Surviving Among The Stars
“It’s a zealous day, it would be fun researching!” exclaimed Arthur. His voice startled everybody early in the morning, where the dawn wasn’t cracking with the hues of pink and orange but they were marking their final mellow glimmer of caramel colour at the fascinating land of Mars. The crew had been working on the red planet for past forty-five days and the present day marks their final valediction. Ben, George and Olivia too broke their sleep and were exhilarated to return. The troop finally stepped further, packing their stuff and placing equipment correctly in the rocket. Commander Olivia diligently ran final checks on engines. Ben, Arthur and George were busy recollecting samples of soil and rocks.
“Look, what’s there! We should be in our spaceship by now or this hurricane will tear us apart.” suddenly George, with wide eyes rushed towards the commander.
The monstrous storm loomed on the horizon and reached the base camp of the earthlings. “Everybody, get into the rocket and occupy your seats, I’ll turn the engine on” shrieked Olivia over the howling winds. Crew scrambled in, except Arthur, who wished to help Olivia. The commander was unaware of this assistance and in celerity launched the rocket.
Arthur was left, injured, on the barren land of great red planet million kilometres away from the mother planet. After exactly 7 hours 11 minutes of unconsciousness, the space suit started beeping ‘Oxygen level below 5%’ it repeated.
“Ahhh! It’s so painful” Arthur groaned while he tried to uncover himself from the layers of sand over him. Space suit repeated warning, ‘Oxygen level below 2%’. Desperately, Arthur ran to their base camp which was demolished by the tornado. He was struggling to walk, thirsting for water, starving for food and battling for existence. He himself did his first-aid and relaxed a bit.
Meanwhile, the crew assumed Arthur to be perished and passed the information to the headquarters. Olivia and the group regretted for what they’ve done to their beloved friend.
“We feel so sorry for our astronaut, Arthur Brown, who lost his life in the ‘Research of Red Planet’ operation. May his soul rest in peace” sorrowfully quoted the chairman of ROSCOSMOS. On the other hand, the newspapers were sandwiching Arthur’s biography and claiming his encounter by aliens. There was a huge chaos across the globe.
Arthur, battered but determined, tried to fix himself up and begin his journey on a new land. A journey of thousand miles begins with a single step, embarking on it, Arthur’s heart kept on loop the word ‘courage’. He had daily essentials only to survive next 20 days. One cannot leave the specially pressurized cabin. It was certain the either he’ll die starving or would be trapped in the congestion of sand which whirls around almost each day. All what was left for poor cosmonaut were scraps of rockets, and a rover for man which was not in prime condition. Calculations and diligence is what is admired in a cosmonaut. Representing his profession wisely, Arthur was calm and serene. He held the tumbler of coffee, meditated, and from the remaining acquired solar energy, charged the laptop.
He was immensely exhausted and felt the symptoms of monophobia. The next day, when the dawn cracked, he pulled the paper and pen and started visualizing the location of the spaceship, him and our mother planet. He devised the way to stretch the food present by cutting his appetite. Food was managed, water was conserved, but the level of oxygen was falling in each day. Electrolysis stroked his head. In the scraps of cylinders was left the water which did not evaporate. He productively utilized the remaining hydrogen hydroxide and at least found a method to deliberate oxygen gas. Slowly even carbon sought attention. But what about information of his existence? How will it reach Earth? By recollecting the requirements of his space suit, he again jumped out the cabin to find a way to escape. Each day gave a new revelation. He was crossing dates off the calendar. Quantities of basic requirements were going down the graph and it vexed him. Arthur decided to do cultivation not on a barren land but on a whole barren planet.
Arthur had once learned how to grow potatoes, the simplest crop to cultivate in the Martian soil. It was an alien planet where human life seemed impossible and was now engaged in agriculture. Three days passed, and the crops sparked a glimmer of hope within him.
‘Curiosity’, an American rover was plodding around when he captured the glimpses of unusual changes near the cabin. Each day a new picture was addressed to the space agency but it could not uncover the mathematics behind it. Fortunately, Arthur captured the movement of the robot and tried to convey his message through his computing nerves. He wrote alphabets on flash cards and with the movement of rover, the letters were framed to words, words were sculpted as sentences, and sentences were designed and guessed. How innovative! He recapitulated coding and mechanical engineering.
“Great news: we found the Martian astronaut, alive!” This headline blazed across the cover pages of not just the New York Times but every newspaper on the blue planet, including India Today too. After nearly a month, this extraordinary discovery sent shockwaves through the public, particularly among the families and crew who had returned from the mission. Slowly and steadily, Arthur learned to rearrange the metallic waste into a new piece of usage, deriving ‘best out of waste’.
“Oh my god! How big mistake we committed. We should have once tried to look for our dear friend.” said Ben gasping. “But, we are not too late to take some action. Of course, quarters down on earth won’t do anything and he will lose his life. Saving him is in our hand. We should take a step, to mark in the history that courage and poise character can bring back a man from Mars” motivated Olivia, whose optimism fueled the team’s urgency to save Arthur.
Arthur had managed to secure every available resource and now maintained contact with everyone back on Earth. The control room guided him on the dos and don’ts, reigniting a spark of hope in his eyes,’ the desire to live’. Fate turns the tables, and that’s exactly what happened for his crewmates. Using the slingshot method, they bypassed Earth without notifying the personnel at headquarters. This decision would haunt them later, as they were aware of the issues with the module’s engine yet chose to press on, tossing their lives.
“Look what’s that, I believe we undertook a blunder. Firstly, we don’t have fuel, till when we will run on solar energy? Secondly, module’s engine glows warning lights representing sudden disturbances and third, the most unfortunate fact, it is the year of meteor shower!” moaned George.
“If destination is the apex, one should not gaze at the steep trek” quoted Ben. They were again set for the long expedition. Once they detached from Earth’s orbit, the crew was greeted by the dazzling celestial bodies scattered across the gloomy vastness. A faint smirk appeared on their weary faces. A smirk of determination, hope, and the desire to bring back their beloved friend. That moment, humanity triumphed over egocentric sphere.
George was right; all that glitters is not gold. Those gleaming bodies of hope were actually the villains which turn by turn attacked the space ship. Commander Olivia was fascinated. They didn’t know was risking three more lives for one the correct decision or not? Meteors were mercilessly falling, altering their path by clashing with each other.
“Commander! This was not expected! This decision was to be left on us” echoed the voice from the speaker installed. Ben did not find it worthy to reply since they were already sent on their mission.
‘Booooommmmm!’ sounded the clash like when Olivia went to check the oxygen-level of the tank and witnessed an asteroid smashed the lower engine. George could not resist such enormous disaster and was leaned to death.
The spaceship floated aimlessly through the enduring vastness of space, surrounded by galaxies, nebulas, and planets. They had no idea where they were headed. The sun’s ultraviolet rays shone through the glass and escaped from the other side. Olivia and Ben were highly hurt from the tragedy, and the only word that echoed in their minds was “abort.” They wished for their lives to end right there instead of becoming part of a red history of the red planet.
“Are you alright?” questioned Ben with a feeble voice which reflected pain.
Olivia’s afflicted voice said, “Please forgive me for putting your life at risk. In my eagerness to save someone, I…” she choked on her words, gulped, “I became the reason for our deaths.” Tears streamed down her face as she began to weep.” It’s not over yet,” Ben reassured. “We can do spacewalk and fix everything. I promise we’ll work till eternity. “
Zooming in on Mars, Arthur had undergone quite transformations in the past months. His hair grew all over his body, and he hadn’t bathed to conserve water, making him feel disgusted with himself. He had only one sort of food to eat and that was a potato. He experienced flameless cooking, saving oil, gas, water and still making a protein rich food for survival. “Americans don’t know proper way to produce ketchup” complained the man in such viscous situation. His daring and calm character was what humans admired. He designed his own rocket with his innovations.
“I would rather push myself up through the seat I’ve sketched and with the plan mapped I’ll join the troop by propelling myself in the air. But for that I need thrusters, these old metallic pieces and my very helpful electrolysis machine would definitely support me with this” murmured Arthur pulling the rusted machine assuming it was time to float in the space. He was all set. The cabinet down there was quite offended with the individual decision of Ben, Olivia and George but they didn’t know an asteroid already had diverted the path and pushed the spacecraft out of the line. One life was already gone.
With the spacewalk agreement, Ben convinced Olivia to be courageous till the core. Reckoning it, Olivia too made her way out of the spaceship covered in red sheet of blood due to their injuries which they hastily cured. The movement made them realise that coincidently they were very close to Mars’ outer orbit and if they managed to maintain the space craft then a peril would turn to probe.
Olivia shrieked, “C’mon fix the holes first and rearrange the jumbled parts”. Her voice wasn’t audible but her firm actions delivered the message of her contentedness.
On the other hand, Arthur was ready with his arrangement and with the remains and waste he accomplished a well-made rocket. There’s a catch! We could see more twist on the track of triumph. As soon as the rocket was launched, the connection was lost and a metallic medium was required to continue passing the waves. Einstein’s idea stroke Arthur’s head and he pulled a pen from his ragged pockets to connect it. It was indeed the correct moment, correct equipment and correct decision. The crewmates doing spacewalk held rope in hand and managed to catch Arthur.
The scenic view was emotional; both the sides faced obstacles over obstacles but ultimately humanity succeeded over every challenge of this universe. It begins from a journey to the red planet, to the expedition of loss of red blood and ultimately the feeling of red. Arthur was rescued, blighted space craft was redeveloped, food was supplied and ultimately the group safely landed in the Pacific Ocean.
This tale throws limelight on the diligence, calmness, poise, peace and especially ‘courage’. It was a mighty voyage to the red planet!
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