Sol 47
AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 44
ARES III SOL 47
Starlight Glimmer looked at the whiteboard, which showed two pictures. One was a globe turning on an axis; the other was a sun and a planet orbiting it, a large circle and arrow defining the orbit.
“Day,” Mark said, pointing to the globe. Then, pointing to the orbiting planet, he added, “Year.”
“Day, year, yes,” Starlight responded. This was so tedious, but anything that got words out of Mark. The other Amicitas crew members had their ways to pass the time; Starlight used her free time to wring more English out of their host. She had to, now, since both Spitfire and Cherry Berry had decreed an absolute two-week moratorium on further unicorn magic.
Mark then drew a smaller globe, adding a little Hab and Amicitas to it, then drawing the rotation arrow around it. “Sol,” he said. “Little more than day.”
“Sol.” When Amicitas’s ship clock had been reactivated, Starlight had found out that Equestrian time and this planet’s day didn’t line up. The day here was between thirty-seven and thirty-eight minutes longer. It made sense that Mark had a different name for it, in retrospect.
Then Mark drew a second orbit outside the first, sketched a little Mars next to Earth, and added an arrow, showing it moving in the same direction- counterclockwise- as Earth. “Little less than two years,” he said.
“What days?” Starlight asked.
“How many days,” Mark corrected. “Six hundred eighty-seven.”
That made sense. Longer, slower orbit obviously meant a longer year.
Then Mark drew a funny-looking squiggle by Earth. “Hermes,” he said. “Ares Four.”
Hermes was the name of the ship he’d come by, the one that had left him behind. His crew had been Ares Three. Obviously he was talking about the next mission.
Mark drew a dotted line from the Earth to the Mars on his drawing. “Four years,” he said. He wrote a note by the little Mars: Sol 1412. “Go home four years.”
That… well, that was ridiculous, and no question about it. “Why four years?” Starlight asked. “Why… big…”
“Why so long?” Mark prompted.
“What ‘long?’”
Mark held out his arms as wide as he could vertically. “Tall,” he said. He shifted them to bracket a horizontal space and said, “Wide.” He then held one to his chest and the other as far forward as he could. “Long.” He brought the outstretched hand back almost to his chest and finished, “Short.”
Starlight wasn’t sure she was absorbing all this, but for now she got the idea. “Yes, why long?”
“Home not know we here,” Mark said, speaking slowly and thoughtfully. “Ares move every four years.”
“Need talk home sooner!” Starlight insisted.
“Yeah, no kidding,” Mark muttered.
“What ‘kidding?’”
Mark groaned and shook his head in frustration. “Never mind,” he said. “How soon you home get here?”
Yes, that was the trick, wasn’t it? “Not know how,” Starlight said. “We come accident.” Accident was the longest English word in her vocabulary, but it got a lot of use. “Home not know how come Mars. Here Mars,” she added, pointing down to the ground to emphasize this planet and not another alternate world.
Mark shook his head, sighing. “Damn,” he said.
Starlight didn’t know that word, but she was pretty sure it was profanity of some kind, considering how Mark used it when he got upset. “Yeah, no damn kidding,” she replied, using the same surly undertone he’d used before.
This triggered a laughing fit in Mark which took almost a minute to subside.
“Somebody call lunchtime?” Dragonfly asked, popping up next to Starlight.
“What? No! I mean…” Starlight took a deep breath, deliberately pushed away her annoyance, and focused on her thoughts of Dragonfly the inventor, Dragonfly the pilot, Dragonfly the schmoozer, Dragonfly the buttinksy… no, that was the wrong track. Dragonfly is my crewmate. She’s helped save our lives a couple of times already. She’s clever and concerned and fun to be around. And she needs our love.
Despite her intense concentration, it took quite a long moment before she could embrace the changeling, and the hug only lasted a couple of seconds.
“Er… thanks, I’ll take all I can get…” The changeling’s ear-fins twitched uncertainly. She pointed to Mark, adding, “But I was making a joke about him.”
Mark, meanwhile, watched all of this with interest. “Hello, Dragonfly,” he said slowly.
“Hello, Mark,” Dragonfly replied. “What are you doing?”
Mark’s eyebrows jumped. “Well!” he said.
“Not how are you doing,” Dragonfly corrected, “what are you doing?”
Starlight looked at Dragonfly. “You can make grammatically correct sentences in his language?”
“Some simple ones, yeah,” Dragonfly replied. “I’ve been watching what Mark does with his computer. The last couple nights I’ve been getting up and turning it back on to watch more of that educational show.”
“You what??”
“Don’t let on, he might get upset,” Dragonfly insisted. “So, Mark, what are you doing?”
Mark glanced back and forth between the unicorn and the changeling, looking like he’d rather not be caught between the two. “We are talking about days and years,” he said deliberately, pointing to the whiteboard. “And space.”
“Really? Sounds like fun,” Dragonfly said. “How many years… um… darn it, how do I say this…”
Mark wrote a number on the whiteboard: 41. He pointed to himself. “Forty-one years old,” he said. “How old you?”
“That wasn’t what I was going to ask!” Dragonfly protested.
Starlight Glimmer pointed to herself and said, “Twenty-six.” She nudged Dragonfly. “Tell him how old you are.”
“I don’t know how old I am!” Dragonfly hissed back. “The queen’s only been giving out birth certificates for a few years now! It was years before I ever stuck my head above ground! Anyway, what’s a year to a changeling?”
Starlight narrowed her eyes, smirked, pointed at Dragonfly and said, “Thirty-one!”
“Nark,” Dragonfly grumbled.
“Did I guess it?” Starlight grinned.
“Mark,” Dragonfly said, changing the subject, “how many years space?”
The alien didn’t answer immediately. He leaned back in his chair, twiddling the marker in his fingers, thinking carefully about the question. Finally he took the whiteboard and erased it, then wrote a number on the far right of the board: 2035. “This year,” he said. He drew a line back to the left edge of the map, wrote the number 1957, drew a little ball with antennas- a little like the much-ridiculed Stayputnik- and said, “First make-moon. Satellite.”
“Satellite.” Starlight repeated. An artificial satellite, she guessed. She wondered why Mark’s species began with robots instead of piloted craft. It seemed to her like doing it the hard way round.
A little farther on Mark drew a little rocket and the number 1961. “First man in space.” A little farther on, he drew a little rocket sitting on a planet and the number 1969. “First man on moon.” He drew a little can with wings above a curved line; 1971. “First space station- first place to go that stays in space.” A winged thing vaguely similar to the Amicitas; 1981. “First ship go back space, use again.”
After a bit of thought, Mark back-tracked on the line, drawing a planet-with-Hab for Mars underneath it. 1965. “First make-moon fly past Mars.” A second line to 1969. “First make-moon orbit Mars.” 1974. “First make-moon land Mars.” 1997. “First rover land Mars.” And, finally, 2027. “First man land Mars.”
Starlight wondered about all of this. Mark was the product of over seventy years of his species learning how to fly through space, developing all sorts of technology without the benefit of magic. That was incredible. That was amazing. That was-
“Slow,” Dragonfly said. “Why slow?”
“Slow?” Mark asked, obviously dumbfounded. “Slow because hard, that’s why!” He handed the marker to Dragonfly. “How long for you, then?”
Dragonfly took the marker in her hooves, adjusted it so she could grip it in one perforated fetlock, and drew a new line on the whiteboard. On the right she wrote the number 1009. “Us this year,” she said. On the left of the line she wrote 1006. “First rocket.” She then dragged the marker back and forth above the line several times. “All that,” she said.
Mark’s jaw dropped. “Aro tellyng me you whent phrm your first rocket phlyte to here in four years??”
“Slow, please,” Starlight warned. “All words not have.”
Both Mark and Dragonfly threw up their forelimbs in frustration. “All space, four years?” Mark asked, sarcasm bleeding into his voice.
“By my long-devoured cocoon,” Dragonfly groaned to Starlight over Mark’s simplified response, “you know we sound like stupid little children, right? We have got to -”
“Will you two stop it?!” Starlight shouted in Equestrian.
Mark froze, then bent his head. “Sorry,” he said quietly.
Dragonfly took a moment to follow suit, but the changeling had the good sense to do it before she said anything else. “Yeah, I shouldn’t have said that,” she said. “I’m sorry, Starlight. But we really need to work on learning his language the right way.”
“We’ll start tomorrow,” Starlight sighed. “I don’t have the energy for it right now. But I am curious…” She took the whiteboard and eraser from Dragonfly, cleared the board, and then took the marker in her teeth and began drawing. First Cherry’s cutie mark, then her own, then Spitfire’s; then the emblem off the changeling flag; then a cute little dragon.
“Why do you keep drawing Spike instead of Fireball?” Dragonfly asked.
“Shut up,” Starlight grumbled, adding a drawing of a CSP-style rocket stack launching, complete with flaming clouds of rocket exhaust. At last she showed this to Mark, then turned back to writing with her teeth. This would be so much easier, she thought, if they’d let me use my magic again. I’m feeling much better… my horn only throbs a little now.
Spitfire was easy: a single hash mark.
For herself, three hash marks.
The Spike-and-not-Fireball representation of Fireball got five hash marks. Dragonfly, nine.
And then Cherry Berry. That took some counting, and Starlight made a couple of corrections before settling on twenty-eight.
“Twenty… eight… flights?” Mark gasped. He glanced over at Cherry Berry, who was doing something with the dirt near the mostly-grown alfalfa sprouts.
Starlight nodded. Then she tried to draw a small version of Mark’s flag, messed up, erased it, and drew the swoosh pattern on the patch on his other shoulder. “You?” she asked.
Mark groaned and held up a single finger.
“Ha-HA!” Dragonfly cheered triumphantly. “Ask him his word for ‘rookie,’ Starlight!”
“Ha-HA yerzelph, Dragonfly,” Mark said. “How many days in space, hm?”
Starlight thought about that. According to reports from home via water-telegraph, this was ESA-54 Mission Day 44. She wrote a 44 next to each symbol for the Amicitas crew, then a plus sign, and then paused. For Spitfire she added a zero. Starlight had had one short visit and one three-month shift on the space station, so she added a 96 to her own. Fireball had had one three-month station visit and Dragonfly two station shifts plus her moon flight, so… Starlight did a bit of math… 103 to Fireball, 193 for Dragonfly plus a little circle for her moon landing, plus the word “Moon” spoken.
And then Cherry Berry. Minmus mission. Moon mission. Space station launch. So many other flights, including VIP flights past both the moon and Minmus… It took more calculation, but she finally settled on 198 plus two moons. “Moon, small moon,” she said.
Mark took the marker and wrote next to the swoosh symbol 47 Sols + 124 Days. He then scratched out 47 Sols and wrote instead 49 Days, and then added an equals sign and 173. “Ha HA ha,” he said to Dragonfly as he capped the marker with a deliberate flourish.
“Still want me to ask him for the word ‘rookie’?” Starlight asked smugly.
“Feh,” Dragonfly grumbled. “I still say more launches is a better metric than more days in space.”
MISSION LOG – SOL 47
I learned an interesting factoid from my guests today: they’ve only been flying into space for four years.
That’s right. They went from Sputnik and Mercury to warp drive in four years. And in that four years they have had DOZENS of flights, and apparently half of them included Cherry in some fashion.
In fact, if I’m understanding this right, Cherry has landed on both their homeworld’s moons. That means I’m sharing this Hab with the pony version of Neil Armstrong. Or possibly Alan Shepard. Or, considering the sheer number of launches, the pony version of the Mercury Seven, the New Nine, and the Next Thirteen all at once.
But apparently this is Cherry’s twenty-eighth flight in four years. Let’s say they launched their first rocket on January 1, 1006 and launched the flight that landed them here on December 31, 1009 (their dates). That’s an average of one launch every seven weeks or so.
One launch every seven weeks. For just Cherry Berry.
I don’t think NASA has allowed the same astronaut to launch more than once every two YEARS.
And how much training can you cram into seven weeks? Less, really, since Cherry Berry has apparently got almost two hundred days in space counting her time here. I was training as part of Ares-III for five YEARS.
Much becomes clear about my guests. Many of the questions I’ve been asking about them now have a simple, easy to understand, impossible to refute explanation.
Specifically: these ponies are all CRAZY!
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Changelings do things quickly, ponies do things well, Humans do things RIGHT. As it should be.
You know if humans designed that wrap drive they would have caught the programming error. Its called extensive testing protocols something Equestria has not learned.
Also, Nasa posses a warp drive we cant power it though. http://www.iflscience.com/space/nasa-reveals-latest-warp-drive-ship-designs/
NASA explains its lack of flight schedule by "It's expensive" and "It's dangerous" and "It's complicated."
This is the reason why if aircraft flight was ruled by NASA, there would be one passenger flight a year from California to New York, massing as much as four 747 aircraft tied together, and carrying only six passengers, and the whole stack would be disposed of after every flight.
Now he gets it!
It's an interesting difference in perspective. It's true that the Equestrians got to space a lot faster, but they cut a lot of corners. Consider how many near-lethal screwups the Equestrians have caused in under a month. They're dangerously undereducated and undertrained compared to Mark, and their equipment is likewise undertested (see Sparkle Drive).
Of course, in their home universe it isn't as much a problem because magic allows them to brute-force through a lot of obstacles (see Swiss-Army-Starlight), but it also means that if Starlight was taken out of the equation, they would all be ten kinds of dead.
8704404
Possible idea for complications: the transported material has to be in direct contact with the crystal. Fluids like water and air have a large contact surface. Solids would get torn apart at the molecular level where physically in contact and come through as rapidly disassociated goop/dust (this in addition to the carbon bond issues). Thus, if trying to send food, you get high velocity yuck.
If I'd thought of this earlier, it poses a solution to feeding Fireball without the cave: transport-disassembled gems suspended in his water supply. He'd still need regular food and doesnt help the others though.
Thanks for the wonderful update!
8704446
So... "Fast, inexpensive, quality: pick two"?
8704473
And there would be absolutely no other way to make the trip because of how insanely deadly the miles between were.
derpicdn.net/img/view/2015/9/27/989201.png
8704446
That's not even remotely true... Some of us are LEFT handed.
8704502
Pick half of one honestly XD the current space programs of earth get a lot of criticism, rightfully so in my opinion, but if you make a mistake, or even if you do things all right but don't know about some very small thing you can get people killed, the history of the Human space program is a history of incredible luck that runs out from time to time.
Slow and steady wins the race.
8704516
Left handed people are fake news.
8704504
You know, other than the fact that we have another group working on fixing the problems so that they're not so much of a problem.
8704525
So was the moon landing.
this whole chapter was hilarious
Mark Watney just got ROASTED!
So... frigin... adorable! We need some chapters filled with interactions like this. Mark and the Equestrians just talking and interacting.
Cause she misses her bro, that’s why!
Now he gets it! Honestly though, the citizens of Equus need more respect for the dangers of the void. They just kinda rushed in and assumed magic would handle all the hard stuff. Now look at where that’s left them. Good thing Watney is here or they would be screwed.
Spoilers!
It's surprising that he haven't asked how high is the pile of dead bodies their space program collected.
I'm starting to realize just how criminally negligent the ESA was being when they designed the Sparkle Drive. Had Any space agency worth their salt gotten it, the first course of action would have been quadruple redundant simulations, quadruple redundant field tests with bots and caged rats, another round of simulations and then leaving a team of high-school pranksters in the room with it, trying their darnedest to f*ck it up and designing situations with which they could conceivably break it. When you LITERALLY have Warp-Tech in your hands, spare no expense! The entire future of your species, world or universe depends on this!
Maybe I'm being a bit harsh on them, but there's a reason space agencies are so cautious. Ok, one is "we have limited money and failure will both waste it and decrease future funding", but the other is that space is THE WORST! No atmospheric pressure, self contained systems, deadly deadly radiation, propulsion systems, mass limits, contending with psychology, all the stuff that humans find difficult, all in one place. Perhaps the Ponies just need to learn the correct emotional response to space: Shit terrified and paranoid.
For good reason, how does cherry not have radiation poisoning? was this ever covered in CSP? I have read it but cant remember them ever mentioning radiation, and if ponies don't know about radiation is mark going to tell her she can probably look forward to cancer soner rather than later...
8704677 The radiation thing is a carryover from Kerbal Space Program; most people don't find dying of radiation fun, so the game doesn't simulate it, and therefore I made it Not a Problem in CSP.
8704677
I'm reminded of the story Destinies, where magic fields inhibit radioactive decay. Maybe there is no significant radiation on and around Equus?
And he still hasn't asked how Dragonfly gets her food.
Though that was an interesting bit of interaction between Starlight and Dragonfly. Why does Starlight not like Dragonfly in this?
Language lessons are coming along nicely. Soon theyll be able to swear fluently at each other.
I keep thinking how amusing it would be if "Gilligan's island" is among the series available for them to watch, the irony would be a good laugh I think. At the very least that is sort of what this is reminding me of with Mark playing to my mind most of the time the role 'Skipper", Gilligan's hat and role really seems to be passed around a bit among the rest of the cast though :)
I wonder if Equus has a significantly lower gravity well compared to Earth. CSP's launch density is insane if we assume rockets on Equus need the same ~90% fuel-to-mass ratio as we do here on Earth in order to achieve orbit.
8704739 Jealousy, possibly?
(Note to self: if I ever get a Changeling Space Program card set for Secret Shipfic Folder made up, must include a "The Martian" Pony card. And possibly a Ship card that says, "What Happens on Mars...")
8704873 Sadly, Gilligan is late 60's.
8704446
That reminds me of this lovely thread about human technology and Star Trek- that by other species' standards, we may be considered dangerously reckless. http://beka-tiddalik.tumblr.com/post/150425828285/roachpatrol-deadcatwithaflamethrower
"Humans get mildly offended by the way they are presented in non-human media.
Like: “Guys, we totally wouldn’t do that!” But this always fails to get much traction, because the authors can always say: “You totally did.”
“That was ONE TIME.”
There’s that movie where humans invented vaccines by just testing them on people. Or the one about those two humans who invented powered flight by crashing a bunch of prototypes. Or the one about electricity.
And human historians go, “Oh, uh, this is historically accurate, but also kind of boring.” To which the producers respond: “How is doing THIS CRAZY THING boring????????”
There are entire serieses of horror movies where the premise is “We stopped paying attention to the human and ey found the technology."
Now just imagine what the Federation's other members would think about the Equestrian space programs.
8704900
Honestly Ponies bring out the worst in Humans just like Humans bring out the worst in ponies, In the star Trek Universe I can see the Federation being dominated by Humans and Ponies, "Swiss army" ponies would be eagerly adapted into the human dominated star-ships much to the annoyance to the other races I am sure.
8704919 If you're lucky, your Ship's Counselor is Twilight Sparkle. If you were very bad in a previous life, your Ship's Counselor is the Great and Powerful Trixie Lulamoon.
8704605
Seconded. It's not "filler", it's character-building. Just imagine them asking Mark what driving is really like on Earth. Once Equestria gets cars, it'll be Dukes of Hazzard EVERYWHERE!
Changelings literally started with folding chairs on top of fireworks. It was suprising that no one, pony or Changeling was killed. Which would slowed down there program.
8704775
Always first priority when learning any new language.
Editing out potential scenes like this is one of the things I hate about modern writing. If we aren't enjoying spending extra time with the characters, why are we reading it at all? So no, you shouldn't edit this.
I'm curious how ponies will react to finding out about the various human space programs catastrophes.
I really enjoyed all the character interaction this chapter. I had a smile stuck on my face as I read through it. So I was a bit shocked when I got to your author's note where you said you'd like to have edited it out. What you have here in this chapter is the core of what makes a story worth reading, and makes us care about the characters. I, personally, would be quite happy to have more chapters in this style, and less of the after-the-fact reports.
8705064 It's a very fun sequence, but it's a slice-of-life moment that doesn't advance the story.
Yes Mark, yes they are. And if you think ponies are bad, don't ask about changelings.
Learning a new language is definitely hard, but it's good to see progress being made. I love all the character interactions you put in this chapter. Dragonfly equating Mark's laughter with lunch time was the icing on the cake. Bravo, as always.
Now if you'll excuse me, I am two months late with the next chapter of my story. Time to spew some words onto my screen and hope they look good. Motivation is hard. I'm rambling. Love your stories, kthxbye.
8704739
i agree that needs to be done in the next chapter or two mark needs to ask how dragonfly feeds
While this chapter could and should be cut from a movie, I would leave it in a book. While the main focus of the story is how they work together to survive, learning more about each other is an important secondary theme, and in fact could do with some more emphasis. When they are not working their butts off to get through this ordeal, humans and Equestrians should spend time getting more familiar with each other's culture and history. Even little things can make a difference to a story. Watney's revelation at the end of this chapter casts a whole new perspective on his impressions of them.
8704873
I'm not sure that she'd have brought that even if it was the right time period. It would be seen as wishing for disaster
No, you need occasional breaks in a story to just unwind. There would be days where nothing really happens and people just take it easy, this feels like one of those days. I question the when of this chapter slightly but it still serves a purpose. (I'd consider chapters like this every so often between major events. But not often.)
I dunno... Even if it doesn't advance the plot, it still has some value in terms of character building that can probably be made plot-relevant later on. We now have metrics on who's got the most experience in space, and so on.
Besides, it shows that they've gotten comfortable enough with each other to for some good ol' dong-measuring. That's almost compulsory in any friendship!
8704894
I REALLY want to see the Secret Shipfic cards. Ship Cards "Language Lessons", "Trapped in the Airlock" and "Dramatic Rescue" and "Movie Night Singalong". Goal Card "Boldly Dating" and "Will Cuddle for Food".
Also joining the chorus who appreciate slice of life scenes like this interspersing the science and plot. I want both! I'm greedy like that.
8703565
The RTG provided 1500W of heat in the book, though it may have been less in the movie.
Ouch, just had to drop 2k on a transmission job myself.
8705317 And I did that in November. Obviously it wasn't worth that much. So now I'm car shopping with a tight budget. (And cleaning out the old van for the trade-in.)
Don't you dare chop it. It may not advance the plot, but it is deeply satisfying to actually see their reactions.
Chopping it would be the plot-scale version of making a "telling rather than showing" mistake.
8704464
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_software_bugs#Space
To be fair, the pace of human space exploration has been more about politics than how hard the problem is. It was only 12 years from Sputnik to Apollo 11, and if we'd simply kept doing what we were doing, we probably would have had a permanent moon base no later than the 1980s.
Slower than CSP's pace, granted. But the changelings had the benefit of an entire species unified to accomplish a single goal. If the entire human race had been committed to it, we would have been an interplanetary species decades ago.
8704730
Obviously, ponies undergo chemical change at the epidermal level as a defense mechanism and heat release contingency for otherwise catastrophic radio energy absorbtion.