“How long has it been missing?”
“He’s been out of contact for almost three years but he completely slipped out of sight only last winter. Don’t worry, we’ll get him. He’s a tough little bugger.”
The face plate slid off with a horrid scrape of plastic against sand. The explorers looked around at the desert landscape, their suits a pale shade of red, only from exposure.
“What does the MGPS say?” The first explorer asked and flipped the mounted binoculars in front of him, scanning the terrain.
The second explorer checked his display for the MGPS marker. “Thirty two degrees off north and ahead forty five meters. We should be right on top of him.”
They moved across the indicated line, the first explorer switching through different viewing modes. “Should I look for an energy signature or is it too late for that?”
“Wouldn’t hurt,” The second explorer shrugged as much as he could in the tight fitting composite suit.
The first explorer began searching for an EM field. “I got a spike!” He said almost immediately. “It’s faint but it’s straight ahead! It must be him!”
The spot from which the EM spike originated was what, from first inspection, looked like a covered up sand pit. With careful consideration, the explorer knelt before it and started pulling away the layers of red dirt with sand blowers and brushes. Since it was only a few months ago that he was completely concealed, he wasn’t long to uncover. His straight head and kind eyes were the first to show but soon his gleaming plates and skinny legs were out as well. They could feel him shivering in their hands as they gently pulled him out, signaling his slow reanimation. He craved the sun. Through pink skies and endless dust storms, all he wanted was a little light, some attention and a purpose.
“We got you, buddy. Don’t worry. You’re safe now. You’re going home.”
He gained his place among the greatest. Amidst giants of all shapes and sizes, he finally sat in his deserving place. With Discovery as big brother, Sojourner as little sibling, cousin Vega and Spartan looking down on them all, he sat on a plastic and cardboard hill. A raised platform of winners, a simulation of the years of hell he went through. But he survived. He did a good job and was deemed worthy of acceptance into this great hall. He looked down at his placard, surmizing his great journey. It read, “Spirit. Launched 2003/06/10. Landed 2004/01/04. Stationary 2009/05/01. AI Upgrade 2021/04/26. Lost 2036/08/13. Recovered 2039/02/19. He was down but never out!”
And off to one side, where the line of people that waited to see him began, someone had placed a sign that pointed straight at him that said “That’s the Spirit!”
He raised his burrowing tool the way he was taught to do and beckoned them forward.
מה אנשים אומרים