SOL 68; HAB KITCHEN

"It's time to start thinking long term," Olivia spoke as she got the camera rolling. Watney in the back working on the potato farm. Since that first sprout, the farm had just burst to life. SHe traced the map of Mars, letting her finger go from where they were to where Ares 4 would be. A sigh escaped her lips.

"The next NASA mission is Ares 4. It's supposed to land at the Schiaparelli Crater, 3,200 km away. Mark and I somehow have to figure out how to get there within the next four years." She raised the pen to her temple, a headache already starting to form. "We have two rovers, both will go a max distance of 35 kilometers before they need to be recharged at the Hab. That's problem A. Problem B is it'll take us about fifty days to make the journey. So we have to be able to live for fifty days. Inside a rover with marginal life support the size of a small van. And yeah, problem C is if I don't figure out how to make contact with NASA in the first place, none of this matters anyway. " Liv finished as she let her head flop back against the back of the chair.

"So, yes, in the face of overwhelming odds, I am left with only one option: I'm gonna have to science the shit out of this." Mark took over, a grin on his face. "We, have to science the absolute fuck out of this." With a laugh, he ended the video feed. Sighing out, Liv reached for the bottle of painkillers, taking two of them dry.

"I have a probably stupid idea, but an idea." She spoke out as she tapped her fingers against the side of the bunk, pulling the map of the area closer to her.

"Shoot."

"Pathfinder, but hear me out first. It stopped working back in '97 most likely because the battery stopped working. I say, one of us goes and gets it, we plug it into the power of the HAB and see if anything happens. It's our best shot of getting communication between us and NASA."

"No, No. I see your point. Here, hand me the map, we can figure out the distance."

Mark grabbed the ruler out of Liv's hand, plotting the two points and connected them.

"Should be about 2373 kilometers from here. If either one of us can figure out how to get the battery out of Rover 2 into rover one, it should only take us about forty days to get there and back." He spoke, with Liv quickly writing everything down.

"What if we attach the battery from rover 2 with the extra pieces of the HAB? Like, make a harness of some sorts and attach it there." The female questioned as she started to write down on a new page.

"You know, that might actually work."

SOL 71; HAB Airlock

"You have everything?" Watney's voice came over her com. Checking the things in her arm, she made sure to count them.

"Everything is here. I should only be an hour." She responded, as she depressurized the airlock and stepped out onto the Martian surface. She hummed softly as she made her way over to the two rovers, setting her things down beside rover one. Taking out the battery from rover two took a bit to do, and even in 0.4 g, it was difficult. Even in the Mars gravity, it was still probably around 300 pounds. She tugged it across to the other Rover, and grabbed the extra canvas. Carefully weaving the pieces of canvas together, the female was able to get it into something that resembled a harness and secured it with resin.

As soon as it was set, she slowly raised it up to the underside of the other Rover, and secured the battery into place. It held well, but the true test would be a quick drive around. Unplugging the original battery, and plugged in battery two. After getting into the Rover, she held her breath as it started up, power holding strong.

"Hey, I got everything done, it seems to be holding strong. I'm going to take it on a test run, I should be back by mid-day or sometime this evening." She spoke over her com, letting herself sit back into the seat.

"Sounds good! Might use your flash drive and watch something you have on it. Be safe Brooks."

"Copy that Watney."

Time for a drive, with some of the best views in the whole solar system.

Two hours in, she was absolutely freezing.

"Damn it, I didn't think it would get this cold." Olivia spoke, teeth chattering. She had made the decision to not turn the heaters on to save more battery, but now that just seemed to be the wrong decision. "The only upside to this, is that I get more out of the battery." She shivered again, breath coming out in little clouds. "Okay, fuck, I'm calling it." she quickly pressed the button that turned the heater on.

Turning the rover back around, she started back for the HAB, the interior of the rover slowly starting to warm up. At least the harness was holding. She was excited to let Mark know that everything was going as planned, and that they could hopefully start the journey to Pathfinder by the end of that week.

But first, they had to find a solution to the heating problem.

"Okay! So that wasn't that terrible. But, it would have been better if I wasn't freezing my goddamn ass off." Olivia spoke, as she started to take her suit off as soon as she was back in the HAB.

"You have a solution don't you?" Mark could see the knowing glint in Brook's eyes.

"Oh, when don't I have one?" She grinned as she placed her suit back up, grabbing a long sleeve shirt and tugging it on.

"How's the bruise?" Was asked as she grabbed a dinner packet and ripped it open.

"It's almost completely gone, no pain whatsoever. How's your side?" She asked back, as she started into her food.

"Almost done healing, I'm going to have one hell of a scar when we're done with this."

"Oh, my plan about the heating," She pointed a finger at him. "How do you feel about digging up the RTG?"

"You mean the thing that is never supposed to be dug up, and the one we took all those training hours on?" His eyebrow arched. Was she really going to suggest something so stupid.

"Well, I mean it sounded like a good idea in my head." She spoke, digging her teeth into her bottom lip. "We wouldn't be cold during the long drives that I'm sure are ahead." She shrugged.

"It's not that it doesn't sound like a good idea, it does. It's just the fact that it seems dangerous, but we might be able to make something that keeps the radiation inside of it from getting to us. I can go and get it at some point tomorrow." Mark said, a grin building on his face.

"I'll try to fashion something together while you do that."

That night, she layed in her bunk, a thin blanket over her. The heat was manageable in the day, but at night she had to take to using a thin blanket to cover her. Letting out a sigh, she made the move to get up, knowing that she probably wouldn't be able to sleep for a while.

Grabbing her laptop, she headed to the lab desk by the kitchen, set to do some more math and planning the trip to Pathfinder.

She hoped everything would go well, as this was most likely their only chance to talk to Earth and NASA.