Sunday April 5th, 2015

The exercise:

It's time for April's visit to The Colony.

Went up to Kat's parents place for dinner tonight, a combination Easter and belated birthday for Kat get together. Kat's dad did up a delicious turkey, and for dessert he baked a tasty birthday cake. Max didn't have too much to eat, as he seemed to still be recovering from throwing up twice this morning.

Poor little guy has a lot going on these days.

He seemed back to normal afterward though, and rediscovered his appetite just before bedtime. So hopefully that was just a blip on the radar and there are no major issues to deal with tomorrow.

Mine:

Okay. I just left a very tense all-hands meeting and I want to write down what was said before I forget any details.

I don't know, maybe this will be important later on. Even if it's not, I think it'll do me some good. Help me sort my thoughts out.

*     *     *

Commander Vassily (CV): By now you are all aware of our... situation. All six of the supply drops that preceded our arrival are empty. There will not be another drop until two and one half weeks from now. What we have with us, right now, is all we have to survive on until then. It will be enough.

Demi: Will the missing supplies be replaced?

CV: Not for a month, at least. It is no matter. Merely a delay in our expected schedule, and we have more than enough time here to do all that we have been assigned to do.

Robbie: Yeah, just the rest of our lives, right?

CV: For now our focus must be on determining what went wrong... and how to prevent it from happening again.

(I've always admired Vassily's ability to carry on as though Robbie wasn't in the room)

Aditya: Drops Epsilon and Zeta were nearly destroyed by the storm before we could reach them. It is impossible to say what condition they were in prior to that. We do know that nothing of this magnitude had swept through this area since the drops landed. Until now, of course.

CV: Indeed. Only Alpha and Beta were examined before further damage was done and those observations were... lacking.

Patrick: Hey, we just spent two and a half days out there in the middle of that miserable storm while you lot were comfy and cozy in here! So maybe you can cut us a little slack?

CV: We are on Mars, Patrick. There is no slack here.

Me: As we outlined in our report, Alpha looked as though it may have hit a rock on landing. Perhaps the parachute failed shortly before impact, allowing the crate to impact with enough force to make the crack we saw.

CV: May have. Perhaps. Did you see a rock? Did you find the snapped parachute cords? No. You did not. So this is all speculation.

Patrick: Great, you got us there. Okay? But that doesn't brush aside what I saw at Beta.

CV: An all too brief look before you had to run for cover.

Demi: Wait, what did he see? What did you see Patrick?

CV: Without a proper examination there is no need to discuss it. Likely, he was mistaken.

Patrick: Mistaken? That lock was opened by force, pal. And not by some passing asteroid or gust of wind or nothing, okay?

Demi: How can you be so sure?

Patrick: I spent some time on the force back ho... back there. Saw plenty of break and entries. So trust me when I say this, okay? Somebody took a crowbar to that thing.

*     *     *

The meeting dissolved into chaos at that point. Vassily sent us to our rooms, as though we are children under his fatherly rule. We're not supposed to reassemble until everyone calms down.

I'm not sure how long that's going to take.