Seventy-Fifth Entry

March 15^th, 2037

1400

Dear Space Diary.

I find myself posed with a difficult conundrum. I am unable to fit through the partially jammed shut door of my buried spaceship to fly it out of there. The alternative is to dig for another week, something neither I nor Mary are particularly looking forward to. There is a third option, but it’s not one I am entirely –

“Can I try yet, or what?”

…I can’t fault her courage I guess.

Yes Mary, fine. You can fly my ship out of there.

“Finally. Ok, gimme some room.”

1402

“Ok, I’m in.”

Yes Mary, I can see that.

“I thought I should mention it for the listeners at home.”

Very funny Mary. I don’t narrate every single little moment. Just the important bits.

1406

My nose is itchy.

“Riveting. Just riveting.”

Just hurry up and get my ship out of there.

“I’m reading the manual. Hey, what are these tube things?”

They’re the food supply and… um, the food disposal systems.

“…Ouch.”

Exactly.

1415

“This is going to be easy. The controls are just like the Zubrin. Ok, I’m going to program in a short burst on a thirty second countdown. That’ll get it out of the ground, then we can land it somewhere, swap places, and you can get out of here. Looks like everything is working properly, so you can hopefully get straight home.”

Ok, great. Thank you. And you’re sure you’re happy waiting for the rescue ship?

“Sure am. I’m not going five weeks without a shower. Not when you’re the result.”

Charming as always.

“You know it. Ok, countdown is set.”

THIRTY

TWENTY-NINE

TWENTY-EIGHT

TWENTY-SEVEN

“This is boring. I should have set it at ten. Ten’s traditional, anyway.”

TWENTY-TWO

TWENTY-ONE

My nose is really itchy. I’m going to have to do something about it.

“Like scratching it?”

Thank you, Mary, never would have thought about that on my own.

“You’re welcome. You know, I’ve changed my mind about Mr Rock. He’s actually kinda cool.”

SIXTEEN

FIFTEEN

FOURTEEN

“Hey, there are some messages on here from NASA for you.”

Really? What do they say?

“I’m not going through your mail, what do you take me for? You can read them after I land.”

Um, ok then.

“Some of them are pretty old, but a few are dated this morning.”

Hmm. They must have started sending them there after I reported I found the ship. Why wouldn’t they just send them to the Zubrin?

“Beats me. Maybe they thought you’d fly off straight away and you might not get them otherwise. Maybe they sent you some navigation data to get you home. Maybe they just got the wrong ship by mistake. This is NASA we’re talking about.”

NINE

EIGHT

SEVEN

“Oh yeah. There’s something I forgot to mention.”

SIX

What is it?

FIVE

“You know how I said I’d fly the ship out, land, and we’d swap places?

FOUR

Yes?

THREE

“Well…”

TWO

“I lied. I’m going home.”

ONE

“See ya!”