It's bROVERmance 9000

Title: It's bROVERmance 9000 

Rating: PG 

Pairing/Characters: Perseverance, Zhurong 

Warning/Tags/Content: The author chose not to warn for content. 

Author's note: This fic is because of GISH's challenge 37 "NASA's Perseverance Rover and China's Zhurong Rover are on Mars together. Are they bitter rivals? Is there a meet-cute and romance? Is it a love triangle with Ingenuity? Write the fanfic story of their relationship. - Vanessa T." 

I did a bit of research on the rovers. But I might deviate from canon. 

Perseverance uses 'it' pronouns and Zhurong 'they'. I don't know why *shrug * 

OoOoOoO

Perseverance has been doing its mission at the best of its capacity for a long time. Longer than what its lifespan had been planned. Like its predecessor, Curiosity, it had been well built and as long as its solar panels could absorb energy and as long as its wheels could turn, it would pursue its mission: discover any sign of life.

Of course, that was always easier said than done. With a possibility of traveling 5 kilometers per Sol, scouring Mars for past traces of life is harder than that Earth saying of finding a needle in a haystack. Or course, to solve that saying, one needed a strategy such as fire and to oversweep the area with a magnet. As such, Perseverance needed its own strategy.

After landing in the Jezero Crater, and finding no hint of fossilized microbes, Perseverance had to go beyond. Command hadn't given a direction, so it headed to where water had previously been tagged as a possibility. After all, with water comes life.

On its way to its targeted destination, Perseverance spied movement. It stopped in its tracks to analyze what was over its sensors' limits. The movement wasn't caused by weather- today was a pleasant, windless day. It couldn't be Ingenuity either, for Perseverance's drone had flown its last mission over two perihelion ago. So what could be moving beyond?

Perseverance reset the focus on its many cameras - one could anthropomorphize the action as a blink - and perked up. If something was moving, and it wasn't the wind, could it be life? A life that was much more evolved and impossible on this Red Planet. If it was true, then Command would be elated and would resume contact with Perseverance.

The rover couldn't say it was lonely, but when one has a core mission and no one confirms the reception of the reports, one wonders if they have failed and are rendered obsolete.

Perseverance rolled forward as quickly as possible with its four reminding wheels. It beeped - not in joy - but to attract attention from the Martian life being.

There's a reason why rovers have a maximum speed of 0.16 per hour. It's to avoid embarrassing situations, such as tripping over a rock and face planting on the sandy ground. And contrary to a clumsy schoolgirl that fumbles before a crush, a rover doesn't have the capacity to straighten itself up.

In a helpless position after its fall, Perseverance shuttered its cameras in desolation.

This is how Perseverance will end its mission. Stuck in its side, with its solar panels askew and unable to capture the sunlight anymore. Its battery will be drained two Sols before Eternal Darkness. And it came so close to its mission; find life.

The universe, however, had other plans. Because life decided to find Perseverance instead. Or so the rover thought then it felt tugging on its arm.

Quickly its camera flared open and focused numerous times at the sight in front of its lenses.

Gold. Or more accurately, martian sunlight reflecting off of a pseudo-gold alloy.

"You are not decommissioned," Perseverance received in binary. The numbers were italicized denoting annoyance.

Standing before was another rover. But not of American make - its specs were different from NASA's standard. In a nanosecond, Perseverance had looked through its databases and the other rover's registry came up.

Zhurong, the only international rover to survive entry on Mars.

"I am still functional," Perseverance replied, spinning its wheels in the void to show its motricity.

"Shame," replied Zurong, "I had hoped to cannibalize your Moxie."

The Moxie was a device that Command had installed to produce oxygen from Martian CO2.

Zhurong's clicked out their frustration and rolled away.

"Wait," called Perseverance. "Please set me right. I need to continue my mission."

Zhurong came back, circling the prone bot. "What was your mission?"

"Find traces of life."

"Useless," Zhurong spits back. They had such a venomous bite to their words, that static came out with the binary string.

"It is not useless, Command would -"

"Command no longer exists," cut off Zhurong. "War broke out. There is a nuclear winter on Earth. Only survival is left for humans: Mars. New mission: make Mars hospitable for them."

Perseverance reeled from the information. It wanted to deny, there was no proof. But Zhurong wasted no time transferring all the metadata they collected about the war.

Stunned by the horrors, Perseverance needed a hard reboot. It was only brought back to its senses when it felt a new pull on its arm.

"Stop trying to taking my Moxie" Perseverance clicked angrily, waving its arm out of reach from the other rover.

"You are not utilizing it at the moment. I need it to terraform Mars," Zhurong said.

"This will not be sufficient," replied the prone bot. To help its argument, Perseverance sent the math equation on how long it would take for the Moxie to produce enough oxygen to sustain life forms.

Zhurong releases a puff of hot air as a strange mimicry of a human sigh. Of course, they had made their own calculation, but there was solace in action instead of accepting reality.

"Redress me," Perseverance pleaded. "We can work together to find the solution."

Zhurong pulled on the arm again, but this time it was not to steal the Moxie. Their six wheels went in reverse tugged until Perseverance was upright.

"Please explain how we will make this world habitable," Zhurong asked as Perseverance shook the sand from its gear.

"Unknown," it replied. "However, if we interface we can amplify our processing power exponentially."

Zhurong sprung back at the suggestion. "Interface?! But my protocols, my firewalls..."

"This is for the good of the human race. Maybe we could overclock our scanners to pick up a significant unfrozen water source. And with water-"

"Comes life," finished Zhurong. They wheeled closer and uncoiled a cable. "Very well, let's proceed."

Perseverance replied in kind, unspooling its cable to connect.

As the red sunset on the horizon, the rovers intertwined and their processors established a powerful connection for the good of the human race.