MY MARTIAN. minsung

sixteen

[Sol 39...|]

Jisung blinked tiredly, his eyes barely staying open at this point.

He had been driving the entire day.

To put it lightly, the rover didn't go too fast, in any stretch of the imagination.
5 mph was the speed he was currently going at. It was just about as fast as he was going to get without depleting the battery too much- like he'd done before.

And with having to stop every so often and wait for Sojourner to charge, a trip that normally would've taken about five hours, in total, took just over twelve hours.
Twelve hours in which Jisung barely got any rest.

Driving could be exhausting.

So, the first thing he did when they got back to the HAB was attach the satellite to the solar panels.

The whole reason why Pathfinder had failed originally, way back in 1997, was due to the fact that the battery died.
All Jisung had to do was feed energy back into it, and it should start up once again.

Hopefully, anyway.

After he got inside the HAB, through one of its safety airlocks, Jisung sluggishly tugged off his spacesuit.

He all but flopped onto the nearest bed to him as soon as he stepped into their dorm section of the survival pod.

Being too sleepy to remove his clothes or pull the covers up and over himself, Jisung ended up passing out as soon as his head hit the pillow.

It was late in the morning by the time he arose, hair ruffled and heart heavy.
Today could be the day he finally reached out to Earth.

[Sol 40]|

Stumbling out of bed, still wearing his clothes from the day before, Jisung made his way to the same spacesuit from the night before, pulling it on.

As soon as his helmet clicked into place, he was good to go.

The Pathfinder should have been charged by then, and even if it wasn't, he was planning on leaving it connected to the panels.

Leaving the HAB and heading towards it slowly, Jisung held up three signs he had made previously, on one of his days off.

The first one, the one that would be placed in the middle, read: "Are you receiving me?" and then "or" further down.

The other two boards held the same word. "Yes." They were to be placed on either side of the first board.

If NASA was receiving the images, that means that they could operate the Pathfinder again, as they had done previously. If they moved the camera, no matter what, Jisung would know that they had gotten his message.

He set up all the boards on stakes and and situated himself for a long wait. The time difference between Mars and Earth was about 30 to 40 something minutes, as it always varied.

So, assuming that NASA had been monitoring him, it would still take about an hour and a half for him to hear back from them.

Might as well make himself comfortable.

After a wait almost twice as long as he had expected, and nearly dozing off about fifteen times, Jisung noticed the movement of the satellite receptor's camera through his half lidded eyes.

He shot up and did an old but classic dance.
Well, did it as well as he could, with all of his gear on.

Back in his highschool days, it was known as 'orange justice'.

While he was doing it, Jisung imagined the face Changbin would make if he saw him right now.

That sobered his mood considerably.

Wow.

His crew was really gone.

Jisung gulped, and made his way towards the satellite, thinking.

It was ok though, because he was going to survive this.

He was going to see his friends again.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-

SJSHJSKS you have no idea how much trouble this chapter was giving me.
It was almost
i m p o s s i b l e to write.

I'm sorry if it's boring 😥 but now that he's made contact wE cAN mOvE tHE pLoT.

I'm gonna ask questions-
You can ask me things too!

I'll start:

What ((music)) do you like to listen to while writing?

Recently I've been listening to Day6, they're 10/10 👌
And Troye Sivan. He noice.

I'm excited for the next chapter !!
👋👋👋