MDRS Day 12 - The Mercenary

Our final full day at the MDRS was a relatively easy one. We did our final EVAs, cleaned up the Hab, and made preparations for the next crew.

J.R. took the Voyager back to Salt Lake City to give it to the next crew. He was supposed to wake me up so I could check the battery leads to see why it wouldn’t start at all without a jump. At least he made it, and the other crew is on the way now.

After a quick breakfast Genoveva and I went on an ATV EVA to find the final cache site that the crew before us left to dig up and analyze. We suited up, but we had a problem starting the ATV with all the emergency equipment, so I took the ATV that had just gotten back from the repair shop with a huge crack in something that looked important. Luckily it handed find.

We went north looking for the same western passage that J.R., Robbie, and I took to get the second cache, but after all the snow and erosion, and the fact that the trail wasn’t marked on any GPS we have, I couldn’t find it. I took Genoveva, who isn’t that great of an ATV rider as it is, around some dangerous areas looking for the tiny trail through the hills. After the third attempt to head west that ended in a dead end, we decided to head back at leave it for the next crew and their scouting EVAs.

We took the rest of the EVA to look at the ice lake again. A lot of it had melted away, but there were a lot of animal tracks (and cow dung) in the snow. We also found a cave that was previously unreachable. We headed back to the Hab and took a few final pictures in our suits. Although I’m not happy with the photography I must say my last picture is one of my best pictures ever (and is proudly displayed as the image above, and yes, I'm brandishing a nail gun and an axe while stepping over something in my way).

Once the other EVA team got back from their pedestrian EVA we had lunch, then started the cleanup process. I put up a set of shelves in the Turdinator, something the last crew failed to do, and then I cleaned up the bathroom and some areas out in Engineering. I thought about taking a nap, but I had enough things to do to keep me awake until the next crew showed up. The power went out once, and I had it restored in record time thanks to my many power-restoration exercises throughout this rotation.

Unfortunately, the next crew didn’t get out of Salt Lake City until 7 o’clock, so we ate dinner without them, and in a hurry. That was fine with me, because any crew that has an all-vegetarian diet deserves nothing cooked by me (and because we had to “accommodate” them, the spaghetti sauce was meatless). We also got the images and videos DVDs burned, so I’ll be able to show off the pictures that everyone took while they were here to anyone who cares (which probably won’t be too many people, but just ask me).

We’re not staying up until 1 in the morning to meet them either. I’ll give the next engineer a crash course rather than the nighttime basics and the morning-advanced knowledge like the last CE did for me. Until then, goodnight.

"Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide
You've got to kill to stay alive
Show them no fear
Show them no pain"