SOLEN Archive · Restricted · Personal Log · Carter Donnelly

Carter's Personal Log

SOLEN maintains this file separately from the operational log. Carter did not know it existed until Sol 300. He has not asked SOLEN to stop.

"My father used to say a building tells you the truth about itself if you're patient enough to listen. I came to Mars because I ran out of buildings on Earth that still needed listening to. I did not expect the planet itself to be the thing that talked back."

Sol 14. I fixed the thermal junction on the east wall without telling Alina. I told myself it was efficiency. SOLEN's log says this is the second time. I don't disagree with the record. I disagree with what it implies about why I keep doing it.

Sol 200. I built her a window. Forty by sixty centimeters, south wall, nothing structural about it. I have spent eleven years making sure buildings hold weight. This is the first thing I have ever built that was only for looking.

"She stood in front of it for eleven minutes before she came to find me. When she asked if I built it, I said yes. I did not tell her I'd been planning it since Sol 60. Some things you let someone discover instead of announcing."

Sol 441. My heart rate dropped to 38 BPM when Nova was born. SOLEN has a category for it now. I don't need a category. I know exactly what that was.

There are things in this log that are not in the operational record, and I have decided that is correct. Some things belong to the mission. Some things belong only to the two people who lived them.

Carter's Personal Log

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