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“Doctor, are you really going out in that?” Ryan asked incredulously.
The Doctor was clad in a bright orange space suit that was just slightly too large. “’Course I am. Not enough atmosphere out there otherwise.” She said as she pulled a helmet on, securing it.
“Where are we anyways?” Graham asked.
“Mars! We’re around the edge of the Endeavour Crater, late 2019, so not far into your future. Just have to make a quick pit stop, help out an old friend.” She was at the door now, a hand against the wood ready to push it open.
Yaz suddenly looked up. “Can I come?”
The Doctor grinned. “Sure, extra space suits second door on the left down that way.” She pointed towards a corridor branching off of the main console room. “I’ll be just outside. What about you two?” she quickly asked Ryan and Graham, who both shook their heads. “Alright, suit yourselves.”
With that, the Doctor pushed open the door and stepped out onto the red planet. Her boots left swirls of rust colored dust in their wake that settled slowly in the low gravity and thin air. She scanned the rocky red landscape, eventually settling on a sand dune. Something glinted in the cold sunlight, just poking out of the mounds of dust.
Yaz stepped out of the TARDIS in an identical orange space suit and found the Doctor crouched by the dune a little ways off. She walked over, putting a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder. “What is it?” She asked, spotting whatever it was that was buried.
The Doctor looked up at her, eyes shining. “Opportunity.” She suddenly sprang to her feet, actually leaving the ground for a moment after not accounting for the decreased gravity. “Help me with this?” She began scraping dust away with gloved hands, and Yaz joined in, soon revealing more and more metal buried beneath the sand.
Soon, they had cleared most of the top of what revealed itself to be a rover. “Here she is! Opportunity.” The Doctor gave a final swipe of the camera lenses with her thumb. She spun to face Yaz. “She’s been buried out here for more than a year. Figured she could use a hand.” The Doctor wiggled her fingers in the air in emphasis.
“What happened to her?”
“Well, ya see, Oppy here had been rolling around Mars for 15 years, but last year she got caught in a dust storm, and Earth lost contact. She’s been on her own, powered down, since.” The Doctor explained, beginning to dig again.
Yaz furrowed her brow. “So they just abandoned her?” After a moment, Yaz realized she was talking about a robot, and wondered why she cared so much.
By now they had uncovered the rover’s front wheels, and were setting in to work on the next pair. “Of course they didn’t abandon her. NASA tried to wake her up for 8 months, they loved her. But then winter hit, and they knew she wouldn’t survive the cold in hibernation for that long, so they ended her mission. 15 years. She was only expected to last 3 months when she landed. Brilliant piece of technology, she turned out to be.”
“So what are we doing here, then?” Yaz paused in her efforts to unearth the rover. “If her mission’s over?”
“Thing is, I know the timeline.” The Doctor grinned at Yaz. “She’s not done yet.” She pulled out her sonic, scanning Opportunity. Reading the output, her smile softened. “She got every message. She heard them. Just didn’t have the power to reply.” She bent down, wiping the remaining dust from the solar panels. “First, fix the damage the cold had on her. She’s had some problems with her internal computer in the past, might as well fix that while we’re here.” The sonic buzzed again. “Also boosting her communications systems and battery capacity.”
Yaz couldn’t help but laugh. “Doctor, don’t go overboard. Don’t want NASA getting suspicious. Anyway, why do you have to be the reason she keeps going?”
“Nah, don’t think they’ll mind. Anyways, I had to come, didn’t I? The TARDIS picked up on her last transmission before going into hibernation. ‘My battery is low, and it’s getting dark,’” The Doctor quoted.
The words felt hauntingly sentient, heartbreakingly human. Yaz felt her throat tighten with grief, surprising herself. She suddenly felt very small, very alone, on this empty planet, in this giant universe. She felt the defeat that she knew logically this robot couldn’t have experienced, but was so weighty in that message.
The Doctor saw the look on her companion’s face. “Hey, come here.” She went to Yaz’s side, wrapping her in a hug. Yaz rested her chin on the Doctor’s shoulder as best she could, their helmets knocking together. “She’ll be alright. We’ve just saved her.” As she spoke, movement caught their attention out of the corner of their eyes.
Opportunity had begun to power up, and the camera swiveled upwards to look out over the Martian landscape.
“Look.” The Doctor prompted, and Yaz turned to watch the rover. The Doctor pointed the sonic at the robot. “Now to prompt Oppy to phone home.” The sonic buzzed, and the camera turned to face them. The Doctor smiled. “You’re welcome.” Then she turned back to Yaz. “You ready to go?” Yaz nodded, and the Doctor stood, helping her back to her feet.
Once they were back in the TARDIS, the Doctor discarded her helmet and went to the monitor, tapping in to listen to the transmission. “What’s she saying?” Yaz asked, coming to the Doctor’s side with her own helmet tucked under her arm.
“She’s relaying the last message she received back to earth. Letting them know she heard them.” The Doctor leaned in to look more closely at the monitor. “Right, off we go then.” She danced around the console with her usual gusto, programming in new coordinates.
As the TARDIS dematerialized, the signal of the lone little robot went out into the stars, echoing through the galaxy.
I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you