Ananke 5

Entry 1:

                Local Time: Unknown

                Mars Time: Sol 13,

                                                Well I'm definitely not in Kansas anymore! If I had known this was how my trip to Mars would end, I definitely wouldn't have come. Being pushed through a mysterious portal isn't a very fitting end to such an exciting trip. But I should start from the beginning. My name is Bastian Bernd, and I am either dead or inside of some pre-death hallucination. But, besides that, how did i get here? It all started when I was 11, and I was first introduced to the concept of spaceflight, it was love at first sight. Since then I was fascinated by it, some would say I was addicted to it, consuming everything having to do with it as fast as I could. So no one that knew me was the least bit surprised when I came out with my first book. It was named Sol 13, and detailed the chronicles of an astronaut that goes to mars and meets aliens. The concept wasn't anything special, but it did marginally well, and made enough to let me pay rent and buy food without getting a second job. My next book was about astronauts landing on Pluto and finding alien technology. It did pretty well, though it's sequel did better. I won't bore you with anymore stories about my books, suffice to say they did well enough to keep me alive. But my big break came with 'Project Stargazer' a book about the building, and subsequent destruction of the first ever commercial space station. It was a best seller, and what earned me a place on the Ananke 5 mission.  The Ananke program was NASA's attempt at landing humans on Mars. Ananke 1 successfully landed on Mars, that crew got the parades and fame. Ananke 2 did the same in a different location, they got a firm handshake and the admiration of only the science minded and space nerds. Ananke 3 and 4 did much the same as 2 with much the same results. When it came time for Ananke 5 the politicians and laymen began making a ruckus about how much money these missions were costing. They even tried to cancel the Ananke program, but a 2 month demonstration by scientists, space nerds, and celebrities stopped that. I had no time to participate in this demonstration because I was busy training for the mission, though I would have if I could. Ananke 5 was my mission, well not my mission, Commander Clark was in charge I would never be in charge even if I was the last person left on Mars because I was technically a civilian. My role was to drum up positive PR, to get the laymen on our side, and prevent the politicians from sending Ananke the way of Apollo.

When it was time to head to Mars we got in the Ananke capsule which took us to the Artemis, a larger ship, which would propel us to Mars using Ion engines. It wasn't a very fast method, but it was efficient. I don't know all the technical aspects of this as I had made my living as an author, NOT as an astrophysicist. But we made it to Mars safely, after a LONG trip, though I couldn't tell you just how long because I lost track. Once we were finally there we went into an orbit using a secondary liquid fuel engine. We then took the Ananke Capsule, which doubled as a lander, down to the surface. Once there we spent 13 days doing experiments and exploration. We stayed in the Habitation Module, which had been put there in advance. It was a largish circular building, built to house the 8 man crew for the 30 day mission. Though It only house ME for 13.

On the morning of the 13th day, me and Anna Archer who is a geologist, were supposed to do an EVA to take additional surface samples and analyze them for water and potential life. I wasn't much help, so I decided to climb to the top of the nearest hill, It wasn't much taller than me but it was hard work in a spacesuit and despite 38% gravity so I had my head down, focusing on making climbing. When I lifted my head I saw what looked like a fissure in rock, except it was in the air. It had purple sides with a green outline and blackness in the middle. Like the calm level headed person I am, I let out a "What the fuck?!" before freaking out. After Anna climbed up to see what I was freaking out about and saw It, the rest of the crew donned EVA suits and joined us. We informed NASA of the "Anomaly" and waited the 6 minutes for them to respond. They advised us to stay away from it, but.... my dumb ass got curious, so I disobeyed orders from NASA and Clark and approached it. I was a respectable half a meter away when I heard a chorus of "LOOK OUT!"s. I turned around in time to get hit in the face... er helmet, by a black figure. I just say 'Black Figure' because I didn't have time to make out any details before I fell into the portal. I spanned the distance easily thanks to the 38% gravity and fell into it. I was left laying on my back in a forest. Panicking, I stood up and waddled toward the portal, waddling because moving in a space suit is hard, especially in earth gravity. Just as I got close, I was knocked over by the same 'Black Figure', lets call it Anomaly 2, moving at what seemed like the speed of sound. I hit the ground hard, and the glass on my helmet shattered, thankfully I was able to close my eyes and mouth before the glass got into either. I raised my head and saw that the rift had disappeared. I began to panic, and started to run around in circles while letting out insane sounding panic noises. I'm sure I would have laughed my ass off if I had seen myself, but I was too busy trying not to cry. I didn't sign up for this!

I finally managed to calm myself by saying that I wasn't necessarily anywhere other than earth. After all this could have all been a bad acid trip, not that I had or would have done acid marijuana was the farthest I went. But enough about drugs. I calmed and took off my EVA suit which was useless with the helmet broken. I then made my way In what I assumed was north, I really just located which direction the sun was In and followed. I eventually reached the edge of the forest, I found a large field with a giant mountain in the distance. On the side of the mountain was a city which looked to be defying the laws of physics. From this I gained two things. One: I likely wasn't on earth anymore, and Two: I should probably head in the direction of what I dubbed Anomaly 3. Even if I couldn't find a way to scale the mountain, there was likely a town or village at the base. So I set off on the journey there.

I eventually stopped for the night In the field, I foraged for berries and other food and drank from a nearby stream, which was probably infected with something but was better than dying of thirst. I laid down on a particularly soft piece of grass and started writing this. I will continue my journey in the morning. Goodnight.