with no origin at all for them that's definite (even the comic story could have been fake as it was told by Chrysalis while tricking Twilight into helping them escape... which makes for a strong 'Unreliable Narrator' case) we have free reign as to how they came to be. Since their magic, physiology, and way of life is so radically different from any other creature in Equestria, one could even make a good case that they're aliens.
8728239
in fact, i would love to see dragonfly playing a video game on the laptop or better yet...... found a game and watch type thing he lost inside the ship
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Game_%26_Watch.png/300px-Game_%26_Watch.png
Interesting video on magic that I feel you have done a good job with: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMJQb5bGu_g
8728116
Nah they'll be able to see if the fuel plant gets messed with. (They did in the original book after all) personally idk if anyone at NASA will still be alive when Mark gets back to base. Them watching the equestrians build whatever hacked together monstrosity they're making will likely give them a collective stroke.
8728239
You could easily say that EqG is not part of the backstory, like the changeling episodes.
8729187
As I recall, Johanssen was supposed to have Leather Goddesses of Phobos on her laptop!
Cant wait to see how earth reacts to the ponies or what pathfinder's first new images will be whether or not somepony is inspecting it or dismantling it i am BETTING you that dragonfly will be her usual weird but adorable self(doing something ...well... Odd) in the picture