- há 2 dias
I colonized Mars | P1 | ALIVE ON MARS | Arrival Log
Categoria
🎥
CurtaTranscrição
00:00:00Música
00:00:00www.Mas.org
00:00:11www.Mas.org
00:00:15Arquival Department, UNS, Aterna
00:00:18Se você assiste isso, significa que meu desenho de emergência está trabalhar
00:00:21E significa que a chance de não querer tirar o vaso
00:00:25No próximo 24 horas, eu estou gravando isso.
00:00:29Sendo no chão do que está resta do meu escape pod, a câmera parece estar gravando.
00:00:33A luz está brilhante, e isso é o único que está aqui agora que tem um color normal.
00:00:39Tudo mais, tudo mais está errado.
00:00:42Meu cabeça está seca.
00:00:43Parece que eu estava colocando um gringo de carne, então colocando um pouco.
00:00:49Pixel está bem, ele está em dorme mode agora, lá no lado da frente, conectado com o portão de emergência.
00:00:53O portão de emergência, os diagnósticos estão olhando verde, ele tem um frame de frango de titânio, ele se tornou
00:00:57mais feliz do que eu.
00:00:58Minhas ribs parecem intactas, mas é difícil de respirar, eu estou tentando entender o que aconteceu.
00:01:03E o mais que eu acho, o mais que eu acho, o mais escuro é.
00:01:06Eu preciso dizer isso para falar, não só para o record, mas para mim, para continuar de ir mal do
00:01:12que o silêncio.
00:01:13O último que eu lembro é a Terra, o ano 2067.
00:01:18Estamos em órbita, estamos em.
00:01:20Você provavelmente sabe a história se encontraram este vídeo.
00:01:23E se não, se você me encontrou 100 anos depois de agora, ou se você não é da Terra,
00:01:28então você precisa entender por que nós saímos.
00:01:31Nós não somos exploradores.
00:01:32Nós não somos heróis procurando no fronteiro como os antigos filmes de Star Trek.
00:01:36Nós somos refugios.
00:01:38Nós somos ratos fleeing um barulho, apenas este barulho era o tamanho do planeta.
00:01:44No ano 2060, Terra não morreu na noite.
00:01:47Não havia uma guerra nuclear, não tinha uma guerra nuclear, não tinha uma guerra nuclear, não tinha uma guerra alienígena.
00:01:52Não era a extinção silênciosa.
00:01:54Primeiro, o clima mudou.
00:01:57Aí as beijas desapareceram.
00:01:58Aí as beijas despeadas.
00:01:59Aí as beijas despeadas.
00:02:00Aí as beijas despeadas.
00:02:00Eu me lembro de minha idade em Nova London.
00:02:03Nós usamos respiradores não por causa de vírus, mas por causa da água tão thick com smog e microplásticos.
00:02:09Você conseguiu comer, o céu não era azul.
00:02:12Foi a cor da dor de bruxo.
00:02:14Yellow, gray, sickly.
00:02:16Para ver um real tree, vivo, verde, smelling de pinais ou árvores,
00:02:22você tinha que pagar meio milagre de salário para entrar em uma biopreservação dome.
00:02:26A maioria dos anos só viu natureza em VR headsets.
00:02:29Nós comemos sintetizados de proteína, tomamos água reclamada e trabalhamos para pagar filtros para nossas apartamentos.
00:02:35Nós estávamos sofocando, lentamente, mas certamente.
00:02:39E aí a U.N. anunciou o projeto Eternity.
00:02:43Eterna.
00:02:43Foi um milagre.
00:02:45E foi uma sentença de morte.
00:02:47Porque todos entendiam que construir um barco para 8 bilhões de pessoas é impossível.
00:02:52A Eterna poderia ter apenas 50,000.
00:02:5550,000 lucky ones que deveriam levar a humanidade genética para as estrelas,
00:03:00enquanto os restos permaneceram para sofocar em um planeta morrido.
00:03:03Como eles escolheram?
00:03:04Oh, isso foi a matéria da história da história.
00:03:08Claro, existem os ricos, os políticos, os militares.
00:03:11Mas a mãe, a espécie de inteligência artificial,
00:03:15disse que a coluna não precisasse apenas dinheiro,
00:03:17precisassem de habilidades.
00:03:19Precisassem de genomes sem hereditary doenças.
00:03:21Precisassem de engenheiros, médicos, agronomistas.
00:03:24E precisassem de pessoas como eu.
00:03:26Arquivistas.
00:03:28Keepers da cultura.
00:03:29Minha tarefa era simples,
00:03:30mas, como nós nos damos,
00:03:33sagrado.
00:03:34Eu deveria preservar a alma da Terra.
00:03:36Eu postei tudo para a Eterna's server.
00:03:40Música, de bach até neurofunk,
00:03:42literatura, cinema, art history,
00:03:44mamãe de receitas de pés,
00:03:45memes, vídeos de gatos,
00:03:48tudo que nos tornou humanas,
00:03:49e não apenas máquinas biológicas.
00:04:19Porque o que é o ponto de sobrevivir?
00:04:21Onde?
00:04:33Onde?
00:04:35Onde?
00:04:38Você pode saber o que você acha que a gente se que foi morta.
00:04:41Nós dissemos nos adivinhos em avanças.
00:04:43Eu lembro a última hora antes de dormir.
00:04:45Nossa senhora, Sara.
00:04:46Ela tinha associação.
00:04:48Ela estava sete-se um meu IV com a proteção.
00:04:50Nós riramos.
00:04:52Discussando qual filme nós vamos ver primeiro depois de acordar.
00:04:54Ela disse,
00:04:56Se você ver no novo mundo, Matt.
00:04:57O céu será azul lá.
00:04:59Eu abriu meus olhos, imaginando este novo mundo.
00:05:02Jungles, oceãs, air que você poderia respirar profundo.
00:05:07E aí, um siren, um impacto, um fogo, e eu desperto aqui.
00:05:13Isso não é o abençoamento que nos prometemos.
00:05:15Não havia um deslizamento lentamente, não massagem de muscula, não beijos de água.
00:05:20Eu fui deslizando por dor e adrenalina.
00:05:23A pod estava se mexendo.
00:05:25Eu já cheguei o navegamento.
00:05:27Eu cheguei 10 vezes enquanto estava se mexendo do calor e do shock.
00:05:30O sistema Galilei não faz um erro, os satélites estão silent.
00:05:34Mas os gráficos, eles não podem ser fechados.
00:05:37Coordinates, nós estamos no sistema solar.
00:05:40O quarto planeta, Mars, você entende?
00:05:43Nós estamos no Mars, não Proxima.
00:05:46Nós nem nem deixamos nosso sistema.
00:05:47Ou nós voltamos?
00:05:49Eu não sei.
00:05:50E me faz me querer gritar.
00:05:52Eu estou olhando para o porto, agora.
00:05:54Aí, atrás da deslizada, deslizada, eu vejo esse rosto verde, um pão azul, um pão azul, um pão azul, um
00:06:00pão azul, um pão azul.
00:06:02É definitivamente Mars.
00:06:04Eu reconheço essas rosto.
00:06:06Eu vi milhares de fotos de eles nos arquivos que eu catalogo.
00:06:10Acidalia Planitia.
00:06:11Um pão azul.
00:06:12Mas algo está errado.
00:06:13Completamente errado.
00:06:14Se não pudermos ir embora, se a missão foi aborada ou se fosse um acidente no lançamento,
00:06:18então por que não ficamos rescuados?
00:06:20Onde estão os escutados?
00:06:21Onde está a base de Mundo?
00:06:23Onde estão as estacionais de Mars?
00:06:24Onde estão as estacionais de Mars?
00:06:25Em 2067, há plataformas automáticas de minas.
00:06:28Há luzes.
00:06:29Eu fui fora uma hora atrás, antes de gravar a câmera, eu queria encontrar os outros.
00:06:34Eu pensava que talvez nós caímos como um grupo.
00:06:36Talvez eu vejo as luzes de outros pods.
00:06:38É vazio lá.
00:06:39O horizonte está vazio.
00:06:41Só as estacionais, as ruas, e o vento...
00:06:45Howling, como um animal morrido.
00:06:47E o frio.
00:06:48Minus 60 graus.
00:06:50Se não for a espécie, eu estaria lá.
00:06:53Se tornou uma estatua em 10 minutos.
00:06:55Mas isso não é a parte mais escutada.
00:06:57A parte mais escutada está aqui, em minhas mãos.
00:07:00Olha isso.
00:07:02Você vê? É um pedaço de plástico.
00:07:04Eu encontrei ele no arrope.
00:07:05Há meio escutado no arrope.
00:07:06É parte da placa de algum tipo de equipamento.
00:07:08Tem as marcas de NASA e parte de uma flaga americana.
00:07:11Isso deveria me fazer feliz.
00:07:13Isso significa que as pessoas estavam aqui.
00:07:14Aqui, isso é proof da nossa civilização.
00:07:16Mas olhe o que acontece quando eu coloco ele.
00:07:18Você vê?
00:07:19Ele se arrope.
00:07:21Ele se torna a dor em minhas mãos.
00:07:23Eu não sou um chemista.
00:07:24Eu sou um arquivista.
00:07:25Mas eu sei uma coisa.
00:07:27Em 2067, e até em 2030,
00:07:30nós usamos polimers que deveriam viver para sempre.
00:07:33Kevlar, carbono,
00:07:35reenforçado plástico.
00:07:36Eles não rotam.
00:07:37Eles não decomposem.
00:07:39Esse era o problema de ecologia na Terra.
00:07:41Nosso plástico não desapareceu.
00:07:42Para esse pedaço de alto-strengente polymer
00:07:44para virar tão roto.
00:07:46Para isso perderá seus bondes
00:07:47e ficar mais brilhante.
00:07:56Se inscreva no canal.
00:08:22Se inscreva no canal.
00:08:48Se inscreva no canal.
00:08:53Se inscreva no canal.
00:09:22Se inscreva no canal.
00:09:32Se inscreva no canal.
00:09:36Se inscreva no canal.
00:09:38Se inscreva no canal.
00:10:08This is Matt Wally.
00:10:09I am on Mars.
00:10:11I am alive.
00:10:12And I am very, very scared.
00:10:14But I won't give up.
00:10:15For Sarah.
00:10:16For those who remained on Earth.
00:10:17For Pixel.
00:10:36This is Matt Wally.
00:10:38ID 4490.
00:10:40Archival Department.
00:10:42UNS Eterna.
00:10:44I am recording this vlog from the pilot's seat of a recovered cargo rover.
00:10:49If you are watching this, it means I'm still alive.
00:10:53If you aren't watching this, well, then I'm just talking to the ghosts again.
00:10:59Today is Sol 2.
00:11:01I'm sitting here in the near dark.
00:11:03The only light coming from the flickering green hood of a machine that, by all rights, should be a pile
00:11:09of rusted, molecularly decayed scrap.
00:11:13But it's not.
00:11:15It's humming.
00:11:17Can you hear that?
00:11:18That low-frequency vibration?
00:11:20It's the cooling fans of a lithium-sulfur battery array spinning up for the first time in...
00:11:26God knows how long.
00:11:28It's alive.
00:11:31And for the first time since I woke up in that burning escape pod, coughing up cryofluid and screaming into
00:11:37the red dust,
00:11:38I don't feel like I'm just waiting for my batteries to expire.
00:11:41Let's talk about the morning.
00:11:42It's so...
00:11:43Because before this victory, I had a very long, very cold night.
00:11:49It started inside the pod.
00:11:51E-pod 449.
00:11:53The temperature had dropped so low overnight.
00:11:56My sensors read minus 62 degrees Celsius outside.
00:12:00That I woke up to a thin, crystalline layer of frost coating the interior hull.
00:12:06It was beautiful in a terrifying way.
00:12:09Like being trapped inside a diamond that wants to kill you.
00:12:13My ribs felt like they'd been put through a trash compactor during the atmospheric entry.
00:12:19Every breath was a reminder that I'm fragile.
00:12:22Made of bone and meat and anxiety.
00:12:25While this planet is made of iron.
00:12:27And spite.
00:12:37I checked the terminal again.
00:12:3920 times.
00:12:41I'm not exaggerating.
00:12:43I sat there staring at the no signal icon until my eyes blurred.
00:12:47I was hoping to see a ping from the Eterna.
00:12:50I was hoping to see a distress signal from Sarah telling me she made it.
00:12:55That she's safe.
00:12:57That she's waiting for me with a med kit and a bad joke.
00:13:00I was hoping for literally anyone from the other 50,000 lucky winners of the lottery.
00:13:05Nothing.
00:13:07Just the static.
00:13:09Just the same white noise of a solar system that has apparently moved on without us.
00:13:13It's a heavy kind of silence.
00:13:15The kind that presses against your eardrums.
00:13:18It's the kind of silence that makes you start talking to a dog just to verify that sound physics still
00:13:23work.
00:13:23Speaking of the dog.
00:13:25Pixel was ready to go before I even had my helmet locked.
00:13:29He's a V2.0 Border Collie.
00:13:32Part of the psychological support program.
00:13:34But he's not soft.
00:13:36He's pure titanium and carbon fiber.
00:13:39No synthetic fur.
00:13:41Just a sleek exposed metal chassis that handles radiation better than I do.
00:13:46He doesn't get cryo-nausea.
00:13:48He doesn't worry about relativistic time dilation or why the plastic from NASA is crumbling it.
00:13:54I checked the long-range scanners one last time and saw it.
00:13:57A tiny rhythmic pulse 10 kilometers to the north.
00:14:01It wasn't a human voice and it wasn't the Eterna's handshake protocol.
00:14:05But it was something electronic.
00:14:06On a planet that's supposed to be a graveyard of dead 21st century dreams, a rhythmic pulse is a goddamn
00:14:13miracle.
00:14:14I grabbed my pack, checked my oxygen levels, which were already lower than I liked, and we stepped out into
00:14:19the red.
00:14:2010 kilometers.
00:14:22That doesn't sound like much back on Earth.
00:14:24You could walk that in a couple of hours on a Sunday stroll.
00:14:27But on Mars, in 0.38 G gravity, while wearing a suit that weighs as much as a teenager, it's
00:14:36a surreal nightmare.
00:14:37Every step felt like I was floating and falling at the same time.
00:14:41You push off, and you go too high, and you land too hard.
00:14:46My lungs burned with every gasp of recycled air, and the rhythmic thrum hiss of my suit's recycler was the
00:14:53only heartbeat I had to listen to.
00:14:55The landscape out here, it's monotonous, but it's hypnotic.
00:15:00Endless fields of rust-colored basalt.
00:15:03Dunes that look like frozen waves of blood.
00:15:06And a sky that can't decide if it wants to be pink or butterscotch.
00:15:10Pixel was having the time of his life, though.
00:15:12He was bounding over rocks like they were playground toys, his servos whirring in the thin air.
00:15:19He'd run ahead.
00:15:20Stop.
00:15:21Scan the horizon with his ears perked up.
00:15:24Little radar dishes adjusting frequency.
00:15:27And then bark at a rock that looked suspicious.
00:15:31I just kept my eyes on the navigation arrow on my HUD,
00:15:34praying that the Galileo system wasn't just hallucinating a signal out of pity for me.
00:15:38I kept thinking about the oxygen numbers.
00:15:43An Ant-G-class cargo rover, half-buried in a crater like a metallic fossil.
00:15:48I stood there for a solid five minutes just looking at it.
00:15:52It looked ancient.
00:15:53I mean, archaeologically ancient.
00:15:56The white paint had been sandblasted away by centuries of storms,
00:16:01leaving bare, pitted metal.
00:16:03It was covered in that same dull, oxidized patina that shouldn't exist if we only arrived yesterday.
00:16:10It looked like it had been sitting there since the first colonies failed.
00:16:13Or maybe even longer.
00:16:15The tires were half-sunk in the regolith.
00:16:18But they weren't flat.
00:16:20They were solid-state mesh.
00:16:22Thank God.
00:16:23I approached it like it was a sleeping dragon.
00:16:25I wiped the dust off the door panel.
00:16:27The keypad was dead, obviously.
00:16:30But I'm an archivist.
00:16:31My job wasn't just storing movies.
00:16:33It was maintaining legacy systems.
00:16:36I pulled out my universal interface tool, ah, my skeleton key for the Aeterna,
00:16:41and jacked into the emergency port.
00:16:44I held my breath.
00:16:45I watched the little light on my tool blink.
00:16:49Red.
00:16:50Red.
00:16:51Red.
00:16:53Then green.
00:16:55I forced the manual lock.
00:16:57The airlock hissed.
00:16:59A sound of air rushing into a vacuum that had been sealed for ages.
00:17:03I climbed inside.
00:17:04And for a minute, I just sat in the silence of the cabin, smelling the air.
00:17:10It smelled like old dust, stale ozone, and freezing cold plastic.
00:17:17I checked the cargo hold.
00:17:19I was praying for water.
00:17:21Or food.
00:17:22Or oxygen tanks.
00:17:24I didn't find those.
00:17:26But I found something that might be even better right now.
00:17:28A stack of auxiliary light panels.
00:17:31High-efficiency photo elements.
00:17:34Still in their shipping crate.
00:17:36On Earth.
00:17:37These would be boring industrial supplies.
00:17:39You'd buy them at a hardware store.
00:17:42Here.
00:17:43They are gold.
00:17:45They are life.
00:17:47Here's the math.
00:17:48My pod's reactor is damaged.
00:17:51Every night.
00:17:52I have to lower the heat to keep the air scrubber running.
00:17:55Last night.
00:17:56I almost froze.
00:17:58Tonight.
00:17:59If I can daisy-chain these panels to my pod's grid.
00:18:03I won't have to choose.
00:18:04I can have heat and air.
00:18:06I can survive the night without waking up with frost in my lungs.
00:18:09It's a small thing.
00:18:11But out here.
00:18:13Survival is just a series of small things that didn't kill you today.
00:18:16I took control of the rover's drive system.
00:18:18I had to override the ancient navlock with an archivist's bypass code.
00:18:23Admin override 4490.
00:18:25The engine purred.
00:18:27And for the first time in my life.
00:18:29I drove across the surface of Mars.
00:18:32No VR headset.
00:18:34No simulation.
00:18:35No experienced tank back in New London.
00:18:38Just me.
00:18:40A titanium dog.
00:18:41And six wheels churning through the dust of a dead world.
00:18:45I felt.
00:18:47Powerful.
00:18:48For ten kilometers.
00:18:50I wasn't a victim.
00:18:51I was an explorer.
00:18:53I drove it back here to the crash site.
00:18:55I'm parked right next to the pod now.
00:18:57I'm sitting in this cabin.
00:18:59Just processing it all.
00:19:01The adrenaline is fading.
00:19:03And the pain in my ribs is coming back.
00:19:05Sharper than before.
00:19:07But I have wheels.
00:19:17This is Matt Wally.
00:19:19ID 4490.
00:19:21Archival Department.
00:19:22UNS Eterna.
00:19:24Sol 3.
00:19:25If you're watching this.
00:19:27I made it through another night.
00:19:29And I have wheels.
00:19:30And power.
00:19:31And a door I can't open.
00:19:33But we're getting ahead of the story.
00:19:35Let me start with the morning.
00:19:37I woke up without panic today.
00:19:39That's progress.
00:19:41I guess.
00:19:42My body is starting to adapt to the gravity.
00:19:440.38 earth standard.
00:19:47The ribs still hurt when I breathe deep.
00:19:49But the sharp pain is dulling into a persistent ache.
00:19:52The cryo headache is almost gone.
00:19:55I'm at maybe 60% functionality.
00:19:58On earth.
00:19:59That would get me sent home from work.
00:20:01Here.
00:20:02It's a good day.
00:20:04Pixel was already awake when I opened my eyes.
00:20:07His charge indicator showed 87%.
00:20:10Green light.
00:20:11Ready to work.
00:20:12Better than me.
00:20:14I sat up.
00:20:15Checked the pod systems.
00:20:17Temperature had stabilized overnight thanks to the new solar array on the rover I found yesterday.
00:20:23First thing I did was suit up.
00:20:24The EVA suit.
00:20:27Every seal.
00:20:28Every connection.
00:20:30Every pressure check.
00:20:31It's becoming a ritual.
00:20:33On earth.
00:20:35Putting on a space suit took a team of technicians and 20 minutes of protocol.
00:20:39Here.
00:20:40I do it alone in the dark.
00:20:42And it needs to be perfect every time because there's no backup.
00:20:45One mistake and I'm breathing Martian atmosphere.
00:20:48Which is basically the same as not breathing at all.
00:20:51I cycled through the airlock and stepped outside.
00:20:54The sun was just coming up over the eastern ridge.
00:20:57Pale.
00:20:59Small.
00:21:00Cold.
00:21:02Not the sun I remember from earth.
00:21:04This one doesn't warm you.
00:21:06It just illuminates.
00:21:08I walked over to the rover.
00:21:09My boots crunching in the frozen regolith.
00:21:12The Aunt G was right where I left it.
00:21:15Covered in a thin layer of red dust from the night wind.
00:21:18I manually deployed the solar panels.
00:21:21There's a switch inside.
00:21:23But I wanted to see them unfold.
00:21:25They groaned.
00:21:27Metal on metal.
00:21:29Decades or centuries of Martian weather making everything stiff.
00:21:32The panels spread out like wings.
00:21:35Catching that weak sunlight.
00:21:38The charge indicator on the dash flickered.
00:21:41Then glowed green.
00:21:42Four hours to full battery.
00:21:44Good enough.
00:21:46I went back inside the pod.
00:21:48Stripped off the helmet.
00:21:50And made coffee.
00:21:51The barista boy, Mikov.
00:21:54Portable espresso maker.
00:21:56My one piece of earth I packed personally.
00:21:59While other people were bringing photos of their families or lucky charms.
00:22:02I brought a coffee machine.
00:22:05Priorities.
00:22:06The smell filled the pod.
00:22:08Roasted Arabica beans.
00:22:09Price who made it through the transit blockade.
00:22:10Vacuum sealed in 2067.
00:22:12Sort of a hassle this time of time.
00:22:13Brood in God knows what year on Mars.
00:22:15But this view makes it worse.
00:22:15For 30 seconds.
00:22:16I wasn't stranded.
00:22:18I was in a cafe in New London.
00:22:20Looks delicious.
00:22:21Listening to people complain about smog filters and water rations.
00:22:24I'd give anything to hear someone complain about coffee being too expensive right now.
00:22:30I pulled up the navigation console and plotted a route.
00:22:33There's a ridge 23 kilometers to the northeast.
00:22:36From up there.
00:22:37I'd have line of sight on at least 50 kilometers in every direction.
00:22:41I need a vantage point.
00:22:43I need to see what's out there.
00:22:45Maybe I'll spot the Eterna's crash site.
00:22:47Maybe I'll see lights from another pod.
00:22:50Maybe I'll see nothing.
00:22:51But I need to know.
00:22:57Before I left, I unloaded the light panels from the rover's cargo bay.
00:23:01Six high-efficiency photovoltaic sheets still in their shipping crate.
00:23:07I laid them out carefully next to the pod.
00:23:09These panels are going to save my life.
00:23:14I loaded the essentials into the rover.
00:23:16Spare oxygen canister.
00:23:18Repair tools.
00:23:19Loading medical now.
00:23:20Water.
00:23:21Medical kit.
00:23:23And Pixel.
00:23:25All right, Pixel.
00:23:26I said, let's go see the world from up high.
00:23:30You know, if Mars had birds.
00:23:34The drive out was strange.
00:23:36I've driven rovers and simulation a thousand times.
00:23:39But this was real.
00:23:41Every rock.
00:23:42Every dune.
00:23:44Every crater was actually there.
00:23:46The landscape rolled past.
00:23:49Endless red.
00:23:50Endless empty.
00:23:51The sky was that butterscotch pink it always is during the day.
00:23:56No clouds.
00:23:57No weather.
00:23:58Just sky and rock and silence.
00:24:02I talked while I drove.
00:24:04Partially for the recording.
00:24:05Partially because the silence out here is so heavy it presses against your skull.
00:24:09I talked about the plastic I found on Sol 1.
00:24:12The NASA fragment that crumbled to dust.
00:24:15I talked about the rover I found on Sol 2.
00:24:18I talked about how nothing makes sense.
00:24:20We launched in 2067.
00:24:23If we never left the solar system.
00:24:25If there was an accident at launch.
00:24:27Where is everyone?
00:24:29Where are the rescue ships?
00:24:31The Mars colonies.
00:24:33The infrastructure we left behind.
00:24:35And if we did go to Proxima and came back.
00:24:39How long were we gone?
00:24:42At the 20 kilometer mark.
00:24:44I stopped to rest.
00:24:45There was a rock outcropping that provided some shade from the sun.
00:24:49I parked.
00:24:50Did a suit check.
00:24:52Oxygen at 63%.
00:24:54Good.
00:24:55I climbed out and stretched.
00:24:57The gravity makes everything feel light and heavy at the same time.
00:25:01Light when you move.
00:25:03Light when you move.
00:25:04Heavy when you land.
00:25:05Pixel jumped out and started exploring.
00:25:07His servos whirred in the thin atmosphere as he bounded over rocks.
00:25:12I watched him for a minute.
00:25:14Drinking recycled water through my helmet tube.
00:25:17Looking at the horizon.
00:25:18Three more kilometers to the ridge.
00:25:21Battery at 58%.
00:25:23Everything still on schedule.
00:25:25That's when Pixel started barking.
00:25:28I walked over.
00:25:30At first.
00:25:31I didn't see anything.
00:25:33Just rocks.
00:25:35Just more red dust.
00:25:36Then I noticed what he was looking at.
00:25:39The angles were wrong.
00:25:40Too straight.
00:25:42Too regular.
00:25:42I crouched down and brushed away the sand with my gloved hand.
00:25:46Metal.
00:25:48Oxidized.
00:25:49Pitted.
00:25:50Ancient.
00:25:51But definitely metal.
00:25:53A door.
00:25:54Or what was left of one.
00:25:56It was set into the rock face.
00:25:58Partially buried.
00:26:00Clearly artificial.
00:26:02Rivets.
00:26:03Welded seams.
00:26:05Industrial construction.
00:26:06It was about 2 meters tall.
00:26:091.5 wide.
00:26:11Sealed.
00:26:12Covered in a layer of corrosion that looked like green-brown rust.
00:26:16My pulse jumped.
00:26:18I went back to the rover and grabbed the folding shovel from the emergency kit.
00:26:22Digging in an EVA suit is brutal.
00:26:25The suit is bulky.
00:26:26The gloves are thick.
00:26:28And every movement takes three times the effort it should.
00:26:32But I kept digging.
00:26:3420 minutes later.
00:26:35I'd expose the top half of the entrance.
00:26:37It was definitely a door.
00:26:39Industrial grade.
00:26:41Built to last.
00:26:42Built to seal an interior space from the Martian atmosphere.
00:26:46I cleared the dust off the surface.
00:26:48Looking for markings.
00:26:50And I found it.
00:26:51A small metal plaque.
00:26:53Mounted to the right of the door at eye level.
00:26:56I leaned in close.
00:26:58Directing my helmet light at it.
00:27:01Marscom Geological Survey Station.
00:27:03Site designation Meridiani-07.
00:27:07Established 3002.
00:27:09CE.
00:27:10Authorized personnel only.
00:27:13Unmars Colonization Authority.
00:27:16I read it three times.
00:27:18Then I read it again.
00:27:19The numbers didn't change.
00:27:223002.
00:27:23The year 3002.
00:27:26Common Era.
00:27:26We left Earth in 2067.
00:27:29This station was built 935 years after we launched.
00:27:34Almost a millennium after the Eterna left orbit.
00:27:37There were still people here.
00:27:39Building things.
00:27:40Establishing survey stations.
00:27:42Marking territory with plaques in English.
00:27:46The lock was completely dead.
00:27:49The battery had degraded.
00:27:51Or been removed.
00:27:52Or just...
00:27:54Stopped existing after however many centuries this place has been sealed.
00:27:58I examined the damage.
00:28:00The wires inside the panel were burnt through.
00:28:03The circuit boards were covered in that green patina that happens when copper oxidizes over extreme time.
00:28:09This wasn't a system that had failed yesterday.
00:28:12This was archaeological.
00:28:13I tried pushing the door.
00:28:16Nothing.
00:28:17Not even a millimeter of give.
00:28:19It's a pressure door.
00:28:20Designed to hold back the difference between Martian atmosphere and a breathable interior.
00:28:25I'm not opening this by hand.
00:28:27I stepped back and assessed the situation.
00:28:30I looked at my oxygen gauge.
00:28:3342%.
00:28:34I looked at the sun.
00:28:36Already past its zenith.
00:28:44I took photos of the door with my helmet cam.
00:28:47Photos of the plaque.
00:28:49Photos of the surrounding terrain.
00:28:51I marked the coordinates on my navigation system.
00:28:54Meridiani 07.
00:28:56I'll find you again.
00:28:57Waypoint Meridiano 07 is saved.
00:29:00Digital promise.
00:29:06We got back in the rover.
00:29:07Ready to part.
00:29:09I started the engine.
00:29:10Turned around.
00:29:11And took one last look at the door in the rear display.
00:29:14It sat there.
00:29:16Half buried in red sand.
00:29:18Keeping its secrets for one more night.
00:29:20The drive back felt shorter.
00:29:23Maybe it was adrenaline.
00:29:24Maybe it's because going home always feels faster than going out.
00:29:28I talked the whole way.
00:29:30Recording my thoughts.
00:29:31I found something.
00:29:33Not just old plastic.
00:29:35Not just a broken rover.
00:29:36A whole structure.
00:29:38A station.
00:29:39This changes everything.
00:29:41The sun was setting when I reached the pod.
00:29:44The sky turned deep purple.
00:29:46Stars started appearing.
00:29:48Bright.
00:29:50Unwavering in the thin atmosphere.
00:29:52Beautiful and cold and indifferent.
00:29:54I parked the rover next to the pod.
00:29:57Engine off.
00:29:59Final battery check.
00:30:0123%.
00:30:02Cutting it close.
00:30:04Good work old girl.
00:30:05I suited up again and went outside to install the light panels.
00:30:09Even though I was exhausted.
00:30:11Even though my ribs were screaming and my muscles were cramping.
00:30:15This had to be done.
00:30:16These panels are the difference between surviving and slowly freezing.
00:30:20I laid them out around the pod's perimeter.
00:30:23Six panels.
00:30:24Each about the size of a door.
00:30:26I connected them in series with the cables from the crate.
00:30:29They're rated for Martian sunlight.
00:30:32Low efficiency.
00:30:33Maybe 30%.
00:30:35But it's enough.
00:30:36During the day.
00:30:38They'll charge the pod's batteries.
00:30:40At night.
00:30:41They'll release that power.
00:30:43I opened the pod's external access panel and found the auxiliary power connectors.
00:30:48Connected the main cable from the panels.
00:30:51The moment of truth.
00:30:53I flipped the switch.
00:30:55Green lights on every panel.
00:30:57Inside the pod.
00:30:58The lights brightened.
00:31:00Stopped flickering.
00:31:02Steady.
00:31:03Stable.
00:31:04Power.
00:31:05Yes.
00:31:06I said.
00:31:07Just that one word.
00:31:09I was too tired for anything else.
00:31:11I went back inside through the airlock.
00:31:14Stripped off the suit.
00:31:15And felt the difference immediately.
00:31:18Warm.
00:31:19Actually warm.
00:31:20For the first time in three nights.
00:31:22I won't have to choose between breathing and not freezing to death.
00:31:26Progress.
00:31:27But then I checked the water recycler.
00:31:30And my heart sank.
00:31:31The diagnostic panel was flashing a red light.
00:31:35Purification system failure.
00:31:37I opened the access hatch and looked inside.
00:31:40The membrane filter.
00:31:41The ceramic sheet that's supposed to handle all the heavy lifting of water purification.
00:31:45Had a crack running through it.
00:31:48Had a crack running through it.
00:31:48Hairline.
00:31:49But in a recycler's filtration system.
00:31:51That's catastrophic.
00:32:02Pixel was in his corner charging station.
00:32:04His optical sensors dimming to standby mode.
00:32:08Robot sleep.
00:32:09Good night, friend.
00:32:11I said.
00:32:12Tomorrow we go back.
00:32:14I turned to the camera one last time.
00:32:16This is Matt Wally.
00:32:18Sol 3.
00:32:19Today I drove 46 kilometers.
00:32:22Dug up a door that's 4,000 years old.
00:32:24Fixed my power grid.
00:32:26And tried to save my water supply.
00:32:28I'm tired.
00:32:29Everything hurts.
00:32:30But I'm still here.
00:32:39This is Matt Wally.
00:32:41ID 4490.
00:32:42Archival Department.
00:32:44UNS Eterna.
00:32:46Sol 4.
00:32:47I am recording this in the dark.
00:32:49If the image is grainy, it's because the only light source I have right now is the internal
00:32:54HUD of my helmet and the dying emergency strip on the wall above my head.
00:32:58I'm not in the pod.
00:33:00I'm not in the rover.
00:33:02I'm sitting on a cold metal crate inside the airlock of the Meridiani-07 Geological Survey
00:33:07Station.
00:33:08And I am whispering.
00:33:10I don't know why I'm whispering.
00:33:12The walls are thick.
00:33:14The storm outside is screaming like a banshee.
00:33:16And there is nobody here to hear me.
00:33:18But this place...
00:33:20It feels like a cathedral.
00:33:22You don't shout in a cathedral.
00:33:24And you certainly don't shout in a tomb.
00:33:27Let's back up.
00:33:28The morning started with a warning from the pod's systems.
00:33:31The epoxy patch on the water filter held through the night, but the pressure was already dropping.
00:33:36The water tasted like chemicals and burnt plastic.
00:33:39It was a reminder that my time was measured in liters.
00:33:42Not days.
00:33:45I loaded the rover with everything I might need to break a siege.
00:33:49The heavy-duty plasma cutter, two spare battery packs, a pry bar, and enough oxygen to last 12 hours.
00:33:56Pixel was pacing around my legs the whole time.
00:33:59He knew.
00:33:59He always knows when the routine changes.
00:34:02The drive back to the coordinates was tense.
00:34:04The sky had changed color.
00:34:06Usually, it's that butterscotch pink, but today it was a bruised purple.
00:34:11Heavy with dust.
00:34:12The barometer on the rover's dash was dropping fast.
00:34:16A storm was building in the south.
00:34:17One of those global dust events that can swallow the whole planet for weeks.
00:34:21But I couldn't turn back.
00:34:23I had to know what was behind that door before the sand covered it up again.
00:34:27When we got to the rock face, the door looked even more imposing than before.
00:34:31It sat there half-buried, a silent sentinel from a future that had already passed.
00:34:36I hooked up the plasma cutter to the rover's external power port.
00:34:41The cables were barely long enough.
00:34:43I had to park the rover at a dangerous angle just to get the reach.
00:34:47Cutting through that lock was the most terrifying thing I have ever done.
00:34:51You have to understand.
00:34:53I'm an archivist.
00:34:54I preserve things.
00:34:56I don't destroy them.
00:34:58Putting a plasma torch to a 4,000-year-old artifact felt like burning a book.
00:35:02But I needed water.
00:35:05The metal didn't want to give.
00:35:07It was some kind of advanced alloy.
00:35:09Something stronger than the steel we used on Earth in 2067.
00:35:13The sparks were blinding, showering over my suit, bouncing off my visor.
00:35:17I could hear the sizzling sound conducted through the metal of my gloves.
00:35:21It took 40 minutes to cut through the locking mechanism.
00:35:2540 minutes of sweating inside this suit.
00:35:27Watching the battery gauge on the rover drop.
00:35:30Watching the storm clouds roll in over the ridge.
00:35:33When the last holding pin melted, the door didn't pop open.
00:35:37It didn't swing wide.
00:35:39It just... settled.
00:35:41It slumped a fraction of an inch.
00:35:44Released from the tension of centuries.
00:35:46I used the pry bar to force it.
00:35:49It groaned.
00:35:51I stepped into the airlock.
00:35:53And that is where I am right now.
00:35:56I haven't taken my helmet off.
00:35:58My sensors say the air in here is technically breathable.
00:36:02Low pressure.
00:36:02High nitrogen.
00:36:04But enough oxygen to keep a human alive.
00:36:06But it's cold.
00:36:08Minus 40 degrees.
00:36:09And frankly the air smells dead.
00:36:12Even through the suit's olfactory scrubbers I can imagine the smell.
00:36:16Stale.
00:36:17Ancient.
00:36:18The smell of a room that has been closed since before the Roman Empire fell.
00:36:22If you count time backwards from when this place was built.
00:36:25But here's the good news.
00:36:26I didn't just find an empty hallway.
00:36:29Beyond the inner airlock door.
00:36:31Which was unlocked thank god.
00:36:34I found a storage room.
00:36:35It looks like a supply depot for the survey teams.
00:37:07I walked in.
00:37:08It looks like it was grown rather than manufactured.
00:37:11But the dimensions.
00:37:12The thread pitch on the connectors.
00:37:15ISO standard.
00:37:16International standards organization.
00:37:18Holding a piece of ceramic that was manufactured a thousand years after I was born.
00:37:23And I laughed until I choked.
00:37:25Empires fall.
00:37:26Civilizations crumble.
00:37:28The earth dies.
00:37:29But ISO standards remain.
00:37:31The screw threads are the same.
00:37:34I can use this.
00:37:35I can fix the recycler.
00:37:37I have water.
00:37:39That should be the end of the story right?
00:37:41A victory.
00:37:43High fives all around.
00:37:45But it's not.
00:37:46Because after I secured the filters I started looking around.
00:37:50This station wasn't destroyed.
00:37:51It wasn't attacked.
00:37:54There are no blast marks.
00:37:55No bodies.
00:37:56No signs of panic.
00:37:58It was decommissioned.
00:37:59It was packed up.
00:38:00I walked further in.
00:38:02Past the storage room.
00:38:03Into what looks like a common area or a mess hall.
00:38:06There are tables bolted to the floor.
00:38:08There's a whiteboard on the wall with faint markings that haven't faded.
00:38:12I shined my light on it.
00:38:14It's a duty roster.
00:38:16Say.
00:38:17Names.
00:38:18Commander J. Santos.
00:38:20Geologist K. Tanaka.
00:38:23Systems Lead A.
00:38:24Ivanov.
00:38:26Real people.
00:38:27People with names.
00:38:28Jobs.
00:38:29Families.
00:38:30They sat at these tables.
00:38:32They drank coffee here.
00:38:34They complained about the weather.
00:38:35They lived here in the year 3002.
00:38:39900 years after my ship launched.
00:38:42I found a data pad on one of the tables.
00:38:44It's dead, obviously.
00:38:46The battery is just a brick of corrosion now.
00:38:49But next to it I found something that doesn't need a battery.
00:38:52A paper book.
00:38:53A paperback novel.
00:38:54The cover is faded, almost white.
00:38:57But I could read the title's spine.
00:39:00It's The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.
00:39:03Can you appreciate the irony?
00:39:05Someone brought a book about colonizing Mars to a Mars colony a thousand years in the future.
00:39:10It's dog-eared.
00:39:11Someone loved this book.
00:39:14They read it here in this room while the wind howled outside.
00:39:18And then they left.
00:39:20That's the part that is haunting me as I sit here.
00:39:23The orderliness of it all.
00:39:25They didn't die here.
00:39:27They packed their bags, turned off the lights, locked the door, and went.
00:39:31Where?
00:39:32If they went back to Earth, why is the radio silent?
00:39:36If they went to another star, why leave this place intact?
00:39:39I found a plaque in the hallway.
00:39:42It commemorates the centennial of the Meridiani settlement.
00:39:46A hundred years of habitation.
00:39:48That means this wasn't just an outpost.
00:39:51It was a home.
00:39:52For generations.
00:39:54Kids were probably born here.
00:39:56They grew up looking at this red sky, thinking it was normal.
00:40:00To them, Earth was the alien planet.
00:40:02Earth was the myth.
00:40:05And now they are gone.
00:40:06Just like us.
00:40:08I tried to leave an hour ago.
00:40:10I had the filters.
00:40:12I had the data.
00:40:13I was ready to run back to the safety of my little pod.
00:40:16But Mars had other plans.
00:40:18The storm I saw earlier.
00:40:20It's here.
00:40:21When I tried to cycle the outer airlock door, the sensor screamed at me.
00:40:25Visibility is zero.
00:40:27Wind speed is gusting at 200 kilometers per hour.
00:40:30The rover is heavy, but out there, in that chaos, it could tip.
00:40:34Or I could get lost in the whiteout, three meters from the door.
00:40:37So, I'm trapped.
00:40:39I am stuck in the vestibule of a ghost house for the night.
00:40:42Pixel is not happy.
00:40:44He's curled up in the corner of the airlock, his optical sensors fixed on the inner door leading into the
00:40:49dark station.
00:40:50He's growling low in his throat every few minutes.
00:40:53He doesn't like the acoustics here.
00:40:55Or maybe he's picking up something my suit sensors are missing.
00:40:58A vibration.
00:41:00A draft.
00:41:01I told him it's just the storm buffering the station.
00:41:04But I'm not sure I believe it.
00:41:06The silence in here is heavy.
00:41:08It's not the empty silence of the desert.
00:41:11It's a waiting silence.
00:41:13I'm going to try to sleep.
00:41:14I need to conserve oxygen, so I'm dialing down the suit's consumption rate.
00:41:18I'll leave the helmet on.
00:41:20Tomorrow, if the storm clears, I'll run.
00:41:23I'll take the filters, get back to the pod, and fix the water.
00:41:27I will survive.
00:41:29But tonight...
00:41:30Tonight I am a guest in a museum of the future.
00:41:34I'm a caveman who wandered into a palace built by his great-great-grandchildren,
00:41:39only to find they are already dead.
00:41:42It makes me feel incredibly small.
00:41:45When I launched, I thought I was the future.
00:41:48I thought I was humanity's seed.
00:41:51But I'm not.
00:41:52I'm a relic.
00:41:54I'm a remnant.
00:41:56Humanity moved on without me.
00:41:59They built all of this.
00:42:00They lived.
00:42:01They achieved something and vanished.
00:42:03All while I was frozen in a tube dreaming of electric sheep.
00:42:08I missed the whole show.
00:42:10I slept through the rise and fall of Martian civilization.
00:42:15I look at the filters on my lap.
00:42:17They are my lifeline.
00:42:19But they are also a tombstone.
00:42:23This is Matt Wally.
00:42:26Signing off from Meridiana A07 Station.
00:42:29Year...
00:42:30Well...
00:42:31The year doesn't matter.
00:42:33Status.
00:42:34Alive.
00:42:35Water crisis.
00:42:36In progress.
00:42:38Existential crisis.
00:42:40Just beginning.
00:42:41If you're out there.
00:42:43If anyone is out there.
00:42:45Don't wait for tomorrow.
00:42:47Live today.
00:42:48Because apparently, even a thousand years of progress can just be switched off and locked behind a door.
00:42:54Good night.
00:43:03This is Matt Wally, ID4490.
00:43:07Archival Department, UNS Eterna.
00:43:09Sol 5.
00:43:10I'm recording this from the pod.
00:43:13I am alive.
00:43:14The systems are green.
00:43:16The emergency lights are off.
00:43:18For the first time in five days, the critical alert siren isn't drilling a hole in my skull.
00:43:23I have power from the solar farm.
00:43:26And I have water.
00:43:27I should be celebrating.
00:43:29I should be popping a bottle of champagne.
00:43:31Or at least simulating one on the display.
00:43:34I solved the water crisis.
00:43:36I cheated death again.
00:43:37But if you are watching this, you will notice the pod feels too big tonight.
00:43:42You'll notice the charging dock in the corner isn't blinking with that rhythmic green pulse.
00:43:47The spot on the floor where he usually powers down is empty.
00:43:52Pixel is gone.
00:43:54I need to record this while it is fresh.
00:43:57While the guilt is still sharp enough to keep me awake.
00:44:00Because if I fall asleep again, I'm afraid I won't want to wake up.
00:44:04I need to put this on the record.
00:44:06I left him.
00:44:08I left him behind.
00:44:10Let's go back to this morning.
00:44:11Back to the airlock at Meridiani 07.
00:44:14I waited out the storm.
00:44:17It took six hours.
00:44:19Six hours of sitting in the dark.
00:44:21Listening to the wind try to tear that station apart.
00:44:24Scrubbing the paint off the hull with a billion tiny rocks.
00:44:27I sat on that crate, watching the oxygen counter on my HUD tick down.
00:44:31It's a simple math problem, really.
00:44:34A cruel binary equation.
00:44:36You have a tank.
00:44:38You have a consumption rate.
00:44:39You have a timeline.
00:44:41When the wind finally died down, the silence that followed was worse than the noise.
00:44:46It was sudden.
00:44:48One minute the world was screaming, and the next, it was dead quiet.
00:44:52The kind of quiet that hurts your ears.
00:44:55I stood up.
00:44:56My legs were numb from the cold.
00:44:58The suit heater was struggling to keep up with the ambient temperature of the metal airlock.
00:45:03I cycled the outer door.
00:45:05The hydraulics groaned.
00:45:07A sound like a dying beast.
00:45:09The sensors gave me the all clear.
00:45:11The dust had settled just enough to see the outline of the rover, buried up to its axles in new
00:45:16drifts.
00:45:17I called for him.
00:45:19Pixel.
00:45:20Front and center.
00:45:21Usually when I say that command, I hear the click of his claws on the metal before I even finish
00:45:26the sentence.
00:45:27He's programmed for immediate recall.
00:45:30He's a machine designed to prioritize proximity to his handler.
00:45:34It's hard-coded into his kernel.
00:45:36Nothing.
00:45:38I stepped out into the vestibule.
00:45:40The dust was still thick in the air, hanging like fog.
00:45:43I switched my vision to thermal.
00:45:45I scanned the area.
00:45:47I scanned the rover.
00:45:49I looked under the chassis.
00:45:51I looked at the rocks nearby.
00:45:53Nothing.
00:45:54No heat signature.
00:45:56No electromagnetic pulse.
00:45:57Just the cold, blue-gray ghost of the Martian landscape.
00:46:01I tried the radio link.
00:46:03Unit PXL acknowledge.
00:46:05Ping location.
00:46:06My HUD just spun that little loading circle.
00:46:09Signal lost.
00:46:11Target not found.
00:46:12I looked back at the inner door of the station.
00:46:16The one leading into the dark.
00:46:17I remembered how he was growling at it last night.
00:46:20How he was fixated on it.
00:46:23Did he go inside?
00:46:24Did the storm spook him?
00:46:26Did his sensors pick up something that overrode his programming?
00:46:30Or did he see something I couldn't?
00:46:32I wanted to go in.
00:46:34Every fiber of my being wanted to cut that lock on the inner door again, march into the darkness, and
00:46:39drag him out by his collar.
00:46:41I took a step toward it.
00:46:42I actually grabbed the handle of the plasma cutter.
00:46:45And then my suit alarm blared.
00:46:48And then my suit alarm blared.
00:46:48Oxygen critical.
00:46:5015%.
00:46:52That's the hard math of survival I was talking about.
00:46:5515% meant I had just enough air to get back to the pod if I drove fast.
00:47:00If I stayed to search, if I spent even 20 minutes looking for him, I wouldn't make it back.
00:47:08I would suffocate halfway home, and then there would be two ghosts parked in the desert instead of one.
00:47:15I stood there for a full minute, wasting precious breath, looking at that dark doorway.
00:47:21I had to make a choice.
00:47:22The kind of choice they don't train you for in archival school.
00:47:26They teach you how to restore corrupted data, not how to leave a friend behind to save your own skin.
00:47:32I got in the rover.
00:47:34I didn't look back.
00:47:36The drive home was a blur.
00:47:38I don't remember steering.
00:47:40I don't remember the bumps.
00:47:42I just remember the empty seat next to me.
00:47:44The way the suspension didn't compress on the passenger side.
00:47:48I remember staring at the oxygen gauge.
00:47:5110%.
00:47:528%.
00:47:535%.
00:47:54I was shivering uncontrollably by the time I saw the pod.
00:47:59Hypoxia was setting in.
00:48:00My vision was tunneling, the edges of the world turning black.
00:48:05My fingers felt like sausages.
00:48:06Too clumsy to grip the controls properly.
00:48:10I almost crashed into the solar array I set up two days ago.
00:48:14I stumbled into the airlock, cycled it, and practically fell out of the suit.
00:48:18I was gasping, gulping down the stale air of the pod like a fish on a deck.
00:48:24My head was spinning, my lungs burning.
00:48:27But I didn't stop.
00:48:29I couldn't stop.
00:48:30Because if I stopped, I would have to think about what I just did.
00:48:34I grabbed the filters I salvaged from the station.
00:48:37The ISO standard ceramic membranes from the year 3002.
00:48:40I ripped open the access panel of the water recycler.
00:48:43I didn't even turn the system off properly.
00:48:46I just yanked the power cord.
00:48:48I pulled out the old cracked filter, the one held together with epoxy and hope, and threw it on the
00:48:53floor.
00:48:53It shattered.
00:48:54I didn't care.
00:48:56I took the new one.
00:48:58It was sleek, black, perfect.
00:49:01It slid into the slot with a satisfying click.
00:49:04The threads aligned perfectly.
00:49:06A thousand years of separation.
00:49:08And the screw turns the same way.
00:49:11Isn't that funny?
00:49:12We can lose a whole civilization.
00:49:15But we kept the thread pitch.
00:49:16I powered it up.
00:49:18The machine hummed.
00:49:20Not the rattling, coughing noise it's been making for a week.
00:49:23A smooth, steady hum.
00:49:25The diagnostic lights flickered.
00:49:27Red.
00:49:29Yellow.
00:49:30Green.
00:49:32Water purification.
00:49:34Optimal.
00:49:35Output.
00:49:36Potable.
00:49:36I grabbed a ration pouch and filled it from the dispenser.
00:49:40The water came out clear.
00:49:42Not brown.
00:49:44Not cloudy.
00:49:46Clear.
00:49:48I drank it.
00:49:49It was the best thing I've ever tasted.
00:49:52It was cold, clean, and tasteless.
00:49:56It didn't taste like chemicals or recycled sweat.
00:49:59It tasted like life.
00:50:01I drank the whole pouch.
00:50:03Then I filled another one.
00:50:05I drank until my stomach hurt.
00:50:07I ate a protein bar without even tasting it.
00:50:10And then the adrenaline crash hit me like a hammer.
00:50:13I didn't even make it to the bunk.
00:50:15I sat down right there, next to the recycler, leaning against the bulkhead.
00:50:20And I blacked out.
00:50:21I slept for six hours.
00:50:24No dreams.
00:50:26Just blackness.
00:50:28I woke up an hour ago.
00:50:30My headache is gone.
00:50:31My throat isn't dry anymore.
00:50:33My body feels...
00:50:35functional.
00:50:37Hydrated.
00:50:38The panic of dying of thirst is gone.
00:50:41The problem that has been defining my existence for five days is solved.
00:50:45I have water.
00:50:46I have power.
00:50:48I have shelter.
00:50:50But the silence in this pod is deafening.
00:50:53I've been busy for the last hour.
00:50:55I needed to be busy.
00:50:57I cleaned the solar panels outside.
00:50:59I organized the ration packs by expiration date, even though they all expire in 2070.
00:51:05I calibrated the long-range antenna, even though there's no one to talk to.
00:51:09I'm doing all this because I'm preparing.
00:51:12I am not staying here.
00:51:14The logic of survival says I should stay.
00:51:18I have everything I need right here.
00:51:20Going back to Meridiani-07 is dangerous.
00:51:23It's a waste of resources.
00:51:25It's risking my life for a piece of hardware.
00:51:29Pixel is a machine.
00:51:30He is a collection of servos, processors, and code.
00:51:34He can be replaced.
00:51:36In theory.
00:51:37But he's not just a machine.
00:51:39He's the only other thing in this entire solar system that knows my name.
00:51:43He's the only reason I haven't walked out of the airlock without a suit.
00:51:47He found that door.
00:51:48He saved me.
00:51:50I looked at the map.
00:51:52The storm has cleared completely.
00:51:54The weather forecast is stable for the next 12 hours.
00:51:57I have refilled the oxygen tanks from the pod's main reserve.
00:52:01I have charged the rover's batteries to 100%.
00:52:04I have packed extra water.
00:52:06My new, clean water.
00:52:08Tomorrow morning, at first light, I am going back.
00:52:12I don't care if it's illogical.
00:52:14I don't care if there are ghosts at that station, or if the timeline is broken.
00:52:19I'm going to find my dog.
00:52:21And then I'm going to figure out what happened to the people who built that place.
00:52:25I'm done running.
00:52:26I'm done just trying to survive the day.
00:52:29If I'm the last man, then I set the rules.
00:52:31And my rule is, we don't leave our own behind.
00:52:35Even robots.
00:52:37This is Matt Wally.
00:52:39Sol 5.
00:52:40I have water, I'm rested, and I'm angry.
00:52:43I'm coming for you, buddy.
00:52:45End of recording.
00:52:57This is Matt Wally.
00:52:59ID 44-90.
00:53:01Archival department.
00:53:03UNS Aeterna.
00:53:05Sol 6.
00:53:08I went back for him.
00:53:11You can put that in my personnel file, if there's anything left of it.
00:53:18Archivist Wally.
00:53:19Against survival protocol, common sense, and basic self-preservation instinct.
00:53:27Voluntarily headed back into an abandoned geological station that is two and a half thousand years old.
00:53:33Just to save a robot.
00:53:37A robot.
00:53:39A bundle of titanium, servos, and neural network algorithms that doesn't even know how to truly whimper.
00:53:48It just mimics a sound from a recorded database.
00:53:53But you know what?
00:53:56I left at dawn.
00:53:59Martian dawn isn't what they paint on postcards.
00:54:03No gold.
00:54:05No majesty.
00:54:08Just a dirty pink streak on the horizon.
00:54:12Like someone smeared rust across glass.
00:54:17But for me, it was a signal.
00:54:21I loaded eight hours of oxygen into the suit.
00:54:26Eight.
00:54:28That sounds like a lot until you remember that the trip one way is an hour and a half.
00:54:34And that every extra effort, every quickened breath, every moment of panic gnaws away at those eight hours.
00:54:46Minute by minute.
00:54:48I took flashlights.
00:54:51Three of them.
00:54:52A pry bar.
00:54:55Yes.
00:54:56A pry bar.
00:54:58The 21st century archivist's most advanced weapon against the 21st century unknown.
00:55:06Funny.
00:55:08Funny.
00:55:09I wasn't laughing.
00:55:10The Aunt G started on the third try.
00:55:15I'm already used to its tantrums.
00:55:18This rover is like an old man dragged out of the grave and forced to run a marathon.
00:55:25It creaks.
00:55:27It groans.
00:55:29Its suspension makes sounds that would give any engineer a heart attack.
00:55:34But it drives.
00:55:37It drives, damn it.
00:55:40And I drive with it.
00:55:42Back to Station Meridiani 07.
00:55:46Back to that door behind which my only friend disappeared.
00:55:52But it drives.
00:55:53The station met me with silence.
00:55:56Not just silence.
00:55:59A vacuum of sound.
00:56:02Here, nothing.
00:56:04Back to Meridiani 07.
00:56:06Only my breathing in the helmet and the quiet beep of sensors.
00:56:12The station airlock was open.
00:56:15No one closed it behind me.
00:56:17No one came to check.
00:56:20Of course they didn't.
00:56:22There is no one.
00:56:25I went inside.
00:56:27The station turned out to be massive, long corridors stretching into the dark, lined with panels made of some composite
00:56:40material that hasn't even dimmed in thousands of years.
00:56:44The people who built this place knew what they were doing.
00:56:48They built for centuries, for millennia.
00:56:52And I don't know whether to be happy about that or horrified.
00:56:58And here is what really got to me.
00:57:03People didn't flee from here.
00:57:07They left.
00:57:11Organized.
00:57:13Methodical.
00:57:14According to a plan.
00:57:18Duty rosters on the walls filled out to the very last day.
00:57:23The last day.
00:57:29Someone, on their final work day at this station, knowing they were leaving forever, walked up to the wall and
00:57:38wrote their name in the schedule box.
00:57:41Why?
00:57:43Habit?
00:57:46Duty?
00:57:48Or simply, a way to say, I was here.
00:57:54I walked through the corridors, and I had the feeling that I was an archaeologist breaking into a tomb.
00:58:03Only in this tomb, there are no mummies.
00:58:08There is the light of emergency signs that is still burning, feeding off some source that outlived its creators.
00:58:18I found Pixel in the laboratory.
00:58:22He was standing in front of a closed door with a biometric lock.
00:58:28Frozen.
00:58:29Like a statue.
00:58:32His titanium chassis was covered in fine scratches.
00:58:35He had been clawing at that door for hours.
00:58:40His processor was looped on a single task.
00:58:44Object detected behind barrier.
00:58:47Access required.
00:58:49Priority.
00:58:50Critical.
00:58:52Critical.
00:58:55A dog, well, a machine mimicking a dog, decided that behind that door was something so important, it was worth
00:59:07tearing its claws down to metal shavings.
00:59:12Pixel has never done that.
00:59:16Never.
00:59:20Until this door.
00:59:24I rebooted him.
00:59:27He came to recognize me.
00:59:31But in his logs, I found something.
00:59:39Behind the door, Pixel detected faint electromagnetic radiation.
00:59:45But the pattern...
00:59:47The pattern matched.
00:59:50It matched the signature of human communication implants.
00:59:5521st century technology.
00:59:58My century.
01:00:01The very generation of microchips implanted in the crew of the Eterna before the flight.
01:00:07I checked twice.
01:00:09I checked twice.
01:00:10Three times.
01:00:12A match.
01:00:1494%.
01:00:15How?
01:00:18How behind a door, in a sealed laboratory of a station that is two and a half thousand years old,
01:00:27can there be something with technology from my time?
01:00:32I feel this thought beating against the inside of my skull, like a fly against glass.
01:00:39I find no answer.
01:00:43Not yet.
01:00:45Next to the door is a terminal.
01:00:48The last entry.
01:00:51Listen closely.
01:00:53Protocol Exodus.
01:00:55All personnel transferred to Vault Alpha.
01:00:59Coordinates.
01:01:00Date.
01:01:014-5-6-7-A-D.
01:01:04Laboratory 7 sealed.
01:01:07Access denied until authorization from the Council.
01:01:104-5-6-7.
01:01:15My ship launched in 2067.
01:01:19The station closed in 4567.
01:01:24That is two and a half thousand years.
01:01:28While I slept in the cryopod.
01:01:31While my ship flew to a star and back.
01:01:35Here on Mars.
01:01:36Entire epics passed.
01:01:40Civilizations rose and fell.
01:01:42And at some point.
01:01:45And at some point.
01:01:45They left.
01:01:47Everyone.
01:01:49At once.
01:01:51I stumbled upon the hydroponic section by accident.
01:01:55I opened the door and stopped.
01:01:59A massive room.
01:02:01Rows of vertical shelves.
01:02:04And the smell.
01:02:06There was a smell.
01:02:08Not rot.
01:02:09No.
01:02:10The smell of dry earth.
01:02:13Substrate.
01:02:15A smell that caught in my throat.
01:02:17Because it is the smell of life.
01:02:20In the corner.
01:02:21Containers.
01:02:24Sealed.
01:02:26Potatoes.
01:02:28Potatoes.
01:02:29Lettuce.
01:02:31Tomatoes.
01:02:33Seeds.
01:02:36Living.
01:02:37Viable seeds.
01:02:39Sleeping in their vacuum sarcophagi.
01:02:43And on the wall.
01:02:45Instructions.
01:02:48Potato harvest cycle.
01:02:5090 souls.
01:02:5390 souls.
01:02:573 months.
01:02:59In 3 months.
01:03:01I could have potatoes.
01:03:04Real potatoes.
01:03:06Grown by my own hands.
01:03:08On Mars.
01:03:11I stood in the middle of this dead farm.
01:03:14And laughed.
01:03:16I laughed.
01:03:17And couldn't stop.
01:03:19And tears ran down my cheeks.
01:03:22And I was grateful for the helmet.
01:03:25Because there was no one to see it except Pixel.
01:03:28And he doesn't care.
01:03:31Hope is a dangerous thing.
01:03:34More dangerous than a lack of oxygen.
01:03:39Because when you have nothing, you accept it.
01:03:43He becomes stone.
01:03:46Stone feels no pain.
01:03:49But when you get a chance, tiny, fragile, like a sprout through concrete, you become human again.
01:03:59And humans feel pain.
01:04:03Humans are afraid to lose.
01:04:06I loaded everything I could carry.
01:04:10And then I looked at the suit sensors.
01:04:1322% oxygen.
01:04:16So much for hope.
01:04:19One moment you're celebrating salvation.
01:04:22The next you're counting minutes again.
01:04:24I rolled the cart to the airlock.
01:04:28Fast.
01:04:31Too fast.
01:04:33Too fast.
01:04:34And there.
01:04:36On the way out of the hydroponic section.
01:04:39I saw it.
01:04:43On the wall.
01:04:46Graffiti.
01:04:49Scratched with something sharp.
01:04:53The letters uneven.
01:04:55Rushed.
01:04:57As if the person was writing in panic.
01:05:01They hurt us.
01:05:04Do not activate the beacon.
01:05:08MW.
01:05:104566.
01:05:154566.
01:05:164566.
01:05:18One year before the station closed.
01:05:22Someone.
01:05:23MW.
01:05:25Hurriedly.
01:05:26In fear.
01:05:28Scratched a warning on the wall.
01:05:31They hurt us.
01:05:33Who are they?
01:05:36Do not activate the beacon.
01:05:39What beacon?
01:05:41And MW.
01:05:45Initials.
01:05:47MW.
01:05:50Matt Wally.
01:05:52MW.
01:05:57That's a coincidence.
01:06:01It has to be a coincidence.
01:06:03It's statistics.
01:06:05Not mysticism.
01:06:07And the fact is that I was lying in a cryopod in 4566.
01:06:12I couldn't have written that.
01:06:15Physically couldn't.
01:06:17But I took a picture of the inscription.
01:06:20And my hands were shaking.
01:06:23And not from the cold.
01:06:26The last five kilometers to the pod I remember in fragments.
01:06:31Oxygen.
01:06:32Eight percent.
01:06:33Lungs burning.
01:06:34The aunt Chi roaring beneath me.
01:06:39Autopilot.
01:06:40Autopilot.
01:06:41Thank you.
01:06:42Whoever programmed you 4,000 years ago.
01:06:45Thank you.
01:06:46It is evening now.
01:06:49I unloaded the finds.
01:06:52Seeds.
01:06:53Soil.
01:06:54The manual.
01:06:56Planting depth of potato tuber.
01:06:59Ten centimeters.
01:07:01Poetry.
01:07:02Pure applied poetry of survival.
01:07:06For the first time in days I feel something resembling a plan.
01:07:12Tomorrow I will start setting up the planting zone.
01:07:17I will do this.
01:07:20But.
01:07:23Behind the laboratory door.
01:07:25There is something.
01:07:28Something emitting a signal from my generation.
01:07:32Something the council ordered sealed.
01:07:35And on the wall.
01:07:37An inscription made by a person in panic.
01:07:41With my initials.
01:07:42A year before everyone left.
01:07:45They heard us.
01:07:47Do not activate the beacon.
01:07:51Whoever you were MW.
01:07:53I heard you.
01:07:55But I'm not sure I understood.
01:07:59Tomorrow.
01:08:00Seeds.
01:08:02The day after tomorrow.
01:08:04I go back for answers.
01:08:07I have time now.
01:08:10Ninety souls until the first harvest.
01:08:13Ninety souls to figure out what happened to the world while I slept.
01:08:18And you know.
01:08:21Pixel is lying in his spot right now.
01:08:25Indicators green.
01:08:28Charging.
01:08:30But even in sleep.
01:08:32If you can call it sleep.
01:08:35His ears are turned toward the station.
01:08:38He is listening.
01:08:41Maybe I should start listening too.
01:08:44This is Matt Wally.
01:08:46Saw six.
01:08:48End of recording.
Comentários