Log entry Sol 584 (3)
I cried again after I cheered. Human contact, even at a time difference of nearly thirty minutes, is better than isolation. By the way, they apologized for not realizing we could have been in contact sooner. Apparently, none of us was smart enough to realize when I replaced the antenna on the dish back at AP it should have worked. On one hand, I'm pissed as hell that no one figured it out, but on the other hand, neither did I. So, I can't say much.
Log entry Sol 586
The cameras are still on. I've asked that they be turned off. Someone seems to think it's a good idea to constantly observe me, though. As if they can't watch me from the satellites. I thought about disconnecting them, but I still need the cameras for the Hab canvas inspection. So, how do I know they're still on? Whenever the cameras are on, a window automatically pops up on the main Hab computer to show what it sees. Wait… did that make sense? I think it did but at this point, I'm not sure. Anyway, when I go to the main computer I see the views inside the Hab. Well, I did. You see, I came up with another solution since they refused to turn them off.
"What are these?" Mindy asked when she opened the folder of images that had been handed to her by her assistant.
"They were sent up from the Hab systems backroom."
"Ok, did they explain why?"
"They said you need to look at them," her assistant replied.
"Thanks, I guess."
Mindy picked up the photos and smiled looking at the first one, the smile grew, and giggles took over as she flipped through them. When she reached the last one she dropped it on her desk to wipe the tears from her eyes as she cackled.
"Mark, Mark, Mark," she said in shaky laughter.
"I see you got a copy of them too," Annie noted from the doorway.
"I can't say I blame him," Mindy replied. "Who approved leaving the cameras on, and why wasn't I notified?"
"Why are you asking me?"
"Because you know everything happening here, Annie."
"This I don't," the PR director replied.
Mindy sighed and stood. "Guess I'd better go hunt down the culprit and have a discussion, give someone or several someones a little reminder that decisions like this need to come through my office."
"You seem to be settling in," CJ observed from behind Annie. "I had a feeling you would."
"Because you did?" Mindy asked.
"You do remind me quite a bit of myself," the older woman replied.
"Thank you. Now, to go do some investigating. Annie, it's up to you what you do with the photos but I'd say once I get this situation handled I'll come find you."
"I'll see you then," Annie said. She turned to her mentor as Mindy left the office. "I have a feeling heads are about to roll."
"I think you're probably right," CJ said with a smile.
Mindy stepped into the Ares Mission Control room. She took a deep breath and walked to the flight director's console.
"Brendan Hutch?"
"Yes," the man in question answered.
"I'm Mindy Park. We haven't met yet; you were here on duty when I held the first meeting of those responsible for this mission."
"Nice to meet you, Miss Park. How can I help you?"
"I have a question for your Capcom and the Hab systems…"
"Why in the hell haven't the cameras been turned off yet?" Mitch demanded as he entered the room.
"Precisely that," Mindy said. "Though I'd planned to be a bit more diplomatic. Thank Mitch."
"Oh Mindy, I didn't realize you were here," Mitch demurred just a bit.
"So, as we were saying," Mindy continued, "why haven't the Hab cameras been turned off? The agreement with the astronauts was that they would not be on constantly. Mark has clearly asked for them to be turned off, so why hasn't that happened?"
The capcom, an astronaut Mindy wasn't familiar with, stood and moved toward the group at the director's console. "The last order we have is the one from Ms. Park saying to turn on the cameras."
"The point of that was to get Mark's attention," Mindy replied, trying not to grit her teeth as she spoke. "Once we had established contact, there is no reason to leave them on. Please send Mark an apology. Brendan, have systems shut down the cameras. Mark can maintain control of them from now on. In the future, let's use common sense or call my office for clarification."
"Certainly," the secondary flight director said with chagrin.
"Thank you." Mindy visually surveyed the room once and then headed to the door. Mitch walked with her.
"Good job," he said.
"How is it possible that for something that simple I still had to give a direct order?" she mused aloud. "Please tell me it won't always be that way."
"No, that's unusual," Mitch agreed. "Not sure why anyone would interpret your order as permanent. Sometimes people just don't think, but there's always someone who will catch onto the stupidity and challenge it."
"Mitch, what the hell man?" Rick said as he approached the two in the hallway.
"As I said," Mitch commented.
"It's been taken care of," Mindy assured the pilot astronaut.
"Thank you," he replied. "I'll go fill in the crews unless you want to do it."
Mindy shook her head. "No, you go ahead. I need to go find Annie again."
"Is she having a cow?" Mitch asked.
"No," Mindy said. "She seemed remarkably calm. It was a bit unnerving actually. Not that I let her know that."
"You're fitting right in at the management level," Mitch commented.
"Why does everyone keep saying that to me?"
He laughed. "Probably because you seemed so apprehensive to take the position to begin with."
"Does everyone know that?" she moaned then immediately said, "Don't answer that. It was a rhetorical question. As was the first one actually."
"How long have you worked here? You know everyone talks about everything."
"I know," she sighed.
"You just hate being the topic of conversation," he remarked.
"I do."
"Well, good luck with that."
She looked at the Ares lead flight director. "How do you not care?"
Mitch shrugged. "I don't know. I just don't. Most of the people here don't. You have to let go of the idea that everyone thinks you're not worthy of the position you hold, that you don't belong."
"Easier said than done."
"Concentrating on the work helps."
Mindy nodded. "That I can do."
Log entry Sol 586 (2)
The cameras are off. I wondered how long it would take. I figured I'd have to keep putting up new pictures each day until they got tired of them. Oh, yeah, that's what I did. I found some paper and managed to rig up sample poles in front of each camera. I hung pictures that I drew on each pole. They're not great. I'm not an artist for a reason. Stick figures are the best I can manage and even they look off at least half the time. I can draw diagrams of plants 'til the cows come home, incredibly detailed plants, inside and out. Anything else, forget it.
What did I draw specifically? Well, the camera from the kitchen area had a picture of me eating a real meal and celebrating that it wasn't potatoes. Yeah, it may not be clear from the picture so it has a speech bubble that literally says "Yay, real food, not fucking potatoes!" Maybe I will still be able to eat potatoes when I get back to earth and won't be so sick of them. I still wish I could grow more though, just in case. I know this NASA food is freeze-dried and supposed to last forever but something could go wrong with it.
The "lab" camera picture was me at a microscope. Again, I labeled it to be sure it was clear what was happening. The bedroom camera showed me in my bunk with a laptop, bored out of my mind watching crappy 70s television shows for the millionth time. Again, I used speech bubbles.
There is no bathroom camera for obvious reasons, if there were, I'm not sure what I'd draw that wouldn't get me in trouble. Still, as annoying as it was that they wouldn't turn them off, drawing the pics and hanging them was fun, especially when I imagined Montrose's reaction.
"Annie, I have an idea for these pictures," Mindy said as she sat down in the chair across the desk from the public relations director.
"Oh?" the other woman asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Not with the exact pictures, but something like them."
"Do tell."
"Why are you looking at me like you expect the worst?" Mindy asked. "Is it me, or do you always look that way when someone has an idea that isn't yours?"
"Probably the latter, though since I'm not looking at my own face when people make suggestions, I can't say for sure."
"Then I won't take offense."
Annie chuckled. "Probably a good idea."
"We have a whole section of kid and student activities online," Mindy began. "We haven't updated it with any new activities lately. You'd mentioned putting up the maze that Mark made. Why not make a Mark coloring book using these pictures as a starting point? We can ask him for input on activities he's doing. We can make a new maze that covers his path from Acidalia Planitia to Valles Marineris. We can teach kids Morse code or hexadecimals and they can figure out what's written in code. We could have a contest where they draw pictures turning Sojourner into a dog. We should have something about growing potatoes and green beans. The kids should be designing possible future colonies on Mars. Let them color pictures of the Hab and the rovers. Do we have an educator on staff or in a consulting position?"
"We have educators all over the country at our STEM centers."
"So get them to work on this," Mindy suggested.
"Yes ma'am," Annie replied with a smirk.
"Whatever," Mindy replied, and rolled her eyes at Annie's expression. "Don't make fun of me. Mark's mission is my job now and this will help keep things in a positive light. We continue to expand on what we've learned about Mars. We need to get that out to universities. Now that we've reestablished contact I'm going to have the geology department set up a new list of tasks for him to complete. We need the analysis of those samples he took on the drive. Knowing Mark, he's already started that, but I want to be sure."
"Have you communicated with him at all yet?"
Mindy frowned. "Not directly, why?"
"Don't you think you should?"
"That's the capcom's job," Mindy argued.
"On a normal mission, yes," Annie said. "We're so far past normal it doesn't matter anymore."
"Regulations like that were put in place for good reason. Breaking them now would set a bad precedent."
"It's been broken in the past, and Venkat has communicated with him. Send an email. It's not like you're actively talking to him in real-time. That would be different."
"Why?" Mindy inquired. "What's the point?"
"So he knows who's in charge," Annie suggested, "or just to let him know there's someone else he can appeal directly to who is on his side. Also, you may want to introduce yourself before someone else mentions you."
"Would they do that?"
"If one of his crew doesn't, his mother might."
Mindy sighed. "Grace would, not even on purpose, but just in passing. Then again she might also do it on purpose. Fine, I'll think about it. You'll contact the STEM centers?"
"I can, but you could."
"Really? That's not a problem?"
Annie shook her head. "No, I appreciate your running it all by me, but it's not a problem. If you take care of it, then it's one less thing I have to worry about."
Log entry Sol 587
What the heck is going on at NASA? Not a word about my pictures. No, I take that back, they said something… they asked me for more ideas. Apparently, they want to make a "Mark on Mars" coloring book. That actually sounds like a lot of fun. Where did they find someone with a sense of humor?
Mark,
Hello, I've been encouraged by just about everyone to introduce myself. There has been some restructuring at NASA since you've been on Mars. You either already know or will not be surprised to find out that the astronauts, led by your crew, formed a "Save Mark" office as soon as we discovered you were alive. I have been placed in charge of that department now by Dr. Astor. Dr. Kapoor is still the head of all Mars missions.
My name is Mindy Park. If you feel that you're not being listened to, or that you need to talk to the one in charge, I'm the one you should call, or email in this case. I will do my best with your requests.
Sincerely,
Mindy Park
Log entry Sol 587 (2)
So there's someone new in charge… interesting. I suppose that explains the coloring book. Guess I'll go ahead and think about other ideas for the book. But who the hell is Mindy Park? Where did she come from? That's not a name I recognize at all.
Lewis,
Who the hell is Mindy Park and how is she suddenly in charge of my mission?
Watney
Watney,
Mindy was the one at SatCon when the image request came through. She's the one that realized you were alive and called Venkat. She controlled all the satellites and did the imaging until just a short while ago. According to Venkat, she's made several helpful suggestions, though you'll have to ask him for more details. From the time you fried Pathfinder until you arrived at Valles Marineris, she lived on your schedule on Mars so we could be sure to get all of the images. She memorized Morse Code to translate your messages. Mindy was the one who asked the questions that led to re-establishing communications, and the one who insisted that the cameras be turned back off.
Lewis
Lewis,
Message received, I will play nice with the new boss.
Watney
Ms. Park,
I suppose I should start with a thank you. Thank you for letting everyone know I wasn't dead. Thank you for keeping track of me. Thank you for living on my time. That had to suck on Earth. I know the first science teams that did that for the rovers here had a hard time with it and they didn't do it for nearly as long as you did for me. I'm also wondering if maybe I should have requested some tin foil to make a hat and hide from the space paparazzi. Joke, by the way, that was a joke.
Watney
Mark,
Please, oh please, don't call me Ms. Park. It's Mindy. Space paparazzi, either someone told or we have the same sense of humor because I called myself that while on Watney Watch in Satcon. Like I tell everyone else, I just happened to be on duty that night. Someone else would have seen that you were alive even if I'd missed it. Yes, living on Mars time on Earth is hard.
Actually, I suppose that's something else I should tell you. I don't know if you knew that your parents moved to Houston to be near the space center. If you didn't know before, you do now. Karen Rhodes is renting the house in Chicago from them. Anyway, your mother found out that I lived an hour from JSC and she managed to convince me to rent their garage apartment at their new house. I tried to say no. I planned on saying no, but somehow I wound up living there. She plans on your moving in there when you get back.
Mindy
Mindy,
Ok, I can use your name. I'd like to think someone else would have realized I was alive, but you did so thank you. My parents are in Houston, huh? No, I didn't know that. I guess it happened after I fried Pathfinder, and neither of them has mentioned it in emails yet.
So now I have two NASA sisters, or is it three? Rhodes, Johanssen, and now Mindy, that's three. Mom always did want more kids than just me. Yeah, once Grace Watney sets her mind to something it's almost impossible to change it. Honestly, I'm surprised Sanders is still alive.
I imagine the worrywart NASA docs will want me to live with someone when I get home anyway. Even after spending months on Hermes to get home with the IV crew, they'll want me close by. Mom probably didn't want me to be alone or have to wait to see me. Dad would have agreed.
No one said anything about you being space paparazzi; I guess we do have a similar sense of humor. So that means someone appreciated my air day stunts. Crap, air day, you won't know what that means yet. I still need to get my logs from the time before Pathfinder's death to now. Long story short, I had to stop every fifth day to allow the oxygenator to do its thing. I figured Montrose was having fits with the things I did.
Mark
Mark,
I won't comment on what Annie said or did, but I thoroughly enjoyed your little stunts on air days. That made it easier to come in to work at such odd times on those days. I knew you'd have done something that would make me laugh. Walking Sojourner is probably my favorite, though the Mars dust angels is a close second. We turned the maze into a paper one for the kids and posted it on the NASA STEM site. Speaking of, do you have any more thoughts on pictures for the coloring book? We'd also love any other ideas you have for activities.
Mindy
Mindy
I'm not a teacher so I don't know what to tell you about activities for the kids. Though, I did think about making a dot-to-dot at some point. I just couldn't figure out the logistics of that with the satellites taking the pictures. As for the coloring book, I could take pictures and send them to you. I'm sure there's a program somewhere that will turn them into coloring book pages.
I can also make new videos here at the Ares I site to be uploaded to the NASA YouTube channel. They probably won't be much different than those I've sent before but I can make them anyway. Maybe someone can take my video logs from the trip here and turn them into something.
Mark
Mark,
As soon as you can, send us the video logs from your trip to Valles Marineris, I will talk to Annie and we'll have someone edit them into a usable video for YouTube. Dr. Shields is requesting you send all of the logs that you've made since we lost contact as soon as possible. You know how Irene is about making sure your mental health is taken care of, so send them.
As for your scientific duties, the Ares I crew and their science teams are working on a list of areas from which they would like you to collect samples. There are some areas they feel they missed or that need a revisit. Obviously, they would like to take advantage of your time at their site.
We are aware that you took samples during the trip. I tried to keep track of the locations. If you would send the sol date for each sample we'll send you back a list of coordinates to attach to the results as you analyze them.
Mindy
Mindy,
Yay, more work… No, I need more to do besides scan the canvas over and over again. Not that I won't keep doing that, I need to make sure this Hab won't blow. I'm actually interested in what we find from the samples that I collected along my trip. Don't tell Lewis, because she'll never let me hear the end of it, but somehow along the way I've become more interested in geology.
Mark
Mark,
Your secret is safe with me.
Mindy