EXT. MARS - DAY
Mark had uncovered Pathfinder. He stared at it with a similar gleam in his eye. Then he dragged the Lander to the back of Rover 2, and began lashing it to a makeshift hitch.
Sol 109
EXT. HAB - DAY
Sojourner sat beside the watching as Mark methodically, at a workbench outside the Hab, tooke apart the Lander.
He removed the battery and replaced it with an environment heater. He locked the heater into place, and it clicked.
INT. JPL GARAGE - DAY
PATHFINDER LOG: SOL 0 BOOT SEQUENCE INITIATED TIME 00:00:00 LOADING OS... PERFORMING HARDWARE CHECK...
INT TEMPERATURE: - 34C, EXT TEMPERATURE: NONFUNCTIONAL, BATTERY: FULL, HIGAIN: Okay, LOGAIN: Okay, METEOROLOGY: NONFUNCTIONAL, SOLAR A: NONFUNCTIONAL, SOLAR B: NONFUNCTIONAL, SOLAR C: NONFUNCTIONAL, HARDWARE CHECK COMPLETE
BROADCASTING STATUS
LISTENING FOR TELEMETRY SIGNAL... LISTENING FOR TELEMETRY SIGNAL... LISTENING FOR TELEMETRY SIGNAL... SIGNAL ACQUIRED.
INT. JPL GARAGE - DAY
Vincent, Bruce and the JPL team saw the words come main screen. The room began to buzz.
EXT. HAB - DAY
Mark stared at the high gain antenna on the Lander. It started to move, angling toward Earth. Mark began to dance.
INT. JPL GARAGE - DAY
Vincent and Bruce clustered around the station of Tim who said, "As soon as I received the high-gain response, I directed Pathfinder to take a panoramic image."
"Have you received it yet?" Vincent asked.
"Yes, but I thought we would all rather
look at this black screen instead of a vibrant red planet."
Bruce, off Vincent's look, said, "Tim is our finest comm tech, and we all appreciate his acerbic wit." He mouthed "I will fire you" to Tim.
"Incoming."
On the screens, the panoramic started to appear, one stripe at a time.
"Martian surface... more surface..." Vincent said.
"There's the Hab!" Bruce cried.
"What's that? Up on the- It-" The image revealed a handwritten note, posted on a metal rod. ""and write messages here. Are you receiving?"" The image revealed two more notes, spaced a few feet apart. ""Point here for yes." "Point here for no.""
"Thirty-two minute round trip communications time," Tim said. "He can only ask yes/no questions, and all we can do is point the camera. This won't exactly be an Algonquin round table of snappy repartee."
"Tim," Bruce called.
"Roger that. Pointing the camera..."
EXT. MARS - DAY
Mark watched as the camera moved toward one of his notes.
"YES."
"So here's the rub..." Mark began.
INT. HAB - DAY
Mark addressed the camera. "Somehow, I need to have complex astrophysical engineering conversations using only a still-frame camera. From 1996. Luckily, the camera spins 360, so I can make an alphabet. I just can't use our alphabet. Twenty-six letters plus question card into 360 gives me 13 degrees of arc. Too narrow. I wouldn't know what the camera was pointing at. So. Hexadecimals to the rescue..."
EXT. HAB - DAY
Mark methodically set up cards marked "A-F" and "0-9" in a circle around the camera. "I figured one of you guys kept an ASCII table somewhere..."
YOU ARE READING
If Tomorrow Never Comes
Science FictionEsmeralda, Esme, Watney works with Mindy Park as a satellite engineer. Her high school sweetheart, her husband, is on the Hermes on a mission to Mars. When she receives the devastating news that he's dead, she must do her best to juggle her grief...
