The Martian (23 page)

My life is now a desperate struggle for survival... with  occasional titration.

Frankly, I suspect you're a super villain. You're a chemist, you have a German accent, you had a base on Mars... what more can there be?

“What the fuck is 'Project Elrond'?” Annie asked.

“I had to make something up,” Venkat said.

“So you came up with 'Elrond'?” Annie pressed.

“Because it's a secret meeting?” Mitch guessed. “The email said I couldn't even tell my assistant.”

“I'll explain everything once Teddy arrives.” Venkat said.

“Why does 'Elrond' mean 'secret meeting'?” Annie asked.

“Are we going to make a momentous decision?” Bruge Ng asked.

“Exactly,” Venkat said.

“How did you know that?” Annie asked, getting annoyed.

“Elrond,” Bruce said. “The Council of Elrond. From Lord of the Rings. It's the meeting where they decide to destroy The One Ring.”

“Jesus,” Annie said. “
None
of you got laid in high school, did you?”

“Good morning,” Teddy said as he walked in. Seating himself, he rested his hands on the table. “Anyone know what this meeting's about?” He asked.

“Wait,” Mitch said, “
Teddy
doesn't even know?”

Venkat took a deep breath. “One of our astrodynamicists, Rich Purnell, has found a way to get Hermes back to Mars. The course he came up with would give Hermes a Mars flyby on Sol 549.”

Silence.

“You shittin' us?” Annie demanded.

“Sol 549? How's that even possible?” Asked Bruce. “Even Iris wouldn't have landed till Sol 588.”

“Iris was a point-thrust craft,” Venkat said. “Hermes has a constant-thrust ion engine. It's always accelerating. Also, Hermes has a
lot
of velocity right now. On their current Earth-intercept course, they have to decelerate for the next month just to slow down to Earth's speed.”

Mitch rubbed the back of his head. “Wow... 549. That's 35 sols before Watney runs out of food. That would solve everything.”

Teddy leaned forward. “Run us through it, Venkat. What would it entail?”

“Well,” Venkat began, “If they did this 'Rich Purnell Maneuver,' they'd start accelerating right away, to preserve their velocity and gain even more. They wouldn't intercept Earth at all, but would come close enough to use a gravity assist to adjust course. Around that time, they'd pick up a re-supply probe with provisions for the extended trip.

“After that, they'd be on an accelerating orbit toward Mars, arriving on Sol 549. Like I said, it's a Mary
flyby.
This isn't anything like a normal Ares mission. They'll be going too fast to fall in to orbit. The rest of the maneuver takes them back to Earth. They'd be home 211 days after the flyby.”

“What good is a flyby?” Bruce asked. “They don't have any way to get Watney off the surface.”

“Yeah...” Venkat said. “Now for the unpleasant part: Watney would have to get to the Ares-4 MAV.”

“Schiaparelli Crater!?” Mitch gaped. “That's 3,200km away!”

“3,235km to be exact,” Venkat said. “It's not out of the question. He drove to Pathfinder's landing site and back. That's over 1,500km.”

“That was over flat, desert terrain,” Bruce chimed in. “But the trip to Schiaparelli-”

“Suffice it to say,” Venkat interrupted, “It would be very difficult and dangerous. But we have a lot of clever scientists to help him trick out the rover. Also there would be MAV modifications.”

“What's wrong with the MAV?” Mitch asked.

“It's designed to get to low Mars orbit,” Venkat explained. “But Hermes would be on a flyby, so the MAV would have to escape Mars gravity entirely to intercept.”

“How?” Mitch asked.

“It'd have to lose weight... a
lot
of weight. I can get rooms full of people working on these problems if we decide to do this.”

“Earlier,” Teddy said, “You mentioned a supply probe for Hermes. We have that capability?”

“Yes, with the
Taiyang Shen
,” Venkat said. “We'd shoot for a near-Earth rendezvous. It's a lot easier than getting a probe to Mars, that's for sure.”

“I see,” Teddy said. “So we have two options on the table: Send Watney enough food to last until Ares 4, or send Hermes back to get him right now. Both plans require the
Taiyang Shen
, so we can only do one.”

“Yes,” Venkat said. “We'll have to pick one.”

They all took a moment to consider.

“What about the Hermes crew?” Annie asked, breaking the silence. “Would they have a problem with adding...” She did some quick math in her head “533
days to their mission?”

“They wouldn't hesitate,” Mitch said. “Not for a second. That's why Venkat called this meeting.” He cast a disapproving glare at Venkat. “He wants us to decide instead.”

“That's right,” Venkat said.

“It should be Commander Lewis' call,” Mitch said sternly.

“Pointless to even ask her,” Venkat said. “
We
need to make this decision; it's a matter of life and death.”

“She's the Mission Commander,” Mitch said. “Life and death decisions are her damn job.”

“Easy, Mitch,” Teddy said.

“Bullshit,” Mitch said. “You guys have done end-runs around the crew every time something goes wrong. You didn't tell them Watney was still alive, now you're not telling them there's a rescue option.”

“We already have a rescue option,” Teddy said. “We're just discussing another one.”

“The crash-lander?” Mitch said. “Does anyone think that'll work? Anyone?”

“All right, Mitch,” Teddy said. “You've expressed your opinion, and we've heard it. Let's move on.” He turned to Venkat. “Can Hermes function for 533 days beyond the scheduled mission end?”

“It should,” Venkat said. “The crew may have to fix things here and there, but they're well trained. Remember, Hermes was made to do all 5 Ares missions. It's only halfway through its designed lifespan.”

“It's the most expensive thing ever built,” Teddy said. “We can't make another one. If something went wrong, the crew would die, and the Ares Program with them.”

“Losing the crew would be a disaster,” Venkat said. “But we wouldn't lose Hermes. We can remotely operate it. So long as the reactor and ion engines continued to work, we could bring it back.”

“Space travel is dangerous,” Mitch said. “We can't make this a discussion about what's safest.”

“I disagree,” Teddy said. “This is
absolutely
a discussion about what's safest. And about how many lives are at stake. Both plans are risky, but resupplying Watney only risks one life while the Rich Purnell Maneuver risks six.”

“Consider
degree
of risk, Teddy,” Venkat said. “Mitch is right. The crash-lander is high-risk. It could miss Mars, it could re-enter wrong and burn up, it could crash too hard and destroy the food... we estimate 30% chance of success.”

“A near-Earth rendezvous with Hermes is more doable?” Teddy asked.

“Much more doable,” Venkat confirmed. “With sub-second transmission delays, we can control the probe directly from Earth rather than rely on automated systems. When the time comes to dock, Major Martinez can pilot it remotely from Hermes with no transmission delay at all. And Hermes has a human crew, able to overcome any hiccups that may happen. And we don't have to do a reentry; the supplies don't have to survive a 300m/s impact.”

“So,” Bruce offered, “We can have a high chance of killing one person, or a low chance of killing 6 people. Jeez. How do we even make this decision?”

“We talk about it, then Teddy makes the decision,” Venkat said. “Not sure what else we can do.”

“We could let Lewis-” Mitch began.

“Yeah, other than that,” Venkat interrupted.

“Question,” Annie said. “What am I even here for? This seems like something for you nerds to discuss.”

“You need to be in the loop,” Venkat said. “We're not deciding right now. We'll need to quietly research the details internally. Something might leak, and you need to be ready to dance around questions.”

“How long have we got to make a decision?” Teddy asked.

“The window for starting the maneuver ends in 39 hours.”

“All right,” Teddy said. “Everyone, we discuss this only in person or on the phone; never email. And don't talk to
anyone
about this, other than the people here. The last thing we need is public opinion pressing for a risky cowboy rescue that may be impossible.”

Beck:

Hey, man. How ya been?

Now that I'm in a “dire situation,” I don't have to follow social rules anymore. I can be honest with everyone.

Bearing that in mind, I have to say... dude... you need to tell Johanssen how you feel. If you don’t, you’ll regret it forever.

I won't lie: It could end badly. I have no idea what she thinks of you. Or of anything. She's weird.

But wait till the mission’s over. You're on a ship with her for another two months. Also, if you guys got up to anything while the mission was in progress, Lewis would kill you.

Venkat, Mitch, Annie, Bruce, and Teddy met secretly for the second time in as many days. “Project Elrond” had taken on a dark connotation, veiled in secrecy. Many people knew the name, none knew its purpose.

Speculation ran rampant. Some thought it was a completely new program in the works. Others worried it might be a move to cancel Ares 4 and 5. Most thought it was Ares 6 in the works.

“It wasn't an easy decision,” Teddy said to the assembled elite. “But I've decided to go with Iris 2. No Rich Purnell Maneuver.”

Mitch slammed his fist on the table.

“We'll do all we can to make it work,” Bruce said.

“If it's not too much to ask,” Venkat began. “What made up your mind?”

Teddy sighed. “It's a matter of risk,” he said. “Iris 2 only risks one life. Rich Purnell risks all six of them. I know Rich Purnell is more likely to work, but I don't think it's
six times more likely.”
 

“You fucking coward,” Mitch said.

“Mitch...” Venkat said.

“You god damned fucking coward,” Mitch continued, ignoring Venkat. “You just want to cut your losses. You're on damage control. You don't give a shit about Watney's life.”

“Of course I do,” Teddy replied. “And I'm sick of your infantile attitude. You can throw all the tantrums you want, but the rest of us have to be adults. This isn't a TV show; the riskier solution isn't always the best.”

“Space is dangerous,” Mitch snapped. “It's what we do here. If you want to play it safe all the time, go join an insurance company. And by the way, it's not even your life you're risking. The crew can make up their own minds about it.”

“No they can't,” Teddy fired back. “They're too emotionally involved. Clearly, so are you. I'm not gambling five lives to save one. Especially when we might save him without risking them
at all
.”

“Bullshit!” Mitch shot back as he stood from his chair. “You're just
convincing
yourself the crash-lander will work so you don't have to take a risk. You're hanging him out to dry, you chicken-shit son of a bitch!”

He stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

After a few seconds, Venkat followed behind, saying “I'll make sure he cools off.”

Bruce slumped in his chair. “Sheesh,” he said, nervously. “We're scientists, for Christ's sake. What the hell!?”

Annie quietly gathered her things and placed them in her briefcase.

Teddy looked to her. “Sorry about that, Annie,” he said. “What can I say? Sometimes men let testosterone take over-”

“I was hoping he'd kick your ass,” she interrupted.

“What?”

“I know you care about the astronauts, but he's right. You
are
a fucking coward. If you had balls we might be able to save Watney.”

Lewis:

Hi, Commander.

Between training and our trip to Mars, I spent 2 years working with you. I think I know you pretty well. So I’m  guessing you blame yourself for my situation.

Don’t.

You were faced with an impossible scenario and made a tough decision. That’s what Commanders do. And your decision was right. If you’d waited any longer, the MAV would have tipped.

I’m sure you’ve run through all the possible outcomes in your head, so you know there’s nothing you could have done differently (other than “be psychic”).

You probably think losing a crewman is the worst thing  that can happen. Not true. Losing the
whole crew
is worse. You kept that from happening.
 

But there's something more important we need to discuss: What is it with you and Disco? I can understand the '70's TV because everyone loves hairy people with huge collars. But Disco?

Disco!?

Vogel checked the position and orientation of Hermes against the projected path. It matched, as usual. In addition to being the mission's chemist, he was also an accomplished astrophysicist. Though his duties as navigator were laughably easy.

The computer knew the course. It knew when to angle the ship so the ion engines would be aimed correctly. And it knew the location of the ship at all times (easily calculated from the position of the sun and Earth, and knowing the exact time from an on-board atomic clock.)

Barring a complete computer failure or other critical event, Vogel’s vast knowledge of astrodynamics would never come in to play.

Completing the check, he ran a diagnostic on the engines. They were functioning at peak. He did all this from his quarters. All on-board computers could control all ship's functions. Gone were the days of physically visiting the engines to check up on them.

Having completed his work for the day, he finally had time to read email.

Sorting through the messages NASA deemed worthy to upload, he read the most interesting first and responded when necessary. His responses were cached and would be sent to Earth with Johanssen's next uplink.

A message from his wife caught his attention. Titled
Unsere kinder
(“our children”), it contained nothing but an image attachment. He raised an eyebrow. Several things stood out at once. Firstly, “kinder” should have been capitalized. Helena, a grammar school teacher in Bremen, was very unlikely to make that mistake. Also, to each other, they affectionately called their kids
Die Affen
.