The Warubozu Usagi

11:59 (ish) pm

Spending the day at an uncharted crater on Mars just north of the Hellespontus Montes

Having flown back to the Black Flea and with the Baby Black Flea parked inside “Mother”, Wu-chan has decided to fly the Black Flea back to the crater they selected.

RP: Cap, I think we picked the wrong crater. This thing is...massive.

WU: (seriously reviewing his options) Hmm. Perhaps a 32 kilometer crater is not the right choice for establishing a colony.

S: Well, I guess that's that. Time to fly back to Earth.

WU: (spotting a tiny crater, pulls up topographic map and measures it) How about that one? It's just over 3 kilometers across.

SM: (reviewing the map) It'll work for water collection and retention.

WU: (reviewing the Mars land registry) And it's not claimed.

RP: Let's fly down into it!

WU: Shoko, can you scan the topo while we're here?

SM: On it.

(Syvil pilots the Black Flea into the unclaimed, uncharted crater)

SM: There's about 2 megaliters of water storage capacity below sea level. At 60 meters in elevation above sea level, we'd have about 0.87 square kilometers of green landscape. It's a sustainable crater, Wu-chan.

WU: What do you think, Syvil?

S: I guess it's okay. But what are we going to build and how?

WU: (pulls out his tablet and directs his sketch to the main screen) Here's a quick schematic of what I'm thinking. Most of the forms would be printed using a lime/cement binder to the local clayey soils and rocks. Wouldn't take much time just to build the base up, we just need local water to use with the binder.

S: How did you draw that so quickly?

WU: I'm talented, Syvil.

S: Ha. You're not that talented.

WU: (nodding profusely with a big grin) Syvil, fly in a 10 kilometer grid. Shoko, can you do a gamma scan of the ground for water?

SM: Yep, on it.

(an hour later and after two rounds of cappucchinos the crew is wired and excited)

SM: (bouncing off her seat and dancing) Yatta! We've got water!!!

WU: (jumping up and down) We're going to become landowners!!!

RP: (gesticulating wildly) Woo hoo! We're Martian homesteaders!

S: Yay. Now can we fly to Earth?

WU: Syvil, aren't you excited? We're going to be landowners! Why are you in such a hurry to get to Earth anyway? Doogé's job doesn't have a fixed timetable.

S: Don't you miss Earth at all?

WU: Sure. (fake gag) But it's not the green and blue planet it once was and most of the fresh water is contaminated.

S: ...

WU: (fake cough) And when you breath without a mask, it smells like a billion people died.

S: But I miss home. Don't you miss home?

RP: Not really. My family is scattered across the galaxy.

SM: Nope. Mom and dad left Earth years ago.

WU: Syvil, you're an orphan. Why would you care about home?

S: Pistachio gelato.

WU: Nani?

S: I miss sitting on the bench and watching the sun set while eating pistachio gelato with you, Red, and Shoko. I remember the warmth of the sun, and the joy of being surrounded by my closest friends. That was when I realized that you guys were my family.

(stunned silence)

WU: Syvil, let's get off this rock right now and head back to Earth.

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— The Warubozu Usagi