I opened the rover up, accessing the inner electronics. What I wanted most was the battery, the antenna, and the radio power. Oppy was designed to be able to send a message into space. The radio transmitter had to have some serious power.
Reprogramming the frequency took me a lot longer than it should have. My fingers kept slipping over the electronics. I had to be careful. This stuff was built to last, but if I broke something by accident there wasn’t a supply shop nearby to get replacement parts. Amazon didn’t deliver to Mars. Yet, anyway.
Then at long last I had everything wired up. I’d used bits of my broken emergency radio to mesh with the stuff on Opportunity. I looked down at the little bot.
“If you will do this for me, I promise to buy you a beer when we get back,” I said. I blinked, wondering if a rover liked beer. Probably not. “Or oil. Or whatever. Just work.”
I tapped the transmit button. A light came on, showing that the rover was sending. Better yet, it was sending on the correct frequency for home base!
No telling how long it would last. I couldn’t speak. There was no microphone on the rover. But I could send out short and long bursts.
“I billion dollars in tech, millions of miles from Earth, and I am stuck trying to reach the only people who can save me,” I muttered, “with Morse Code.”
Little short blips, long dashes. One after another I sent the message which had been used for centuries by -people in danger: three shorts, three longs, three shorts.
I repeated the message until the battery died. Soon after that, I collapsed against the rover. My breath was coming in shallow gasps, my vision swimming in front of my eyes. It was cold, so cold, and I was falling asleep...
* * *
A flash of light in my eyes was the first thing I remembered. Hot burning pain in my hands and feet was the next. I tried to cry out, but there was something in my mouth, in my throat. Voices said something I couldn’t understand. I saw flashes of movement over me, and then nothing again for a little while.
* * *
Three days later, I was sitting in the base commander’s office. Commodore Grant was not my favorite person in the world, nor was I his, but we’d always managed to get along all right. Today, though, he was shaking his head sadly at me. He tossed the tablet he was holding down on the desk between us.
“Nothing I can do, Stein. You stepped in it but good out there. For what it’s worth, I am sorry,” Grant said. “You’re a good man, good at your job. I wanted you to know that even though we’ve had our differences this isn’t personal. I’d rather see you stay.”
A quick glance at the tablet told me everything I needed to know. It was a recall order. I was being sent home on the next available boat. “It’s all right, sir. I knew I was going to get flack. I screwed up.”
“Damned straight you did!” Grant said. “I can’t believe a man with your experience went out there alone. You know better.”
I nodded. I did know better, after all. But it was all that experience that made me think I was capable of managing it. The thought that I was above the rules had almost gotten me killed. It was a lesson I intended to remember.
“That said, I think you deserve a commendation for your creative thinking out there,” Grant said. “I’m marking it such in your file. Not many men would have lived through that.”
“I almost didn’t,” I replied. In fact, I really hadn’t. The medics said I’d just stopped breathing when they got to me. I’d been without oxygen for a minute, maybe two. They hooked me up to everything they could and brought me back before my heart could stop. I owed those guys a lot.
“We need people like you up here, not down there,” Grant said.
I shrugged. “I screwed up. They’re pulling me. If they don’t, what lesson is that sending to the others out here? You know as well as I do that they have to.”
This wasn’t the conversation I was expecting to have with him, but it warmed my heart to see that Grant really didn’t want me gone. He’d have fought for me, if either of us thought it would do any good.
“I know,” Grant said. He went silent for a moment. When he spoke again, what he said surprised me. “By the way, you’re heading back with a special friend of yours.”
“Oh?” I asked, curious. Who could it be?
“Yeah. NASA want’s their little drone back. Opportunity is returning home at long last, for a hero’s welcome,” Grant said. “You’re the man who found and rescued the bot. Play your cards right and you might get the same sort of ticker-tape parade.”
I laughed. “Oppy saved me, not the other way around!”
But there I was, about to get a chance to return the favor. I was glad. Opportunity had served humanity long and well. It deserved to take a place of honor in our space heritage. Maybe it would end up at the National Air and Space Museum or somewhere else entirely. But wherever it was, it would help inspire future generations of curious minds to reach out and see what was out there.
“It’d be my honor to escort Oppy back,” I said.
“Good. Oh, you’ll have Dr. Harlow with you, too,” Grant said. “She’s being recalled as well.”
I winced. So much for keeping her out of trouble. Instead, I’d gone and gotten her kicked off the planet. Luckily, I already knew she wasn’t mad. Sandy felt guilty as hell over my near-death experience. If anything, we’d gotten even closer since I made it back.
Oh, and now I was going to get three months alone with her on a return craft. I rubbed my chin thoughtfully. Maybe I would ask for that date after all. Nothing like living dangerously, right? If the right...opportunity...presented itself, anyway. I groaned inwardly at my own play on words.
“All right, Stein. Best of luck out there, and safe home,” Grant said. “Dismissed.”
I stood and snapped him a salute. Then I was on my way. Back to my quarters to pack. From there, back to Earth. After that? Who knew?
Life was filled with opportunities, after all.
Author’s Notes
OK, so I’ve got a soft spot for little robot drones abandoned and alone on a planet far away. I think I’m not the only one who feels a little wistful at the thought of Opportunity sitting out there by itself.
As I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, this is an homage story for the little bot that was declared officially lost in the line of duty by NASA on the 13th of February, 2019. NASA had been trying to restore contact since the summer before without any success.
Opportunity was lost.
Right away, I felt like I wanted to pen a story about us finding the little rover and bringing it home again. But as I considered the potentials for that story more, I came up with another idea.
In a few short years, public memory of Opportunity will fade. It won’t be something we think about, by the time humans actually get out to Mars. Just one more bit of space junk sitting out there to rust.
What if a future astronaut stumbled across it? Better still, what if that chance encounter was able to save the astronaut? Then, he turns around and saves Oppy right back.
I love our little robotic explorers. They’re out in space doing what we can’t do and going to places that we can’t go — yet! Our remote explorers are a testimony to many of the best characteristics of humanity. They speak to our innovation and creativity. More than that, they are a shining example of what I feel is one of our best traits: curiosity.
We are a curious race.
That drive has taken us over one mountain after another, always questing, always wanting to know what else is out there.
Opportunity was a vessel of our curiosity for fifteen years. A stunning amount of time, far longer than anyone had expected the rover to survive.
It won’t be the last explorer we send out. Far from it; just over the past few months, China has been exploring the far side of the moon and Japan landed on an asteroid. An Israeli company has launched the first private enterprise mission to our moon. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. There’s tons more on the way
over the next few years.
Humans are getting back into space again in a serious way. Frankly, it’s about time! And it’s going to make the next decades an exciting time to be alive.
I hope you enjoyed this little novelette… Long term readers will note the ‘Stein’ last name. I went back in time for this one, to before Nicholas Stein (from the Accord trilogy) was born. Jasper Stein is his father.
That’s more of an Easter Egg for old fans of my work than anything else, but if you’ve enjoyed this book, it might be worth checking out Accord of Honor, the novel that starts off the core Ragnarok Saga.
Thanks for reading! If you made it this far, I appreciate your dedication. Maybe someday, something like this story will actually happen, and Oppy will come home to us again. Until then?
Ad Astra!
Kevin McLaughlin
Exclusive for fans of the Accord series!
Find out how the story started… When Captain Nicholas Stein set out to stop one enemy ship, and set in motion events which shaped the course of human history for decades to come.
http://kevinomclaughlin.com/accordoffire/
Other Books by Kevin McLaughlin
The Ragnarok Saga (Military SF)
Accord of Fire - Free prequel short story, available only to email list fans!
Book 1 - Accord of Honor
Book 2 - Accord of Mars
Book 3 - Accord of Valor
Book 4 - Ghost Wing
Book 5 - Ghost Squadron
Book 6 - Ghost Fleet (2018)
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Valhalla Online Series (A Ragnarok Saga Story)
Book 1 - Valhalla Online
Book 2 - Raiding Jotunheim
Book 3 - Vengeance Over Vanaheim
Book 4 - Hel Hath No Fury (November 2018)
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Lost Planet Warriors (Military SF with light romance)
Book 1 - Desperate Times
Book 2 - Desperate Measures
Dire Straits - Free short story for email list fans!
* * *
Adventures of the Starship Satori (Space Opera blended with military SF)
Finding Satori - prequel short story, available only to email list fans!
Book 1 - Ad Astra: Book 2 - Stellar Legacy
Book 3 - Deep Waters
Book 4 - No Plan Survives Contact
Book 5 - Liberty
Book 6 - Satori’s Destiny
Book 7 - Ashes of War
Book 8 - Embers of War
Book 9 - Dust and Iron (May 2018)
Blackwell Magic Series (Urban Fantasy)
Book 1 - By Darkness Revealed
Book 2 - Ashes Ascendant
Book 3 - Dead In Winter
Book 4 - Claws That Catch
Book 5 - Darkness Awakes
Book 6 - Spellbinding Entanglements
By A Whisker (short story)
The Raven and the Rose - Free novelette for email list fans!
* * *
Dead Brittania Series:
Dead Brittania (short prequel story)
Book 1 - King of the Dead
Book 2 - Queen of Demons
Raven’s Heart Series (Urban Fantasy)
Book 1 - Stolen Light
Book 2 - Webs in the Dark
Book 3 - Shades of Moonlight
Other Titles:
Over the Moon (SF romance)
Midnight Visitors (Steampunk Cat short story)
Demon Ex Machina (Steampunk Cat short story)
The Coffee Break Novelist (help for writers!)
You Must Write (Heinlein’s rules for writers)
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author Kevin McLaughlin has written more than three dozen science fiction and fantasy novels, along with more short stories than he can easily count. Kevin can be found most days in downtown Boston, working on the next novel. His bestselling Blackwell Magic fantasy series, Accord science fiction series, Valhalla Online LitRPG series, and the fan-favorite Starship Satori series are ongoing.
* * *
I love hearing from readers!
www.kevinomclaughlin.com
[email protected]
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