*Sol 54*
"I'm definitely gonna die up here... if I have to listen to any more god-awful disco music. My God, Commander Lewis, couldn't you have packed anything from this century?" I complained as me and Mark were listening to some of the music the others packed.
"Turn the beat around" The song sang.
"No, I am not gonna turn the beat around. I refuse to." I muttered and Mark laughed at my comment.
"Come on, it's not that bad." he argued, to which I gave him a death glare and he put his hands up in a mock surrender.
*Back on Earth*
"Mr. Sanders? Mr. Sanders?" the people in the room shouted at him, he pointed at a lady and she asked her question,
"What attempts have been made to make contact with Mark Watney and Lucy Brooks?"
"We're working on it." he answered. He pointed at another lady,
"Do they have enough supplies to survive?"
"We'll be looking into that." he responded. He pointed at a man this time,
"What does this say about the agency? Are you gonna resign?"
"No." he said.
"Director Sanders!" the room shouted again.
*Sol 70*
"It's time to start thinking long term." Mark started as we were looking through the information on the next mission which could possibly save us, "The next NASA mission is Ares 4... and it's supposed to land at Schiaparelli Crater... 3,200 kilometers away. 3,200 kilometers. In four years, when the next Ares crew arrives, we'll have to be there. Which means we have to get to the crater."
"Okay, so here's the rub. We've got one working Rover designed to go a max distance of 35 kilometers... before the battery has to be rechargedat the Hab." Mark expalined into the camera.
"That's Problem A." I interjected,
"Problem B is this journey's gonna take us roughly 50 days to complete. So we gotta live for 50 days... inside a Rover with marginal life support the size of a small van. So, in the face of over whelming odds, we are left with only one option."
"We are gonna have to science the shit out of this." Mark finished.
Me and Mark made our way to Rover 1 to scavenge the battery from it which could help us to double Rover 2's battery life.
As we sat inside the Rover shivering to death we made a log of our success.
"Okay, so, success. We have doubled our battery life by scavenging Rover 1 .But if we use the heater... we will burn through half of the battery every day. If we do not use the heater, we will be... slowly killed by the laws of thermodynamics. I would love to solve this problem right now but unfortunately... my balls are frozen. I can't. I'm callingit. I'm calling it." Mark said to the camera as we chuckled slightly at his statement about his frozen balls.
*Sol 76*
"Good news, I may have a solution to our heating problem. Bad news, it involves us digging up the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator.Now, if I remember my training correctly, one of the lessons was titled... "Don't Dig Up the Big Box of Plutonium, Mark." I get it. RTGs are good for spacecraft, but if they rupture around humans... no more humans. Which is why we buried it when we arrived. And planted that flag... so we would never be stupid enough to accidentally go near it again." Mark stated as he pit the generator into the Rover,
"But as long as I don't break it... I almost just said "Everything will be fine" out loud." Mark carried on as I sniggered at his stupid statement, "Look, the point is, I'm not cold anymore. And sure, I could choose to think about the fact that I'm warm... because I have a decaying radioactive isotope riding right behind me... but right now, I got bigger problems on my hands."
"I have scoured every single data file on Commander Lewis' personal drive. This is officially the least disco song she owns."he said as he pressed the button to play the song,
"Lookin'for some hot stuff, baby, this evenin'
I need some hot stuff, baby, tonight
I want some hot stuff, baby, this evenin'
Gotta have some hot stuff
Gotta have some love tonight
Hot stuff
I need hot stuff
I want some hot stuff
I need hot stuff..." the song sang and I laughed as Mark started to dance in his seat.
YOU ARE READING
Stranded -The Martian
FanfictionWhen Mark Watney and Lucy Brooks are hit by debris during a storm on Mars, their crew think they are dead and leave them on Mars. How will Mark and Lucy survive? Will they make it back to Earth?
