You have been a bad alien cylinder," I say to it. "You need a time-out.

He waves to me with a free arm. He knows one human greeting and by golly he plans to use it.

I've always been a fan of science fiction. I grew up watching Star Trek. Now I get to live it!""Star Trek?" Trond asked. "Seriously? That's like a hundred years old.""Quality is quality," Jin said. "Age is irrelevant. No one bitches about Shakespeare fans.

Work fast.""Yeah." I point at the screen. "First I have to wait for my computer to wake up.""Hurry.""Okay, I'll wait faster.""Sarcasm.

Mars is not Earth. It doesn't have a thick atmosphere to bend light and carry particles that reflect light around corners. It's damn near a vacuum here. Once the sun isn't visible, I'm in the dark. Phobos gives me some moonlight, but not enough to work with. Deimos is a little piece of crap that's no good to anyone.

I stumbled up the hill back toward the Hab. As I crested the rise, I saw something that made me very happy and something that made me very sad: The Hab was intact (yay!) and the MAV was gone (boo!).

So, in the face of overwhelming odds, I'm left with only one option: I’m going to have to science the shit out of this.

They hate you.""Why?""Cause you're a dick, Mitch.

How dare you call me lazy? I'd come up with a scathing retort but, meh, I'm just not motivated.