Meantime, we have to catch those Martians.
June 29, 1961
Worse and worse. Lloyd caught one of the Martians in the firing chamber. We had to flood the chamber with acid to subdue the creature, which carbonized nicely. So now we have plenty of air and water again, but besides having another Martian still on the loose, we now don't have enough acid left in the fuel tanks to make a landing.
Pat says at least our vector will carry us to Earth and we can die on our home planet, which is better than perishing in space.
The hell it is.
March 3, 1962
Earth in sight. The other Martian is still with us. He's where we can't get at him without blow-torches, but he can't get at the carbon in the AFAR system, either, which is a help. However, his tail is prehensile, and now and then it snakes out through an air duct and yanks food right off the table from under our noses.
Kroger says watch out. We are made of carbohydrates, too. I'd rather not have known.