AUDIO LOG: SOL 120 (Mar. 8, 2036) RECORDING: I have a hell of a backache. The subtle and refined “hurl my body at the wall” technique had some flaws. It only worked one out of every 10 tries, and it hurt a lot. I had to take breaks, stretch out, and generally convince myself to body-slam the wall again and again. It took all damn night, but I made it. I’m 10 meters from the Hab now. I can’t get…

LOG ENTRY: SOL 119 (Mar. 7, 2036) I woke up last night to the Hab shaking. The medium-grade sandstorm ended as suddenly as it began. It was only a category 3 storm with 50kph winds. Nothing to worry about. Still, it’s bit disconcerting to hear howling winds when you’re used to utter silence. I’m worried about Pathfinder. If the sandstorm damaged it, I’ll have lost my connection to NASA. Logically, I shouldn’t worry. The thing’s been on the surface for…

Moderators’s Note: It’s me again! This is another spot where the timeline gets a little shuffled in the original book. Throughout the week, there are little excerpts that fans like to call “The Creation of Plastic.” All of them are in the archives if you want to reread them. If you can’t remember, I’d definitely recommend a refresher before the end of the week. Happy reading! LOG ENTRY: SOL 118 (Mar. 6, 2036) My conversation with NASA about the Water…

Moderator’s Note: It’s me again! This is another spot where the timeline gets a little shuffled in the original book. Throughout the week, there are little excerpts that fans like to call “The Creation of Plastic.” All of them are in the archives if you want to reread them. If you can’t remember, I’d definitely recommend a refresher before the end of the week. Happy reading! LOG ENTRY: SOL 117 (Mar. 5, 2036) The Water Reclaimer is acting up. Six…

Moderator’s Note: It’s me again! This is another spot where the timeline gets a little shuffled in the original book. Throughout the week, there are little excerpts that fans like to call “The Creation of Plastic.” All of them are in the archives if you want to reread them. If you can’t remember, I’d definitely recommend a refresher before the end of the week. Happy reading! LOG ENTRY: SOL 116 (Mar. 4, 2036) It’s almost time for the second harvest.…

Moderator’s Note: It’s me again! This is another spot where the timeline gets a little shuffled in the original book. Throughout the week, there are little excerpts that fans like to call “The Creation of Plastic.” All of them are in the archives if you want to reread them. If you can’t remember, I’d definitely recommend a refresher before the end of the week. Happy reading! LOG ENTRY: SOL 115 (Mar. 3, 2036) The meddling botanists have grudgingly admitted I…

Chapter 13 Moderator’s Note: It’s me again! This is another spot where the timeline gets a little shuffled in the original book. Throughout the week, there are little excerpts that fans like to call “The Creation of Plastic.” All of them are in the archives if you want to reread them. If you can’t remember, I’d definitely recommend a refresher before the end of the week. Happy reading! LOG ENTRY: SOL 114 (Mar. 2, 2036) Now that NASA can talk…

Chapter 12 Moderator’s Note: Hi everyone! In the original book, everything that happened on Sol 6 (minus the log entry) was put here. However, in keeping with the chronological theme, the parts that showed how Mark was stranded were put at the beginning. If you need a refresher, all posts are archived through Substack so you can reread them. In this chapter, there’s a timeskip note that I left in place. It’s obsolete now, since everything is in order, but…

Feb. 15, 2036 (Sol 99) “Come on up here, Jack,” said Venkat. “You get to be the most Timward today.” “Thanks,” said Jack, taking Venkat’s place next to Tim. “Heya, Tim!” “Jack,” said Tim. “How long will the patch take?” Venkat asked. “Should be pretty much instant,” Jack answered. “Watney entered the hack earlier today, and we confirmed it worked. We updated Pathfinder’s OS without any problems. We sent the rover patch, which Pathfinder rebroadcast. Once Watney executes the patch…

Feb. 14, 2036 (Sol 98) “I was up all night,” said Venkat. “Forgive me if I’m a little punchy. Who are you again?” “Jack Trevor,” said the thin, pale man before Venkat. “I work in software engineering.” “What can I do for you?” “We have an idea for communication.” “I’m all ears.” “We’ve been looking through the old Pathfinder software. We got duplicate computers up and running for testing. Same computers they used to find a problem that almost killed…