At first, I thought and hoped that it was all just a really bad, very realistic nightmare and I'd wake up either in my dorm in the Academy of Astronauts or in my room at home.
But when I regained consciousness, I was still in the remains of the Remedy, still with the unit and Dawn, still stranded on Mars.
I was surprised that the glass visor of my helmet didn't crack during the crash. I could only be happy, because if it did crack, my oxygen would quickly deplete and I'd suffocate, especially since Mars is toxic. Litearlly.
The Martian regolith is filled with perchlorates, particles made of one chlorine atom and four oxygen atoms, which mainly disrupt the thyroid gland. More importantly, Martian dust can penertrate into the lungs, causing major respiratory issues. Annoyingly, this dust is electrostatically charged and clings to spacesuits and equipment, which is why they must be left on the outside of a base or vehicle.
For a minute or so, I just sat in place, regaining the energy necessary to get up. After doing so, I looked for the others, only to find Arika scouting the wreckage.
- Oh, you're alive! That's good! - Arika welcomed me.
- Yes, I'm alive. For now - while I was alive now, I didn't know for how long I can last like this, fueling my concern.
- Let's try to stay optimistic. This barren planet shouldn't kill us instantly, right? - Arika responded.
There are many ways for Mars to kill us. This includes the notorious dust, duststorms, our spacesuits breaking or just the low temperatures. The average temperature on Mars is about -63 degrees celcius or -81 degrees farenheit. Not ideal. Still, I hoped that the Red Planet will be nice to us.
Arika and the others were busy inspecting the wreck, trying to find everything that can be salvaged. Arika and I went to the storage room and checked the crates to see what survived the crash.
Many of the crates have been flung out of the storage room, some even onto the surface of Mars. One of them was completely flattened by a piece of metal which fell out of the ceiling. Some crates were more or less intact.
Those crates contained some lyophillised food, spare rocket parts (which won't be useful, considering how our rocket has been destroyed) and solar panels. There were also a few cubic water containers, but only two were in a condition good enough to use.
We brought those containers, along with the remaining crates out of the storage room, only to unveil a very terrified Dawn, who was thrown against the back wall of the storage room during our crash landing. She was alive and angry.
- Why did they leave me behind?! I'm really good at being bad! - she was still complaining about the Martians abandoning her.
- Since the Martians left you with us, they had a reason to do so. Now, we need to focus on surviving until a rescue mission comes. Otherwise, you'll be really good at being dead and so will we - Arika silenced her.
She then reluctantly helped Dawn to get up, because every extra pair of hands was useful, even if it were the hands of a space criminal. I also hoped that we can interrogate Dawn to get some information about the Martians out of her.
As we made our way to the control room to meet up with the others, Arika hit me with an unexpected question.
- How long do we have to wait for a rescue mission?
- Unless the Agency sent another rocket shortly after ours, approximately two years and two months, since that's how long we have to wait until the next transfer window - I sighed deeply.
- Then we're dead - Dawn grumped again.
- Maybe not - Einstein was sitting in the cockpit, trying to bring the electronics back online.
He was hoping to send a message back to the Agency, specifically Captain Nigel, so that he could organise a rescue mission. Even if it takes a while to reach the Earth, at least he'll know that were stranded and Justine will know that I'm still alive.
Unfortunately, pretty much all the screens went black after the crash, as the Remedy's electrical systems have been smashed. Only a few monitors were still flickering, indicating that a bit of energy was still there.
- Doesn't seem like we'll be able to contact anyone - Arika also sighed.
- So we'll just rot in this wreck until a rescue mission brings us back in coffins? - Dawn asked.
- No. There's a thing we can use to live for a little longer. Follow me - Einstein got up from his seat, which was strangely bent due to the force of the crash.
As Einstein led us to an unknown room, we met the others along the way. Claudius was checking the structural damges, or in other words, how destroyed our spacecraft is. Sebastian was carrying oxygen tanks and brought them to the crates from the storage room. Together, we were creating a pile of resources to see how long they we'll last with them.
Amber bravely left the Remedy to look at our vessel from the outside. As she informed us, we created a small recess in the dust by sliding on the surface. However, it won't be too long until the winds clean that up. She also mentioned that it is cold outside, even with the special heated suits that we have.
We found Anthony typing in a password on a small console that opened up a small room. Inside were seemingly random metal parts and a few black crates. The color set them apart from the storage crates, which were gray.
- What is this for? - Arika didn't know the purpose of the parts, but I had a theory.
- Are these for a rover of some kind? - I guessed.
- Bingo! - my dad confirmed.
- We can assemble this little vehicle, fill it with resources and we'll have a mobile base! - Einstein added.
- Why won't we stay here? - Dawn interrupted.
- Because, simply put it, we need a base of operations that isn't an absolute wreck - Amber suddenly appeared, scaring Dawn.
- You're gonna give me a heart attack! - she responded.
- Anyway - Amber ignored her for the time being - we can't take off our spacesuits in here and the air supply in them won't last forever. Moreover, we can't farm anything in this pile of junk, so we have to abandon it if we want to live.
- Exactly - Einstein nodded.
Anthony brought Claudius into the rover room and the two got to work, with us helping them out from time to time, mainly by bring the right parts, because we didn't know much about rover assembly.
Claudius and Anthony were working almost non-stop, with the rest of the team switching roles every now and then. My break came when the vehicle was almost completely assembled. I decided to look outside for a bit. After all, what's the worst that can happen over the course of a few minutes?
The ground was mainly red, with some brown orange and tan accents. This color pallete comes from a large amount iron which oxidizes, giving the rocks their rusty hue. Additionally, minerals like hematite or goethite tint the Martian dust. Yet another mineral, ferrihydrite, is also relevant when it comes to Mars's signature colors.
The sky also matched this pallette, being a dim orangish color in broad daylight, or what counts as broad daylight on Mars, because a lot less sunlight reaches the Red Planet compared to Earth, simply due to distance.
The Remedy was in horrible condition, just like Amber said. The front window was largely cracked, the bottom of the cockpit was scratched and battered, with a lot of indentations and deformaties created by the sudden crash. Additionally, Martian dust was now clinging to the spacecraft too. Overall, saying that it was unusable was a great understatement.
I came back to find out that the rover had been completed. Claudius and Anthony were allowed to rest, with Einstein, Arika and me taking their place to boot up the systems and get the vehicle running. We had to leave our spacesuits attatched to special hatches on the back of the rover, so that we won't bring any Martian dust inside. Sebastian and Amber stayed with Dawn, to make sure that she doesn't do anything malicious.
It didn't take long for us to get the rover to move. After completing a short test of the core system, we carefully rolled out of the rover room and successfully made it outside. We did slightly touch the ceiling, but the rover wasn't damaged. The same cannot be said for the ceiling.
It seemes like we hit a weak point, because the whole ceiling gave in and collapsed shortly after the others ran out of the rover room at the last moment. Well, the running wasn't really running by earthly standards, because the gravity on Mars about 38% of Earth's gravity, so they were really just hopping.
- So, now what? Does the mission begin? - Sebastian asked.
- Remember, kids. This isn't a mission, it is survival... - Einstein corrected him - ...and one of the most important things in survival is food.
ns216.73.217.69da2
and then Add to home screen.