Chapter 11 #3
“Because if he takes off his helmet, he’ll die. Annie, I have to go, one of the JPL programmers is here and it’s urgent. Bye!”
“But—” Annie said as he hung up.
Jack, in the doorway, said, “It’s not urgent.”
“Yeah, I know,” Venkat said. “What can I do for you?”
“We were thinking,” Jack began. “This rover hack might get kind of detailed. We may have to do a bunch of back-and-forth communication with Watney.”
“That’s fine,” Venkat said. “Take your time, do it right.”
“We could get things done faster with a shorter transmission time,” Jack said.
Venkat gave him a puzzled look. “Do you have a plan for moving Earth and Mars closer together?”
“Earth doesn’t have to be involved,” Jack said. “ Hermes is seventy-three million kilometers from Mars right now. Only four light-minutes away. Beth Johanssen is a great programmer. She could talk Mark through it.”
“Out of the question,” Venkat said.
“She’s the mission sysop.” Jack pressed on. “This is her exact area of expertise.”
“Can’t do it, Jack. The crew still doesn’t know.”
“What is with you? Why won’t you just tell them?”
“Watney’s not my only responsibility,” Venkat said. “I’ve got five other astronauts in deep space who have to concentrate on their return trip. Nobody thinks about it, but statistically they’re in more danger than Watney right now. He’s on a planet. They’re in space.”
Jack shrugged. “Fine, we’ll do it the slow way.”
LOG ENTRY: SOL 98 (2)
Ever transcribed 141 random bytes, one-half of a byte at a time?
It’s boring. And it’s tricky when you don’t have a pen.
Earlier, I had just written letters in the sand. But this time, I needed a way to get the numbers onto something portable. My first plan was: Use a laptop!
Each crewman had their own laptop. So I have six at my disposal. Rather, I had six. I now have five. I thought a laptop would be fine outside. It’s just electronics, right? It’ll keep warm enough to operate in the short term, and it doesn’t need air for anything.
It died instantly. The screen went black before I was out of the airlock. Turns out the “L” in “LCD” stands for “Liquid.” I guess it either froze or boiled off. Maybe I’ll post a consumer review. “Brought product to surface of Mars. It stopped working. 0/10.”
So I used a camera. I’ve got lots of them, specially made for working on Mars. I wrote the bytes in the sand as they came in, took a picture, then transcribed them in the Hab.
It’s night now, so no more messages. Tomorrow, I’ll enter this into the rover and the geeks at JPL can take it from there.
■■■
A notable smell hung in the air of the makeshift Pathfinder control room. The ventilation system was not designed for so many people, and everyone had been working every waking moment without much time for personal hygiene.
“Come on up here, Jack,” said Venkat. “You get to be the most Timward today.”
“Thanks,” said Jack, taking Venkat’s place next to Tim. “Heya, Tim!”
“Jack,” said Tim.
“How long will the patch take?” Venkat asked.
“Should be pretty much instant,” Jack answered.
“Watney entered the hack earlier today, and we confirmed it worked. We updated Pathfinder ’s OS without any problems. We sent the rover patch, which Pathfinder rebroadcast. Once Watney executes the patch and reboots the rover, we should get a connection. ”
“Jesus, what a complicated process,” Venkat said.
“Try updating a Linux server sometime,” Jack said.
After a moment of silence, Tim said, “You know he was telling a joke, right? That was supposed to be funny.”
“Oh,” said Venkat. “I’m a physics guy, not a computer guy.”
“He’s not funny to computer guys, either.”
“You’re a very unpleasant man, Tim,” Jack said.
“System’s online,” said Tim.
“What?”
“It’s online. FYI.”
“Holy crap!” Jack said.
“It worked!” Venkat announced to the room.
■■■
[11:18] JPL: Mark, this is Venkat Kapoor.
We’ve been watching you since Sol 49. The whole world’s been rooting for you.
Amazing job, getting Pathfinder. We’re workingon rescue plans.
JPL is adjusting Ares 4’s MDV todo a short overland flight.
They’ll pick you up, then take you with them to Schiaparelli.
We’re putting together a supply mission to keep you fed till Ares 4 arrives.
[11:29] WATNEY: Glad to hear it. Really looking forward to not dying. I want to make it clear it wasn’t the crew’s fault. Side question: What did they say when they found out I was alive? Also, “Hi, Mom!”
[11:41] JPL: Tell us about your “crops.” We estimated your food packs would last until Sol 400 at 3/4 ration per meal. Will your crops affect that number? As to your question: We haven’t told the crew you’re alive yet. We wanted them to concentrate on their own mission.
[11:52] WATNEY: The crops are potatoes, grown from the ones we were supposed to prepare on Thanksgiving. They’re doing great, but the available farmland isn’t enough for sustainability. I’ll run out of food around Sol 900. Also: Tell the crew I’m alive! What the fuck is wrong with you?
[12:04] JPL: We’ll get botanists in to ask detailed questions and double-check your work.
Your life is at stake, so we want to be sure.
Sol 900 is great news. It’ll give us a lot more time to get the supply missiontogether.
Also, please watch your language. Everything you type is being broadcast live all over the world.
[12:15] WATNEY: Look! A pair of boobs! - (.Y.)
■■■
“Thank you, Mr. President,” Teddy said into the phone. “I appreciate the call, and I’ll pass your congratulations on to the whole organization.”
He terminated the call and put his phone on the corner of his desk, flush with the desktop’s edges.
Mitch knocked on the open door to the office.
“This a good time?” Mitch asked.
“Come in, Mitch,” Teddy said. “Have a seat.”
“Thanks,” Mitch said, sitting in a fine leather couch. He reached up to his earpiece and lowered the volume.
“How’s Mission Control?” Teddy asked.
“Fantastic,” Mitch said. “All’s well with Hermes. And everyone’s in great spirits thanks to what’s going on at JPL. Today was a damn good day for a change!”
“Yes, it was,” Teddy agreed. “Another step closer to getting Watney back alive.”
“Yeah, about that,” said Mitch. “You probably know why I’m here.”
“I can take a guess,” said Teddy. “You want to tell the crew Watney’s alive.”
“Yes,” Mitch said.
“And you’re bringing this up with me while Venkat is in Pasadena, so he can’t argue the other side.”
“I shouldn’t have to clear this with you or Venkat or anyone else.
I’m the flight director. It should have been my call from the beginning, but you two stepped in and overrode me.
Ignoring all that, we agreed we’d tell them when there was hope.
And now there’s hope. We’ve got communication, we have a plan for rescue in the works, and his farm buys us enough time to get him supplies. ”
“Okay, tell them,” Teddy said.
Mitch paused. “Just like that?”
“I knew you’d be here sooner or later, so I already thought it through and decided. Go ahead and tell them.”
Mitch stood up. “All right. Thanks,” he said as he left the office.
Teddy swiveled in his chair and looked out his windows to the night sky. He pondered the faint, red dot among the stars. “Hang in there, Watney,” he said. “We’re coming.”