AMICITAS FLIGHT THREE – MISSION DAY 88
ARES III SOL 90
TRANSCRIPT – WATER TELEGRAPH EXCHANGE, ESA BALTIMARE and ESA SHIP AMICITAS
AMICITAS (DF): Amicitas calling Baltimare, use suit CB for responses, over.
ESA: Baltimare calling Amicitas, over.
AMICITAS (DF): Long incident report to follow. Report when ready, over.
ESA: Stand by, over.
AMICITAS (CB): I hereby resieeeeeeee-
ESA: Repeat message, not received, over.
AMICITAS (DF): Disregard previous message. Report when ready for incident report, over.
ESA: It’s the middle of the night here, Amicitas. We’re waking ponies up now. Over.
AMICITAS (DF): Standing by, over.
“Let me go!” Cherry Berry demanded over the background noise of water spattering inside the Hab’s decontamination shower.
Dragonfly looked up from where she stood watching Cherry’s spacesuit, lying limply on the Hab’s dirt floor. “Don’t make me build a cocoon for you, boss,” she said. “It would be a huge waste of food and energy, but I’ll do it if I have to.”
Cherry struggled in the grip of Fireball and Spitfire, who struggled to hold the earth pony still. “I order you to let me go!!”
“If you quit, you can’t give me orders,” Fireball said. “If you want to give me orders, obviously you’re not serious about quitting.” He glanced over and down at the pegasus gripping Cherry from the other side. “Or is this pony logic at work again?”
“No,” Spitfire said, “this is just what happens whenever a flyer has a Bad Day and survives. She’ll get over it. We just have to stop her from bucking her career in the meantime.”
“What career?” Cherry shouted. “I’m a pilot, not a leader! If Faust had meant me to be a leader, I’d have a horn and wings!”
“Sounds good to me,” Spitfire replied. “We’ll take ‘em off of Chrysalis. It’d improve things all around, in my opinion.”
“Excuse me!” Dragonfly protested, but only because she’d be expected to at this point.
“I am not a princess!” Cherry thrashed again, almost throwing Spitfire off her foreleg. “I never wanted to be a princess! I just wanted to fly! You’re the leader, you take the job!”
Spitfire wrapped her forelegs tighter around Cherry Berry’s limb. “Commander,” she said in her most formal officer tones, “as chief medical officer of the Amicitas it is my considered opinion that, although you are mentally fit for duty, your current emotional state disqualifies you from making major personal decisions that you might come to regret. It is therefore my duty to refuse your offer of command and to restrain you from resigning said command.”
“Besides,” Fireball said, “Spitfire’s the space rookie here.”
“She was the one who saved our lives,” Cherry pointed out. “I just endangered them.”
“Not my point,” Fireball said. “This is a joint ESA-CSP mission, remember? Starlight Glimmer is second in command.”
“Which she is not physically able to assume,” Spitfire chipped in. “Won’t be for weeks.”
“And after that command follows seniority of first flight,” Fireball continued. “Which means I’d become the next commander. Nobody wants that, least of all me.”
“But Twilight Sparkle and Chrysalis would insist,” Spitire finished. “Everything about this crew is a political compromise, remember? Our bosses won’t want to relitigate all that at this point.”
“They- aren’t- HERE!” Cherry punctuated each word with a powerful twist of her body. This time she managed to shake Spitfire off completely, but this left her dangling in Fireball’s grip.
“They still-“
“You’re right!” Dragonfly interrupted, thinking fast. The pegasus was going for the legalistic argument. That wouldn’t work. Cherry needed more active support. “They aren’t here! They can’t tell us who should be the leader! So it’s up to us to decide, right?” Pause for about a second and half, to give the listeners the illusion that they can agree or disagree. That’s long enough; onward. “So let’s hear it: who else here wants to be the commander? Raise a hoof.”
Dragonfly could feel the mixed feelings coming off of Spitfire. She wouldn’t mind being the commander, but she knew she wasn't the one all the others trusted to lead, here and now. She left her hooves down, and since none of the others wanted the job, no other limbs were raised, except for the one Fireball held in his grip, dangling the commander off the ground.
“All in favor of retaining Cherry Berry as mission commander?” Dragonfly continued.
“Aye,” Spitfire replied immediately. Good, good, Dragonfly thought. She’s backing me up. That should be enough.
“Aye,” Fireball added.
“Aye,” Starlight Glimmer called out softly from her bunk. She hadn’t had her morning painkillers yet, and she was laying on her chest on the bunk so the broken leg could dangle down and keep itself straight.
“And I make it unanimous,” Dragonfly finished. “Your resignation is rejected by the only people who matter. And we’re not going to let you go over our heads with it. You’re the boss, boss.”
The water ceased. A moment later Mark poked his head out, taking a long look at the tableau of Cherry being restrained by Fireball and Spitfire. “What’s all the noise? Mutiny?” he asked.
“What’s mutiny?” Dragonfly asked back.
“Mutiny… is, um…” The decon shower's air dryer kicked in, which forced him to shout to be heard. “Mutiny is when a crew tells the captain, ‘We won’t do what you say anymore!’”
“Oh,” said Dragonfly.
“No,” said Spitfire.
“Yes,” said Fireball.
“Maybe?” Dragonfly asked.
Mark sighed and pulled his head back behind the shower curtain to finish drying and dressing.
“Is it a mutiny when the crew is forcing the captain to keep giving orders?” Dragonfly asked.
“Yes!!” Cherry Berry snapped.
“Look, commander,” Fireball said, “you bucked up. We get that. And I bucked up before you. And Starlight bucked up before that- because I asked her to. But bucking up once doesn’t make you a buck-up.”
Cherry Berry looked up at Fireball, saying nothing.
“Mistakes happen,” Fireball continued. “And this time you weren't the only one to buck up. I didn't warn Starlight and Mark either. Neither did Dragonfly. Neither did Spitfire, and she knew more about the danger than any of us. Do you think we don't feel bad about that? We bucked up exactly as much as you," the dragon said with granite firmness, "so are we all supposed to resign too? ”
“But-“
“No? Good," Fireball said, overriding her. "So the question is, are you a buck-up? No, you’re not. We had that out yesterday with Mark. You had us kicking jack and taking names in seconds after the blowout. You kept us on task during the rescue. And you did what you could to help Mark and me fix the Hab. And you held yourself together until we were all safe and the Hab was fixed.” The dragon stared directly into Cherry’s eyes as he finished, “I couldn’t have done that. So don’t try to stick me with the job the next time it happens. Pull yourself together and get back to work.”
Cherry turned her eyes away.
“Let her go,” Dragonfly said. “She’s not going to try to resign again.”
Fireball nodded, carefully lowering Cherry until her hooves reached the floor again. He straightened up and gave a pony-style guard salute. “Your orders, commander?”
Cherry Berry took a deep breath, wiped her face with one fetlock, and glared up at him. “Report to the medic for your injuries,” she said in a calm, stern voice nothing like her angry shrieks of before.
“What injuries?” Fireball asked.
Dragonfly closed her eyes and closed her ear-fins, but the loud crack of Cherry’s rear hooves delivering a mighty uppercut to Fireball’s snout couldn’t be shut out.
“Consider that summary judgment for dangling one’s commanding officer by the hoof for several minutes,” Cherry said. “Spitfire can fill in the blanks to make it nice and military.” She looked at the pegasus next to her and said, “After you check him out and give Starlight her pain pills, suit up. You’re coming with me to the cave.”
“You broke my tooth!” Fireball wailed, sprawled on his back on the dirt floor.
“I have a pill for that,” Spitfire replied cheerfully. "You'll get over it."
“A pony broke my tooth,” Fireball moaned. “When we get back I’ll never hear the end of this…”
The group broke up. After a couple minutes of no one shouting at one another, Mark shut off the air dryer and emerged from the shower, dressed in the still-stinky cutoff clothes he’d had under his suit when the Hab blew out. “All over?” he asked Dragonfly.
“All okay,” Dragonfly said. “Cherry is still the boss. She tried to quit. We stopped her.”
“Aaaaah,” Mark nodded, finally understanding. “Good. Want to help me fix a robot?”
Dragonfly’s earfins perked up. “Steve Austin?” she asked. “A man barely, barely alive?”
“Er… not exactly,” Mark admitted.
Just then Cherry Berry’s spacesuit began spraying water. “Excuse me,” Dragonfly said. “Talking to home now. Follow you later.”
“No hurry.”
Dragonfly tapped out the code for repeat-signal on her own spacesuit. The morning emergency was over, and the bad emotions had been swamped by a wave of mostly-pure loyalty. And spending a day with Mark would provide more love to wash away the last remaining poisonous guilt.
Maybe the corner really had been turned, at last.
yaaaaaaaaaay.
Stay strong cherry, that goes everyone on the red planet too.
I'm half-hoping for a chapter where ironically, Pathfinder somehow becomes invulnerable after the changeling engineer works on it.
Pity noone had the complete SG1 on the sticks.
Mutiny in the ranks, Teal'c?
Assuredly not, Colonel O'Niell.
Well, theres the slight problem with remote water morse over lifesupport.
SUIT UP.
Oh, Dragonfly. Why?
I reiterate, poor Cherry. Her mistake was one of the smallest and most understandable so far. It's the last thing she needs right now on top of everything else.
Angry or not, bucking a tooth out of a member of your crew when you're trapped on a foreign planet with limited medical supplies doesn't seem the wisest or most captain-ly of moves. Still, it's done now
I for one am looking forward to the Alicorn Princess Spitfire spinoff.
This was the best part. All of these answers are completely accurate.
I can see why you think this section would be edited out, but I think it was fantastic and fitting for how Ponies interact with each other.
8746200
It's not any of the traditional asking for trouble phrases, so I think it's not really that big a deal. Plus I kind of think Dragonfly was referring to her emotion-food supply not the situation in general.
8746236
We'll see. I think it's close enough...
8746232 Ironically, it's the most draconic thing to do.
Oh God... Sleep with one eye open Mark. She was way too eager to try that out.
Mark Watney. First (and hopefully only) man to be combined with a Mars probe.
(Edit) just noticed you called Dragonfly "he" there. Little typo.
8746258 Completely! Which might be why there's no Dragon Space Agency?
so berry is the commander until its convenient to disobey her? sounds like mutiny to me...
8746305
Is it still a mutiny if the captain resigns and the crew forcibly reinstates them as captain?
8746315
yes
I have to say the line of
"I hereby resieeeeeeee"
given how Morse code is supposed to work and her just being interrupted like that just reminds of of the castle of aughhh, where it makes little sense it would repeat the e rather then just stopping
8746152
Six chapters later, the minstrels will be eaten, and there will be more rejoicing.
If this were for book publication, this is another chapter that would almost certainly get the ax.
This is the second time where I very much disagree- like the earlier chapter that was character/world-building, these chapters are essential to having a fully fleshed-out story with believable characters that we are emotionally invested in.
Great work!
P.S. I wonder what the Changeling entertainment industry will look like in 10 years.
I love your character building just as much as I love the technical aspects of your story!
Yay~
That was the best mutiny.
8746232
Clearly, Cherry was never desined for alicornhood. She'd make a far better dragonlord.
8746368 As DWK points out, the Dragon Lord is a surprisingly reasonable chap, and Ember has since followed that tradition. It's the other dragons that are total knobjockeys. So as long as Cherry skips straight to Dragon Lord and doesn't go up the ranks more slowly to get there, yeah, I think she'd be pretty well suited
8746381
it would be nice to see dragonfly see how easy it become to build a pc back on earth, from what i understand there in the 70s of computers back in there homeworld.
and building a pc back then was a pain in the ass! soilding, coding and making sure all the parts all talking to each other right. today is just a plug and play system now and it would have been like that in the 2030s....... come to think of it now there laptops in this story could play any video game of the 2000s all the way up to the 2010s
8746360
Honestly I'm wondering if Earth will import a changeling population to replace human therapists. If they can reach the level of Dragonfly with training they're going to be vastly superior to human therapists. Being able to know what someone is feeling, and your pay being that they feel better is a huge advantage.
8746401
The reason there isn't tons of entertainment on the computers despite the data space being nearly weight free is more that the astronauts were supposed to be busy working as much as possible. No video games because that would be wasted time. In the scene before Sol 6 the commander says that NASA paid $100,000 for every second they were there. While I expect that's exaggeration, it's also why providing time wasters would not be on NASA's agenda.
8746344
'E' is a single dot. "I resieeeeee" seems a perfectly reasonable outcome of a scuffle to get Cherry away from the sending key.
8746344
morse code e is *, so in the scene she would be mashing the button as she is being forced out of the shower.
I must respectfully disagree. This chapter fills a very needed piece of character building, not just as individuals, but also as a group. The fact that six individuals have been closely packed together under constant threat of sudden death for almost three months and this is the first time they've had a proper row says a lot both for the individuals and how they function (or don't) as a group.
I can see Mark in the diary now.
Dear Diary,
I've tested the tooth that Cherry knocked out of the dragon. The MOH scale now officially goes to 11.
8746449
good point but its been proven by NASA long ago when it was pushing the realm of science, that a person living alone for a long time alone with nothing can make huge problems down the line and they did do that test on another person with an IBM computer books to read and music and that person menteal health was way better and work better at task then the other person with just a bed food and water.
sure data it a time waster but given in the book and movie he was alone its better then having something then nothing, sure they may never play the game or look at the movie or listen to the music but as the cold war saying gose "its better to have it and not need it then not have it and needing it"
I wonder if they noticed that the "six million dollar man" was released SIXTY ONE YEARS AGO. In the story,of course. They might even wonder what totally bonkers advanced dimensional space monkey technology they may have now.
8746449
You aren't wrong. Changling Shrinks would be amazing. They wouldn't COMPLETELY replace human ones, as knowing what the patient is feeling is only half the battle, and certain things like Dissociative Identity Disorder (commonly known as Multipersonality disorder), schizophrenia and almost anything on the Autism spectrum aren't exactly emotional conditions.
Likewise Antisocial personality disorder (commonly known as being a Sociopath) Chronic Depression and similar conditions would be actively toxic to a Changling. So they could help diagnose the patient, but not treatment.
"Well our changeling Psychiatrist fled the room at the sight of you, so that seriously narrows your list of conditions. Once they have stopped being sick, I will inquire exactly what emotion poisoned them, and we can go on from there."
8746616
Do you see any caring in these eyes?
8746477 i would love to know how it efftef the commen maketed
8746560 It's worth noting that failing to give astronauts free time and non-work things to do caused at least three mutinies in space. The most famous was Wally Schirra's Apollo 7, in which Schirra basically told NASA what they could do with their TV events and added-on tests and experiments. But it was Skylab 3's mutiny which finally convinced NASA that they were pushing astronauts too hard and that people in space needed pure recreation time. Chris Hadfield would never have been allowed to sing "Major Tom" in the Apollo days.
That said, NASA isn't going to go out of their way to find distractions for their crews. Space time remains expensive, and so entertainment is generally left up to the individual astronaut to bring along. Since Mark left his entertainment on Hermes, that means his video game offerings are going to be limited to whatever the software engineers pre-installed on the computers (Worm, anybody?) or Johannsen's collection of Infocom text-based games. (And Mark isn't going to foist those on the ponies unless he can get Earth to send up the cheat sheets.)
8746560
You're kind of missing the circumstances there though. They intended there to be six astronauts here not one, and the Hermes did have entertainment of various sorts. So you only had the lack of entertainment for the month on the ground. Plus they did bring entertainment with them in USB sticks. It's just Watney left his on Hermes because he didn't think he'd have any time where he needed it.
8746594
You're right that some conditions Changelings wouldn't touch so they wouldn't completely replace human therapists, but you'd definitely want one on the original diagnosis staff of any psychology treatment course. They could identify deep seated problems far faster than a human can. I'm not sure that they wouldn't be good for DID either because they'd be more able to identify which personality is speaking pretty much instantly, and know the differences between them. You're right that the more depressive patients would be harmful to Changelings, but that gives them all the more incentive to fix them, and a well fed Changeling can endure the depression for a session no problem.
8746653
case prooven point.
i love worms but a better game would be hogs of war, but anyway, if he asks for it I think earth and NASA and SpaceX would not mind sending things up for him for them to keep busy and fun times.
plus if you think about it they did kind have one already so sending things up for fun would not hurt anyone
8746700 am just saying anything will be good hell give him a code book on BASIC or anything so they won't go crazy
"and she was laying on her chest on"
"and she was lying on her chest on"?
Regarding Japony, I find Neighpon to be the superior pun.
8746653
*looks at bedridden, mystery-loving unicorn*
*looks at Infocom mystery games like Deadline*
... eh, Mark's still right not to bring up the idea, but I can dream.
8746653
Uh...
Do we want a dragon discovering pinball? I get this feeling fireball would be addicted, and I'm not sure why.
8746754
Even if there was enough bandwidth, I'm pretty sure NASA wouldn't OK anything like that. Way too violent, even if it's used for comedic effect and subversion of tropes.
Still, trope mixing is probably key for entertainment purposes. Western shows have different tropes than Eastern ones, which is partially the appeal of anime for western audiences exposed to it for the first time anyway. The same exact thing is probably what makes what we consider banal TV from the 70's as interesting to them, though familiarity will eventually breed contempt if they get used to it.
8746796
pinball the oldest type of game in the world next to claw games
8746796
Aw yeah space cadet pinball! That was my jam when I was a little kid. Wonder if it's still included with post Vista windows systems...
Having gone a week in boot amp with a single shower I believe most people who don’t do too much strenuous activity have no idea how bad that can be. By the time we got back everyone’s first stop was the showers.
And it was wonderful.
8746917
know how minesweeper and other games like that won't die off ya it would have
Well, that was fun. Now let's fix us a robot!
Uh I thought Chrysalis was first Orbit if i recall my facts from CSP correctly?
8747023
No she was first in space
If this was a publish book this would NOT be a chapter that gets cut (if you have a half decent editor). It's a great character moment, gives us insight into many of them and puts some of the interpersonal relationships in flux. It shows how Cherry is taking what happened, and maybe hinting a bit of the over all stress of the situation on all of them. As long as it's not an orphaned moment, it should stay.
Really, I think this is a very important moment for the story as a whole.