Rain fell outside the office window, smearing the lights shining from Johnston Space Center and the surrounding homes and businesses. It had been, as it happened, a very long, very busy day.

“All right,” Teddy said, slumping into his chair and leaving his briefcase on the floor beside it. “Give me a status update. First, how is Sleipnir 3 now?”

Venkat cleared his throat. The last couple days, ever since Sleipnir 1’s unexpected failure less than a minute after launch, he hadn’t felt like speaking to anyone, no matter how much he had to. “Sleipnir 3 is in a parking orbit of Earth, safe and secure,” he said. “Solar arrays deployed perfectly. Remaining fuel in the second stage is well below the amount required for the Mars injection burn. I’m waiting for an answer from SpaceX on when they can send a BFR refueler up.” His frown grew deeper as he added, “Since they shut down operations immediately after today’s launch, that could be a while.”

“Yes, about that,” Teddy muttered. Looking at Mitch, who instead of his usual slouch on the couch sat leaning forward on the cushion edge, he asked, “Any idea what caused this one?”

“It’s less mysterious than Sleipnir 1,” Mitch said. “Telemetry shows a sudden increase in the flow of oxygen from tank #2 of the first stage. The onboard computer detected it and immediately went into emergency abort mode, shutting down the main engines and decoupling from the second stage. With the second stage good to go for abort to orbit, the first stage executed a soft splashdown under power before the oxygen ran out. Recovery operations are underway. SpaceX is turning failure investigation of that over to us, since they have their hands full with the Sleipnir 1 investigation.”

“Keep me informed,” Teddy said. “How healthy is the probe itself?”

Bruce Ng, calling in from Pasadena, replied, “Both Sleipnir 2 and 3 show fully operational. Sleipnir 2 is on course with no correction needed at this time. Sleipnir 3 is in standby mode pending the Mars injection burn.”

“Good. Keep it that way.” Teddy sighed and turned to Annie. “I know the answer, but how is this playing in the press?”

“Actually better than expected,” Annie said. “Better for us, anyway. SpaceX is getting absolutely fucked in the media. The pundits are making the point that it was SpaceX systems that failed. NASA and JPL systems all worked.”

“That’s not going to be such a good thing in the short term,” Venkat muttered. “We need at least one more launch out of them to get Sleipnir 3 moving. The more pressure they feel under, the longer that’s going to take.”

“Tough shit,” Annie snapped. “They should have got it right the first time. But the only thing that splashes back on us in any way is that people are talking about the Great Galactic Ghoul again. One twit actually said on camera, ‘I guess God doesn’t want Mark Watney to have a new radio.’ Bullshit like that gets on my fucking nerves.”

Teddy nodded, brushing the point aside with his hand. “Bottom line,” he said quietly. “What does this do to Mark Watney?”

“In terms of food, no immediate change,” Venkat said. “We were shipping almost three hundred days of food for four people. So long as we get Sleipnir 3 refueled within three months or so, he’ll end up with the last two hundred sols before rescue with full food. But Sleipnir 3 needs to arrive by Sol 667 at least in case he has to travel overland to Schiaparelli and the Ares IV MAV. He’ll need extra time for travel and for any modifications to the MAV he might need to make.

“More to the point, he won’t have a reliable radio. We sent two, but we just dragged one out of the Atlantic with the Sleipnir 1 wreckage, and the other is parked in orbit until we can refuel the engine. He’s limited to Pathfinder or the Morse code key he installed on the alien ship’s radio for communications for the duration.”

Teddy pondered this information. “From here it looks like all that’s happened is that we’ve lost our redundancy,” he said. “Which is fine, because that’s why we have redundancy. But if something else goes wrong, Mark is thrown back on his own resources again.”

Venkat nodded. “That’s what it looks like from my desk too. Astromaterials is still demanding that I make Mark and his friends do something to guarantee the air seal on that cave of theirs. I suppose I’ll have to make another stab at it now.”

“Why haven’t they done something?”

“Resource priorities. The alien magic, or whatever it is, is the only effective tool they have for the job. It’s almost impossible to apply a sealant compound on the walls and ceiling inside the cave. And applying some sort of water or ice or other compound to the ground above the cave will only cause erosion and increase the danger of a breach. And they’re using their magic reserves for making new batteries and harvesting crops.” Venkat shrugged and added, “Also, their superiors back home say it’d be more dangerous to change conditions in the cave than to leave them as they are. A couple of my outside consultants agree with them.”

“Hmm.” Teddy ran a finger along his desk blotter. “That farm, and the crops Mark is growing in the Hab, represents the only safety margin he has left,” he said.

“More than that,” Venkat said. “He needs at least one more harvest to have enough food even to get to the arrival of Sleipnir 2.”

“Talk to Mark. No, wait- ask for a direct connection to the alien leaders,” Teddy said. “We need to get through to them just how vital it is that that cave be preserved. And then get with SpaceX and see how quickly we can get two more boosters up. Bruce, get your team working on Sleipnir 4. I want to get our redundancy back.”

“We’ll do what we can,” Bruce said, exhaustion in his voice.

“Moving on,” Teddy said. “It’s two months until Hermes begins aerobraking. How is the crew holding up?”

“They’re worried about their crewmate,” Mitch said flatly. “They’ve all volunteered for Ares 3B. My first pick for that crew remains Martinez, Beck and Johannsen. I’d send Lewis back out if there were room for a fourth crew member.”

“We’ve had this discussion, Mitch,” Teddy said. “Ares III has been in space almost a year. Even with simulated Mars gravity and a monitored diet, there are serious health issues. Exposing them to another year in space so soon is an unacceptable risk. We’re going with your B team.”

“They’re not as good,” Mitch said. “I chose them for backups solely because I didn’t want to bump anyone in line for Ares IV or Ares V.”

“It is what it is,” Teddy said. “I want the best available pilot, doctor, and sysop on that mission. Have you asked for volunteers?”

“Practically the whole astronaut corps volunteered,” Mitch replied. “Even the Ares IV crew. Of course they volunteered. They’re astronauts.”

“They’re astronauts,” Teddy agreed. “I want your revised Ares 3B crew and backups within the week.”

Mitch grumbled but didn’t say anything intelligible.

“One last order of business,” Teddy said. “Are there any new results from the Watney Prize entries?”

“Nothing much,” Venkat said. “About the only useful suggestion we’ve had is using the simulator MAV to speed up assembly of a lander for Ares 3B. We’re still looking into how much that might save, but it’s still not looking good. We doubt we’ll have a special MAV to send on 3B when it leaves Earth. Almost all the other suggestions are impractical at best, ludicrous at worst.”

Teddy sighed. “So, no improvement on Sol 768?” he asked.

Venkat shook his head. “Nothing at this time,” he said.

To: Starlight Glimmer ([email protected])
From: Rich Purnell ([email protected])
Subject: Magical Laws – Formula Check

I am working on a project and need the following equations checked. These are derivatives of the equations from your previous reports and communications. Any clarification you could give on whether these formulas work would really help…

Author's Notes:

No time for any notes except this: I'm not burning out. My only creative problem with this project is finding things to put between the main plot advancement points in order to maintain at least a thin sense of passage of time.

My problem with maintaining a buffer is for one reason only; in the past week I have had no time to myself for practically any purpose whatever. I'm stealing moments here and there to get any writing at all done.

Fortunately, the trip is in its final stages. I'm bedding down in Navajo country tonight in New Mexico and will be in Texas tomorrow, though it looks like I won't get home until Wednesday. After that I'm not someone else's employee anymore, at least not for a while. and I can dictate my own schedule again within the limits of the convention circuit.