Heres a present. Opportunity.
I don't know if any of you have seen this, but in case you haven't heres a present from me to you. I think its cute. <3 Amy
Opportunity
Amy A. Blume
March 7, 2008
Its cold here. The sky is full of a pink-orange sunset as Sol, that distant star, sets over the curved horizon. It flickers as it falls past the red, rocky hills in the distance and then is gone. Martian twilight falls and there is silence. Well, almost. Around an outcropping a machine is just settling in for the night.
The Rover takes one last look around itself and the eyes of thousands of human souls look out with it through its video cameras from a world away. The image freezes on the green tinged rocks, their cracks splashed with red sand and then the little computer inside tells it Rover that its time to hibernate until morning. Its wheels are turned so they can’t slide down the slope in the night. Hinges creak a little as the weather gets even colder, and then the little sounds computers make as they whir and process spin down until there’s hardly any noise coming from the metal mechanical researcher. The stillness is complete.
Not many stars shine through the milky orange sky of Mars. Not even when the twilight dies completely and all is darkness, but then unknown to the earth-bound neighbors who’ve sent their rover from the blue world to the red one, there comes a sound.
It’s a grinding sound at first. Gears that have dust inside them are hard to keep soundless even with advanced technology. Hydraulic gears lift and pull and a boulder that weighs tons gently slides away from the face of the little outcropping and robed figures walk out.
“I’ve just got to go out for a minute and make sure the nanites are doing their job…”
“But Eloh, they’ve got those probes in orbit we’ve got to be more careful now!”
“I checked the orbits of every Terran satellite before we headed out. We’ve got a fifteen-minute window starting now. It won’t happen again for another few days and I have to check to make sure he’s okay.”
“IT is okay, Eloh, it’s a machine, remember?”
The beings stop at the edge of the slope where the rover stopped for the night to sleep. Eloh, at over two meters tall, hovers over the little machine with great care, swiping a hand-held scanner over its solar panels.
“Hello Opportunity!” He speaks to it like one might speak to a favorite animal. “How are you tonight?”
The machine doesn’t answer of course, but his little sensor does.
“Looks like your battery output is still good,” He tells it, “Not perfect but then we wouldn’t want it to be - clean off those panels just enough to keep you going, right little friend?”
Bending his thin form this way and that and crouching down to examine the vehicles tracks and other various equipment, he sings a little to himself. It’s a beautiful noise not unlike the wind that’s now begun to blow and kick up a little dust.
Unconsciously, Eloh pushes back his hood to better examine the Terran robot, and a lock of his waist length white hair falls like spun silver from behind one delicately pointed ear. It floats down until in a little blast of static explosion it encounters his personal shield.
“Hey Sela, would you check the diagnostics on our shielding for me?”
Sela sighs and shakes his head, letting his own hood fall. His hair is night-black and sways differently in the gravity of Mars than it would on Earth, floating a little before it settles back onto his broad shoulders.
"You know, Elouen would kill you if she knew you were out here doing this,” he tells his friend, as he dutifully gets out his own scanner from the pocket of his robes. “Air pressure and oxygen levels at nominal. No particle seepage present at all. Terran wavelengths read zero.”
“Thank you, Sela. Well fortunately for us both my sister doesn’t know we’re doing this. We’ll be back in Valinor before they even notice we’re gone.”
“Why must you do this? The whole point of moving here was to stay out of their way.”
Eloh stops for a moment then glances up at the sky. Just visible to his acute eyes is the little glowing point of light that is Earth.
“I suppose I miss them,” he speaks softly, “their laughter and their bright eyes, even their hubris. They make me feel young and I can’t help but want to encourage them to come out here; to find us hiding inside this slumbering planet. I don’t want them to give up.”
The wind whistles again, for all the worlds sounding like a voice.
“I hope they’ll be ready for us when they get here,” Sela said, finally voicing his true fears.
They stand there for a moment, staring back at Earth with the wonder of all that is beautiful and unique in the universe running through their minds.
“Good night, little friend,” Eloh whisperes as the winds rise in earnest, finally.
They turn from the little robot and walk back towards home. The boulder obediently slides in behind them as they disappear into it's darker night. Invisible nanites shiver and wipe out any sign of Eloh and Sela’s visit, leaving nothing but Opportunity behind.
Opportunity
Amy A. Blume
March 7, 2008
Its cold here. The sky is full of a pink-orange sunset as Sol, that distant star, sets over the curved horizon. It flickers as it falls past the red, rocky hills in the distance and then is gone. Martian twilight falls and there is silence. Well, almost. Around an outcropping a machine is just settling in for the night.
The Rover takes one last look around itself and the eyes of thousands of human souls look out with it through its video cameras from a world away. The image freezes on the green tinged rocks, their cracks splashed with red sand and then the little computer inside tells it Rover that its time to hibernate until morning. Its wheels are turned so they can’t slide down the slope in the night. Hinges creak a little as the weather gets even colder, and then the little sounds computers make as they whir and process spin down until there’s hardly any noise coming from the metal mechanical researcher. The stillness is complete.
Not many stars shine through the milky orange sky of Mars. Not even when the twilight dies completely and all is darkness, but then unknown to the earth-bound neighbors who’ve sent their rover from the blue world to the red one, there comes a sound.
It’s a grinding sound at first. Gears that have dust inside them are hard to keep soundless even with advanced technology. Hydraulic gears lift and pull and a boulder that weighs tons gently slides away from the face of the little outcropping and robed figures walk out.
“I’ve just got to go out for a minute and make sure the nanites are doing their job…”
“But Eloh, they’ve got those probes in orbit we’ve got to be more careful now!”
“I checked the orbits of every Terran satellite before we headed out. We’ve got a fifteen-minute window starting now. It won’t happen again for another few days and I have to check to make sure he’s okay.”
“IT is okay, Eloh, it’s a machine, remember?”
The beings stop at the edge of the slope where the rover stopped for the night to sleep. Eloh, at over two meters tall, hovers over the little machine with great care, swiping a hand-held scanner over its solar panels.
“Hello Opportunity!” He speaks to it like one might speak to a favorite animal. “How are you tonight?”
The machine doesn’t answer of course, but his little sensor does.
“Looks like your battery output is still good,” He tells it, “Not perfect but then we wouldn’t want it to be - clean off those panels just enough to keep you going, right little friend?”
Bending his thin form this way and that and crouching down to examine the vehicles tracks and other various equipment, he sings a little to himself. It’s a beautiful noise not unlike the wind that’s now begun to blow and kick up a little dust.
Unconsciously, Eloh pushes back his hood to better examine the Terran robot, and a lock of his waist length white hair falls like spun silver from behind one delicately pointed ear. It floats down until in a little blast of static explosion it encounters his personal shield.
“Hey Sela, would you check the diagnostics on our shielding for me?”
Sela sighs and shakes his head, letting his own hood fall. His hair is night-black and sways differently in the gravity of Mars than it would on Earth, floating a little before it settles back onto his broad shoulders.
"You know, Elouen would kill you if she knew you were out here doing this,” he tells his friend, as he dutifully gets out his own scanner from the pocket of his robes. “Air pressure and oxygen levels at nominal. No particle seepage present at all. Terran wavelengths read zero.”
“Thank you, Sela. Well fortunately for us both my sister doesn’t know we’re doing this. We’ll be back in Valinor before they even notice we’re gone.”
“Why must you do this? The whole point of moving here was to stay out of their way.”
Eloh stops for a moment then glances up at the sky. Just visible to his acute eyes is the little glowing point of light that is Earth.
“I suppose I miss them,” he speaks softly, “their laughter and their bright eyes, even their hubris. They make me feel young and I can’t help but want to encourage them to come out here; to find us hiding inside this slumbering planet. I don’t want them to give up.”
The wind whistles again, for all the worlds sounding like a voice.
“I hope they’ll be ready for us when they get here,” Sela said, finally voicing his true fears.
They stand there for a moment, staring back at Earth with the wonder of all that is beautiful and unique in the universe running through their minds.
“Good night, little friend,” Eloh whisperes as the winds rise in earnest, finally.
They turn from the little robot and walk back towards home. The boulder obediently slides in behind them as they disappear into it's darker night. Invisible nanites shiver and wipe out any sign of Eloh and Sela’s visit, leaving nothing but Opportunity behind.