Archive of Our Own

SOL 6

Alright, so I’m screwed. Extremely screwed. Oh god, I’m going to die here, aren’t I? They’ll make a movie about me one day and it’ll be how I, Gideon Rider, died on this godforsaken red planet. But contrary to popular belief, I didn’t die today like my crewmates thought.

I should probably start from the beginning, shouldn’t I? I doubt anyone will read this since I’m going to die anyways, but at least it will let me get my thoughts out.

The Ares program. The program by NASA for mankind to finally reach and explore Mars. You know, Mars, Roman god of war? Greek god of war name for the program? Makes sense. Anyways, I was a part of the Ares 3 mission. The first mission got all the fame and glory, first to Mars. The second mission, well I think they just sort of got coffee mugs. But the third mission was mine, well not mine. It was Captain Hunter’s.

My team: Captain Rip Hunter – our fearless Captain as well as team geologist. Kendra Saunders, our lovely doctor. Sara Lance, navigator for the crew. Zari Tomaz, our systems operator. Jefferson Jackson, or Jax as he likes to be called, – the youngest crewmember and our pilot. And then there’s me, Gideon Rider, botanist. So you see, it wasn’t my crew at all. In fact, I think ranking went Rip, Sara, Jax, and then me. So half the crew would have to be dead until I was in charge. But seeing as how I’m the only one here, I guess I am in charge. Captain Rider. I like it.

As for why my crew thought I was dead and abandoned me on this stupid planet, well that’s another story. NASA has strict guidelines as to when to evacuate the mission. In this case, it was a severe storm, just six days into the mission. Of course, no one wanted to leave so soon, but orders were orders. I may not like listening to people, but I’ve always trusted Rip’s judgement. So we left, and I got hit by one of the long antennae from the communications dish.

Long story short, the antenna poked a hole in my space suit, which means all my oxygen left. But then the blood seeped through and the liquid part completely vaporized as soon as it came in contact with the Martian atmosphere. Blood is only 55% liquid, the rest of it turned into an icky gooey seal, effectively saving my life. Thank you my dear blood!

I somehow managed to stumble back to the Hab (our home away from home) and stitch myself back together. Thank goodness for NASA training on medical emergencies, otherwise I’d be dead all over again. I’ll have to take antibiotics for a few weeks, but I’ll be fine.

So here’s the thing, I can’t talk to the Waverider (our ship) because the communications dish is gone and even if I did find it, the Waverider would be long gone by then. And I checked my damaged suit, the antenna went through my biometrics scanner, so everyone definitely thought I was dead. So, I’m stranded on Mars. No way of communicating with Earth or the Waverider. I’m in a place designed to last a month. If the oxygenator breaks, I’ll suffocate. If the Water Reclaimer breaks, I’ll die of thirst. If the Hab breaches, I’ll just sort of explode. And even if I’m lucky enough to survive all that, I’m going to run out of food eventually and starve to death.

So really, I’m screwed.

Sol 10

So after my sulking, I’ve had a breakthrough. I refuse to die here. I mean, I don’t really have any family waiting for me to come home, or anybody mourning me back on Earth. But really, I can’t just let my crew leave me here and forget about me. No, I have to come back from the dead and rub it in their faces. So here’s what I figure, my best bet is the Ares 4 mission. They’ll be landing about 3,200km away in about four years from now. I did the math and with my team gone, I now have food to last me a year if I ration properly. And the Oxygenator and Reclaimer are working perfectly, I checked. So, I somehow just have to survive until then and get myself over to the landing site.

But I have a plan, I’m a botanist after all. I’m going to grow my own food. Which is easier said than done on Mars. I have very little Earth soil with me and only fern seeds…but what I do have is Martian soil and some real potatoes. NASA apparently thought we’d like a real meal for Thanksgiving and not any of the instant stuff. I am grateful for their ridiculous American traditions. But there’s still a problem with the Martian soil, I don’t know if you know this about Mars, but there’s nothing really out here. In order to grow, my potatoes are going to need bacteria. Which can’t survive out on Mars. So I’ll have to bring Martian soil back into the Hab, there’s plenty of room to do so. Which leaves actually getting the bacteria…well the good news is that everything that goes into our bodies has to come out at some point. I’m going to have to reclaim everyone’s human waste and add water to make the bacteria viable again.

Maybe I should just die on this planet. If I survive I’m never going to hear the end of this from Jax.

Sol 25

I am (as my lovely crew will tell you) what you call ‘fun-size’. I hate that word. But it’s true, I’m the smallest of the group. In fact since my suit’s been torn up, the closest one I can fit into is Sara’s so that’s what I’ve been wearing to get all the dirt inside this place.

The upside of this: I don’t need much to sustain my living. I still need calories, which the potatoes will give (and I’ll get all the nutrients from the vitamins we have) but I don’t need as much as someone like Captain Hunter would. The downside: I’m really not that strong, and every part of my body is sore even after the Vicodin. But it’s almost done, I’ve got soil in the Hab with bacteria. I’m not going to speak further on that.

But there is one small, slight hiccup. I need water. A lot more than what NASA sent me and what the Water Reclaimer can give me if I want these potatoes to survive. Fortunately, along with being a botanist I am also a chemical engineer. Did you know that there’s a friendly rivalry between chemical and mechanical engineers? Chemical engineers are known as the plumbers of the industry. I’ve been told this is easily solved by dropping a pay slip on their desk. But that was in school, it doesn’t matter much in the real world. We all have similar jobs really, the difference between a chemical and a mechanical engineer is that I learned about chemical reactions. So I was basically the fix-it gal on the ship, who knew about plants and chemistry. Yes, yes, basic chemistry, I know. But I’m the only one on this planet, no one’s here to argue with me. Let me have this.

Point is, I know the recipe for water, add hydrogen and oxygen and burn over a catalyst. Chemistry rules. Sadly, almost everything NASA sent us with is non-flammable. Probably because they don’t want us to blow ourselves up accidentally. Clearly never met an engineer. This is a problem for tomorrow. Bed now. I think Rip has some mystery books I can read.

Sol 33

Okay, I have a plan. An idiotic and stupid plan, but I know how I can get water. Remember how I said I was a chemical engineer? Well I’m smart. I could build a bomb if I wanted to! I mean probably could, never really tried before but I’m sure my schooling prepared me for it. This is probably why Zari called me an evil genius. Oh I miss her, of all the crew members she was probably my best friend. We had an understanding. I miss all of them.

Okay, that’s enough sadness for today. Back to the plan. I’m going to burn the Hydrazine from the rocket we came down on (the MDV), get some hydrogen off of that. Add some oxygen from the oxygenator and burn. Ah, you say, but how will you start the fire? The fire triangle says you need three things for a fire: oxygen, fuel, and heat. Luckily for me, Jax brought a wooden cross with him. Now, all I need to do is get a spark off of that and I have an ignition source. I have everything I need, considering I’m starting a fire on Mars, I could very well die today. Let’s hope not, that would really suck.

Later

Okay. Didn’t die. My plan worked, because I am a genius. Except this genius might have also blown herself up. My hair is a bit singed and my ears are ringing. I have water, and I’m going to bed. Ow.

Sol 37

At this point you might be wondering...what about your menstrual cycle? Or maybe not, but it’s something I always wonder with the movies. If they ever make a movie of me they better keep this part in! Anyways, the menstrual cycle-stop squirming, it’s perfectly natural and happens once a month. Every twenty-eight days. Luckily for me, and the other women on the Ares mission, we all got implants. No periods!! Better than in the old days when they’d just give tampons and oral contraceptives. That might work for going to the moon, but going to Mars? A three-year mission? Can you imagine all the space it would take for all that stuff? Or if you forgot your pill? Not to mention the cramps...no, implants are better. Because apparently when you go to space, your cardiovascular system slows, you lose bone density, but your menstrual cycle? Right on schedule. Why? Because Mother Nature is a bitch. You can tell her I said that.

Screw Ares and Mars and all the male dominated names for planets. Men can have the moon (whose goddess is the female Diana). I claim Mars for the women. Men don’t have to deal with all the shit we do, we deserve this. Call me the Queen of Mars and bow to my genius.

NASA

Amaya sighed as she put her briefcase down in her office. Working at NASA was fun, but some days were harder than others. Today had been Gideon Rider’s memorial service. She hadn’t had any immediate family, the best they could do was a speech from the President about her bravery and the video link from Captain Hunter and his crew. The poor man had been devastated but had somehow managed to keep it together. They had wanted Amaya to give a speech as well, being the Director of Mars missions, but she couldn’t do it. Besides, Director Heywood of NASA had done a brilliant job anyways.

Speaking of, Henry knocked on her door before letting himself in. “How are you doing?” he asked.

“About as good as can be,” Amaya shrugged. She knew he wasn’t too happy with her for not speaking.

“Alright, then let’s get back to work.”

“Let’s start with you authorizing my satellite pictures,” Amaya demanded. She saw him going to argue and cut back. “Come on, I can get them to authorize an Ares 6 mission, half the equipment is still up there and-”

“And what happens when they see Gideon’s dead body?” Henry asked, “Come on, Amaya. We’re a public domain, whatever picture we get has to go public. How do you think they’ll react when they see her body, just left out in the open?”

“I understand,” Amaya sighed, “But her body isn’t just going to disappear in four years when Ares 4 goes up.”

“No, but it will at least be covered with sand.”

Amaya bit her lip, contemplating, “What if we could put a spin on it? I’ll run it by Courtney if you like, but what if we said the Ares 6 mission would be to bring back Rider’s body? At least a part of the mission. People care now, they’re not going to care in a year from now.”

Henry thought it over, his forehead wrinkling, “Alright. You have your satellites.”

**

When Wally West got his PhD in mechanical engineering and came to NASA he thought he’d be helping make rockets, not looking at stupid pictures from Mars. But that’s what he was doing at three in the morning. Curiously, he looked at the satellite imagery from the Ares 3 base. It looked like the Hab was fine, which meant it could be reused and…oh…oh that didn’t look right. Oh no.

“Oh boy,” Wally cursed under his breath. Minutes later he was on an emergency call to Amaya, and two hours later, Amaya Jiwe, Henry Heywood and Courtney Whitmore (media relations for NASA) were all surrounding his computer.

“Exactly how sure are we about this?” Courtney asked.

“I’d say about a hundred percent,” Amaya said.

“Okay, let’s not jump to conclusions here,” Henry raised a hand for calm, “We don’t know-”

“Wally, tell them what you told me,” Amaya said.

“Yeah, sure,” Wally nodded and pointed out the pictures, “So the solar cells have been cleaned, I know you’ll say it could have been the storm but I don’t think so. See, these pop-tents are set up, and there was no log about it. And the Rover – it changed positions, see?” He switched pictures between the days, “It was facing the Hab here to charge, and now it’s moved. And stuff looks like it’s been taken apart. With human precision.”

“And most importantly,” Amaya said, “No body.”

“So Gideon Rider,” Courtney started slowly.

“Is alive,” Henry finished.

**

Within twenty-four hours, Courtney Whitmore held a press conference. Short, sweet, and to the point. She stood at the podium and addressed the reporters. “Thank you for joining us. It has come to our attention, that the astronaut, Gideon Rider, is in fact alive.”

And then came everything else. News channels wanted exclusives. Everyone was demanding answers. Was she alright? How would they save her? Did the Ares 3 crew know? And it was Courtney’s job to deal with it.

It was Amaya and Henry’s job to find a way to get Gideon back on Earth. And help her survive for so long. Luckily, they had all of NASA’s full cooperation, whose major goal now was to bring the woman home from the stars. And Ray Palmer of Palmer Tech was willing to help in any way he could to expedite building parts.

“So how fast can we get supplies to her?” Amaya demanded.

“With the schedule we have? And the amount of overtime we need?” Ray said, “Amaya, I’m trying and you know I’ll do everything I can. But this is tight.”

“Well you have to, or she’ll die up there,” Henry said, “She only has enough food for a little less than a year. We need to find a way for her to survive until Ares 4. Or until we can think of a better plan.”

“Have you told the crew yet?” Ray asked.

Amaya and Henry shared a look before Amaya answered, “No. Space travel is dangerous. We need them focused on getting home. And you know how Rip gets, it was hard enough leaving a crew member dead. Finding out she’s alive and he left her behind?”

“It would only make things worse,” Henry said.

“So we have no way of communicating with her and no way of helping her from light minutes away. This sucks,” Ray said.

“I can’t even imagine what she’s going through on her own,” Amaya said softly, “All alone on a planet. Thinking we all gave up on her, left her for dead. What does that do to a person? I can’t even imagine what she’s thinking, let alone doing right now.”

Sol 61

“Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want. So tell me what you want, what you really, really want.”

Apparently, Sara is secretly obsessed with the Spice girls. And if you’re wondering, yes I did blast it through the Hab and dance around to it. Not like anyone’s going to know anyways.

“I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha). I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ah.”

**

Sol 65

If you’re wondering, my potatoes are doing quite well. I saw one start sprouting the other day. My beautiful little potato, it’s going to save my life. Yes, it is. But barring the potatoes and nearly blowing myself up making water, I have other things to think about. Namely, how I’m going to get to the Ares 4 site. Lately, I’ve been working on tricking out the Rovers. Luckily, we were all trained on how to use the equipment. I’ve scavenged the battery from Rover 2 and added it to Rover Prime – it’s my favourite. We’ve bonded over the last several days. I’m thinking with the added battery, I should have extra battery life and power to have longer drives. Should get me to the site faster. I’m going to test it out today, take a few laps. You see? Everything is going to be fine.

Later

Everything is terrible. I'm going to die on this stupid rock.

Before you lecture me, I’m not being overdramatic. I’m all alone on an alien planet – with no aliens to speak of! I’m highly disappointed – and I’ve learned something about Rover Prime. If I use the heating, half the battery life gets drained. If I turn the heater off, I’m going to freeze to death. Oh gosh, I know I said I wanted a cold Christmas and what not, but it’s bloody freezing. Can’t do this. I’m calling it. I’m sorry Rover Prime, but I’m leaving you!

Sol 67

Remember my brilliant idea to blow things up to make water? Well I’ve found an equally brilliant idea to solve my heating problem. Plutonium. It’s an unstable isotope that emits an intense amount of heat and energy. Obviously, NASA doesn’t like radioactive things with us. So Captain Hunter buried the one bag of plutonium we had. Luckily, I know where it is.

And before you lecture me on the dangers of nuclear power, NASA made it extra safe. The plutonium is in pellets, which are in a bag, which shouldn’t break. I’ll be perfectly safe – hopefully safe. Alright look, you get more nuclear radiation from living in the mountain range than you do in a nuclear plant. Calm down. But if I do die….at least everyone will think it was bravely trying to get back to the ship and not because I was stupid enough to play with radioactive stuff. Fingers crossed.

Later

Got the plutonium. In Rover Prime, and it’s boiling hot in here. Oh gosh, so hot. Never thought I’d say that on Mars. But my heating problem is solved. And I’m still alive!

Sol 70

I want it to be clear that I don’t blame Captain Hunter one bit. They thought I was dead. It was either leave a dead body behind on Mars or sacrifice everyone’s lives. He made the right call. And I don’t blame him. I’m not mad at him at all. It would be rather hard to be mad at him, with the soft eyes and that half smirk he gives whenever he finds something funny. He’s really quite handsome...I’ll delete that out later. You saw nothing! I love all my crew members equally! Bollocks, no, I didn’t mean I loved him – you know what, I should check the CO2 levels in here. That’s the only explanation. Be back later. And I’ll delete this entry.

Later

I decided to keep the entry. After all, if I die here it’s not like anyone’s going to see it anyways. I’m taking this secret to my grave apparently. Anyways, the main purpose of this second log for today is because I’ll be leaving the Hab for a while. I’ve fixed Rover Prime up nicely and packed enough food. Time for a road trip.

Waverider

“GIDEON!! Gideon?? Please, please!”

“We have to go!”

“Go without me, I have to look for her. I can’t just leave her.”

“We’re going to tip, Captain you need to come back. We can’t leave you behind.”

“Rip, I know you don’t want to hear this, but she’s dead. Gideon’s dead.”

“No, no. She can’t be.”

“We’re not going to hold much longer! If you’re not back soon then I’ll have no choice but to follow orders and leave you, Sir.”

“I’m coming.”

“Captain, I need verbal confirmation. Clear to launch.”

“Go.”

Rip woke with a shuddering gasp. The same recurring nightmare. It wasn’t even a nightmare, it was the truth. He had left Gideon behind. She had died, on his watch. It was his fault. Rip sighed, drew himself out of bed and made his way to the galley. The rooms on the ship had gravity, but the cylindrical hallway had zero g. Jonas always loved it when Rip told him stories about flying in space.

“Morning,” Sara greeted as she made coffee by putting the pack in hot water. Rip grunted and made his tea in the same method. “How are you?” It was the common greeting these days. Ever since they had lost Gideon, no one had been the same. It had always been her and Jax that had kept the crew’s spirits up. Over a hundred days in cooped up quarters, if they didn’t have Gideon’s constant optimism they probably would have all killed each other. Of all of them though, Rip and Zari had taken it the hardest.

“How do you think?” Rip snapped. He sighed when he saw how Sara’s face dropped. Rip groaned and took the seat next to her, rubbing his temples. “Sorry. Bad dream. Didn’t sleep well.”

Sara nodded, “I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.” It was his own fault. His team member, his orders. His fault.

“Nobody blames you.”

“They should,” Rip said sardonically, “I should have-”

“What, Rip? You couldn’t have saved her. There was nothing to be done,” Sara said kindly.

“I should have still tried,” he said bitterly. Gideon, sweet Gideon, his Gideon – not that she was ever his. But…she was, in a way. And now she was gone. A selfish part of him was grateful that she had no immediate family to apologize to, instead her family was the crew. And they all felt the hole in their team with her gone. Even Kendra couldn’t comfort them all. And it was all Rip’s fault.

**

NASA

“She’s going for Pathfinder!” Amaya realized as she stared at the map. “If she can get it to work then she can communicate with us. Slowly, but still.”

“That thing’s been stuck on Mars for ages; you really think she can get it up and running?” Wally asked in doubt.

“You haven’t met Gideon Rider. That woman could rule the world if she wanted to,” Amaya said fiercely.

“Well she’s going to rule Mars at this rate,” Wally laughed. He sobered when he saw Amaya’s still straight face. “Sorry, bad joke.”

“Yes, it was,” Amaya said. “Keep monitoring her. I’m going to go talk to Doctor Palmer. See if he can get the Pathfinder duplicate working again so we can talk to her.”

Sol 95

It took me a good two weeks, but I got Pathfinder back to the Hab. It took forever to dig it out and loading it on…thank goodness for Mars’ lower gravity. But now I need to get it to work. I’ve cleaned off the solar cells and replaced the battery. How did I know what battery I needed? Well in true scientific fashion, I read the label. Easy enough. While I’m waiting for Pathfinder to reboot, I’ve realized that in the future if space travel ever becomes commercial, that a reality TV show could really take off here. Survivor: On Mars. Just imagine it. I mean, obviously I would be the reigning champion. Though, I once knew a girl that double majored in chemical and aerospace engineering. Along with having plans to go to med school. She would probably be a decent competitor. Wonder what ever happened to her...

I will say the one good thing about Mars, no traffic! I once had to drive to NASA in Houston, let me tell you, not fun. I think it was the first time I ever saw Captain Hunter curse. Not that the man is any better than I am. Well nothing left to do but wait and see if it can acquire a signal now…

Sol 97

It worked…it worked!! I’m going to live!!

No, no, wait a minute. I need to take things slow. First communication. If I’m lucky someone’s out there listening. Just in case, I’ve set up some note cards. They can’t respond back with words, but Pathfinder can move. I’ll have one side for ‘yes’ and the other side for ‘no’. At least it will get us somewhere.

Later

It moved! It moved!! Yes, yes yes!! Their answer I mean. Yes!! Oh goodness, am I crying? I don’t know. Things are blurry. Deep breaths.

Okay, okay, now to really get the ball moving. See, yes and no cards can only get us so far. Really, we need an alphabet. But not the normal English alphabet, no that won’t work. We need to think about questions and numbers and punctuation. It would be impossible of me to keep track of what they’re trying to tell me.

We’ll use ASCII, the computer alphabet. And how I know about this you ask? Because Zari is a computer genius and has a book on it. The nerd. Not that Kendra’s any better, all she brought was educational books. Zee and Jax brought videogames, they’re the good ones. But I digress, ASCII, that’s how we’ll communicate. Let’s go.

H…O…W…-…A…L…I…V…E

Impaled by antenna, blood sealed hole. Bio-monitor destroyed. Crew thought me dead. Don’t blame them or Hunter!

S…T…A…T…U…S

Physically fine, Hab functional, rationing meals and growing crops. Not Hunter’s fault!

S…A…W…-…S…A…T…L…I…T…E

Wow. I’m famous! Need faster communication. Resume tomorrow 8:00 morning my time. Tell crew I don’t blame them! Especially Rip!

Sol 99

The smarty-pants at NASA figured out a quicker way for us to talk! All I need to do is mess with the Rover computer a bit, enter in like 20 lines of code (which took forever to transcribe by the way) and we can talk through Rover Prime. Zee would be so proud of my hacking skills right now!

They also wanted me to take a picture for some reason. Kendra and I used to joke about which of us was the prettiest going on this trip. They made posters of all of us before we left. I considered getting one of Rip at one point, but what if he ever found it? Though I think his son has one of him, must be pretty cool to have your dad go to Mars…ahem, anyways, I posed like a queen. Found some aluminum foil and made myself a crown. I am the Queen of Mars after all!

PALMERTECH: Gideon, this is Amaya Jiwe and Director Heywood. We’ve had eyes on you since Sol 41. The whole world is rooting for you! We have plans to adjust Ares 4, to pick you up and take you to their landing site. And we’re putting together a supply mission to make sure you’re fed until then.

RIDER: Hooray! Glad to hear I’m not dying. I just wanted to make sure you knew it wasn’t the crew’s fault. How did they take finding out I was alive?

PALMERTECH: Tell us about your crops. We didn’t tell the crew you are alive, we need them to focus on their mission.

RIDER: Crops are potatoes grown from the Thanksgiving feast sent with us.

RIDER: What the fuck do you mean you didn’t tell the crew I’m alive? Rip is probably drowning in his stupid guilt!

PALMERTECH: We will have botanists on Earth look over your work. And please watch your language. Everything you type is being broadcast live all over the world

RIDER: Fuck you! (But please still save me)

**

Waverider

“Data dump!” Zari announced to the crew as a whole. Everyone immediately jumped to their personal devices to see what they had for the day. Zari frowned at the inbox, “Hey Captain, there’s a video message here. Addressed to the entire team.”

Rip hummed in surprise and walked up behind her, “Interesting. Everyone gather around. Go ahead and play it, Zee.” The second they saw Amaya Jiwe onscreen they realized something must have been wrong. “Why would she talk to us now?” Rip wondered aloud.

“Waverider crew, this is Amaya Jiwe,” she took a breath and gathered herself, “There is no easy way to say this. Gideon Rider is still alive.”

Rip felt like all the air had left his lungs. Alive. She was alive.

“No, no, her biometrics were gone,” Kendra shook her head as she realized the implications of what this meant.

“How?” Jax whispered softly. Rip just kept staring blankly at the screen.

“I know this is a lot to take in, I know you have questions, write them down and we will answer them, I promise. But the basics are that she’s alive and she’s healthy and she doesn’t blame any of you. Especially you, Captain Hunter. She wanted to be very clear on that.” Amaya looked down here in hesitation before continuing, “We found out Gideon was alive about two months ago on the satellite images. It was our decision not to tell you because we wanted you to focus on coming home. That was our mistake and I’m sorry, Rider made it very clear that she thought it was the wrong decision. For now we have a plan for Ares 4 to pick her up when they get to Mars. Take some time, clear your thoughts, send us your questions. Thank you.”

“She’s alive,” Sara smiled, “Oh thank god, she’s alive.” She turned to a tearful Zari and gave the other woman a hug. Jax and Kendra were doing the same.

“She’s on Mars,” Rip said flatly, “She’s in that god forsaken wasteland on her own because I left her there.”

“Rip you didn’t leave-”

“Yes, I did.”

“We didn’t know,” Kendra said softly.

“I should have known, I should have,” Rip said softly, his voice barely breaking. He cleared his throat and looked away from them.

“We all took the decision-”

“You all followed my orders,” Rip cut Jax off, “I left her there. I as good as left her for dead.” Rip shook his head and walked off the bridge before anyone else could have a say. He might as well have killed her.

Sol 115

You know, just once, just once, all I would like is for this planet to stop trying to kill me! I mean what did I do so wrong anyways? I just wanted to visit Mars, collect a few samples. Not be stranded here and constantly almost dying. What brought this on you may ask? Well I simply wanted to check on the solar panels and the rover to make sure the latest storm didn’t hurt them. Instead? The Hab blew up. Yes, you heard me correctly. Blew up.

Luckily, I was in the airlock at the time and simply went hurtling away. I think my forehead is bleeding and honestly everything just hurts. But more importantly, the Hab was breached. If I had to guess, I would say there was a weakness in the fibers of the wall. Materials respond to the environment, expanding and contracting to the hot and cold. And I’ve been using Airlock 1 continuously. Between that and the storms, the strain was probably too much.

So now, I’m stuck out in the open in an airlock and my home away from home is being deprived of the proper pressurization and oxygen. Also, I think I hear a leak in here. And my face shield is cracked. Brilliant. Give me a bit, I need to work this out.

Later

So, in a stroke of what might have been genius or insanity, I burnt my hair. Don’t worry, I haven’t lost my marbles. Well not completely anyways. But I had to find the source of the leak, best way to do that is to start a fire. Again, fire needs oxygen to burn. Just had to follow the smoke. Sadly, NASA doesn’t make many flammable objects, but my hair? Plenty flammable. After that it was just a matter of static electricity lighting a spark and following the smoke. As for the leak, would you believe duct tape works phenomenally out in space? Solves all your problems big or small.

Now for my face shield. Luckily, I came prepared with my toolkit, and in it is a patch kit. There’s a resin in here that I can spread on top of the faceplate, it will create a nice shield. Vision might be blocked a little, but I have a camera attached to the suit for that. After that, it’s just a matter of getting to the Hab and fixing it. I’m not worried about that part, we all learned how to do it. I’m worried about making it there in time on about five minutes of oxygen. Great.

Later

Okay, I think I’ve figured it out. Obviously I can’t fix the Hab in five minutes, even I’m not that good. But I can grab another space suit. Mine is ruined, I’m currently wearing Sara’s. But if I can find Zari or Kendra’s I should be fine. If I remember properly, Kendra’s is closer to the entrance. Granted, I don’t know the state of the Hab right now, no doubt terrible, but it’s either that or die in here anyways. Alright. Hab, Kendra’s suit, Rover Prime. Wish me luck!

Even later

I’m alive! And In Rover Prime.

Things didn’t exactly go as planned. I was right; the Hab was a mess. But luckily Kendra’s suit was right where I had hoped it would be. Sadly, it was also pinned under a table. I mentioned I was small, right? It would take me a while to lift the table on a good day, certainly wasn’t going to happen when I was losing oxygen and about to die. So I grabbed the helmet and can now see properly again. Positives only over here.

Rover Prime has a tank-refill so I can get more oxygen tomorrow and start working on fixing the Hab. But with what little I was able to see, my potatoes are dead. I can still eat them, but I won’t be able to grow anymore. It was freezing in there, and the bacteria wouldn’t survive anyways. I’ll never grow another plant here.

Even if everything is working fine, I’ll only have enough food to last me to Sol 600. I’ll be long dead before Ares 4 arrives. You see? This bloody, stupid planet is trying to kill me.

NASA

“Well, the good news is she got the oxygenator and water reclaimer up and running,” Amaya announced.

“But?” Henry pressed.

“She’s going to run out of food. Ray, we need to move up the supply mission. Now.”

“Even more?” Ray’s eyes bugged out of his head, “We were already pressed for time. I don’t know how-”

“Well you have to or she dies,” Amaya said, “Look, I know this is tough and I’m asking for a lot.”

“But we need this,” Henry said, “Forget all the luxuries. Just focus on getting her food. Doesn’t need to be a pretty landing. A simple tumble-land presupply, we just need to get it close to her.”

“And edible. And quick,” Amaya added.

Ray sighed, “Alright. Build a probe in fifty days. We got this.”

**

They fell behind schedule more than once. They were already pressed for time, taking boosters from other projects and trying to find the correct acceleration so they wouldn’t pulverize the food they were sending. Two weeks behind, they had to make up for that time somehow. A decision was reached to forgo the inspections just this once.

Sixty days later, the launch took place. A bolt came loose and minutes later reports were coming in about debris from the probe. Henry pulled out his red folder with his other speech, the one he had hoped he wouldn’t have to give. NASA stood in shocked silence as they took it all in. And somewhere else, astrodynamicist Leonard Snart was forming a plan…

Waverider

“It didn’t work,” Zari whispered as she read the correspondence. She looked around at her team. Jax was shaking her head, Kendra had a hand over her mouth, Sara clenched her hand in a fist, and Rip. He just stared blankly at the screen, like if he glared hard enough he could change the outcome.

“She’s going to die if they don’t get her food,” Sara growled.

“They have a plan, right? Something?” Jax asked.

“They’re going to try it again,” Zari answered.

“They failed once. They’re just going to waste time doing this again,” Rip muttered bitterly. Zari reached out for him but he shook her off and walked out of the room. Kendra nodded at the team and followed him.

“You’re not the only one that’s worried you know?” Kendra called.

Rip stopped in his tracks and faced her, “No, but I was her Captain-”

“And you need to stop blaming yourself. Gideon doesn’t blame you. Not one bit.”

“She should. She should hate me for leaving her there,” Rip closed his eyes and leaned against the wall.

“But she doesn’t.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Rip scoffed, “Because she was always the best of us. She doesn’t deserve this.”

“No, she doesn’t,” Kendra wrapped her arms around him. Offering him what comfort she could when they both knew the only person he really wanted was stuck on Mars.

Dear Kendra,
Apparently the shrink on Earth caught onto me and is making me write letters to be tethered to humanity. Because clearly being alone on Mars will turn me into some kind of robot. But whatever keeps the earthlings happy.
I’m writing to you first because you were always the sweetest of us. Do you know how obsessed the general public is with you? The pretty girl going off to space. Prettier than me even! But really, you have one of the kindest hearts I have ever known. And I’m grateful for having known you.
PS: You are also a huge nerd. I say this with love, but I mean really, who brings biology textbooks to read for fun?

Somewhere in Houston, Henry Heywood woke up to a phone call from China. Something about a booster for a probe…he didn’t even have to let them finish before he said yes.

Sara
The most badass of us all. I mean, with the knife collection you have…honestly I’m still not convinced that you’re not some sort of assassin. Like seriously, I can see you on a motorcycle, sunglasses on, leather jacket. Ready to take names and kick ass.
I know you always felt a little overshadowed by your ‘perfect’ sister. But hey, you went to Mars. How many people get to say that? (Okay so far eighteen and probably more in the future if they don’t cancel over this little misshap, but still!) You are badass in your right.

“Dr. Jiwe, you have a minute?”

Amaya looked up at the man entering his office. “I get the feeling that if I say no, you won’t leave,” she said tiredly.

“You feel correctly. Leonard Snart,” the man introduced himself, “I have a plan.”

“For what?”

“To save Rider. From Mars.”

“We already have a plan,” Amaya said, “With the booster from China we will be able to-”

“The probe? No, that won’t work,” Leonard waved the thought away. “That was an original plan. And you know what they say about plans – Make the plan, execute the plan, expect the plan to go off the rails, throw away the plan. I mean, look at what happened to your first probe.”

“Do you have a point here?” Amaya said sharply

“Sorry, did that come off as offensive? My sister says I need to work on that,” Leonard apologized briefly. Amaya began turning away when a paper was thrust in her line of sight. “No, just listen. It’s a good plan, just read it, okay?”

She skimmed over the paper and looked at him, “You sure about this?”

“I’d bet my life on it.”

“Well, you’re certainly betting your career,” Amaya muttered, “Anybody else know about this?”

“Just you so far.”

“Good keep it that way.”

Dearest Jax,
My baby brother – is it alright that I call you that? Doesn’t matter what you think, I’ll do it anyways because that’s what older sisters do. Or at least that’s what old sitcoms tell me anyways. Seriously, Jax, how many seasons of Full House?
I wish NASA would just let us communicate without having to go through them first. They seem to think I have some pent up aggression over being left behind and I might damage your delicate feelings. Ridiculous. Can’t be mean to you since everything is being monitored I guess. Shame. But I do want you to know that chemical engineers are better than mechanical engineers. Why? Because I’m the one surviving alone on a planet. Love you!

“What is going on?” Courtney demanded taking in everyone around the room: Amaya, Henry, Ray and someone she hadn’t met.

“This is Leonard Snart,” Amaya introduced, “And what we are about to discuss cannot leave this room. Do I make myself clear?” Everyone nodded in acceptance. “Mr. Snart has found a way for the Waverider to get back to Mars. The team can do a flyby on Sol 549.”

“How, that’s not possible,” Ray argued, “Even the probe would have taken until-”

“Well you see Raymond, can I call you Raymond?” Leonard asked, “It’s simple, a little something I like to call the ‘Snart Maneuver’. The Waverider has a constant-thrust ion engine, meaning it’s always accelerating. All they have to do is keep accelerating, preserve their velocity. Use Earth’s gravity-”

“To adjust the course. Slingshotting them towards Mars again,” Ray realized.

“And in the meantime we would send them a re-supply probe. Enough to last them,” Amaya said.

“What good is a flyby if Rider can’t get off the ground?” Henry demanded.

“That would be the not so fun part,” Snart admitted.

“She would have to get to the Ares 4 Mars Ascent Vehicle, the MAV that is,” Amaya said.

“That’s 3,200km away!” Ray cried out.

“3,235km to be exact. And there’s rough terrain as well. And that’s not even mentioning the modifications she would have to make to the MAV,” Amaya said.

“What kind of modifications,” Henry asked tightly.

“It would have to lose a lot of weight. A lot.” Amaya looked at the worried looks of the team, “But if anyone could do it, Gideon Rider can.”

“And our deal with China-”

“We would still need their booster for the supply probe,” Snart reassured, “Just aiming for a near Earth rendezvous.”

“So we can only do one plan,” Courtney realized, “Does the Waverider crew know yet? They should get a say, shouldn’t they?”

“It would be personal for them,” Henry said, “You know they would all say yes in a heartbeat without thinking of the potential consequences. They’re astronauts.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Courtney demanded. “It should be Captain Hunter’s call-”

“He of all people cares too much. We either have a low chance of killing six people or a high chance of killing one person,” Henry said. He sighed and looked at the room, “I’m sorry, no Snart Maneuver. We’re sticking to the original plan. We send her a supply probe ASAP.”

Zee:
You’re my best friend. How are you? Not missing me too much I hope? I imagine it’s cramped and boring in that old Waverider of yours. You should see all the space I have out here. Be jealous of it! You know I was thinking the other day of how you called me a perv once. No, I wasn’t thinking anything perverted at the time-get your mind out of the gutter!
I was thinking about how engineers are blatantly optimistic, we have to be. We even assume everything is an ideal gas and solve it like that. Then I remembered this old pneumonic for the ideal gas equation: PV=nRT, is easiest remembered by the word ‘pervert’.
It's funny what your mind deems useful when you’re just trying to survive. Look, I just want you to know, I don’t have a family. But you – and the rest of the crew (in case they read this and complain) – you are all my family.

“Hey Zee, you got a minute?”

“What’s up, Jax?” Zari asked looking up from her computer.

“I got a file from my old prof – Stein, remember? Anyways, it says it’s an image file, but my computer can’t read it. Figured you could take a look?” Jax asked with big eyes.

“Alright, let’s have a look,” Zari rolled her eyes. She tapped away on the keyboard, a crinkle in her brow. “That’s weird.”

“What is?” Jax asked. Her words solidified the uneasy feeling in his stomach when he got the message. Something was just off about it. Like how Stein had called him ‘Jax’ when he only ever called him Jefferson. Weird.

“It’s not an image, it’s plain ASCII text. Looks like a bunch of math. Make any sense to you?” Zari showed him the screen.

“Sure,” Jax nodded as he looked at the screen. “Some maneuver for the Waverider – who is Leonard Snart?” Suddenly his eyes bugged out, “Sol 549?! We need to get Rip, now!”

Half an hour later the crew was around the table in the rec room. There wasn’t enough space, but it was one of the few rooms with artificial gravity where they could all sit. They all listened eagerly as Jax finished his explanation of the Leonard Snart Maneuver.

“So, what do you all think?” Rip asked them. His crew’s opinions mattered to him.

“Why not just tell us? Why all the ninja secrecy?” Sara asked.

“NASA rejected the idea. Went with a different one that would be a big risk to Gideon, little risk to us,” Rip said somewhat bitterly. “Whoever sent it clearly didn’t agree.”

“So, we’d be going against NASA’s direct orders if we went through with this?” Kendra asked slowly.

“That would be correct,” Rip nodded, “The way I see it, if we don’t stop accelerating, we force their hand. They’ll have to let us do this intercept.”

“So we doing it or not?” Jax asked with crossed arms.

“Look, I’m not going to lie to you. I sure as hell want to,” Rip sighed, “But I also realize that there are more people than just me on this team. You have to understand the consequences. First of all, it would be mutiny, and I don’t use that lightly. If we mess up the rendezvous, we will die. Mess up the Earth slingshot, we die. And even if we do everything perfectly, that’s another 533 days to our mission. In space, away from our loved ones. Anything could go wrong. Something critical messes up on the ship, guess what?”

“We die,” Zari said bluntly, “And if we don’t do it, Gideon’s as good as dead. So, sign me up.”

“Me too. Always was the rebel child, mutiny sounds like fun,” Sara grinned.

Rip gave her an exasperated look and turned to his remaining crewmembers. “I will understand if you choose not to-”

“What, leave Gideon? No way, no one gets left behind. Well, I mean, not again,” Jax amended.

“I doubt any of us will be asked to go on a second space mission,” Rip warned.

“Over a thousand days in space,” Kendra whispered, “I’ve seen enough stars. I wouldn’t need another trip to space.”

“So, we doing this, Captain?”

“Yeah,” Rip smiled for the first time in forever as he saw the determined looks on his team’s faces, “Yeah, we are. Let’s go get our girl.”

Captain Hunter
Rip, I’m never quite sure how to address you actually. I know you’ve said I can call you by your first name, but it’s strange at times. Still, I’ve spent the past three years by your side, and I know you pretty well by now. You’re probably drowning in guilt.
Don’t. Please don’t. Never mind that I’m not worth it or that I have no one to miss me anyways. It was in no way your fault, Captain. It was an impossible decision that you had to make. And that’s why you’re Captain, because we trust you to make those decisions. We believe in you. I believe in you, Rip.
Despite what you may think of yourself, you are a brilliant Captain. Kind, intelligent, perfect in every way. I mean, you saved the crew. That’s what matters. Not me, alright? I’ll be just fine, don’t you worry.

“You going to tell me why you did it?” Henry demanded.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Amaya said easily.

“The Waverider Mutiny. Why would you send them that maneuver?” Henry asked. Earlier today they had received notice that the Waverider was continuing to accelerate and had locked NASA out of the controls.

“You have proof of that?”

“Been a little busy with having Courtney dealing with PR over this and making the Snart Maneuver possible,” Henry said drily.

“Well even if I did allegedly send them the maneuver, we may never know,” Amaya said, “I suppose that means Rip’s off the hook too since the public is going to be told that it was the plan all along. And it means Gideon gets to come home after all. Henry, whoever may have done this, they probably did it because they thought it was the best move.”

Henry sighed, “I really hope so.” He didn’t want to have just doomed six people to their death.

“Only if we get back to work.”

Gideon
Sweet words, really appreciate you stroking my ego there. I’ve missed your constant compliments (and nagging). But you are wrong. You are loved and missed and I’m your Captain so you have to listen to me.
And what’s more is we don’t leave one of our own behind. We’re coming back for you. I am coming back for you.

Sol 192

They’re coming back for me. You know, in all the scenarios I imagined, this was not one of them. They can’t land, but I can get to them if I get to Ares 4 area. From my math, it’s going to take around 50 days to get to the Crater where Ares 4 MAV will be. And then there’s modifying it to actually get to outer space. So about a hundred days total just on travel and adjustment.

That leaves a little over 200 days to get Rover Prime equipped to take a very long road trip. Longer than when I went for Pathfinder. I need to take the Oxygenator, Water Reclaimer, and the Atomospheric Regulator: The Big Three. Not to mention food, water, solar cells, tools, an extra battery and Pathfinder. So I’m thinking about attaching the second Rover to Rover Prime as a trailer. I was never a fan of camping.

But still, if all of Earth is working on me getting home…well, I better get to work.

Sol 198

…I made a really, really big mistake. Like monumental and I may just die because of it. I was working on renovating Rover Two. The only way to take The Big Three is to take the top off the Rover and replace it with canvas from the Hab to balloon up and make space for everything. Which means drilling lots of holes according to NASA. And I was making good progress for someone of my small stature. A bit slower than NASA might have liked, but you try being 5’3” all alone on Mars and handling a drill the size of a jackhammer that weighs almost as much as you do!

Anyways, long story short, I took a break and rested the drill against the metal workbench I had. A power current made its way through the drill line, through the workbench and all the way to the Pathfinder. Essentially one big wire due to the metal to metal contact the drill had with the workbench and it delivered nine thousand milliamps to a piece of equipment that only needs fifty.

Pathfinder is fried. Completely dead. I’ve lost communication with Earth. Looks like I’m all on my own again.

This is why I’m not an electrical engineer.

Sol 200

I wallowed on my own for a bit, turned up some more Spice Girls (thank you, Sara!) and then wrote a message to NASA in rocks so they can get a picture. The plan hasn’t changed. I still need to get to Ares 4 in time for the flyby. Time to get back to work.

Sol 205

I would say I was different from other little girls. Wanting to be an astronaut instead of a ballerina-but there’s an underlying assumption in there that every little girl wants to be a ballerina, and that there’s something wrong with that. People are idiots. Little girls can be whatever they want.

I could have never been a ballerina, I don’t have the strength. How do I know this? Because I just spent the past day hauling rocks into Rover Two in order to do a test drive with the proper weight and see what mileage I can get off Rover Prime. I’m tiny and I am now sore and aching all over. I want a massage.

I’ve spent the past few days trying to figure out how to tinker with everything in order to last me the long trip without all the geniuses from NASA. Technically speaking, I am one of those geniuses from NASA, but two heads are better than one and all that. I’ve just about figured out the Oxygenator, but I’ll need more power. I’ll have to see if I can fit in anymore solar cells.

That’s enough for now. I’m hurt. I deserve a hot bath. Been on Mars for ages, I deserve a proper bath. I’ll be back later, let me see what I can do.

Later

Ahhh….much better after that bath. I deserved it.

Here’s what I know. Little girls can choose to be whatever they want. Ballerina, astronaut, chef, whatever. But as an adult woman, let me tell you what I want (what I really, really want): to get off this fucking planet!

Sol 211

Since my back’s been better I’ve been dealing with how to fit everything in on Rover Two and Rover Prime. I got rid of a lot from Rover Two to make room for what I needed: benches, life support systems, nitrogen tanks – you get the point. A lot of junk. But it can now hold all my stuff! After that, I messed around with the batteries, after some tinkering I’ve got a way to fit in the second battery and extra solar cells. I should be able to drive four days at a time and then take a break on the fifth day while everything recharges.

Anyways, according to my Calendar, the Waverider should be making its supply intercept soon. I’m more worried about that than anything. They’re the closest thing I have to a family. If something happens to them because they wanted to save me…I would never forgive myself. I suppose that’s how Rip felt about leaving me.

I won’t know what happens until I get to Ares 4. So here’s hoping for the best!

Waverider

“Dad, I’m not having this conversation with you again,” Sara sighed.

“You know, I blame myself. Should have raised you to be more selfish,” Quentin shook his head, “Sara, baby, it’s going to be another five hundred days.”

“533,” Sara corrected quietly, “But we knew what we were getting into. We all agreed to this.”

“But Gideon might not even be-”

“Dad! Don’t!” Sara glared at the video link. She spared a look at Rip and was happy to see him otherwise occupied. “She’s one of us, we have to go back.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Quentin muttered.

“I, for one, am proud of you, Sara,” Laurel spoke up next to her father.

“Thanks Laurel, means a lot to me,” Sara smiled genuinely at her sister for once.

**

“Mom, please stop worrying,” Jax sighed, “It’s going to be fine.”

“I am your mother, I am never going to stop worrying,” his mother scolded him lightly, “Of all things, why an astronaut?”

“Well that’s what you get for telling me to follow my dreams,” Jax teased.

“Yes, clearly all my fault,” she rolled her eyes, “Your father would be so proud of you. You’re doing the brave and right thing. I can’t even tell you how proud of you I am, even if it is dangerous.”

“Thanks Mom,” Jax cleared his throat. “So, how’s Grey doing?”

“He’s worried about you as well. Sends his love and well wishes. They would have been here but Lily’s due soon.”

“Yeah? Guess I’m going to miss him becoming a grandfather,” Jax said. By the time he got back, the kid wouldn’t even be a baby anymore.

“Yes, but think of all the stories you can tell her child about space when you get back. You’ll automatically win favourite uncle for life just for that.”

**

“So how are mom and dad doing?” Zari asked.

“Same old, same old,” Behrad said, “They worry. Their little girl out in space.”

“Yeah well, I blame you,” Zari smirked, “All the stories you told me.”

“Really, you’re putting the blame on me because of some bedtime stories?” her brother rolled his eyes, “The sad thing is they really would put the blame on me.”

“Which is why I won’t tell them I said that.”

“Appreciate it,” he said, “What happens if it goes wrong?”

“It won’t. Jax is good at this, he’s been practicing and I’ve been helping. Quick and easy pickup and then onwards to Gideon.”

“Just be safe, Zee,” Behrad pleaded.

“Promise. As safe as you can be in outer space.”

**

“You know, I’m half convinced you just don’t want to marry me at this point.”

“Ray,” Kendra rolled her eyes at her fiancé, “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I want to marry you.”

“I know, I know,” he nodded, “And I know how important this is, believe me.”

“Yeah, you were down there trying to save Gideon and no one thought to tell us,” Kendra said sarcastically.

“And I’ve apologized. But it wasn’t Palmer Tech’s call. It was NASA,” Ray apologized again.

“I know.”

“As much as it sucks that our wedding is going to be put on hold again, for what it’s worth, I’m proud of you.”

“It’s worth a lot. Thank you, Ray,” Kendra smiled, “You’re not mad?”

“For what? Wanting to save your friend from Mars? We’re all working on the same thing down here. Besides, you wouldn’t be the woman I loved if you didn’t.”

**

“That’s over a year!”

“Yeah, I know,” Rip said sadly, “I’m sorry Jonas. Truly, I am.”

“It’s alright,” Jonas shrugged, “I know you want to save that woman.” It was all over the news all the time.

“Gideon,” Rip corrected, “And she’s my friend. And as her Captain-”

“It’s your job to make sure she’s safe. Yeah, I know,” Jonas sighed moodily, “I’ll miss you.”

“And I’ll miss you too, Jonas. So much,” Rip said. The hardest part about making this decision was having to be away from their families for even longer.

Suddenly, his son’s face lit up. “Can you bring me back something from Mars?”

Rip chuckled, “We won’t be landing, just close enough so Gideon can rocket out to us.”

“Oh.”

“But I’ll see if I can manage any other souvenir. Maybe a t-shirt that says ‘My dad went to Mars twice and all I got was this shirt’.” That got a laugh out of him. Rip looked at his ex-wife, “What about you? You going to be okay?”

“I’m always fine,” Miranda rolled her eyes. But there was a softness to her voice that meant she was more worried than she let on. “You sure the probe will-”

“Jax has it. We’ll be fine, alright?”

“Well be careful. For Jonas’ sake at least.”

“Always,” Rip promised. He looked back at his son, “As for you, don’t do anything too fun while I’m gone. I don’t want to miss out on the moody teenager phase!”

**

“It launched,” Rip announced, “Sara, are you in place?”

“I’m ready in Airlock 2,” Sara answered through comms.

“Jax?”

“I have visual contact,” the pilot replied, “Velocity is steady.”

“Angle?”

“Good. Looks like we’re in line for auto-capture,” Jax responded. He positioned them properly and the probe drifted gently into the docking port. Several loud, booming clanks later, Jax announced, “Docking success.”

“Sara, come back in. Jax, good job. Zee, help Sara out and Kendra if you could get started on unloading the supplies,” Rip rattled off orders. “NASA, this is Waverider. Docking was a success, no complications.” He looked at his team, “Alright, step one done. Next stop, Mars.”

Sol 400

Things are coming together quite nicely. I’ve got a heating reservoir by putting the Plutonium in water. I figured out how to keep CO2 from building up too much. If I’m being honest, then I’m basically all packed. Have my food, water, air, The Big Three, extra solar cells for power, heating. I’ve got entertainment covered with trashy TV, old pop music, and Rip’s mystery novels. I even gave myself the luxury of making a little bedroom. Really it’s just some spare canvas from the Hab that can aerate from the airlock, but it means no space suit on my rest days.

So really…I’m done.

Sol 420

I’ve been taking some time with testing everything out, taking a few laps, and it got me thinking about laws on Mars. Yes, I have a lot of free time now. I got an email a while back from my Alma Mater, they said that the first people to grow plants in an area colonize it. Did you hear that? I colonized Mars! I truly am a Martian Queen.

But you see, Mars is ‘international waters’ technically speaking. NASA is American and owns the Hab, so American laws here. But when I’m going to Ares 4 and taking over the MAV there, I technically don’t have permission to do so. I’ll be out in international waters potentially breaking the law.

Basically, what I’m saying here, is on top of being a Martian Queen, I am also a Space Pirate. A Martian Pirate Queen. I quite like the sound of that.

Sol 449

Well, this is it. I’m leaving for Ares 4. Everything is packed; I’ve said my goodbyes to the Hab. I know it’s ridiculous and oversentimental, but it’s kept me alive for so long. I shut everything down like we would have had to have done at the end of our month stay here for the Ares 3 mission. Clearly, I lasted longer than that.

It was strange to shut everything down, see how eerily quiet Mars really was. But enough for sentimentality. I’ve got batteries, food, life support, tools, and entertainment. Ares 4 here I come. And Earth? You’re next.

Waverider

“Any updates from NASA?” Rip asked Zari.

“She entered the dust storm yesterday. No signs of realization,” Zee responded apologetically. She knew he wanted some good news.

“Of course she doesn’t,” Rip sighed, “She probably won’t even notice she’s in one until she’s in the thick of it.

“Hey, she’ll pull through,” Zari said optimistically. Rip raised an eyebrow at her; normally it would be Kendra or Jax giving him this speech. “It’s Gideon, have some faith.”

Rip shifted uncomfortably, “Zee, you know I’m not particularly a religious man.”

“I know,” Zari stood up and clapped a hand on his shoulder, “I meant faith in Gideon. You know perfectly well what she’s capable of. She’s survived this long, she’ll do it again. Gideon’s an evil genius, brilliant in every way. And it’s not like she ever lost faith in you.”

Rip let out a short breath of laughter, “No, I suppose not.”

“See, you know she’ll be fine.”

**

“How’s she doing?” Rip asked for his daily update.

“She’s headed south. She’s doing a good job outrunning the storm,” Zari answered.

“At least she finally figured out she’s in one.”

“Told you she’d be fine. From the looks of it, if she keeps going south, eventually she can just make a straight shot west to Ares 4.”

“We can only hope it’s that straightforward,” Rip sighed.

**

“This isn’t up for discussion,” Rip repeated.

“This is stupid and you are risking your life-”

“I’m the Captain, Sara. That’s how it’s supposed to be,” Rip looked at her sternly. “If anyone is getting Gideon, it’s going to be me.”

“Why, because you ‘left her behind’?” Sara asked sarcastically.

“Yes.”

“You know that wasn’t what I meant,” she sighed.

“It’s true, and I’m righting my wrongs,” Rip said. “Kendra will be on standby. Sara, if anything happens I need you to look after the crew and make the tough call.”

“You want me to cut you loose,” Sara realized, “I can’t do that, Rip. I can’t.”

“You have to. Being Captain means taking the tough calls sometimes,” Rip shrugged.

“I’m not the Captain!”

“No, but I am. And I’m giving you your orders. I expect you to follow them. Understood?”

Sara looked at his face, serious as ever. Rip was determined to do this. “Yes, Sir,” she said quietly.

“Thank you.”

**

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Rip growled.

“Rip, cool it,” Sara raised a hand at him, “Zee, continue.”

Zari took a deep breath and showed them the image NASA had sent them. “She rolled,” Zari pointed to the sideways Rover. “The broken rectangles are solar cells.”

“And they haven’t seen her yet?” Jax asked in worry.

Zari shook her head, “If she had come out, they would have gotten a picture of her. So far, nothing.”

“She could be hurt,” Rip went on, “Broken bones, concussion, not to mention how she’s going to get everything back up and running. She’s tiny!”

“But determined,” Kendra reminded him, “Judging from the pictures, the Rovers are still fine. And she has enough time on the schedule to get to the Rendezvous in time.”

Rip sighed, “Alright, that’s enough for today. We have a ship to maintain, people. Zari, keep me posted.”

**

“She had a message-‘all better now’. She’s on the move again,” Zari announced at large.

Rip shook his head, “That woman is a genius. She can get out of anything.”

“Yeah, well maybe when you get her back you can tell her how amazing she is and how you fantasize about-”

“Sara!” Rip scolded with a bright red flush on his neck and cheeks, “That’s quite enough of that!”

“Just saying it like it is,” Sara shrugged before continuing on her morning routine.

Rip sighed and looked back at Zari who was hiding a smile of her own. “What?” he demanded.

“Nothing, nothing at all,” Zari shook her head innocently. “It’s pretty straight driving from here on out. She should be fine. NASA is sending out a signal from Ares 4, the Rover should be able to pick it up soon. She can head straight towards it. We’re gonna get her back.”

“Yeah, we are.”

Sol 505

I did it! I made it to Ares 4! First thing is first, get life support in there and then talk to NASA. I’m sure they’ll all be happy to hear from me and then maybe they can help me get this MAV up and running with the correct modifications. But I’m nearly there. I’m going home.

Later

NASA has lost their fucking minds. Summary of our conversation below:

MAV: Are you fucking kidding me?

NASA: What have we said about the language? We know it’s a lot of intense modifications.

MAV: I understand not needing rock samples or any extra seats or gear for other passengers. But no life support, no controls whatsoever. We’re getting rid of the redundant thrusters and comms. Oh yes and let’s not forget the big kicker – you want me to take off the front of the ship!

NASA: There will be enough leftover canvas from the Hab to cover the holes.

MAV: If I make it back to Earth, I’m either going to kiss or kill all of you. I swear.

NASA: Hoping for the former!

So there you have it, I’m leaving Mars in a convertible. Nothing but a tarp protecting me from space. Joy. What is this, the circus? I bet Neil Armstrong never had to deal with any of this shit. Guess I better get started.

Sol 529

I can’t wait until I have grandkids, or even any kids. I can go on about all the hardships I faced on Mars. “You think algebra is hard? Let me tell you about the time I had to make water from rocket fuel!” “You’re complaining about cleaning up your room? When I was your age, I had to clean out an entire rocket. Tear the whole thing apart. Real back breaking work!”

It’s going to be great. You know…if I can ever get off this planet. And then I suppose there’s the whole find a man to be the father to my children thing…that might be a bit more difficult. Though, Rip is an excellent father. I’ve seen him with his son, Jonas. He’s perfect. Look, can we please ignore the last few lines? Okay, thanks.

Sol 531

HUNTER: Gideon, you there?

MAV: Rip? Rip! They’re letting you talk to me directly?

HUNTER: NASA finally gave us the go-ahead. I suppose they realized they couldn’t stop me any longer since we’re only a few light-seconds apart. Almost instantaneous responses!

MAV: Awww, did you miss me, Rip?

HUNTER: I pined for you. When you get back, I’m going to make sweet passionate love to you to express the depth of my true emotions.

HUNTER: Bollocks no, it wasn’t me! Oh my god. I turn away for two seconds and these animals take over! Mutiny this is! Sara typed that. Not me!

MAV: Of course she did.

HUNTER: She did!

HUNTER: How are modifications going? Are you going to be alright?

MAV: NASA gave me specifications and I’m following them like a good little girl. Retrofitting is tiring and I’m ready to get off this planet.

HUNTER: I want that too.

MAV: I missed you too, Rip.

Sol 543

I’m…done. I did everything on the checklist NASA gave me. So, I’m done. I’m flying off Mars in a bloody deathtrap. But I’m doing it. Even if it kills me. I survived for so long, I don’t think it even matters anymore. If I die, I refuse to let it be on this bloody red planet.

Sol 549

This is it. Today is the day. I left everything behind – the rock samples, extra potatoes. Nothing is coming with me except for my suit and one little souvenir…

If this goes wrong then I have contingency plans made. It should be painless. I will be getting off this planet one way or another. I’m ready.

Everyone gathered on Earth. By every big screen, small screen. They all watched and waited.

“Fuel pressure is green,” Zari’s voice came through on billions of television screens, “Alignment is good. Communications online. Preflight checklist, Captain?”

“Copy. CAPCOM.” Captain Hunter came through.

“Go,” Zari said.

“Guidance.”

“Go.”

“Remote Command.”

“Go,” Jax answered.

“Pilot.”

“Go,” Gideon’s voice came from the MAV for the first time. On Earth, everyone cheered.

**

“You’re telling me there’s nothing we can do to help if this goes wrong?” Wally asked at NASA.

“They’re on their own now,” Amaya sighed, “Even if we did have something helpful, the communications delay-”

“Would be too long,” Wally realized.

“They’ll be fine,” Ray said, “It’s going to be fine.”

“I hope you’re right,” Henry said.

**

Gideon listened to the countdown begin on her comms. 10…9…8…

“Rider, you have about five seconds left before launch, hold on,” Rip’s voice was in her ear.

“Look forward to seeing you soon, Captain,” Gideon answered in turn. She felt the rumbling of the engines, more than anything she had ever experienced. Gideon was shoved back in her seat, her vision going blurry. The last thing she remembered was how pretty space looked where the canvas tore apart.

**

“It’s better now,” Jax updated the crew, “Must have been drag on the MAV. But it’s out of the atmosphere now. Acceleration is back on track. Man this thing is hard to control.”

“Well keep at it,” Rip ordered, “Rider, do you copy? Rider!” Still no response.

“She’s probably passed out,” Kendra said on comms, “Give her a few minutes.”

“Got it. Zari, how are we looking?”

“Intercept velocity should be about eleven meters per second.”

“I can work with that,” Rip assured her.

“Yeah, except, intercept distance will be 68 kilometers apart, damn it,” Zari cursed.

“Kilometers?” Sara said, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure!”

“Cool it, the both of you. Zari, Jax, figure something out. We need to close that distance.”

“I can burn some fuel,” Jax offered, “Only need like twenty percent of it.”

“Zari, how much do we need?” Sara asked.

“Seventy five percent can get us to zero,” Zari answered.

“Good,” Rip said, “Jax, get to it.”

“But the intercept velocity will be 42 meters per second!” Zari continued.

“Well then we have 39 minutes to figure out how to slow done. Jax, do it,” Rip ordered.

**

As Gideon came to, the first thing she noticed was how the canvas was in tatters. And then the clear view of Mars. People would kill to see this view. Gideon couldn’t get away fast enough. Then, she noticed the voice in her ear.

“Rider?”

“I’m here, Captain,” Gideon answered.

Rip sighed in her ear, “You always are. How are you?”

“My chest hurts, might have broken a rib I think.”

“We’ll have Kendra look at you when you get onboard.” Gideon loved how he said it with such confidence and certainty. “There was a complication in your launch.”

“Yes, the canvas, it tore apart too early in the ascent,” Gideon said as she stared at the opening.

“Sounds about right. We figured out how to close the intercept distance, but now the velocity is too fast.”

“How fast?”

“Forty two meters per second.”

“Oh. Bollocks,” Gideon said.

“My thoughts exactly,” Rip couldn’t helped but smile at her cursing. Rip looked to Kendra, “What if I go out untethered?”

Zari answered him through the comms, “You still wouldn’t be able to do it. At best you could probably get 25 meters per second.”

“Oh, oh, what if I cut a small hole in my suit?” Gideon asked excitedly, “I could fly out there on the thrust. Control it with my hand. Like a superhero!”

“Absolutely not, Gideon!” Rip scolded her, “I’m putting that down to lack of oxygen…but it’s not a bad idea.”

“Rip, are you crazy?” Kendra asked, “She could get hurt or-”

“No, not that,” Rip waved her off, “Using atmosphere as thrust though. Zari, if we breach the ship how fast can we go?”

“Breach the ship?” Zari repeated dumbly.

“How fast?”

“Hold on, we’d be able to get 13 meters intercept velocity.”

“I can work with that,” Rip said, “Gideon, did you get all that?”

“You’re insane,” she responded bluntly.

“Well coming from you, that’s a high compliment,” Rip bantered.

“Rip, please, no. It’s too risky-”

“Trust me. For just a little bit longer,” Rip said softly. Gideon stayed quiet after that and Rip looked up to see Kendra staring at him. Rip cleared his throat, “Right then, Gideon, think you can talk Sara through building a bomb?”

“Finally, my time to shine!” Gideon said.

**

Needless to say, NASA was not pleased with Captain Hunter’s plan. But it happened whether they liked it or not. Rip nodded at Kendra as the ship accelerated forward from the added thrust.

“You ready?” Kendra asked.

Rip nodded, “Sara, take charge.”

“Copy that, Captain,” Sara’s voice came through. Rip gave one last nod to Kendra before jumping out of the Waverider.

“Velocity at 12 meters per second,” Zari told him.

“Good enough, visual on the MAV,” Rip reported back. Zari continued to call out his velocity for Gideon to keep track of. Soon, he got closer and closer to the torn canvas. If he could just reach out…”Contact with MAV!” Rip held on firmly.

“You have about fourteen seconds to get her out of there,” Sara told him.

“Got it,” Rip moved inside, laying eyes on Gideon for the first time in ages. “Visual on Rider.”

“Visual on the Captain!” Gideon said, her voice choked up in happiness. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just – you’re the first person I’ve seen in 18 months. I need a minute.”

“I know, I know,” Rip soothed as he floated towards her. Gideon reached out and gripped his arms so he didn’t float away. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a minute. Come on, I’m taking you home.” Rip latched the front of his suit to her tethers as Gideon undid her restraints.

“Good?” he asked as he held onto her.

“Ready.”

“Then let’s go.” Rip held onto her tightly as they coasted back to the ship. He heard Sara instruct Kendra to start pulling them in once they had reached a safe speed. Rip could barely pay attention, his mind filled with the woman in his arms. He had her. She was safe at last. Kendra managed to grab them as they floated into Airlock 2, immediately closing it after them. Rip kept his hold on Gideon even though there was no more danger of losing her in outer space. He wasn’t ready to let go just yet.

“Houston, this is the Waverider,” Rip announced to NASA and the world, “We have six crewmembers aboard. We got her, and we’re coming home now.”

Somewhere a billion miles away, the population of Earth cheered and celebrated. Henry Heywood pulled out his speech from the blue folder, the one he had been hoping to use. Because honestly, he didn’t make one for the red folder this time.

Mission Day 687

I would love to say that I got a happy movie ending. That Rip realized just how much he couldn’t live without me and took my helmet off and kissed me right there. Unfortunately, the truth is a lot less glamorous. To start with, I had broken ribs that hurt like hell. And everyone on the ship still had work to do. As soon as the ship pressurized properly from the breaching, Kendra took me straight to the medbay (her quarters) and gave me a checkup. I was given bandages, painkillers, and told to take a shower as soon as I could move my arms easily.

Which…made sense considering how long I had been left alone on a planet with no first world amenities. Everyone came in and said their reunion bit before staying out of my way. I can’t really blame them. In the end, it doesn’t even matter if I didn’t get my happy ending kiss. Really, the way Rip looked at me was more then enough. I lived, I’m going home. This may be the happiest I’ve ever been.

**

Rip knocked on the outer wall before ducking his head in. “Mind if I interrupt?” he asked the two women.

Zari looked up from the laptop she and Gideon were looking at and nodded. She untangled herself from Gideon, Rip didn’t miss how Gideon’s face fell, she had been more tactile ever since returning. “Yeah, I should go see if Jax needs help anyways. Captain,” Zari nodded at him, a slight smirk on her face as she passed him.

Rip sighed exasperatedly and turned to Gideon. “Mind if I join you?” Gideon nodded, shifting so she was on the inner part of the bed closest to the wall. Rip smiled and joined her, stretching out beside her and taking her hand in his. “How are you doing?”

“Alright,” Gideon shrugged and then grimaced. “Ribs are still a bit sore; Kendra says they’re healing though.”

“Might be a while, but if Kendra says it’s fine, I wouldn’t worry,” Rip squeezed her hand. He cleared his throat, “So, I found those mission logs you made on Mars.”

“What?” Gideon’s eyes widened as she realized what he was talking about.

“Well, as Captain I do have access to everyone’s logs just in case,” Rip shrugged easily.

“Oh my god,” Gideon moaned as she buried her face in her hands, “Put me back on Mars! Bury me there! Or maybe I did die there and this is hell!”

“Oh stop that! Honestly, and you call me dramatic,” Rip rolled his eyes.

“Well maybe you rubbed off on me, Captain,” Gideon said cheekily. Rip shook his head at her, deciding to let the insubordination go just this once. Gideon bit her lip, “I don’t suppose we could forget some of the things I said about you in the log?”

“Which part?” Rip teased, “Where you called me handsome? A brilliant Captain? When you talked about how you wanted to-”

“All of it! Just, all of it,” Gideon blushed furiously. She didn’t have to deal with this when she was the Queen of Mars!

“And if I don’t want to forget about it?” Rip said seriously. Gideon froze and stared at him. “I liked hearing you talk about me, knowing I was on your mind when you were there. It was sweet.”

“Sweet?” Sweet? There were many things Gideon could be described as – evil genius, perv, badass, but sweet?

Rip seemed to realize he said something wrong and quickly backtracked, “No, I didn’t mean it in a bad way! I just – I mean, I thought about you too, a lot, Gideon.”

“You did?” Rip simply nodded in response. “I have something for you,” Gideon said suddenly. She scrambled off her bed, doing her best to avoid toppling over her Captain and skipped to her workstation across the room. She came back, holding out a dusty red rock. “A souvenir. From Mars.”

Rip stared at it and then at her, “People on Earth would die for a Martian rock and you’re just giving it away?”

Gideon rolled her eyes, “Trust me, they lose their glamour quickly when it’s all you have to work with. Besides, it’s not for you. It’s for your son.”

“Jonas?”

“Unless you have a bastard child I’m unaware of,” Gideon joked. Rip continued to stare at her blankly. “Sorry, being alone for a year and a half messed with my already poor sense of humour. I just meant, you’ve been gone from him for so long, and I know how much you miss him. Thought he might like something from his dad’s trip to Mars.”

Rip took the rock, brushing her hand with his fingers as he did so. He looked at it and then at her, “You’re making this a lot harder than I wanted it to be.”

“Why does it have to be hard?” Gideon asked. She had survived over a year all on her own. She had faced near death several times in various different forms. But the two steps to close the distance between her and Rip was the most terrifying experience she had ever had.

Especially when he pulled away just as she was about to kiss him. “Oh,” Gideon said softly. She stood up, avoiding eye contact and the way her eyes prickled. Stupid, bloody, idiotic of her! She had gone through so much worse and this was what made her nearly cry?

“No, Gideon, no,” Rip pleaded with her as he took her hand, “I want to, believe me, I want to. But I can’t. I’m the Captain, what kind of example would I be setting if anything happened with my subordinate?”

“Right, how silly of me. Wasn’t thinking,” Gideon shook her head, “Can we forget about this too please?”

“I don’t want to,” Rip repeated. He placed his hands on her shoulders, gently guiding her to face him. “I said I can’t now because I’m the Captain. But in 243 days we will be back on Earth again. Complete equals, and I would really like to take you out to dinner then, Martian Queen. On a proper date, if you’ll have me.”

Gideon laughed at his words, “Just no potatoes, please.”

“I can do that,” Rip promised as he pulled her into his arms and held her close. It was like he needed constant reassurance that she was alright.

"Two hundred and forty three days is a long time,” Gideon murmured against him, “You think you'll be able to stand me and not cancel by the time we get home?"

"I came back for you, didn't I?” Rip reminded her.

“Yes, you did. Thank you. Thank you for saving me,” Gideon whispered against him, her eyes prickling with tears again. The happy kind though. Rip tightened his hold around her. It was good to be home.