Sol 103
HERMES – ARES III MISSION DAY 230
As much as they wanted to, the crew of Hermes couldn’t all be present on the bridge for the radio test. Duties and experiments couldn’t wait indefinitely. Vogel had his crystals, Beck had both Watney’s plants and Hermes’ life support to watch over. Lewis had the three kilos of Mars surface samples allotted to her from the case collected and stowed in the MAV before the abort.
So only Martinez and Johannsen were awake and on the bridge during the dog-watch, the time appointed for the first comms check using the alien radio. Johannsen had installed the software which would allow Hermes’s communications systems to recognize an analog voice radio transmission and convert it into a form the computers could process. Now she watched her workstation as she switched from digital reception on the high-gain antenna to analog, waiting for a signal.
Under normal circumstances the current arrangement would be a direct violation of flight protocols. Hermes was supposed to keep the high-gain antenna pointed at Earth at all times to pick up signals and transmit telemetry in the clear. But that had changed when NASA realized that Hermes’s low-gain antenna put out a vastly more powerful signal than the ancient, feeble high-gain antenna on Pathfinder. This led to the inevitable decision to use Hermes as a comms relay, with the high-gain picking up Pathfinder’s signal and the low-gain relaying it, cleaned up slightly, down to Earth. Ever since then the high-gain and low-gain antennas had pointed in almost exactly the opposite directions that the rulebooks laid down for them.
“High-gain tuned to 86.8 megahertz,” Johannsen reported. “Awaiting signal.” The signal would require six minutes to arrive from Mars, assuming it was sent on time.
“So,” Martinez said, “which one is your favorite?”
“Beg pardon?” Johannsen asked.
“Which alien is your favorite?” Martinez asked. “You must have read the report on them.”
“I don’t know,” Johannsen said. “All we have is their photos, their mission profiles and histories, Mark’s logs, and whatever Dragonfly says on the Pathfinder chat. We don’t really know them, do we?”
“My favorite’s Spitfire,” Martinez said.
“Really? And not Cherry Berry?” Johannsen asked. “I would think you’d pick the flight veteran over the rookie.”
“Spitfire’s no rookie,” Martinez said. “She was commander of this ‘Wonderful Thunderbolts’ squadron back in her own world. That’s like a combination of our Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels, if I understand right. Closer to the Blue Angels, since they were the go-to guys for astronaut recovery. That makes her top of the game in flight where she comes from- and she does it with those two itty bitty wings!” Martinez rolled his eyes back and muttered, “Man, I’d love to have wings like that.”
“I see,” Johannsen said.
“Of course,” Martinez continued, a smile slowly spreading across his face, “if I had wings, my wife would need wings, too. What we’d get up to in a cloud! I wonder if it’s like an air mattress or a waterbed!”
“I don’t want to hear it, Rick,” Johannsen warned.
“Fine, fine,” Martinez muttered. “Anyway, it’s not just Spitfire’s record. Look at her face. That alien just oozes confidence. I’m sure Cherry Berry’s the best rocket jock the aliens have, but she looks…” He threw up his hands, helpless to avoid his final verdict, “… kinda goofy.”
“Mmm.”
“Now Beck,” Martinez continued, “Beck prefers Starlight Glimmer. But then you know he thinks flyboys like me are all crazy. He likes a scientist.”
“Have you asked everyone this?” Johannsen asked.
“Yep. Believe it or not, Vogel is a Dragonfly fan. He says she makes him laugh.”
“Really?” Johannsen actually turned in her seat to face Martinez. “Vogel said that?”
“Gotta love those inscrutable Germans,” Martinez grinned. “You wanna guess who Lewis likes?”
“Cherry Berry, obviously.”
“Nope. Try again.”
“Um… Spitfire?”
“Nope! She actually likes Fireball.”
Johannsen’s face screwed up in confusion. “Fireball?” she asked. “Why? Both Dragonfly and Starlight use one word for his personality: ‘grumpy.’”
“She says she’s going to take up painting when she gets back to Earth,” Martinez said. “So she can paint him on the side of a van.”
Johannsen glared at Martinez. “You’re putting me on,” she said.
“Yes, I am,” Martinez said, chuckling.
Shaking her head, Johannsen turned back to her console. “Should be getting a signal starting about twenty seconds from now,” she reported.
“Cool. Cross your fingers,” Martinez said, his smile fading. He leaned a little bit forward in his chair.
The time came, and went. For about a minute, Martinez and Johannsen waited, listening to the hiss from the bridge loudspeakers.
Then a tinny, barely audible voice: “… Hermes, this is Friendship. Hermes, this is Friendship. I am broadcasting on 86.8 megahertz. Please respond for comms check. Hermes, this is Friendship broadcasting on 86.8 megahertz. Please respond for comms check.”
“Mark,” Martinez gasped.
And then a second voice cut in, even more staticky than the first: “Hairmeez, thiz iz Friendship. Hairmeez, thiz iz Friendship. Yi aim broadcazzting on aitty-zix point ait mechaherssz. Pleezze rezzpond for commz check. Thizz iz Drakonfly zzpeaking.”
And, finally, a third voice, clearer and firmer than the other two but squeaky and still rather faint: “Hairmes, this is Friendship Actual. We broadcasting eighty-six point eight. Please reeespond? Respond. Respond for comms check. Repeat. This is Friendship Actual. Hairmes, Friendship Actual, comms check. Over.”
After a pause, Mark’s voice returned. “Um, yeah, guys, I taught her what ‘actual’ meant. They wanted to be part of this. We’ll try again at 10:30 our time if we receive no signal. After that we’ll proceed to 92.2 megahertz for the second signal. Um, over.”
Martinez laughed, not his usual rapid-fire bubbles but a slow, almost sobbing laugh. “Damn, Mark,” he said, “you haven’t changed a bit.”
Johannsen took a couple of breaths, turned on her microphone, and said, “Friendship, this is Hermes. Receiving you about two by five, clear but faint. Can you boost your gain? We also receive Dragonfly and Friendship Actual. It’s good to hear your voices. Over.”
With that done, the bridge crew, both of them, sat in silence as the twelve minute turnaround time failed to pass nearly quickly enough.
AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 102
ARES III SOL 103
[15:25] JPL: Hello, Dragonfly. I am Irene Shields. I am a doctor who studies minds. Our word for that is “psychologist.” Did Mark tell you why I wanted to talk to you?
[15:39] WATNEY: This is Dragonfly. Yes, he did. He also said he will shut down all computers in the Hab while we had this talk. I am in Rover 2 now. I did not know the word before, but there are psychologists at home. They have (look up word) benches.
[15:53] JPL: Good. Our word for a person who can sense the emotions of others is empath. Outside of stories, you’re the first real empath we’ve met. Can you also read thoughts? (Reading thoughts is telepathy.)
[16:11] WATNEY: I sometimes guess what others think, but I do not know. I only taste emotions, not thoughts, not facts in head.
[16:25] JPL: Okay. I’m trusting you to tell me the truth. Trust is very important with psychologists. It’s hard to earn and easy to destroy. If you feel you can’t tell me the truth about something, don’t lie to me. Just tell me you can’t tell me now. Can you do that for me?
[16:40] WATNEY: I can do that. I understand about trust. My job used to be to hide with ponies and get love to feed us. Trust was very important then. Is even more important in space.
[16:54] JPL: Yes, it is. What Dr. Kapoor did before could have damaged the trust in your crew. It is important that trust be strong. What does your crew know about your ability to sense emotion?
[17:18] WATNEY: All know I can do it. All bug-ponies can do it. It bother them but it cannot be
[17:20] WATNEY: changed.
[17:35] JPL: Is something wrong, Dragonfly? Please tell your crew this. We cannot send Mark a psychologist. I cannot be on chat because there are more important things. But I will send you my email address. NASA is setting up email addresses for you all. Mark will teach you how to use them. If there is something you need to keep secret but tell somebody, you can email it to me. Nobody else will read it but me. I promise. Tell this to all the others, including Mark.
[17:48] WATNEY: Nothing is wrong. I will tell them.
[18:01] JPL: Also, I would appreciate it if all of you sent me an email telling me how you feel. You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. Just tell me what you’re comfortable with sharing.
[18:05] WATNEY: I will tell them. Do you have any more questions for me?
[18:18] JPL: Maybe by email, where it’s private. For now, thank you and good night, Dragonfly.
[18:24] WATNEY: Good night, Irene. Dragonfly out.
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Zzhe zzellzz zzea zzhelzz by the zzea zzhore.
Oh boy... This could only go so well...
"He also said he will shut down all computers in the Hab while we had this talk."
Hm. I don't think I follow why?
Hm, and that pause from Dragonfly...
So what did she write originally? Hitting enter by mistake doesn't require 2 minutes to be fixed for a single word.
Genuine tear in my eye at this.
8775167 Dragonfly is talking with a psychologist. Ideally this means absolute privacy.
Dragonfly getting the most chat time with earth it seems (but maybe that's just me).
Also would assume way longer sentences in a chat that has such a long turnaround time.
For those of you too young to understand the humor in Irene saying Goodnight:
(I think everybody in the 50's - 80's recorded a version of this)
8775179
She is, but Starlight is the best at English
Can someone tell me how "actual" is supposed to be used in this context?
8775189
Iirc Actual is used in radio as callsign for the leader of the unit.
8775175
Ah, and the other computers might be used to listen in? Thanks.
8775194
Ah, so Cherry was using it because she's the commander. Cool that Mark taught her that.
another great update! Keep up the great work!
I wonder now that they've tested the Amicitas radio if they can pick it up from Earth with radio telescopes. They probably should be able to even over all of Earth's noise given radio telescopes are usually placed in the middle of no where to minimize noise and they have an exact fix on where to look.
Kind of curious if anything is wrong with Dragonfly. I didn't pick up on anything being wrong, but the psychologist seemed to.
Also I cannot believe how much of a tease you''re being about the cave.
It still hasn't been dealt with by the crew.
8775231 I only have so much energy in a day, and today in particular is not being a good day. Thus, you only get the bits of a day that I feel are most interesting or most plot-critical.
8775162
yup like a bug type would talk..... cute zreg!
HAHAHAHAHAA Fireball on a flipping van talk about the old classic hippy art work!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA
8775242
The cave is plot critical though. If Starlight can't fix it then they're all probably going to die of it.
Ah, arguing over who is best pony.
Mars' first flame war.
8775277
but in that right it what made it so good too
sure we should have a stranded but we could use more than one way to say a word like "you, all" is better to say "Y'all" is a better way to say for things in a group
its like pop or soda. just be glad it's not flipping Japanese I swear they just make new symbol when something new word comes in. with koran it's easy to learn if you put a mothes worth of reading
8775277
And then Mark explains... "Yeah, see, English doesn't borrow words from other languages. It lures them into a dark alley, clonks them on the head, then rifles through their pockets for loose gerunds."
*ponies, changeling, and dragon blink slowly in confusion.*
"Right... erm... English is weird."
8775296
at this ponit am waiting for buzzle of this world to make a mod for starcarft
They're getting tantalisingly close to revealing the shapeshifting, but afaik haven't yet?
Hey with the radio working they can play music for them maybe something old that is in the public domain like this
8775301
he should add to that
"oh we put S on the end for more then one thing because vikein got sick of learning new names for them so they started to put s on everything or elsa they start killing people and robbing there stuff to sale"
wait i have to ask now that they found aliens are they worry of the known as The Great Filter?
If everyone is getting email, how long before "Nigerian Princes" want money from our favorite ponies, Changeling, and dragon?
8775277
I'm almost certain that the Equestrian language is worse. It's an old language used by a very cosmopolitan and diverse world superpower that has had long contact with other cultures. It's likely a total pig's breakfast of loanwords from everything from dragons to yaks, dozens of mutually incomprehensible dialects from hick town Earth pony to upper caste Unicorn, a bunch of different incompatible words and grammar rules taken from the original Earth pony, Pegasus and Unicorn languages that are its parents, weird thousands of years old idioms that don't make sense anymore, and even more linguistic horrors. English is younger than Equestrian and has at least only seen contact with other cultures of the same species. I would wager it's easy, consistent and orderly for the ponies compared to the terrible tongue they learned at school, which neatly explains why they are learning it so fast.
8775344
More so possibly. The great filter for the most part only applies to locally sensible space/our dimension.
Two separate world's from the near exact same space with the same starting points (at least seemingly from apples and other convergent evolution... Despite the different magic field) would be alarming to many.
TL;DR
The video does not quite apply in this case. They are both from Earth. A different Earth but Earth.
Neat. But scary and profound in only how infinities may or may not apply.
Still neat though.
Who are these Thunderbolts being mentioned here? I've never heard of those, and the internet is only bringing up a CAP squadron. Unless of course, you mean the Thunderbirds.
Int55/k
8775344
They can learn. But the "great filter" is just a concept or theory.
Personally, I still don't understand how finding advanced alien life can be so alarming. Isn't the more intelligent civilizations we find, the less likely there is a difficult barrier/filter?
8775458 Yes, I did. When people talk about elite flying teams, the Thunderbirds tend to be in the Blue Angels' shadow. But Martinez is Air Force, so he'd mention 'em first. But I was trying to figure out how to refer to the Wonderbolts without actually using that name (language barrier), and...
What does the Amicatas' name mean? If it was said anywhere here I missed it.
Is there any particular reason why Hermes is listening on 86.8 MHz while Amicitas is transmitting on 86.6 MHz? Is one of the frequencies a typo, or is this some sort of full duplex setup with separate channels in each direction?
... erm ... low gain antennas are omnidirectional ...
8775548
It means 'friendship' in Latin.
8774187
Interestingly enough, keratin has a helical structure. The most intensely magical body parts of ponies are all made of keratin--pegasi feathers, Earth pony manes and hooves, unicorn horns. Keratin is also the primary constituent of dragon scales and claws, if they're similar to Earth reptiles. Perhaps the helical shape is important for channeling, generating or storing thaumic potential?
In addition, gems seem to be necessary components for many magical devices and spells, and dragons apparently need them to stay healthy, which seems to suggest that whatever magical system they use is at least partially dependent on the properties of doped crystal. Gemstones are complex crystals whose coloration depends on trace-elements and impurities--doping, if you will. If Changelings are anything like Earth arthropods, they have armored exoskeletons composed of chitin, which naturally forms complex crystalline structures, and presumably their horns are made of the same stuff. Crystalline structures and helices seem to he important for working with magic, and that structure seems more important than the gross chemical properties in some cases.
Honestly, I'm just rambling at this point. I would love to see what Equestrian magic specialists would do with Earth materials science.
8775189
Actual, when used as a code word by at least American ground forces (I don't know if this applies to any other group) means the commanding officer of the group. This Friendship-Actual means the commanding officer (Starlight Glimmer) of the Friendship (Amicitas.)
CORRECTION: Cherry Berry is the CO.
It was only a matter of time before the Best Pony wars began.
I'm so glad that they've got audio comms working now. Can't wait to see how they use that.
I hope Dragonfly is okay. That pause has me concerned.
8775675
The commanding officer is Cherry Berry.
>Hermes is listening in on 86.8 MHz
>Amicitas is broadcasting on 86.6 MHz
I hate to break it to you, Kris, but that's enough of a frequency mismatch to make make Hermes unable to hear Amicitas. That's not just an "I read you two by five" mistake, that's an "I can't hear Mark transmitting, it must not have worked" mistake. Interestingly enough, this is exactly why the minimum difference in frequencies between stations on the FM band is 0.2 MHz - the two stations can broadcast at that interval without stepping on one another's toes
8775710 Typo.
8775554 Still typo.
8775717
I figured, hence why I pointed it out. Great chapter otherwise, though
8775168
My guess is that she was thinking of Thorax, who is trying to prove (or has proven) that change is possible. Dragonfly might be having an internal conflict (between her loyalty to Chrysalis and her desire to be like Thorax) she's done her best not to think about.
We know he exists and is on bad terms with Chrysalis because on Sol 99 Dragonfly asked Spike about his well-being:
That's not quite enough information to determine if he's a Changedling yet, though. Staying in the Crystal Empire suggests that he's not, but maybe that's because his revolution was a smaller one and the hive in the Badlands still belongs to Chrysalis. He might have been at the summit as a leader himself or as an attaché of Cadance.
PS: With Chrysalis' plans for revenge on hold indefinitely since the start of the space race, the trigger for Thorax' transformation is missing, so that makes it rather unlikely.
8775696
I think she might have finally found the English word that accurately describes her people.
8775301
No description of English will top that.
Ever.
8775644
If electricity fed through a helix of wire can induce magnetism, other energy fed through a helical waveguide can do things, too.
8775909 funnily enough, the proteins that make up the microtubules in cells also have a helical shape that sort of balls up into a structural unit, and the tubule itself is a long, long coil of protein around a hollow central core. There's an unfathomably vast, complicated network of it throughout our bodies, and some neurologists suspect it might have something to do with generating consciousness (at least this week). And DNA itself is a helix. Plenty of that in each cell and more still in our mitachondria.
The average man-sized sapient creature has multiple billions of miles' worth of both, enough to stretch pretty much to the nearest star if it were all laid end to end. That's a metric shittons' worth of magical waveguide.
Edit:. I just wondered what any actual non-Equestrian aliens would get up to in the Ponyverse, assuming that there are any, and pictured a Dyson Sphere or ring made of,say, a single genetically engineered tree designed to harness thaumic force. Considering what a single Alicorn can do, they'd better hope they were benevolent, because even if they aren't actual gods, the distinction might be meaningless.