Flourishing on Mars
Sol 2, 6 hrs & 18 min
It has been two days and five hours since I opened my eyes. Your voices, your thoughts and your giggles accompanied me. Yes, of course I am alive. No, I have not vanished, and no, I am not crippled. You might ask, and I do answer, while hoping that this will overcome all communication barriers enforced by time and space. There is a lot to be shared; however, time is not what it seems to be, and it is everything you can imagine. Our mission on Mars, led by Commander Mary, whose faithful team entrusted their hopes, dreams and lives in order to explore the limits of our humanity, has been thrust into the abyss. Known as CS-FTV-OS (The Cosmic Sanctuary Flourishes Through Virtue and Overcomes the Stars), a name fit for a group of humans like us, who were born ready, who always attempted to know and who persevered against all odds, strived on a mission to flourish on Mars (the red, dry, distant planet). The planet that preserves water. The planet that promises to accommodate our dreams. The planet that, approximately 4 billion years ago (never land for us but some time ago for science), had the perfect ingredients: water, breathable air, the perfect temperature, amazing landscapes and dazzling colours. Once a promised land, now dry, aggressive and with a harsh environment, certainly concealing resources that humans need to thrive on. Hence our assignment to make it hospitable again.
Following the disastrous, ominous sandstorm – similar in occurrence to a rainfall shower on Earth – Commander Mary and the three other members of the team had to choose between saving me versus all four of them. During the storm, as I was far away from the crew, while trying to get back to them, I was impaled by the wreckage that was flying around. Commander Mary, rest assured that, although I did bear hatred and resentment and I complained heavily for quite some time, regardless of all the training and knowledge that I received for years, I know for a fact that you did the right thing. Sometimes, to do the right thing looks wrong. So I know now. I do not wish to be in your shoes. I barely find my feet, so to say. Gravity is different here; you can jump high up and land much later. Imagine me, the great botanist and a fabulous mechanical engineer. Would I change anything, and is that even a problem to solve? Or is everything just a Big Bang - ‘the start of everything’ theory - momentum, and we have no choice? Therefore, please hear me and show compassion for your decision. Anyone (and I hope I am not offending your abilities as a leader) would have done the same. I know that, as a marine researcher, you foraged the great depths of our sapphire oceans, and as a geologist, you faced the Earth and everything about it. You have seen it all, except this. Nothing prepares us for that.
As humans, we witnessed, we created and we found questions to life on Earth and in our solar system. We crawled, we walked and we tripped. We invented reasons to go on - some better than others - we bounced back from the inconceivable, we pushed boundaries, both physical and psychological, and most importantly, if not the single most defining creation of ours, we love and we make art. That hurts, but it also liberates. We know time. And speaking of that, here I am on Mars, the red, dry, cold planet. While I was lifeless due to the stabbing with flying debris, I might have died, but I didn’t. Instead of becoming stardust, given the situation, I was chosen to understand the dreams. And on Mars, when I dream, everything becomes reality. Therefore, everything I envisioned as I was gone for the world materialised on the dusty, crimson sphere in the middle of the opaque space. It had texture, colour and flavour. It was real. And what was most important of all, I had a desire to go on.
