My Little Pony: My Little Pony The Martian

It was just after midnight. Some of the crowd gathered around JSC dispersed and went back to their homes, but more people decided to stay.

A press conference was held to explain the basic situation to the public. There were a few problems with the launch, but they had no fatal impact on the mission. The distance between the Phoenix and Hermes is still an astronomical figure, but they may still have a chance to correct it. The Twinkle engine was undergoing repairs; they needed to repair the overload-damaged batteries and connect the engine to a backup computer. After the engine is fully restored to normal operation, the crew and NASA will re-evaluate the situation and finally make a decision whether to try another rendezvous with Hermes or use the Shiny engine to fly directly to Earth.

This was all hours ago. Most of the time in between was spent waiting for the Shining Engine Control Interface application to be re-uploaded to the Phoenix so they could do a new installation. The original installation file is still on Xingguang's laptop, and it still cannot be used normally due to a keyboard failure.

The crew members of the Phoenix also made full use of this time to repair the damaged batteries, fill the small batteries of the magic thrusters with magic energy, and also had a meal. They also exchanged a few words with everyone on Hermes and celebrated that they had accidentally become the first beings in the history of both worlds to conduct faster-than-light space navigation.

On Earth's mission control side, the center was still (mostly) packed with people during this time. The lead controller team has taken turns, and now it is the night duty team that is guarding the post in front of the console. Most of the members of the morning shift team now ran to the conference room below the observation area to find a bed and take a nap. However, if they couldn't sleep for two hours, they would still run up to see the situation. Naturally, no one in the orbital calculation team had such a chance to rest. They debated round after round about the merits of retrying to rendezvous with Hermes or escaping directly to the earth... Richie Purnell was sitting in the crowd. Central Committee, constantly formulating orbit and flight plans for both sides of the debate; unless someone asked him directly, he would not say a word the whole time.

No one left the observation room. Now piles of empty takeout boxes and packaging bags have overflowed the trash can in the corner. The Vice President remained present, as did the Chinese Ambassador, the entire congressional delegation, and several others, including Teddy Sanders, Venkat Kapoor, and Anne Montrose.

"When the hell are they going to make a decision?" Annie asked, "Speaking of which, why don't you two go down and make a decision for them?"

"This is no longer a planning or policy issue," Teddy replied. "This is emergency response. Operational decisions. Decisions about whether to fly or not. So the control is in the hands of the flight director. Ever since Since Chris Craft, our rule has been that the flight director has the final say in all operational decisions.”

"Yes," Venkat also replied, "The situation is no longer within our control now."

In the hall below, Mitch Henderson, whose team has gone off duty, is still holding the command in front of the curtain, guarding the entire field. The current mission team was led by Brendan Hatch as planned, but he himself ran to the orbital console to join the discussion. Both men appeared to be in complete control of the situation, with little sign of the effects of hours of nerve-wracking waiting. Only a row of paper coffee cups on a circular table surrounding the flight director's workstation silently showed the passage of time.

"Aviation control, tracking call."

Although the discussion in the hall is still lively, the headset channel has been silent for almost an entire hour. Only a press spokesperson will provide commentary every ten minutes to the media and VIPs present, briefly describing the current overall situation. This call immediately attracted the attention of everyone in the room, and the debate about the track was instantly stopped, allowing all the dignitaries to sit up straight and cheer up.

"Tell me about the tracking," Mitchell responded.

"We received a signal in the 110.1 MHz band," the tracking controller replied. "The source of the signal is an object in extremely low Earth orbit, closer than the SpaceX space station. We are currently trying to make visual contact."

"Signal content?" Mitchell asked.

"110.1?" Venkat exclaimed in the observation area, "It's them! That's our original arrival signal!"

"It's Morse code," the tracking controller replied. "The content is being repeated. The backend team is decoding..." The tracking controller said, holding his earphones close to his ears to listen to the responses from his subordinates elsewhere in the building. , "The message content is: CSP HRMY, RSQ, and a code indicating 'standby'."

"Track, received. Send someone to answer this message on the same frequency."

"I'll think of a way, but it's still...wait a moment. We have a satellite's camera pointed at the object. Cut video stream 31 to the screen."

"Okay." Mitch ordered.

After a while, an image from the other side of the earth was displayed on the main screen in the control room; against the background of the ocean and other landscapes, a vaguely visible object with three huge columns connected side by side as its main body stretched out on both sides. A behemoth with a large solar array.

"This is not our vehicle," Teddy said. "It looks bigger than SpaceX's space station. Almost as big as ours."

"That goes without saying." Venkat was so happy that he almost jumped out of his chair.

"We also received a voice message on the same frequency," the tracking continued, "receiving."

Then a series of indistinct voices sounded in the room; if the brainwaves were correct at this moment, it sounded a bit like the sound of a half-Welsh, half-Dutch woman blowing her nose.

Then another voice made the same sound - this voice sounded familiar to everyone in the room. Then the voice switched to English and said, "Mission Control..." There was a short paragraph that sounded like some kind of foreign language continuation that expressed a similar meaning to "Oh my God", and then continued, "Mission Control, this is Phoenix, relayed by the Changeling Space Program ship Harmony. Their message read: 'Stand by - we're coming.'

In the blink of an eye, the mysterious spacecraft on the big screen in the mission control center disappeared without a trace, leaving only the unobstructed view of the Eastern Pacific Ocean in the background.

记录抄本 – MAV凤凰号机上音频，中部夏令时2037年5月22日07:32

CherryBerry: NASA, this is Phoenix. Harmony has arrived at our current location and is preparing to carry out rescue operations.

Mark Watney: Oh my God! Look how big that thing is! They are as big as Hermes! Maybe even bigger! Wait until I link the video...there you go! Hope you can see it! Take a good look! It looks like some guy put two Saturn V rockets into orbit and then strapped them to the space station! I feel like that’s definitely what they did! Look at those engine nozzles! By the way, what is that thing sticking out from the middle?

Berry: (Chirping in pony language) There is a message from Harmony. "Phoenix crew members: Prepare buffers for capture." Capture? When did we have this technology? (Chirping in pony language)

Watney: That's it! That's a claw! Just like the ones in arcade games! They want to capture us and take us away!

Berry: (Chirping in pony language) There's new news, uh... "Harmony is calling NASA. We can't live here for long. Energy consumption is very fast. We will return your spacecraft and astronauts as soon as possible within our capabilities." . We will return. Phoenix, please be ready to capture."

Watney: Ah! All right. It seems that we will not be able to go to Earth in the end. Sorry to disappoint everyone on Hermes, our reunion will probably have to wait a while longer.

(A few muffled sounds, with a slight crunch)

Berry: (a long string of pony gibberish) The capture is confirmed. Phoenix calls Hermes and Earth, thank you for all your help, Mark will...

End of transmission

"...Thank you for all your help. Mark will return as soon as possible within our capabilities. Phoenix communication ended."

"They can't hear it," Dragonfly interrupted, "We have already left."

Berry was stunned, "What?"

"We're already home." In just a moment, the changeling looked much better than it had been in the past few months. It regained its self and showed a long-lost smile, "We're home!" A flash of green flames Then, she turned into Beth Johnson, "Can't you feel it yet?" Another green flame flashed, and the two Mark Watneys in the cabin were seen facing each other with big eyes and small eyes, "We're going back Home!"

"Look at the battery!" Starlight pointed at the battery indicator and shouted. During the previous maintenance process, four batteries had been completely exhausted, and the remaining energy of the remaining batteries was basically around 100%. Now the readings of all eight batteries are %, and the battery meter pointer trembles slightly at the top of the range.

Twilight Sparkle's voice came from Berry's earphones, which was her familiar native language, "Phoenix, this is Concorde. Crew members on board, please prepare the EVA to transfer to this spacecraft. We are sending three space horses outside the cabin. Assist with the crew transfer process. How are you doing now?”

"We are home." Tears flowed down Berry's face involuntarily, and she whispered in English, "We are finally home." She turned around and hugged Spitfire, and the Pegasus immediately joined her. She hugged each other, tears streaming down her face. Fireball was next, stepping forward to hug the two ponies tightly; Starlight joined a moment later, and Dragonfly was the last to join, changing back to her natural form. At the end, Mark Watney's hand squeezed through the collective hug and touched Berry's shoulder, squeezing it tightly in relief.

"We're home," she repeated, switching to pony speak, "Thanks to Celestia, we're finally home."