MISSION LOG – SOL 484
The skies are clear and dark blue, and the north rim of Crommelin is so clear on the horizon it almost looks like we could walk to it in half an hour. We’re no longer trapped under a thick curtain of airborne dirt.
So why, you might ask, are we still sitting here like a bump on a log? Well, I’ll tell you.
First and foremost, after yesterday’s miracle (there’s no other word for it), Spitfire is still in a bad way. We had to cut those wing sleeves off of her, because the uncured changeling gunk had pretty much sealed to her wings. When the sleeves finally came off, they took a lot of pony feathers with them. She woke up during the process, and we had to give her a triple dose of the pony painkillers to get her back to sleep.
Fortunately, the pony medical kit actually has medicine- I suppose “potion” is a better word- to accelerate regrowth of pegasus feathers. It’s just like the medicine Spitfire kept jamming down Starlight’s throat when her right foreleg was broken. It doesn’t work as well as it does back on their homeworld, though, which is why they administer it only when they’re running the magic field… which has been cut down to three minutes a day. More about that in a bit.
But the bigger worry is decompression sickness. When Spitfire wakes up, she complains that her lungs feel like raw meat. Been there, done that. But lung tissue is incredibly resilient. Also, there’s another medicine bottle specifically to treat smoke inhalation, and the ponies on the other end of their water telegraph gave the go-ahead to use that on Spitfire, too. It’ll be a long healing process, but we like her odds there… or would, if it wasn’t for the headaches.
Whenever Spitfire wakes up, she complains of terrible headaches and joint pain. She also sees stars, the way you might if you get hit in the head really hard. I suspect our little hero had a very close brush with the bends. I didn’t get that, because my exposures to low air pressure were brief- first when the antenna impaled me on Sol 6, second when my suit caught fire in the perchlorate bomb on Sol 40.
(God, that was over a year ago. So hard to believe… seems like only yesterday I was driving across Mars in a pain-filled stupor, egged on by a hallucination that turned out not to be a hallucination at all… fuck, I better stop this. I’m getting nostalgic for the times I was almost killed by Mars, and I’m not off this motherfucking planet yet!)
Anyway, the proper treatment for the bends is a hyperbaric chamber with an almost pure oxygen atmosphere. The bends are caused by gaseous nitrogen in the bloodstream. Normally nitrogen, like oxygen, remains dissolved in the blood. But when you undergo a sudden drop in pressure, it can come out of solution, becoming bubbles that operate just as efficiently as blood clots for cutting off circulation. Left untreated, the bends can kill just like a stroke- exactly like a stroke, in fact- or cause permanent injury.
Unfortunately we don’t have a hyperbaric chamber. Once Spitfire told us the symptoms, we stuffed her into Starlight Glimmer’s suit and asked the pony homeworld to overpressurize the suit with as high a concentration of oxygen, and zero nitrogen, as they could manage. We take off her helmet for meals, then stuff a rolled-up shirt into it for a pillow, put it back on, and let her drift off.
Fortunately, Spitfire seems to be escaping the paralysis and nausea that my training taught me come with the bends. (Ares astronauts get training on this because we have to be prepared for triage and recovery in case of a Hab breach.) We’ll have to watch her, but the worst should be over in a week. After that, Spits gets to begin recovery, and we find out what, if anything, she’s lost permanently.
That’s the main reason we haven’t moved an inch- taking care of Spitfire. But there are other reasons.
We didn’t know what damage the storm did to the exterior of the Whinnybago. We did know, however, that when Spitfire killed the storm, all the dust it was carrying fell almost straight down. So this morning Fireball, Starlight Glimmer (borrowing Dragonfly’s spacesuit) and I spent the entire morning cleaning off the rover, dusting off the solar panels, and inspecting everything for signs of damage. We took special care with a bottle of compressed air to clean out all ten rover wheels. The last thing we want is for accumulated grit to lock up a wheel and make us drag it across the Martian plains.
In the process, we found four of the solar panel amplifier sheets had been broken in the storm. That required Starlight to levitate Fireball and myself up to remove the bad sheets, bring down the most intact parts of what was left, and then reverse the process once she’d used more of the spare quartz to fix them. Between that and the boosters and things, we’ve used up over half of that half-ton chunk of crystal we brought from the cave farm.
Meanwhile, Dragonfly spent today undoing the modifications on Spitfire’s suit. That required cutting out the wing sleeves, stitching the flaps back in place, stealing about two square feet of the spare Hab canvas, and a lot more puking up black sticky stuff. She’s lying down next to Spitfire now. When I asked if she was all right, she flipped me the “high hoof” and rolled over. Not a happy camper, is our little love bug.
And finally, reports. Oh, GOD, the reports. The ponies took turns flooding the toilet with water describing the last couple of days. They had it easy. I had to make my report by vox, and NASA kept relaying more questions to Hermes for me to answer. By the time today’s broadcast window finally closed, I was feeling a little… like I’d swallowed broken glass. (See, I can too resist the urge for a cheap joke!)
But one day is all we can spare. Hermes is getting closer. The lightspeed lag is only five minutes now. In sixty-two sols, ready or not, it’s going to fly by. And we’re still over sixteen hundred kilometers from the MAV. We’ve got to get moving.
(Besides, NASA is still shouting at me to send them the video Fireball captured of Spitfire’s flight, and we need the MAV’s radios to do it. So we better do that before the last scientist at JSC has a brain aneurysm and dies.)
The electric batteries are full again. Eleven of our magic batteries are empty, and most of that is power we’re not getting back, but they’ll regenerate a little each day. We’re as ready to roll as we’re going to get.
Tomorrow we turn east… and, in the words of BJ McKay, lay the hammer down.
A price must be paid for all things. Spitfire is paying a lesser one than she thought she might, but it might end up be far more than she can ever believe. Good luck, rocket mare.
(Hey, somebody had to say it)
(It does occur to me that traveling a certain distance and using the magic batteries over and over would leave a trail of 'dots' if viewed from above at the magical frequencies, or much like somebody flying a metal wire up into a lightning storm, a channel for which Mars to backlash its vengeance.)
Poor Spits and lovebug. I really hope three minutes a day will be enough for Dragonfly. Otherwise...
Hadn't considered decompression sickness/the bends as a risk.
Interestingly I recall that the human body can withstand exposure to vacuum for short periods surprisingly well, provided that it's not a sudden exposure across a large pressure differential (greater than 1atm to 0atm). In fact, early space suit designs explored the idea of covering the astronaut in elastic wraps, not unlike a full body compression stocking. The trouble was that the wraps would bunch up around the joints which released the compression.
Good chapter today!
They got themselves a Convoy? Who gets to be Rubber Duck?
Dragonfly is Love Machine?
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Poetic, and one I agree with. She's cemented her status as a legend here. She paid a price for it, but no matter what happens, she went beyond the extreme on Mars.
Will they try to add the Sparkle Drive to the Hermes and get home sooner? It would be an interesting idea to try. Even of they only manage a few pulses a day instead of the 4 a second it could still cut down travel time to earth by days. Maybe months if it can work well.
9154970 How much of a price still remains to be seen. In a perfect scenario she would be in a hyperbaric chamber, the nitrogen would be forced back to liquid and from her blood, she would make a full recovery. As it is, if she has bubbles of gas in her brain, it is effectively going to cause her to stroke and/or die (Bad Day), if they have accumulated in her limbs, she could need to have an emergency amputation (which has further complications in the environment she is in, Bad Day) or develop gangrene in the limbs as a result, best case scenario is the muscles with wither and she won't be able to use the limb well again. Best case scenario, the bubbles have not impeded any blood flow, and the makeshift pressure environment they made will work to force the nitrogen out.
This is why I said she is paying a high price, but it could end up being higher. Decompression sickness has acute, subacute, and chronic problems that can arise.
East bound and down, loaded up and rovin',
We're gonna do what they say can't be done.
We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there.
We're east bound, just watch ol' "Whinny" run.
Are you sure you didn't mean CW McCall? I don't recall, did Commander Lewis have "BJ and the Bear" in her files?
I wonder if their solar panel output is above 100% of Mars baseline now, since the air is clearer than it would normally be on Mars. Maybe they can get 80km a day or more for a few days with the clear air.
The Bends sounds concerning, although the image of her stuffed into the suit and overpressurised is very sweet.
But I think we can now tentatively say Spitfire will live? I can't believe the story would be cruel enough to pass up giving her the most awesome death ever and instead have her waste away afterwards Will leave it a week to be sure, though
So in that case I think I can breathe a deeper sigh of relief, and now appreciate just how awesome she was yesterday. She knew the risks, she didn't want to die, but she never hesitated or let her apprehension show, and she made peace with sacrificing herself to save the others.
Seeing the storm, Mitch Henderson be like, "Winter is Coming."
And Spitfire grabs her sunglasses, all like, "Altius Volantis."
Going on the final scene in the film of The Martian, Mark Watney's colloquial legacy is that he grew potatoes in faeces. Which, make no mistake, is fucking incredible, and he should be held up as a pillar of mankind. But Spitfire will be known, across two different worlds, for visiting another planet and setting its sky on fire That's like, the kind of thing you'd buy her autobiography for and skip everything before and after. Just the bit where she says, "I was launched like a rocket, flew through the airless sky into the heart of the storm, and burned it to dust."
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They've actually revisited that idea in recent years.
Starlight, Spitfire, and Cherry are going to go down in Equestria history as the greatest ponies. Bigger then Starswirl and the Pillars. Bigger than Twilight and the Mane 5.
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Mark, clearly, as he's driving from the front. :)
9154884 Fireball is the designated camerathing. He's the only one besides Mark who has thumbs (most of the time).
Micro gravity helps reduce the effects of Decompression Sickness (NASA did a report on it) so when she gets to Earth (and eventually Eques) she is going to catch pure hell
Of all the Equestrian natives, Spitfire probably had the best chances to survive her flight from an evolutionary standpoint (barring actual seaponies or sirens) due to pegasi actually being evolved to withstand high speed, upper atmosphere flight (the rapid change in pressure being the relevant point. Which is why I mentioned seaponies). Any being actually able to go beyond mach 1 unassisted would likely be well adapted for what Spitfire did. Not to say what she did wasn't amazing. It really was. I think it was something only an experienced Wonderbolt or possibly a princess could have pulled off and even then, it was a very near thing. You could count the number of ponies capable of making the flight on one hand, and I don't think any of them would have a higher chance of survival than Spitfire. My two bits on the subject.
Ego sum Ignis de Caelo.
Marti et Vltra
Veni Vidi Vici
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Yes, MIT has been working on one for a few years now. The biggest problem, as usual, is bending the suit at human joints.
https://news.mit.edu/2014/second-skin-spacesuits-0918
It’s been quite the ride. I’m somehow going to miss having a chapter per day thing
Were they still trying to find the Earth dimension by magical signature? Because that had to have made a big signal.
I wonder if Pegasi have their own standards for what constitutes a colony.
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I think Rainbow Dash may be the only non-alicorn with similar chances of survival, provided the training. The Alicorns I assume are quite a tad bit more durable and thus would endure the stresses better. Not by much but every bit helps, though they would be at a disadvantage in terms of specific training.
I am not a scientist, do keep that in mind.
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Depending on how you view it you could also say she punched it into oblivion. Not sure why but hitting things very very hard always seems so satisfying.
I can just hear it now...
I was in a spacesuit, with my wings in sleeves. I was launched like a rocket, and busted a storm half the size of the planet. Doing a ‘rainboom with atmosphere too thin to fly in and no background magic. Tell me again how awesome you think you are, Rainbow?
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That is totally going to be on her grave.
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Translation please for those of us not awesome enough to know Latin?
9155206
I am no Latin speaker but it's something like:
I am a fire in the sky.
Mars and Beyond
I came, I saw, I conquered.
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I agree.
Alicorns are tricky to consider. Most of the ones seen have significantly bigger frames. In a magic rich environment, their greater strength would be an asset, but in a place like Mars... I am still on the fence as to whether their different physiology would equate to greater difficulty due almost nil environmental magic.
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Well, it was one of the three uses Rich Purnell came up with.
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My latin is rusty as hell, but it's something in the neighborhood of:
I ignited the air(maybe heavens?)
Beyond mars
I came, I saw, I conquered.
Very, very roughly.
Magic comes with a price here, but it looks like Spitfire needn't pay too much right now.
All our love to Dragonfly!
And the "epic" line falls back down to normal levels. Bring on the day-to-day stuff! Too bad we can't "hear" what everyone said in their conversations to home.
Stroke/death in this scenario is caused by the nitrogen bubbles percolating through the brain. Nitrogen is relatively light, so it tends to rise. The solution is to keep her head as the lowest part of her body. Head down, legs high...and the bubbles will come out through her feet (flesh near her hooves?) rather than through her brain.
True story: knew a diver that this happened to. Whole process only took a couple hours.
NASA seeing the satellite video before reading Mark's report might make for a good chapter.
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There's also the Space Activity Suit
Roll d8 for each panel. On a 1, lose the panel, on a 1 or 2 lose the covering?
There was something about increasing pressure by putting a sock in the return line, so a constant flow supply would increse the supply pressure, but the life support doesnt use compact high pressure pumps otherwise cracking open the toilet would give them a permanent low level thrust with no other modifications needed?
High power sound as well, vibrate Spitfire to keep th bubbles broken up? But, what music given thats a lot of watts needed to drive audio on low quality systems. I mean, My system can vibrate the house at a VU reading of 1 single watt per channel, but its a 50 watts a side Class A amp so burns 50 watts when doing absolutely nothing and Ive only had it up to full power a few times.
Then thrown in the Level 11 Bass Boost.
Now I have this image of a cartoon Winneybago heading East, into the sun, with the solar panels hung out on spread wing like washing lines each side, with Bishop Brennan going full on CRILLY attack mode.
Time for a bit of Speed 3.
Pity Starlight cant use a Report Auto Compression Fill spell, then again, Morse and dictionary look up is as close as you can get without running it through the laptop first, and Twilight using powerful spells her end?
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You can thank the combination of my Google-fu and the tiny bit of Latin I actually know for this...
It almost directly translates to "I am a fire in the sky / Mars and beyond / I came, I saw, I conquered"
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As it stands, Spitfire's days as a flier are done.
That said, I do want to see a chapter dedicated to:
because it just fits.
9155408 Maybe. Getting her back to a high-magic environment might help with recovery (particularly the magic medication/diagnostics available there), assuming she isn't dead before getting home.
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The tiny bubbles that form within tissue (particularly fatty tissue, nitrogen is quite soluble in fats) will still have to re-dissolve though.
The magic expenditure is definitely concerning. So, of course, is Spitfire's condition, but that has far less impact on getting the crew into orbit. This will be extremely tricky.
And Mars isn't done yet...
That was intense. Good to see Spitfire get the chance to be the hero this time.
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Google Translate may give varied results, but the wording I intended is "I am the Fire in/of the Sky. On Mars and Beyond, I came, I saw, I conquered."
oh, you reminded me of this:
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A couple chapters back, we found out that Equestria has stopped sending probes into random universes, on account of the Nightmare Moon of one of those universes was able to follow it back. They managed to resolve the situation peacefully, but it brought home how dangerous poking random dimensions with a stick was.
I am so glad I waited and the last three chapters in one go, instead of having them hanging over me.
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Tinier the bubbles less they care about gravity, so that thing is unlikely to do any good. Experimenting with diy upside-down contraptions isn't worth the risk of hitting her head, for example.
9155931 It was very useful. It let me know that I may have missed several Nightmareverses in my interdimensional purge.
9155931 Nightmare Moon didn't so much follow the probe back as get dragged along. If it had been deliberate, she wouldn't have brought her two most dangerous enemies in her world along with her.