Chapter Text
Mars: Sol 6
Clarke slept peacefully in her bunk. She'd been far more active the day before than at any time in the previous couple of months onboard the Ark, and so she slept deeper and better than she had since they'd left Earth.
"Crew, up and at 'em!" Lexa shouted, her voice breaking through a particularly vivid dream about an hour-long soak in a real, actual tub. "It's another day on Mars, folks!"
A chorus of groans echoed from the bunks. You could take the astronaut off of Earth and give them forty minutes more sleep, but that sure as hell didn't mean you'd turn them into a morning person.
Anya was first out of her bunk. The Marine could match Lexa's Army-trained schedule easily. "Morning, Commander."
Raven sat up, but didn't move to push off her blankets. The software engineer had never been very good at mornings.
Lincoln rolled from his bunk slowly, sparing a glance at his watch before silently pulling on his jumpsuit and smoothing down the front. He lumbered towards the kitchen area and started rifling through the dehydrated packs.
Clarke turned on her side and tugged a pillow over her head. "Noisy people go 'way," she mumbled.
"Blake!" Anya called out, shaking the mission's doctor. "Rise and shine, kid!"
"Yeah, sure," Octavia said blearily, rubbing at her eyes.
Raven's ankle got tangled up in her sheets, and she hit the floor with a thud.
Ripping the pillow from Clarke's grasp, Lexa leaned over her ear and yelled "Get a move on, Griffin!"
"Uncle Sam chipped in a cool hundred grand for every second we're here," Anya commented as she wandered back over, sipping at a mug of coffee.
"Bad woman take pillow," Clarke groaned, burying her face in her hammock.
"Commander's tipped 200-pound men out of bunks back on Earth. Really want to see what she can do in 0.4g?"
Clarke shook her head and sat up. "No thanks."
As the crew crowded around the rations cupboard, Lexa took a seat at the communications setup to check on overnight messages from Houston.
Clarke dragged her feet on her way to join the group, and thrust out a hand that Octavia shoved a breakfast into. "'Eggs'?" she groaned, tearing the pack open anyway.
"Like there's any difference." Raven slung an arm around her shoulder and caught the pack Octavia tossed her way. "I swear they just fill them all with the same weird mush and then label them differently just to screw with us."
Clarke grunted an affirmation and let her eyes slip back shut as she moved her hand methodically, pack, mouth, repeat. When she opened them again, they met Lexa's piercing gaze from across the bay. If she weren't so tired, Clarke would have sworn the commander's cheeks were stained red before she glanced back to the computer.
"Mission updates are in," Lexa said. "Satellites are showing an incoming storm, but we have time for some surface ops before it lands, so Lincoln and Anya will be with me outside. Reyes, you're on weather reports. Griffin, your soil experiments are bumped up to today. Blake, you'll be running the samples we picked up yesterday."
"It wise to go out with a storm coming?" Anya asked.
"Houston gave us the all clear," Lexa said.
"I'm with Anya," Lincoln commented. "Seems unnecessarily dangerous."
"Coming to Mars was unnecessarily dangerous," Lexa replied. "It's the cost of knowledge." She turned back to her computer.
"Be careful," Raven said sharply, spinning a coffee mug restlessly in her hands. "I request a mission abort, you come back in."
"Aye aye, Captain," Anya chuckled, winking at the engineer. "You're the boss."
"No, I'm the boss," Lexa called out distractedly from where she'd kept half an ear trained on the conversation. Her crew rewarded her with a chorus of half-hearted boos before they dispersed.
--
Three figures stood next to the solar panel array, looking nearly identical thanks to their bulky suits. The only thing distinguishing Lincoln from the two Americans was the EU flag on his shoulder, where their suits bore the Stars and Stripes. They gazed east, to where the darkness on the horizon billowed and waved in the rising sun.
"It's coming on too fast," Lincoln commented. "That's much closer than Command reported."
"We're good for time," Lexa replied. "Focus. This EVA's for chemical analysis. You're the chemist, tell us what we need to dig."
"We're going down 30 centimeters to collect soil samples that are at least 100 grams."
"Alright. Stay within a hundred metres of the Habitat in case the storm blows in and we need to get to cover." Anya and Lincoln gave her twin nods from behind their mirrored facemasks before they split up.
They moved to digging and bagging samples, occasionally standing and looking towards the storm before turning back to their task. "How many do you need, Lincoln?" Anya questioned during one of those moments, as she rubbed a smudge of dirt off her helmet.
"At least seven."
"I've got four," Anya said.
"Five," Lexa replies, "but if the Marines can't keep up I'm sure I can do a couple of yours, too."
"Oh, that's how it is? I'll show you."
"No, you won't," came Raven's voice over the radio. "Reyes here, storm's been upped to 'severe', it'll be here in under fifteen minutes."
"Back to base," Lexa said, and no complaints came as they spared a glance to the east, and the looming storm.
--
The Hab rocked as the storm hit, only minutes after the trio had trooped back through the airlocks. The crew donned their EVA suits and crowded together in the centre of the base, eyes trained on Raven and her computer.
"Status?" Lexa said.
"Winds are over 100 kph, gusts up to 125."
"Fuck me," Clarke mumbled under her breath, "hold on tight, Toto. What's the abort speed?"
"It hits 150 kph and we've got to clear the ground," Anya said, "much above that and the Mars Ascent Vehicle is likely to tip. Tip too far and…" she trailed off.
"And we're fucked," Octavia supplied.
"Where are we in the body of the storm?" Lexa asked.
"On the edge," Raven supplied without looking up from her screen. "It's about to get a lot worse. Probably way upwards of 150 kph."
"Alright." Lexa scanned the group and sighed. "Prep for mission abort. We'll head to the MAV and sit tight. Then we'll be able to launch if we have to."
"We're ditching already? We've only been here six days!" Clarke complained.
Lexa clapped her on the shoulder. "Hope for the best, prep for the worst. Let's move. Buddy system. Reyes and Anya, Blake and Lincoln, me and Griffin. Regroup outside the airlock."
When they stepped into the airlock, Clarke glanced up at Lexa and tapped the side of her helmet before switching over to a private comms link. "Hey, you okay?"
"Perfect," Lexa replied, swallowing hard. "Great. Never been better. Stay on the open channel, Griffin."
They rejoined the rest of the crew and Lexa drew herself up, tall and strong, shoulders back. "Visibility is low, so it's going to be tough going. If you get off track, home in on my suit's telemetry, and watch out for the wind, we're in the lee of the Hab right now but once we get out it's going to get a lot rougher, so be prepared."
They pressed forward through the gale, stumbling against the winds and towards the MAV.
"Hey, what if we shored it up?" Clarke gasped. She was still unused to the weight of the suit on her limbs, even with the low gravity.
"How?"
"There's a ton of cables for the solar array. The rovers aren't gonna blink with these winds, so we anchor the MAV to them and-"
Wreckage crashed into Clarke, carrying her off in the wind.
"Griffin!" Lexa shouted. "Griffin! Report!"
"What happened?" Anya asked.
"Something hit her! Griffin, report!"
No reply.
"Griffin, report," Lexa repeated.
Silence.
"Clarke."
"She's offline," Raven reported, "I can't get a read on her!"
"Commander, before we lost her, her decompression alarm went off," Octavia stated.
"Shit!" Lexa yelled. "We need to find her! She was blown due west."
"We'll get her," Lincoln stated, slow and careful.
"Anya, get in the MAV, get it prepped. Everyone else, home in on me."
"Octavia," Lincoln said, pushing through the wind, "How long can a person survive decompression?"
"Less-" Emotion choked her voice. "Less than a minute."
The crew crowded around Lexa. "Okay, fan into a line, walk west. Small, sweeping steps. She's most likely prone, we don't want to step over her. Report if you hit something."
They stayed in sight of one another and trudged forward through the chaos.
Anya dove into the MAV airlock and forced the seal closed against the wind with a pained grunt. The second it pressurized she stripped off her suit and climbed up to the pilot's couch, booting up the system.
She grabbed the emergency launch booklet in one hand and flicked switches across the console with the other, running down the list while the systems reported as active. One in particular stood out.
"Commander," she radioed. "MAV's on a 7 degree tilt, reach 12.3 and it's over."
"Copy that," Lexa said.
"Reyes," Octavia said, checking the computer on her arm, "Griffin's bio-monitor sent me data before it went offline, but it just says 'Bad Packet'."
"I got it," Raven said. "Didn't finish transmitting. Some missing data, computer can't read it. Give me a second."
"Commander," Anya said. "Houston came in with the abort order. We're scrubbed, we've gotta go."
"Understood."
"They sent that four and a half minutes ago, with data from nine minutes ago."
"Understood, Anya," Lexa spat. "Continue prepping."
"Copy."
"Blake," Raven said, "I've got the data. Blood pressure 0, pulse rate 0, temperature 36.2. That's all I got."
"Copy," Octavia said morosely.
Silence fell on the channel, no one willing to glance towards Lexa. They continued shuffling forward, praying for a miracle.
"Temperature normal?" Lexa said finally, her voice small against the storm, but holding a hint of hope.
"It takes a while for the-" Octavia murmured. "It takes a while to cool."
"Commander," Anya said, "Tilt's getting worse now, 10.5, gusts pushing it to 11."
"Copy. You set for launch?"
"Affirmative, ready for launch at any time."
"If it tips, can you launch it before it flips completely?"
"Uhm," Anya hadn't seen that one coming. "Affirmative. I'd go manual, full throttle, nose up and return to pre-programmed ascent."
"Copy," Lexa said. "You three, home in on Anya, get to the MAV. Prep for launch."
"What about you, Commander?" Octavia asked.
"I'll keep searching. Get a move on. Anya, you start to tip, you launch."
"I'm not going to leave you behind."
"I just ordered you to," she gritted out. "The rest of you, get to the MAV."
They reluctantly pulled away, pushing through the wind toward the ship.
Lexa shuffled on, taking a moment to grab a pair of drill bits she'd added to her equipment that morning in anticipation of geological sampling off her back. She held the metre long bits to her sides, dragging them along the ground as she walked.
After a twenty-five metre walk, she shifted a couple metres to the side and turned back, trying to hold a straight path despite the gusting wind and lack of visual references. She fought to push her feet through the sand that piled up at each step, and soldiered on.
The trio shoved into the MAV airlock, a tight squeeze as it was designed to hold two. As it equalized, Lexa's voice came in over the radio, heavy with desperation.
"Reyes, could the IR see her?"
"Negative, wouldn't work any better than sunlight," Raven replied.
"She's a fucking geology nerd," Octavia commented as she pulled her helmet off and stepped into the MAV. "She knows that wouldn't work."
"She's desperate," Anya called down from her couch. "Give her a break."
"We need to strap in," Lincoln said, climbing up.
"I don't want to leave without-"
"Neither do we," Raven replied, squeezing Octavia's shoulder, "but it's Commander's orders."
"Commander, we're at 11.6," Anya radioed. "One big gust and we're going over."
"Proximity radar," she grunted. "Could it find her suit?"
"Negative, it was designed to find the Ark in orbit, not the metal in one space suit."
"Try it. Please," Lexa begged.
“Commander,” Anya said, fiddling anxiously with her headset. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but Grif-… Clarke’s dead.”
“Copy,” Lexa replied. “Reyes, try the radar.”
“Roger.”
Raven brought the radar online. Octavia glared across the bay at Anya. “What’s the matter with you?”
“My friend just died," Anya snapped. "And I don’t want my Commander to die too.”
Raven gave her a stern look before turning back to the radar. "Negative contact."
"Nothing? You're positive?" Lexa asked.
"Can't even see the Hab. It's this fucking sandstorm, and even if it wasn't, there's not enough metal - Shit!"
"Strap in!" Anya yelled. "We're tipping!"
The MAV creaked ominously as it tipped faster and faster with every moment.
"Thirteen degrees," Raven called from her couch.
"Commander, she's gone," Lincoln said.
"I can't leave her!"
"Lexa, you need to-" Anya started.
"She'd look for us!"
"If we go over, we're not coming back," Anya said calmly. "32 metric tons, including fuel. We hit the ground, there'll be structural damage to this entire ship. We'll never get it space-worthy again."
"You can't leave her, too," Octavia said. "You can't."
"I've got one more trick up my sleeves, but if that doesn't work then I'm following her orders."
She flipped through the emergency manual, then brought the Orbital Maneuvering System online and fired a sustained burn from the nosecone array. The thrusters fought valiantly against the slow tilt of the ship.
"You shoot the OMS?" Lincoln asked. "It's gonna be a rough ride up with the aerodynamic caps ejected."
"Better rough ride than no ride," she gritted out, maintaining the burn. "Reyes, where are we with the tilt?"
"Thirteen degrees, seems to be holding," she reported.
"What are you doing?" Lexa radioed. "Respond."
"Standby," Anya replied."
"12.9," Raven said.
"It's working."
"For now," Anya commented. "I don't know how long the fuel will last."
"12.8."
"OMS fuel at 60%," Octavia chipped in. "How much do you need to dock with the Ark?"
"Ten percent if I don't fuck up," Anya supplied, adjusting the thrust. "And I don't fuck up."
"12.6. We're tipping back up."
"Or the storm's calming down a bit. Fuel's at 45%."
"Watch you don't damage the vents," Lincoln cautioned. "It wasn't made to run this long."
"I know," Anya said. "I can do without them if need be."
"Okay, we're under 12.3," Raven said.
"Cutting off OMS," Anya stated.
"Still tipping. 11.6, 11.5, holding."
"OMS fuel at 22%," Octavia supplied.
"I can see, Blake. I can work with that."
"Commander," Octavia radioed, "you need to get to the ship."
"Affirmative," Anya radioed, voice soft. "She's gone, Lex. Clarke's gone."
The silence was deafening as they waited on her reply.
Finally, Lexa's voice cut through. "Understood. Returning to MAV."
Octavia turned her head to glance at Clarke's empty couch, meeting Raven's eyes as the engineer did the same. She swallowed around a lump in her throat.
Anya ran a diagnostic on the nosecone thrusters, finding them no longer safe for use. She logged the malfunction as the airlock hissed.
Lexa removed her suit and wordlessly climbed into the flight cabin, strapping in to her couch. Her face was a frozen mask, her eyes red as she refused to meet the glances from her crew.
Anya broke the silence.
"Still at pilot release," she murmured. "Ready for launch."
Lexa closed her eyes and nodded.
"I'm sorry, Lex, I need verbal confirmation to-"
"Launch," she forced out, her voice hoarse.
"Confirmed." She activated the sequence.
The retainer clamps ejected and fell to the ground, followed seconds later by the preignition pyros firing and igniting the main engines. The MAV lurched upwards.
The ship gained momentum slowly, the ascent software automatically adjusting as the wind attempted to blow it off course. As the engines burned through the fuel, the ship dropped weight and the acceleration quickened exponentially, reaching maximum soon after.
As the MAV pushed towards orbit, the open OMS ports took their toll, shaking the ship violently and jolting the crew in their seats. Anya and the ascent software fought to keep the ship on target, and eventually the turbulence tapered off and fell to nothing as the atmosphere thinned.
The first stage completed, and the crew experienced weightlessness for a few moments before being slammed back into the seats as the second stage began. The spent first stage plummeted away to crash on the dusty surface below.
The second stage drove the MAV higher into low orbit, the trip much smoother and shorter. Finally, the engines cut out, and an oppressive silence replaced the previous chaos.
"Main engines shutdown," Anya said. "Ascent time of 8 minutes and 14 seconds. We're on course for Ark intercept."
Under normal circumstances, an incident-free launch would have been hailed with cheers and celebration.
This one earned silence only broken by a choked sob from Lexa.