[ WP ] You are the last known surviving human on MarsBaseEcho . Something is outside .

I'm pretty sure it's gases. Perhaps one of the pipes was punctured by a rockfall, and it's sending its contents into the atmosphere. There's not really another solution that makes a shred of sense. Nobody here but me, there has n't been hide nor hair of anybody, not the faintest suggestion of life on Mars, not since the last ship left. And that was twelve years ago. 
 
 I'd have been on it, too, if Jennifer Cowan had n't had to go and get herself pregnant, have a child, take my seat. It was against regulations, and everyone knew it. If I'd realised they'd let her get away with it, I'd have aborted the little shit myself, but that never happened, and guess who was the fall guy? 
 
 So because of that slut and her fucking *fertility*, I have to spend the rest of my life alone on a desert planet that's too arid to support a colony. Thirteen hours a day in hydroponics, nine hours sleeping. The days are n't the same length as they are at home, but I'm damned if I know how long they are, and I can not be arsed to find out. So I just spend my life with the days slowly getting out of sync, and I have to deal with it. 
 
 But I can cope with that. I just wish the gases would stop. It really seems like there's somebody stood outside - that's ridiculous, I know, but it's the truth. Sometimes it sounds like a voice, sometimes footsteps, always something. It never shuts up, the gas never stops escaping. I do n't know which pipe is damaged, because it's not one I need. This place was built for five thousand, and it's only me here. Some of this place has n't seen life for a good decade or so. 
 
 It keeps me up at night sometimes. Though strictly speaking, right now night and day might as well be the same. A couple of weeks ago, I nearly lost an arm to one of the mech-doors, and I have n't had the nerve to go through it again. So I have n't got any way of getting to the light panels on the ceiling, not without turning on all of the systems on the base and going for an explore. It could be light out, or it could be dark - it makes no odds to me, either way. 
 
 Right now, it sounds like somebody's knocking. But that's not the case, right? If I'm the only person on this rock, and my hands are in my pockets, how can anybody be knocking? 
 
 I'll just assume I've gone mad. I have a helmet here - I could just open the door and see. It wo n't take me a minute, I'll finish this entry when I'm done.
