Fortieth Entry

March 10^th, 2037

1705

Dear Space Diary.

I’m currently about to vacuumed up by a giant alien death tube.

In all honesty, it’s been a bit of a day.

The tubes (of which there are hundreds) have burst down through the roof and are currently sucking up large chunks of the rock pile that I’ve been stuck in. Given the whole gravity thing, I’m being dragged with them.

NASA have no ideas. I have no ideas. I don’t know where Mr Rock has got to, but I’m almost certain he’d have no ideas.

How about you, Mary, any ideas? Nope. Still a skeleton. Oh well.

1707

Getting really close to the nearest tube now. It’s only a matter of time.

Wait, what’s that over... That’s my ship! My ship just rose out of the rock pile, right in front of the Zubrin! Phew, what a relief. It looks ok. Look, there’s Mr Rock in the window and everything!

1708

Even though my situation is still pretty dire, it’s quite uplifting to finally see the ship again. And I can go out now and everything. Sorry Mary, time to leave you to your devices and get back to my ship.

I’ll take the logs, though, not done with them yet.

1711

Door opened. The rocks are pretty unstable and moving, but if I’m careful I can keep my balance.

Ok, let’s get over to the ship quickly.

1713

Blast. Really hard to walk when the ground keeps shifting. Fallen over twice already.

Nearly at the ship now. My hand can almost reach the –

1714

It’s gone! It slipped under the rocks again.

Come on, come on, gotta dig it out, I need to get back inside.

Hang on, I can still see it through the cracks between the rocks.

1716

It’s moving quite fast actually.

Towards one of the... oh hell.

I’ve got to get to it. Maybe I can fire the engines before... oh.

1717

It just got sucked up the tube.

It’s gone. It’s actually gone. The ship, my home, for months, is gone. Mr Rock, the closest thing to a friend I have out here (which admittedly is not that close) is gone.

My origami cranes are gone.

1718

Ok, strange sense of loss over inanimate rocks and a tomb of a spaceship later. Escaping from death tubes now.

I better get back to the Zubrin.

1719

My leg is stuck. It’s caught between the rocks. It’s not painful, but I... I can’t move it!

1720

And I’m still moving. Towards the tubes. Outside the ship. In a lead based atmosphere.

This really is not my day.

1722

The rocks are too heavy to lift. I think I can roll this one a little though.

1723

Well, It did roll. It rolled on to my other leg. Now they’re both trapped.

Great.

1725

I’m almost under the tube.

1726

I can see up the tube. It stretches forever. Just rocks hurtling up it.

And now me.

Here goes.