AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 71
ARES III SOL 73
“SUIT UP!”
Spitfire spared only a second to watch the dragon, the changeling, and the pony jump from their bunks, abandoning Dukes of Hazzard (and why did they bring in these other cousins, Coy and Vance, who looked almost exactly like Bo and Luke? Made no sense) in a mad scramble for the suit storage locker. Then she was off too, leaping for the locker, opening it, and pulling out her suit and helmet.
No undergarment in an emergency. Suit on. Check seals. Helmet on. Activate life support.
“Suit clear!” Dragonfly.
“Suit clear!” Cherry Berry.
“Suit clear!” Fireball.
“Suit clear!” Herself. She checked the time. One minute eight seconds. Improvement. And the confusion and chaos that had accompanied their earliest suit drills was gone, replaced by quiet efficiency.
Not efficient enough, though. She was certain they could get it in under a minute.
“End drill,” she said. “Good job, everypony.”
“Third time today,” Fireball grumbled, but he left it at that.
“Thank you, Spitfire,” Cherry Berry said, sounding a little winded.
“Need help there, Cherry?” Dragonfly asked.
“I’ll be all right,” Cherry said. “Just having a Ponyville moment.”
Cherry had never explained the phrase, but Dragonfly had figured it out and told Spitfire about it. A “Ponyville moment” in Cherry Berry’s vernacular meant a panic attack that would pass in a few seconds. Ponyville had always had more than its share of minor (and occasionally major) disasters and emergencies, thanks to being on the edge of the Everfree Forest. The citizens’ default procedure in such events was (a) panic, (b) look for somepony else to save them, (c) panic a little more because they were so good at it, (d) start cleaning up the mess because it was already over.
Spitfire wasn’t worried about the commander, though. Cherry Berry had been cool and methodical- and fast- during the drill. The reaction didn’t set in until after, just like after an unusually hairy Wonderbolts flight. And in any case, Dragonfly could handle her.
All in all, Spitfire liked how things had been going. She ran daily (or twice-daily) suit drills, plus evacuation drills to Airlock Three (the closest one to Amicitas) in case of a sudden breach. The plants in the Hab seemed to be prospering, and the alfalfa in the cave was outright thriving. She’d kept Dragonfly under observation, noticing with pleasure that the changeling’s holes were- very slowly- shrinking. Fireball’s flame had come back, though he only used it for very brief bursts. And Cherry Berry…
… well, the commander definitely had a spring in her step after reviewing the options presented by Mark’s few remaining ship parts.
For one thing, four of the six seats in his lander were still intact, after dust and rocks had been cleared out of the breached capsule. They were the wrong shape for ponies, but the shock absorbing systems underneath them could be adapted to repair the flight couches on Amicitas.
For another, although the engine bells on the ground stage of the MAV were considerably smaller than the main engine bells on Amicitas, they were compatible. Dragonfly and Fireball had already removed the lower two Amicitas main engines in their entirety for examination. Full diagnostics would have to wait for Starlight Glimmer’s return, but at a first look it appeared the crash damage had been limited to the bells.
Better yet, the MDV apparently had a bit of fuel remaining- not much, but some. Once Starlight sent messages back reporting the exact nature of the fuel- hydrazine with some sort of metal that allowed it to be used as monopropellant- Dragonfly had been the very first to put the fuel system off limits. Cherry Berry had agreed instantly. Still, any upward thrust potential was welcome.
And finally, removing most of Amicitas’s outer skin had freed up dozens of potential mounting points to connect Mark’s landers to. Hooking the spaceship parts together wouldn’t be completely impossible. Cherry Berry had taken great pleasure from that bit of news.
Spitfire had been sure to keep her grounded, though. The ship’s outer ribs had fractured in two places, along with the pressure vessel of the engineering deck. That would have to be cut away, which also meant losing the entire tail of the ship, including the rear landing gear and the engine housing itself. Starlight hadn’t even begun making replacement magic batteries or a new Sparkle Drive. Neither the Amicitas nor the half-wrecked lander had been designed to control a hodge-podge of unrelated ship bits.
And finally- assuming they somehow got off the surface in whatever they built- once up, the ship could never, ever land again. Without Amicitas’s outer hull, the ship would be less aerodynamic than a brick. It would have little to no resistance to re-entry heat. She’d made it very clear to Cherry that taking off was a one-way affair; if launched, it was success or bust, no turning back.
Cherry Berry had accepted that verdict with perfect equanimity. She knew it was a horrible risk and almost certain to fail, she said, but she wanted the option to be there.
So the days fell into a new routine: mornings spent on EVA, with two ponies at the cave farm every other day. Afternoons were spent either planning possible salvage of this or that bit of spacecraft or else working on the Hab’s farm. Evenings were for English lessons and silly human television. (They were rerunning Partridge Family with Mark gone. They’d tried a couple of the other shows on his computer and learned quickly that their English wasn’t strong enough yet to understand why the invisible people found everything so funny.)
She and Cherry had reduced meals to two-thirds rations in order to stretch out their ship’s supplies a little longer before falling back on Mark's supply. Half a meal for breakfast, a full meal at lunch, and leftovers for supper. Cherry had set back two of her own meal packs for last- her two remaining cherrychanga meals, prepared by Pinkie Pie herself. On one she’d scrawled LAST in English in marker, and on the other MARK THANK YOU FOR THE CLOBBER. (Spitfire was pretty sure the word wasn’t “clobber”, but it wasn’t her place to correct the commander about an unimportant thing.)
Spitfire spent every day busy, as did the others. She had purpose and drive again, as did her commander and crewmates. Yes, everything was going just fine.
Except…
… something felt wrong.
She didn’t know exactly what, but for three nights her sleep had been restless. Whenever she worked on the Hab farm she sensed, in a vague and useless way, that something had changed. When she tried to follow up the sense, though, she ended up with nothing except worry.
That worried Spitfire, especially since she’d never been a pony to worry herself out of a good mood before. She’d been the most confident pony on Equus before becoming an astromare.
Whatever. She still felt good. So good, in fact, that she was going to give Dragonfly a bonus late-night snack-hug. After all, the bug had been the one to push the ship work, even if she refused to take credit for the idea.
And who knew? Impossible might not be.
But for now, suit off and back to the television. She had five bits (to be paid upon return home) riding on who wrecked their police cruiser first this episode, Roscoe or Cletus.
Yeet.
Flight of the Phoenix?
Ooh, intrigued to see what it could be that's lurking ominously out of the reach of explainable feelings.
Loved the line about the invisible people
I think something might be up with your dashes in this chapter? I never noticed it before, though it could just be your way of doing it and I'm supremely unobservant of how it's been like that from the start, but I'd put a space before and after a dash, personally, and that also makes Word amend the hyphen (-) to a longer dash (en-dash, I think, though I can never remember).
FORESHADOWING!!!
And so, our first Martian CSP launch takes its first insane steps. At least they've shelved the hydrazine (for now).
8730889 FIVESHADOWING!!!
Plants are pulling all teh CO2 out and making too much oxygen? Somepones getting a little happy there.
At least the cave crops, so far, are trundling along happily.
Whats the Earthside TV ratings?
Is she saving a cherrychanga for Mark as a thank you? Because for whatever reason the thought of that just about made me tear up.
8730885 "Why did you insist on calling this contraption 'The Phoenix!'" screamed Starlight over the sound of the kludged-together booster tearing itself apart below them.
"Because it's on fire and going to burn into ashes!" shouted Cherry. "Now shut up and keep the stabilization spell on that hydrazine or we'll look like a real phoenix, and we won't come back! Just a little bit higher and we can hit the ignition on the Sparkle drive!" Her lips curled back along her gums, only partially because of the acceleration. "Once this baby hits eight hundred and eighty miles per hour, you're going to see some serious shit."
8730921
EIGHTSHADOWING!!! ...FUCK!
8730888
Maybe she's subconsciously picking up on the Hab weakening? Although that's not for certain in this story, since IIRC it was partly stress from the hydrogen explosion which didn't happen in this AU.
8730940
I gotcha covered.
8730921
SEVENSHADOWING!
Yeah, hydrazine be evil stuph. I've worked with it before...at lower concentrations but still dangerous in the plastic 55 gallon drums. Myself and a coworker were bringing a barrel to the chem add room for the secondary system from the 105º F outside when the barrel was accidentally punctured by the hand truck feet and started spraying 35% hydrazine all over the lower turbine building floor. We called it in to the control room and were turning the drum so it would quit spraying and started hosing it down when the first responders showed up in hazmat and SCBA. That's when I thought Oh! S**T!!! Wondering if I would be cancer ridden 20 years down the line.
Hydrazine is best left alone. And nuke plants, gotta love em.
8730949
I think it might be because she doesn't have Starlight here to monitor.
8730913
Oh shit, Oxygen toxicity. That defenitly sound like what our potential problem is.
8730986
The Hab monitors this stuff. If there was a problem like that there would be alarms going off.
8730936
I’m sure you missed an “eight thousand” in there, 396 m/s is not enough to get off Duna, let alone Mars.
I'm looking forward to the airlock failure. In the book it was from Mark overusing it to check his mail. I suspect this time it'll be from five extra occupants coming and going.
And I'm only looking forward to it because survival is a foregone conclusion. Otherwise, not so much.
8730913
Doesn't seem to fit, though. Oxygen doesn't cause narcosis and they're definitely not breathing hyperbaric air.
How about mild CO₂ poisoning instead? It seems to fit with the restless sleep and thriving plants. Is Mars air leaking into the Hab?
8731000
If it's only at the point of feeling vaguely odd noticeable only over days rather than actual harm the alarms might not be going off. Though I'm not sure oxygen toxicity would be a problem since Mark was enough by himself to make up for the CO2 intake of the plants in the hab, so 2 ponies, a changeling, and a dragon should be more than enough to cover that.
What I suspect is happening is what Dragonfly foreshadowed way back when she talked about the planet hating them. It couldn't do anything about it without magic. But now they're slowly feeding more magic into the area. I'm wondering if Mars is going to be more aggressively hostile as magic accumulates. It's really the only big threat I see to the farm cave. Most of the normal problems on Mars simply aren't a threat to the cave.
I've been wondering what exactly Mark intends to say once he gets in contact with NASA. I mean if he tells the truth they're probably going to think he suffered a psychotic break from being left behind and aliens showing up.
873100
There SHOULD be alarms, but they turned off the oxygenater to save on power.
8731038
Having Starlight do some magic in view of Pathfinder will show that he's not cracking up. My guess is that he avoids the term "magic" and instead simply says that the aliens make use of schools of science unknown to humanity.
8731041
When did that happen? And why?
8731071
Sols 59-60
And, best of all, the experiment with turning off the Hab’s oxygenator worked. So long as at least three of the pony suits are operating, there’s enough air exchange to keep the CO2 levels from spiking. What the magic life support doesn’t take care of, the plants seem to catch. So, despite my having stolen more than a third of the Hab’s power generating capacity for the cave and for the rover, our power budget is firmly in the green.
8731038
Make a note that he can't pronounce their advanced technology that he can't understand so is using the word 'magic' as a placeholder, and for them to figure it out based on his observations and what can be translated. Absent high quality video, there is no way for him to prove the magic angle, and even then people wouldn't believe it. Plus, it'd be like a prank during official first contact.
8731101
Shit I missed that... if the oxygenator was the only thing monitoring the air at all and Mark switched it off without an alternative... Mark do big Roscoe.
8731111
Even better, Mark could just tell Earth that since he didn't have an English translation for their technology he just taught them to call it "Magic" instead. That way even if the ponies start talking with Earth it will take them awhile to catch on :p
8731123
Yea, big Roscoe indeed. This whole thing has "love is like oxygen" by sweet playing in my head. I find the song is fitting on several levels.
8731101
Double shit... Spitfire would be the one to notice changes in the oxygen. She's a Pegasus and a wonderbolt at that! She would know what changes in the level of oxygen in the air feels like. But with no experience with levels of oxygen that are too high as opposed to too low she wouldn't be able to tell what was wrong exept that something is wrong.
Actually, the book says it used hydrazine as a monopropellant. Hydrazine as a monopropellant is run over a catalyst, usually iridium, to decompose it into hydrogen, nitrogen, and ammonia. That's how he makes water in the book- decomposing small amounts of hydrazine and then burning the hydrogen.
Rewatched Apollo 13 last night, in part due to this story. Mark and friends should take comfort in the fact that they have an excellent supply of energy at least.
8731164 You're right, I forgot.
8731101
5-bits say that with all the suit drills they havn't been turning all the suit environmental systems back on.
Maybe Spitfire is sensing the potential breach to the HAB that will blow and destroy Marks potatoes?
8731038
Mars deciding it hates them and wants to kill them sounds worryingly plausible. At a minimum, it can poison Dragonfly with hate once it wakes up enough to focus.
But if it's not Mars, I bet Spitfire is picking it up some kind of life support issue with the atmosphere via Pegasus air senses.
8731066
Really, the NASA guys are all nerds, all Mark needs to do is invoke Clarke's Third Law and they'll get it.
8731171
*Hodgepodge rocket tips over. Crushes and blows up solar farm.*
8731171
Power is Everything.
Chrysalis would love that line if she could ever get to hear it.
dose anyone know how much sending a USB drive of music movie and games up to mark?
i mean its a tiny thing really could be sent to them easy
8731339
Will most likely be included with food/other supplies. Dunno if putting anything on mars regardless of size can be called "easy".
8731346
the easy part putting it in space the hard part making it get there without burning up like my classroom mate cooking with noodles.
if it was just a USB drive can be sent what am thinking one a balloon as it fly up all the way to the max hight like that red bull drink sky jump, then after that, a rocket the size of a human (grown up like 6 feet) can be lunch from the balloon given an easier opening and less fuel needed to get up into space and to Mars. The hard part given how to make sure it won't burn up as it show up to mars and its landing.
but i could be so very wrong on that, but those are my ideas
8731064
Odyssey and Aquarius were made by two different agencies. That contingency hadn't even been considered at the time. Regardless, that "square peg in a round hole" scene is one of my favorites in the whole movie. "We have to find a way to make this fit into the hole for this using nothing but that." Engineering in a nutshell.
8731000
The Hab does NOT monitor the cave.
8731337
Here's a question completely unrelated to this story. Is the Tigerclaw part of your name a reference to the Warriors books?
8731409
I know. But she's noticing changes in the Hab.
8731032
Mars Atmosphere CAN'T leak in. There is almost one full bar of differential pressure there.
The Hab is managing the air inside itself. In the cave they have a bunch of plants with lots of light so CO2 is not going to build up. What can be happening in there is an serious increase of O2.
8731123
Hmm it makes extremely LITTLE sense that switching off the Oxygenator STOPS air warnings. The Oxygenator is designed to be switched off to be repaired, so you need to have alarms still going if it's offline.
8731418
As I was told earlier the Hab isn't taking care of itself. Mark turned off the oxygenator and the ponies are using their suits minus helmets for life support. And that's the problem. Normally the oxygenator would have something to say about extra oxygen, but now there's nothing regulating it. No alarms telling the ponies "you're dying stupid!" In short. Mark did his first big dumb for the story.
8731427
It wouldn't be the first dumb design flaw with the equipment in this story. (See safety glass visors)
8731142
Also, anyone who has met Mark is 100% going to believe that he would teach aliens that the scientific word for their weird powers is "Magic" . He could even have the correct terminology, and there's a good chance he'd still just call it magic. (Instead of whatever-kinessis)