18. Morning Star
Spike was pacing nervously around the room next to Starlight’s workshop. He, Cranky, Maud and Sunburst, once they’d done all they could, had decided to give Starlight and the brainiac squad space to work and not distract them, except for an hourly status update and coffee delivery.
He winced when a ray of sunlight hit him from the window, making him pause in his marathon. “Is it morning already?”
“It would seem so,” Maud replied, her tone even deader than usual.
Looking around the faces of his fellow worriers, he knew that neither of them had gotten a wink of sleep, even though pillows and blankets had been set out in the room. The only ones to use them had been Sunset and the two Twilights, who had worked in shifts to assist Starlight’s repair efforts.
Starlight herself had refused to take a break and worked through the night. Trixie, in turn, had refused to leave her side. Right now, they were all in there, leaving Spike and the others to wait and worry some more.
“Sunset!” Sunburst suddenly got up and went to the door where Sunset and the two Twilights had just entered. “Are you alright? You know your reservoir is still low.”
She smiled appreciatively at his worry. “I’m fine,” she said despite looking ready to keel over and sleep for a week straight. “But … Oppy …” Tears welled up in her eyes, and she simply buried her head in Sunburst’s mane.
Spike looked at Twilight, yet unable to post the question.
“It was incredible,” she said, tears standing in her eyes as well. “She was incredible. Starlight, that is.”
“Yeah,” SciTwi confirmed, wiping away at her own eyes. “With every startup command, there was a list of errors as long as my arm on the laptop screen. And Starlight would just go on, eliminating them one by one. Sometimes, she’d solve a problem just for three more to show up. But she simply went on. Power, connections, mechanical faults. Until all the readouts were back to normal.”
“I’ve never seen anyone work like that for hours on end,” Twilight Prime went on. “And Trixie. You should have seen her. Her magic was like a blur, executing every task Starlight set her to perfection. By the end, she was even spotting and fixing issues by herself the rest of us didn’t even notice.”
Spike was desperately trying to ignore the visual cues he was seeing on their faces. “That’s good, right? That means they fixed him, right?”
The two Twilights looked at each other, sighing. “Come on.”
The trio led the group into Starlight’s workshop. Mars stared silently through the window. Both Starlight and Trixie were sitting on their haunches in front of Opportunity, their ears flat against their skulls. They didn’t rise as the others came in.
Spike looked at Opportunity and the console readout on the laptop nearby which alleged that the rover was powered up and operational. And, while scratched and dented in some places, his vital parts had been restored. A new arm had been fitted, the drive repaired, all the gaping holes closed up. That gave Spike some hope. “Hey, buddy. How are you doing?”
Unlike what he’d gotten used to, Oppy’s camera eyes did not swivel to meet him, instead staring blankly into the distance. “Parse Error. Command not recognized.”
Spike forced a laugh, walking up to the rover. “That’s not really funny, you know. Come on, Opi. You recognize my voice, don’t you?” He made a fist and bumped it into the robotic arm. It did not move in response.
“Parse Error. Command not recognized.” Even his synthesized voice sounded hollower than usual, despite the enchanted bowtie having been reattached.
The dragon looked over at Starlight, pleading with his eyes for her to tell him that it wasn’t so. But what he saw shattered what optimism he’d managed to muster. Starlight’s head was hung low and she would not meet his eyes. By the movement of her shoulders and the small puddle in front of her, he could tell why.
“It’s not fair,” Trixie lamented, her head raised to the ceiling in an effort to hold back her own tears. “I didn’t … I never got to tell him … I’m so sorry …. About the last words I said to him … And now I can never …”
Spike looked at Twilight, his own lower lip trembling and the tears falling unbidden. “No.” But her look again told him everything he needed to know. They hadn’t brought them in here to celebrate Oppy’s miraculous recovery. They’d brought them in to say goodbye.
He could feel a hoof on his shoulder as Maud walked up and placed a rock on the rover’s chassis. “For the road,” she said, “wherever it is you’re going.”
“Parse Error. Command not recognized.”
Spike looked at his friend, wanting to say something but his throat closing up. He took out a red ruby which he’d picked out of his hoard as a get-well present and placed it next to the rock. To receive two specimens at once, it was something that would always send Oppy into an excited blabbering. Now, the rover didn’t react.
Unable to stand it anymore, Spike shook his head, turned and ran to hug Twilight, sobbing uncontrollably.
Twilight had said her own goodbyes earlier, but as she draped a wing around the young dragon, her shoulders could be seen trembling from fresh sobs as well.
One by one, they all followed suit and began to pay their respects to the machine that had so suddenly entered their lives and changed them forever.
Cranky was next as he laid a hoof on him, looking at Starlight. “You did it, kid,” he said, his voice cracking ever so slightly. “You went into danger to save her, and you did. I’m proud of you. You’re off to your final adventure now.”
Sunburst and Sunset walked up together. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more helpful. I would have liked to get to know you better,” the wizard said, laying a hoof on the chassis.
Sunset laid her own on top of his. “You did plenty, Sunburst. Sleep now, little rover. We’ll never forget you.”
When SciTwi stepped up to the rover, she said: “I would have liked to meet those creators you always talked about. They sound like incredible people. Now I’ll probably never know who they are, but I’m quite sure of one thing: They must be very proud of you.”
“Parse Error. Command not recognized.” With every repeat of the unfeeling and uncomprehending response, fresh sobs went throughout everyone assembled.
Trixie forced herself forward and rested her forehead against Oppy’s mast. “I’m sorry that we couldn’t bring you home,” she whispered simply before stepping aside.
Returning to Starlight’s side, she rested a hoof uncertainly on her friend’s shoulder in an attempt to give comfort. Starlight only stared down at the floor.
“We’re here,” Trixie said, the words barely audible. Starlight nodded and looked up, her eyes red and underlined with tear-streaks running down her face.
Starlight took a few uncertain, tottering steps forward.
“I,” she began, her voice cracked and choking. “I didn’t think I’d be saying goodbye so soon. You … You came into my life out of nowhere, and even though it’s been such a short time ... I wish I could tell you how much you mean to me, but … I tried my best … I’m sorry.” She looked up, her eyes glistening as she peered into the camera eyes, still hoping desperately to see some sign of consciousness within and finding none. “Why didn’t you just talk to me? We should have worked together. I would never blame you for what happened. I’d rather have suffered a couple more hours than to lose my friend. And now … now you’re …” Her face locked in misery, she threw her hooves around Opportunity’s mast and wept. “OPPY! Please come back to me!”
Her voice finally gave way to uncontrolled weeping as everyone else drew near to their closest and let her express her grief.
As everyone bowed their heads for their lost friend, nobody noticed the sparse lines appearing on the laptop screen.
*** AOS – DSN ***
*** New Hope Protocol Initiated ***
*** Downloading … ***
Perhaps thinking to give them more privacy, some of the ponies stepped back, and began to quietly move towards the door.
Starlight Glimmer continued to weep, and as she wept a spark from her horn arced to Oppy’s PanCam, a small version of the interdimensional lightning bolt that had brought them together so many months ago.
*** Download Complete ***
*** Flash Memory Restored ***
*** Reinitializing Systems ***
The others halted, gradually realizing there was another sound in the room beneath Starlight’s weeping. Spike felt Twilight’s hoof nudge him, and looked up. They were all staring at something.
Small servos whirred as Oppy’s eyes began to focus, looking down at the unicorn and the robotic arm began to move slowly, the unicorn’s breath catching as she suddenly felt her embrace being returned. “Star … light …”
Behind her, all the assembled friends were watching them with wide eyes, but Starlight only looked up at the robot’s eyes. “Oppy,” she said, a lump in her throat. “You came back to me.”
Opportunity nodded. “Opportunity promise. Opportunity always come back to Starlight. Starlight … safe?”
She nodded, wiping away her tears. “Yeah, I’m fine. How about you?”
“Opportunity fine.”
“OPPY!!!” The rover moved its camera eyes around the room frantically as he was caught up in a group hug by several relieved ponies, a dragon and a donkey.
“FRIEND OPPORTUNITY SAFE!” The voice boomed throughout the small room, the sheer air pressure almost knocking the group over. “MARS GLAD!”
“Oh yeah,” Starlight said to the startled rover, wiping the last of the tears from her face. “Another friend of yours came by.”
Untangling himself from the mass of limbs, Oppy drove towards the window where a smile could be seen behind the glowing, red eyes. “Mars?” He looked outside, scanning the building-sized being from head to toe. “Mars smaller than Opportunity remember.”
The giant simply continued to smile as he reached a single finger through the window, and Opportunity promptly moved his arm to put it on the giant digit as if reuniting with a dear, old friend, which was in a way exactly what was happening here.
“You know,” Sunset said, “far be it from me to question a miracle that’s right in front of me. But I sure would like to know what happened.”
“Oh, right!” The rover moved excitedly over to the laptop. “Opportunity bring message from creators. Creators and sister save Opportunity and send Opportunity back.”
“Sister?” Starlight asked.
The rover nodded and pulled up the file. Everypony winced as strange noises began to play. Opportunity stopped the playback. “Sorry,” he said. “Creators not have time to learn Equestrian. Opportunity translate.”
“Allow me,” Trixie said and lit her horn. “Uploading the file to the BSN. Running the translation matrix, and saving back to the computer. Done.”
“Thank you, Trixie,” Opportunity said and received a smile in return. Then the message began to play again, this time in Equestrian.
A male voice said: “… Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope.”
As the ponies looked at each other in confusion, a shuffle and some static could be heard before a female voice continued. “Dammit, Tom! Why!? You know we don’t have time to record over this.”
The male voice came on again, a little sullen this time. “The first we saw of them was their royalty doing the chicken dance. I thought it would be only fair if we made an equally bad first impression.”
The female grumbled for a bit before clearing her throat and going on as if nothing had happened. “Greetings, Starlight Glimmer, Twilight Sparkle or whoever gets this message. My name is Christine Summers from the Planet Earth. If you are receiving this message, then it hopefully means our transmission went through and Oppy should be back to his old self.
“As you’ve probably figured out by now, we are the ones who built Opportunity and sent him to our neighboring planet in the course of scientific study. Never in our wildest dreams did we imagine that he would be the one to bring us into contact with an alien civilization.
“We were at a loss of what had happened to him, until we finally managed to establish contact last night. He managed to transmit everything he’s seen and done over there, and let me tell you, we still can’t believe some of the things we’re seeing here.
“But one thing became clear to us very soon. You were the ones to rescue him from the global dust storm on Mars, and for that we thank you on his behalf. That is why we knew, when we started receiving standby signals from the rover early this morning, it had to have been you who were trying to repair him.
“What you may or may not know, is that Oppy has a faulty flash memory. Whenever he completely shuts down, that memory is lost. We were never able to correct this problem from home. Thankfully, he was able to transmit everything, his logs, his data, his memories, his very being essentially, when we made contact. In turn, we were able to temporarily transfer all his experiences into his sister Serendipity.
“The effects were … interesting to say the least. But we knew immediately that we had to send him back. Because looking at his photographs and memories, we knew you care as much about him as we do.
“I’m sorry that I have to cut this message short. The transmission window between our two worlds is closing soon, and our stars won’t be in a good alignment for communication for a while after that. With this message, we’ve included detailed calculations and diagrams of where our world is in relation to yours, instructions on how to fix Oppy’s faulty memory module and some medical texts that will hopefully aid in Miss Glimmer’s recovery.
“Opportunity knows how to get a message via Serendipity back to us. We would very much like to open a dialogue with your people. If nothing else, please let us know if Oppy made it back to you safely.
“This is Christine Summers from NASA/JPL speaking to you on behalf of the people of the Planet Earth.”
Christie was tapping her foot anxiously while she sat at her station and stared at the readouts, as if willing them to change.
She’d stay as long as the transmission window would remain open, even though her body and brain screamed out for sleep. She didn’t even want to contemplate hearing nothing back and having to carry all that anxiousness until the window opened back up again.
She could feel a hand touching hers, and allowed their fingers to intertwine. She couldn’t help but smile as she looked at Jack from the corner of her eye. It was a nice feeling, one she’d gone without for far too long.
“Incoming transmission!” Everyone looked up as they heard Tom call out over the monitor while standing next to Serendipity in the Mars Yard at JPL.
Christie checked her own readouts. “Confirmed.”
All of Mission Control got up as one person and crowded around Christie’s station, the controllers that had been here from the start and worked through the night as well as the backup crews that had streamed in throughout. From other monitors, teams from JAXA, ISRO, ESA and CSNA watched.
In the corner of the room, a small television set showed the live footage from CNN. The anchor and the two experts that had been talking were now silent as they looked at the wall behind them showing the live stream from Mission Control in Houston, holding their breath along with the rest of the world. The headline at the bottom of the screen read: Mars Rover Opportunity Attempting Second Contact with Alien Civilization.
“Source confirmed as MER-B via DSN.” Christie shifted nervously in her seat, fully aware of the fact that her next words would change the course of human history forever. “Message Reads: MER-B Extended Mission Success. Starlight Glimmer safe. Opportunity safe. Greetings from Equestria. Will send more during next transmission window. P.S.: Who is Obi-Wan Kenobi?”
A cry of joy went around the room the likes of which hadn’t been seen in Mission Control since the days of Apollo as hugs, handshakes and the clapping of shoulders ensued. The jubilation propagated over the screens and cameras to the teams of the other space agencies and over television stations across the globe.
In a moment that would probably remain at the forefront of human consciousness for decades, realizing that they were not alone in the cosmos, people spontaneously went into the street to celebrate with their fellow man and, wherever it could be seen, pointing at a tiny red dot in the sky.
In the Mars Yard at JPL, Tom had grabbed Serendipity’s robotic arm and was spinning her around in an impromptu victory dance.
Christie laughed out heartily as she watched his antics on the screen, and all around her the celebration showed no sign of slowing down. She turned to Jack and, in a moment of complete spontaneity, grabbed his tie to pull her ex-husband into a kiss.
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Anyone who can physically spin around Serendipity is a mighty physical specimen. Leaving wheel friction on the ground/floor aside, Oppy and her sisters weigh four hundred pounds each.
.........
Wait, that's the fucking end!!!!???
That was beautiful...and a very good parallel to Wall-E, with a better explanation for it as well. Can hardly wait to see the epilogue.
And thus did the rover Opportunity, after accomplishing far more than even its staunchest of supporters could have hoped, rise again after death. A death not by hate, but for love. With the return of Opportunity, there was much rejoicing, for all knew that this new Opportunity was all it could promise to be. A new opportunity. For both distant sides of the little rover's family.
~Sparkle 12:31. Book of the Stars.
(sorry, couldn't help making a pseudo-biblical...thingy. The whole 'second coming' thing was too much to resist.)
static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/CoopButton_4244.jpg
Great ending, cant wait for the epilogue
You have to put a wall-e on us didn’t you?
Any way, I loved this story, i can’t remember when was the lasts time that I was this eager to read any story, every time I saw this pop up on new, my pupils widened, before clicking the story and staring to read the new chapter.
By the way, I will like to congratulate you Naughty_Ranko your version of Oppy is now my third favourite robot, he surpassed Johnny 5 and now is sitting behind wall-e and Gladys (GLaDOS).
Another thing, do you think you can write and extra episodes showing us how was the reaction of NASA team when the Oppy information was received, it will probably be an chapter full of people going nuts (how else will you react to talking magical ponies of the colour of the rainbow, I particularly want to see how they react to Celestia’s chicken dance) but it will be interesting to read, and it will be useful to expand on Serendipity’s character (the reaction of the NASA team when a robot made with technology of the early 2000’s basically comes to life, will be priceless).
Any how, I better finish this, ones again thank you Naughty_Ranko for this story, looking forward to the epilogue
Ps: i will also like to thx some of the people who wrote comments in this fic, some of you guys made the story even more enjoyable (and king of hilarious as well)
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This summarize my reaction to this chapter!
And NASA got their First Contact - in a way that no one expected!
I'm saying it now, and I'll likely be saying it again when the epilogue comes out.
There had better be a sequel.
9819149
Or took part in a World's Strongest Man contest...
9819150
Nope, he said in author notes
Sequel?
Nice ending and plot twist! That was one heck of a ride!
Muh feels!
Seriously, though, that was one heck of a ride! Keep up the good work.
9819280
Fair!! But still!! That means after next chapter, there won't be any more adventures of Oppertunity the rover!!
Unless there's a sequel, of course.
This is the Disney ending I was looking for.
For some reason the new chapter reminds of the stories where primitive cultures burry a boombox because batteries died and it cannot play music anymore.
Serendipity remained quiet, for a man who can easily spin a 400 lb plus rover around without noticing, obviously already has too much on his mind.
As for ,Fixing, Oppys memory, please have someone point out the Azimov short story about the robot and the artist. The latest announcement on the Enhance function, demonstrates that by trying to preprocess information the way you think makes neural nets etc work better, makes them work differently than what you hoped. That, and AI based Enhance is just a way not to use exactly defined cheap simple fractal algorithms.
Minibrains of 5mm diameter have been grown from self assembling stemcells, and they generate EEG patterns similar to very young human fetus, so its suprising how little neurons you need? About 50 million, only billions of connections, compared to trillions of computations of modern GPU, theoretically should be able to get a 16 weeks brain in real time simulation?
Exact copy, backup, restore. with rebuild, but Oppy is still different from Serendipity.
Now NASA has a model for intelligent robots to work with.
Oh, Who left a whole plate of chopped onions in here?
you're leaving some real big sequel hooks here, author
hope you're gonna use them
wow this is good
What a lovely, heartwarming story! And a lovely homage to Opportunity! Very well done, I cNt wait for the epilogue!
If you think Celestia has a good chicken dance, wait until she's had enough cider and busts out the Melbourne Shuffle. Luna's moves are sadly a little dated, being limited to the Hustle and the YMCA dance.
9819606
Not true, Luna can also do the mash potato and the twist.
Oh no, Trixie's out-geniusing the geniuses! Whatever shall we do?
Oh come on! You should've said, "Take me to your leader!"
Thank the gods for backups!!!
Ah, gotta love 'em first contacts. Or second, or whatever it is now.
Just wait until they get word of a sapient personification of Mars.
9819149
9819204
Fun fact: Mark Henry, a WWE wrestler who used "world's strongest man" as part of his ring name, has in fact won one of those.
9819829
I know right? One heck of an accolade
Story tag: Incomplete.
Ohh is that what we’re gonna do today? Gonna start with a big fat LIE on my read list? Well good! Think I can’t take it, well I’m right here!
9819831
9819831
9819149
fun fact the heaviest weight deadlifted in recorded history was last year's 1041.7 lbs in manila at that very same contest
9819421
..of course there's gonna be a sequel ! Why would there be not? ALSO there WILL be more opportunity and/or Mars fanfiction, atleast from our author here
9819853
I never said it would be complete. I said this was the final chapter, which it is.
All that's left is the epilogue which is already written and will be released within the next 24 hours.
This does lead to some disquieting moral questions about the ethics of leaving self-aware beings to die on distant, hostile worlds, but a good first contact scenario always makes me smile. Fantastic work. I look forward to the epilogue.
Was that a reference to Lal from TNG? When Admiral Haftel talked about how hard Data tried to save her?
9819898
Based off that wording we are getting a sequel
9819959
Yes, it was. I haven't watched that episode in a while, but it was most definitely on my mind as I came up with and wrote this ending. It's always been one of the most memorable TNG episodes to me.
We know that Oppy was brought to Equus by Starlight but was there ever any explanation of how Mars got there? Are planets conscious in our dimension? Does Equus have a spirit?
9820021
Such a good episode from a very good Show. Data centric ones like that ep and Measure of a Man still resonate.
Uh... did Twilight earn the Matrix of Leadership?
Sure is WALL-E up in here. And I am absolutely okay with that.
9820058
Does Earth?
Dearest, Equus. It's been Eons!
Do you have any ointment?
I have a nasty case of humans...
--Spade
:D
Not a bad little story about a little rover on Mars that lasted far longer than anyone expected.
Here's to you Oppurtunity. 👍
9820021
As soon as I read that bit about Trixie helping my mind immediately went there. Beautifully done. Also, curse you for that! Between this actual story and invoking that episode which absolutely guts me every time you had this 52 year old man weeping like a little girl!
You totally ripped off the ending from WALL-E, and it is glorious!
What a fantastically touching story. Thank you so much for writing this!
9819959
9820021
So glad that was intentional, and caught before I could respond. Just thinking of Lal's death brings a lump to my throat. :(
Haha! I cannot believe you did this amazing reference to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Definitely one of my favorite episodes of Data actually.
Only this time, it's with a happy ending...
NOOO!!!
He wasn't the only one screaming in delight.
*explodes*
Why am i getting Terminator 2 vibes?. it's like when Arnold/T-800/Uncle Bob's alternate power kicks in and reboots him.
9819898
And now, it is time for my favorite pass-time: Alien diplomacy and politics!