The Maretian

by Kris Overstreet

Sol 503

“Sweet Faust, what a mess.”

Starlight Glimmer couldn’t help but agree with Cherry Berry. The previous forty kilometers, all uphill at various grades, had been bad enough, but at least they had been solid rock with only a moderate number of smaller rocks and boulders scattered here and there. But then had come the word to turn almost due south, rounding the end of the worn-down rim of an ancient, weather-flattened crater on their right, aiming towards the immense mountain to their south, and driving onto…

… onto THIS.

In unknown ancient days, the immense mountain had been part of the rim of the gigantic crater called Schiaparelli. For whatever reason, possibly to do with the smaller Edom crater to the northeast, part of the crater rim had collapsed, sending huge chunks of debris not just down the interior of the crater but also down the slope outside the crater. Billions of years of dust storms had weathered the debris and, at the same time, filled in some of the gaps between the rocks. Gravity had, very slowly, compressed the sand into rock, leaving only a thin layer on top loose enough to be kicked up by a hoof. And then, eventually, a couple of ponies leading a ten-wheeled triumph of tinkering over common sense showed up looking for a road down into the crater.

It had taken only a couple of experiments to discover that some of the seemingly middle-sized rocks extended a lot deeper below the surface. Kicking and shoving had no effect. Starlight had gone inside and, reluctantly, retrieved a mana battery. Her first attempt at lifting a rock had burned a third of the battery, unearthed a specimen almost as large as the Whinnybago itself, and triggered a slide and subsidence that eventually required the rover to detour over a kilometer to avoid it.

After that Starlight had just used cutting spells to slice and dice any rock too stubborn for Cherry to kick out of the way of the rover. Between the three of them (Cherry, Starlight and the almost-spent mana battery) they’d spent twenty kilometers literally carving out a path for the Whinnybago to crawl through.

Which left ten more kilometers, according to Mark’s friends on Hermes, before they reached the crest of the slope.

“What a bucking mess,” Cherry Berry added in English. “If the way down is as bad as the way up, I say we go back and try that other way in NASA talked about.”

“We’d lose over a week if we did,” Mark replied over the comms. “Maybe a lot more. The land directly west of Schiaparelli is terrible.”

“Worse than all this?”

“Imagine driving seventy klicks and only actually getting forty because of the maze of detours,” Mark said. “It’s pretty bad. Terra Sabaea is one of the most heavily cratered regions on the entire planet.”

“Reminds me of home,” Fireball chimed in. “All it needs is, wossword, fire mountain?”

“Volcano.”

“Yeah, that. Mountains, cliffs, rocks, all here. Bug says same thing.”

“How much longer- wait, Starlight, help me with this?”

“This” was a great rock five times as tall as the two ponies, sticking out of an otherwise clear sandy stretch between two even larger ridges of irregular rock. Starlight sighed, sent out several flashes of light, and watched as the bits of stone flopped down into a pile which Cherry kicked, one by one, well out of the Whinnybago’s path.

“Thanks. How much power is left in that battery?” Cherry asked.

Starlight checked the battery’s charge meter as she stuck it back on her back. “Maybe two more rocks like that one,” she said. “It’s almost spent.”

Cherry sighed. “Let’s just keep going,” she said. “It looks like it clears out a bit up ahead.”

The two spacesuited ponies trudged on, followed at a slow walking pace by the Whinnybago. The gap between the two stone ridges narrowed slightly, giving the tandem rover little room for maneuver at one point, before widening and then vanishing beneath the sands. Smaller rocks, not much larger than hoof-sized, still lay scattered across (or sticking out of) the sandstone here and there.

Hoping against hope, the ponies dashed ahead, leaving the Whinnybago behind. There were still a few larger rocks here and there, but nothing as large as what they’d just passed, and as they went on the rocks grew smaller and fewer- and, thank Faust, none directly in their way. The light gray sandstone under the loose dust became smoother, though never perfectly clear.

“Mark, it’s looking good ahead,” Cherry called out. “I think we can pick up the pace for a while.”

On this point Starlight was rather less in agreement with Cherry than she had been over the state of affairs a couple of kilometers back. “I’ve about had it,” she reported. “Can we please just stop for the day? We’re overtime as it is.”

“Agree.” That, of all people on the comms, was Fireball. “Don’t like what I see. Wanna stop, take closer look.”

“Huh? You know something I don’t?” Mark asked.

“Maybe. Want look to know for sure.”

“Okay. Girls, stay put. I’ll come to you, and we’ll make camp there.”

For the first time in twenty sols, all six castaways stood in their spacesuits on the Martian surface, looking around at the view. Behind them lay the jumble of sand and rocks on the northwestern slope leading up to this point. Ahead lay mostly sand, with rapidly fewer rocks as the slope appeared to level off not far away. To their left, off on the horizon, lurked the rim of the crater listed on Mark’s maps as Edom, the name itself a relic of Giovanni Schiaparelli’s maps of over a hundred fifty years before, made partly from telescopic observation and partly from wishful thinking. (For one thing, the maps utterly failed to show the gigantic crater later named after the mapmaker.)

And to their right, rising considerably higher than Edom’s rim, stood a massive shadow of rock, one of the fragments of the original rim of the Schiaparelli basin. Even with its base well below the Martian horizon, the peak stood out, calling the eye to it.

Well, calling most eyes. Fireball, unlike most of the others, had eyes for nothing but the ground. He stomped on it with his suit boots, here, there, all around them. He scraped at it with his glove, then picked up one of the smaller rocks and used it to dig past the loose surface sand. He even tried knocking on the ground, as one might knock on a door.

Eventually this show became more entertaining for the rest of the crew than the scenery. Mark spoke up first, though his thoughts ran much along Starlight’s own: “Looking for hobbits there, Fireball?”

“Not funny,” he said. “Danger. Lots of danger. Not a good place. Get worse farther we go.”

“Um, you want to explain to us?” Starlight asked. “Cherry and I have had a day of dealing with not-a-good places. What’s worse than that?”

Fireball sighed. “Need to think how to say it,” he said. “Inside. Lunch.”

Solar cells set out for recharging, suits rinsed off, and other pre-lunch chores taken care of (down to notifying Hermes of their shutting down for the day), the crew gave Dragonfly the customary midday group hug and then set about preparing their own meals. Fireball scooped a handful of quartz and citrine chips from his supply into a bowl, but he didn’t begin eating, not until everyone else had their hay, potatoes, or food pack portions.

Once Mark, being last, sat down with three potatoes and the orange chicken entrée from a food pack, Fireball began. Starlight could practically hear words being laid into place like a mason building a brick wall with deliberate care. “Dragons live in wild places,” he said. “Mostly empty places. Especially deserts and volcano places, with lots of caves. I grow up in desert. I know desert ground, desert danger.” He paused, looked at Starlight Glimmer, and asked in Equestrian, “What’s Earth talk for ‘powder pit’?”

“Um… ‘powder pit’?” Starlight hazarded. “But what is a powder pit?”

“Danger,” Fireball said. “Danger to hatchling with no wings yet. Danger to ponies too. Like this.” He spread a claw out flat. “Desert floor sandstone. Solid. But something make a big hole- water, big monster, something.” He cupped the claw. “Then sand blows in, fills hole.” He laid his other claw atop the first one. “Sand same color, look as rock. But not hold weight. Too loose. Dragon step on sand, sink in. If hole big enough, sink all the way in.” He closed the cupped claw into a fist, crushing something unseen.

“Okay,” Mark said quietly. “I can see that. How do we find them?”

“Don’t want to find,” Fireball grunted. “Keep away. In desert, stick close to plants until you get wings. Plants suck up ground water, put roots out, make powder pit collapse.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder, indicating the outside world. “You see any plants out there? I didn’t.”

“So obviously there has to be another way,” Starlight said. “What other ways are there to avoid a powder pit.”

“Watch other baby dragons,” Fireball said. “If dragon falls in, say, ‘Don’t go there,’ and go around. Hard on the other dragon, but what can you do?”

“I dunno,” Dragonfly said, her buzz carrying a bit of an edge. “Maybe rescue them?”

“Not always time for dragon to wait on passing crazy changeling,” Fireball replied. “No matter how many seems like there are.”

“I meant do it yourself,” Dragonfly hissed.

Fireball shrugged. “Dragonlord could probably make happen,” he said. “But before her, fat chance. You know my people.”

“No,” Dragonfly said. “I know you.”

Starlight watched as Fireball looked away from the bug. “Yeah,” he muttered. “But I’m crazy too. Else I wouldn’t be here with you.”

“Guys, seriously,” Mark said, breaking in. “So there’s maybe a danger. What do we do about it?”

Fireball sighed. “Like I said,” he grumbled. “Watch a dragon. See if he falls in.” He looked at Cherry and said, “Tomorrow I do scout.” Turning to Dragonfly, he added, “You steer back of rover. You watch enough to know how.”

“So we’re supposed to just watch and see if you fall in?” Starlight gasped. “That’s ridiculous!”

“It’s also slow as hell,” Mark said. “Are you sure it’s that dangerous?”

“What happen if rover roll?” Fireball asked. “Heck, what happen if rover just lose a wheel? Yeah, we go slow. But we get there. Not end up like Roscoe or Cletus.”

Mark nodded, accepting the point. “We go slow, we get there,” he repeated.

“Let’s go back to you falling into a pit and dying,” Starlight insisted. “I don’t know what you think we think of you, but we don’t think dragons are expendable.”

“Huh? Expendable?” Fireball asked, puzzled.

“We’re not going to let you kill yourself just so we can be safe!” Starlight insisted.

“Oh. So what rules for joining the club, hm?” Fireball asked. He pointed to Mark. “Push me away from perchlorate fire, almost die.” He pointed to Starlight. “Save cave from breach, almost die.” He pointed to Dragonfly. “Almost burn herself out saving Mark, almost die.” He pointed to Spitfire. “Rip suit flying into Martian dust storm carrying twice her weight. Almost die.” His long muzzle curled into a smirk. “I don’t wanna be left out,” he finished.

“Well, I could do it,” Cherry Berry suggested. “I’m an earth pony. I might even be able to sense the bad ground.”

“And you might not,” Fireball said. “If you fall in… well, I’m taller than you.” He measured Cherry’s height with one claw. “I’m easier for Starlight to pull out. Also I’m stronger. Maybe pull myself out.”

“Point,” Cherry said. “But you’re not going out alone anyway. We both go. And we watch each other.”

Fireball shrugged. “Agreed,” he said. With that he began eating his crystal flakes, obviously not interested in further conversation.