Stranded -The Martian

Chapter 4

*Sol 24* - Brooks POV

"Right, let's do the math. Our surface mission here was supposed to last 31 sols. For redundancy, they sent 68 sols worth of food. That's for 7 people. So for just us, that's gonna last 300 sols... which I figure we can stretch to 400 if we ration. So we've got to figure out a way to grow three years' worth of food here. On a planet where nothing grows. Luckily... Mark's a botanist. Mars will come to fear our botany powers." I said into the camera as Mark was in the kitchen counting the amount of food we have.

I hobbled into the kitchen to tell him about my idea, "Mark! I just had a great idea!"

"What is it?" he asked me, curiosity taking over.

"You are a botanist, and we got sent potatoes for Thanksgiving. So, we could plant the potatoes to make more potatoes." I responded a huge smile on my face.

"Yes! That's an amazing idea!" he said as he jumped up and hugged me, "We just need a room to plant them in, dirt and the human waste as a fertilizer."

"You prepare the room and I'll collect the dirt and waste." I commanded and limped out of the room to my suit.

 I went outside to the human waste box and collected all the packets and brought them inside. Then, I went out with many boxes and filled them up with dirt to be placed in the room that Mark was preparing.

"Hey Mark? Is the room prepared?" I shouted through the Hab.

"Yup. You can bring in the dirt and start placing it down if you want, I'll start on the potatoes." he replied.

I nodded in agreement and collected the boxes and started to empty out the dirt onto the ground. I flattened it and got a shovel and made indentations into it for where the potatoes would be planted. I went to the kitchen and began sorting through the packets of waste.

"Good luck with that job." Mark said sarcastically.

"Oh, fuck off Mark." I said chuckling.

I emptied all the packets into a big bucket and pour water into it, I began gagging so much that Mark had to step in and continue.

"I'll place the waste first and then cover it a bit. Then you place the potato on it, then cover and water it, got it?" Mark told me.

"Got it" I replied.

We were working as a team and after about an hour or so we got all the potatoes planted and we were relaxing while hearing the storm going on outside.

"The problem is water. We have created 126 square meters of soil. But every cubic meter of soil requires 40 litres of water to be farmable. So we gotta make a lot more water. Good thing is, I know the recipe. You take hydrogen, you add oxygen, you burn. Now, we have hundreds of litres of unused hydrazine at the MDV. If we run the hydrazine over an iridium catalyst, it'll separate into N2 and H2. And then if we just direct the hydrogen into a small area... and burn it." Mark said as we were discussing all the problems that we are going to face while being here, "Everything they sent us up here with is flame-retardant... with the notable exception of... Martinez's personal items. I am sorry, Martinez. But if you didn't want me to go through your stuff... you shouldn't have left us for dead on a desolate planet." I laughed at this comment.

Mark walked off to try and make water as I sat there looking through the personal belongings I had bought with me. I was staring at a picture of my mum and dad when I heard an explosion.

"Mark!" I shouted through to where he was.

He came out about five minutes later looking an absolute mess, I chuckled at his appearance.

"So,yeah, I blew myself up." he stated, I was laughing so hard that I ended up on the floor laughing like a hyena, "Best guess... I forgot to account for the excess oxygen... that I've been exhaling when I did my calculations. Because I'm stupid. Yeah, I'm gonna get back to work here... just as soon as my ears stop ringing."