//------------------------------// // 4. That Human Connection // Story: My battery is low, and it’s getting dark // by Naughty_Ranko //------------------------------// *** Mission Log: Sol 5117 *** *** AOS – undefined *** *** Message Received (Source: null): No, I can’t say that I’ve ever seen anything like it. *** “Nothing like it at all?” Sunset Shimmer, once more standing in her birth form in Starlight’s workshop and laden down with stacks upon stacks of books she’d brought from the human world at Starlight’s request in her saddlebags, thought about that for a moment. “Well, I mean, I’ve seen pictures of prototypes on the internet. And Micro Chips made a small toy robot for the science fair last year. But no, I’ve never seen anything matching our friend here even remotely in the human world.” Starlight nodded, disappointment written all over her face. “Did you also check out the thing I asked you about?” Sunset levitated a certain book in between them, slightly giggling. She couldn’t believe how good it felt to use a simple levitation spell. When Starlight heard nothing for a while, simply observing Sunset bob the book up and down in her magic, she gave her an amused look: “Would you like to join Twilight and me for some magic practice later? Looks like you’ve been missing it.” Sunset, letting out an embarrassed cough at having been caught daydreaming, nodded. “That sounds nice. Anyway, this book has info on every probe my world’s space programs have ever sent up. But there’s no mission that had a rover like this. Even the biggest one was only half the size for starters.” “Rover?” Starlight asked, pausing from skimming through the book and looking up. Sunset nodded. “That’s what they call an autonomous wheeled exploration vehicle.” “A rover, huh? Makes sense, I suppose. I’ve been wondering what to call it. But that’s just a descriptor. It really needs a name.” “Hm,” Sunset mused. “Well, the two small ones they used for our moon were unimaginatively called Luna 1 and Luna 2. Though a certain vice-principal approved and kept reminding us in every astronomy class she ever taught. The one they put on Duna was called Braveheart if I remember correctly. And then there is Aphrodite, which is still transmitting from the surface of Eve. But that’s just a lander, not an actual rover.” She smiled, remembering that evening not too long ago. Human Twilight had talked her into staying over at her place and watching the live stream of the landing, turning it into a science / slumber party. Of course, tacking the word party onto anything inevitably had summoned Pinkie Pie as well as the rest of the girls. Sunset hadn’t really cared all that much at the time, but Sci-Twi’s enthusiasm for the mission had been infectious. What had stuck with Sunset more than anything else was listening to mission control at the moment of touchdown. One poetically inclined operator, upon confirming the surface contact light at his console, had called out the phrase ‘Flight, EECOM. Aphrodite has kissed Eve.’ The quote ran wild all over social media for weeks afterwards, with fan art, music, web comics and everything. And she remembered Sci-Twi’s adorkable squeeing at that precise moment along with the general cheer that went up in mission control over the stream. She placed her saddlebags on the nearby workbench and rolled her stiff shoulders. “Alright, books delivered. What’s next on your checklist?” Starlight gave her an innocent look. “Checklist? What checklist?” “You’re not fooling me, Starlight Glimmer,” she replied with wry amusement, “you’ve been pestering me over the journal for days until I could get away, and you’re the student of the Princess of Checklists. I’m sure you’ve got a plan for how to make the most out of my visit.” “Well, since you’re offering your expertise.” Starlight smiled and hovered a clipboard in front of her. “I was hoping you could help me out with the markings on the outside. It’s definitely not Equestrian, so I was hoping it was maybe a human language you know?” “Let’s have a look then.” Over the next half hour or so, the two unicorns busied themselves, studying the various markings on the rover’s outer hull, speculating on their meaning and taking down notes. If Opportunity was embarrassed by the close scrutiny of two beautiful mares, it didn’t show it. “Well, it doesn’t have any language on it I know,” Sunset eventually concluded. Starlight’s ears drooped, but she was determined not to let this stop her. “Alright, what do you make of this?” She pointed at a rectangle imprinted on Opportunity’s instrument arm that showed red and white stripes as well as stars on a smaller, blue square. “Yeah, I noticed that. No words on this one. National flag, maybe? Or it could be the mission patch. The white could signify tire tracks in the red sand you’ve found on it, and the stars mark it as a mission to another planet.” “Huh, could be,” Starlight conceded, a hoof thoughtfully at her chin. “I thought it might have been a hazard warning, since it’s on a moving part. What do you make of the two in the front? I would have thought those seemed more decorative.” Sunset took another look at the two markings at the front lip of the solar panels that spelled JPL and NASA respectively. “I agree. I’d say they’re letters, but they’re clearly more stylized than the writing we’ve found on other parts which seemed more technical in nature. So I’m willing to bet they’re logos of some kind. This is just a hunch, but I think this one is the one for their spaceflight agency.” She pointed confidently at the NASA logo. “But the other one has me stumped. Not enough to go on.” “Okay, let’s move on to the sun dial.” *** PARTIAL COMMAND RECOGNIZED: Sun dial *** *** PanCAM: Acquiring Calibration Target *** *** PanCAM: Recalibrating … *** “Yes, let’s! I think that’s by far the most interesting thing,” Sunset replied, visibly excited and making her way to the back, the rover seemingly following her with its camera eyes to look at the same object. She cleared her throat. “I think the center is an artistic representation of your friend’s home solar system which has two planets.” Starlight blinked. “That’s … quite a conclusion to come to in such a short time.” “It is. But look, you’ve got this big thing in the middle. It’s gold and there are some protrusions on the shaft that I think represent the rays of the sun. They don’t have any obvious function, even if the globe and shaft do.” “Right, I guess I can see that,” Starlight said dubiously. Sunset pointed at two circles around it. “I think the inner circle with the blue dot represents the rover’s homeworld. The red dot on the outer circle is the planet you found it on. You said it was covered in red dust. In the human world, those would roughly line up with the positions of Earth and Duna.” Starlight jotted that down in her notes. “That’s incredible! I would have never thought of that, though we need another data point to confirm it.” She was glad to have brought Sunset Shimmer in. The fiery redhead’s artistic inclinations offered insights that Starlight’s more scientifically geared brain might never even have considered. “But what about the language?” Sunset raised one hoof. “Languages! Plural.” She beckoned the other unicorn closer and indicated a prominent word, MARS, which was seemingly followed by a number. “I think all the markings on the edge are the same as that word, just in different languages.” Starlight rechecked her notes on the sixteen smaller markings. “Are you sure? They vary widely in character count.” “They do. But many human languages work differently when it comes to writing out phonetic sounds. In some cases you have a character for an entire syllable for example. And there are characters that match. So that word must be important. It could be the rover’s name, followed by a serial number.” Starlight nodded. “Could be. It would be nice not to call it rover or the machine or it anymore, if we can figure out what it says.” “There you are!” The two unicorns turned towards the voice at the door. “Should have figured you two had absconded to your mad scientist lab,” Spike said as he entered the room. Turning to the rover, he made a fist and lightly bumped it against the rover’s instrument arm. “Hey, Opi! You sure are popular with the mares.” *** PanCAM: Recalibration finished *** *** IDD: Impact detected *** *** PanCAM: Reorienting to find source of tremor *** As Opportunity’s main camera swiveled around, it honed in on Spike, giving the illusion of nodding in response to the fist bump as it centered and then zoomed in on the dragon’s face. Spike nodded back. “Opi?” Starlight asked. “Why do you call it that?” “I dunno,” Spike answered with a shrug, walking over to an empty workbench, pulling himself up onto the edge and settling down on it. “You said that it seemed kind of old, with all the dust and broken parts. Opi is a dragon word for an old-timer.” “That seems kind of … mean,” Sunset observed. “Hardly,” Spike replied. “Have you ever seen an ancient dragon? They even make Torch look like a baby. One could probably give Celestia a run for her bits in a fight. Trust me, in dragon society Opi is a term of the highest respect.” Starlight hummed. “Well, it’s better than rover. Rover sounds like a diamond dog name. But Opi doesn’t quite ring true for some reason.” Spike shrugged again. “If you say so. But that’s what I’m gonna call him.” Then he turned to Sunset Shimmer. “While we’re on the subject of incredibly powerful beings that dwell in dark caves. Care to tell me why one third of the Equestrian government has locked herself into her lab with that black box you gave her?” “Oh, thanks for reminding me, Spike. I almost forgot!” Sunset rummaged around her saddlebags and pulled a black object out of it. With a small application of magic, she released a hook on it and made it unfold. “I come bearing gifts.” “Is that?” Starlight asked with wide eyes. “Yep,” Sunset grinned, “a computer.” “Then the object you gave Twilight …” Sunset nodded again. “I brought one for her as well. Already gave it to her. Thought it would help avoid conflict in the long run if you each had your own.” “Ah, so that’s what that high-pitched squeal from the portal room earlier was. It’ll be nice to get her out of my mane for a week or so.” She moved in to hug the other unicorn. “Thank you sooo much!!! That’s incredible! But aren’t these really expensive?” Sunset waved her off. “Nah! Sorry to burst your bubble, but I’m not that generous. I got these for free.” “Free!?” Starlight gasped. “Who would give away an incredible piece of technology like that for free!?” “The computer club,” Sunset dead-panned while rolling her eyes. “They finally got new equipment, so they gave these out to anyone who wanted one. Look, I know these things look like something out of a science-fiction novel to you, but these laptops are ten years old. That’s practically forever in terms of computer age. My cellphone has more processing power than one of those dinosaurs. But that kind of makes them perfect for a beginner.” “How much power does it take? How many computations can it make in a second? Is it able to run several things at once?” “Whoa, slow down,” Sunset cut in, already having endured the same set of rapid-fire questions from an excited alicorn earlier that day. “I’ll give you the crash course. But I’m really not a computer expert. I can deal with Metube, MyStable and streaming from my GameStation, but that’s about it. But once you’ve come to terms with the basics, journal me, and I’ll have our Twilight walk you through the more advanced stuff.” “Okay, just the basics for now then,” Starlight replied, eager to get started but pushing the million questions she had to the back of her mind. But one came to the forefront. “Do you think with this I can communicate with, uhm, Opi?” Even with tweaking and Twilight’s help, the translation spell had remained vague. Perhaps the machine’s thought process was so alien that it would never fully work. “That’s the idea. I think it’s not gonna be as easy as plug and play, though. I was keeping an eye out for any access ports while we were examining it, but I didn’t spot anything that might make for a direct link,” Sunset explained while she laid out a smaller black box with a cable that connected to the laptop on one side and a small metal antenna sticking out the other. “Now, do you know Tempus Tempestus?” “Yeah, it’s a low level lightning spell,” Starlight confirmed. “Why?” She pointed at the power adapter and its homemade aerial. “The Equestrian power grid isn’t really up to snuff to give them enough juice. I’m sure you or Twilight can cobble together a better solution over time. But for the moment, I’ve come up with this. Tempus Tempestus at 13 thaums for five seconds. That ought to give you a full charge that is good for a couple of hours. Don’t give it more than that, or you might fry the battery.” As Sunset and Starlight got to work, Spike, figuring that all the nerdy unicorns and alicorns in the vicinity would be far too busy to ask questions due to their new toys, slipped quietly out the door and headed for the freezer with his favorite ice cream. Meanwhile Opportunity’s UHF antenna picked up a new signal. *** AOS – PC-YRPH3C *** *** Message Received (Source: PC-YRPH3C): DHCPDISCOVER – 008041:aefd7e *** *** PARSE ERROR: Command not recognized. *** *** Message Received (Source: PC-YRPH3C): DHCPDISCOVER – 008041:aefd7e *** *** PARSE ERROR: Command not recognized. *** *** Message Received (Source: PC-YRPH3C): DHCPDISCOVER – 008041:aefd7e *** *** PARSE ERROR: Command not recognized. *** *** PC-YRPH3C – LOS ***