Bring Him Home

"Gardner Elliot. Huh."

"Huh what?"

"Well, y'know, 'Gardner.' I suppose Sarah Elliot was aware of the irony that she was calling her son 'Gardner' on a planet where nothing grows."

"I would have thought your experience showed otherwise."

"Yeah, well, I'm the best damn botanist Mars has ever seen. Plus I had crap. Lots of crap."

"Point taken."

Nathaniel Shepherd couldn't help but be impressed by Mark Watney, now 85 years old, retired, and enjoying the celebrity status of being "the best botanist on Mars," and perhaps the most famous astronaut in human history. That he had survived his ordeal on Mars at all was enough to warrant admiration, but there was a youthfulness to him, an optimism that even a retired citizen living in a private residence shut off from the world couldn't diminish. An optimism that he barely even saw in children nowadays. Watney was every inch the man he'd grown up reading about, before he'd joined the International Space Agency to take the exploration of Mars a step further.

And therein lay the danger as well. Because Mark Watney was, and always had been, an optimist. So as he presented him the data on Gardner Elliot, he was aware that Watney's outlook would be optimistic, rather than realistic.

"Gardner Elliot," Watney murmured. He looked up from the iReader, his eyes narrow behind his glasses. "The world doesn't even know he exists."

Nathaniel remained silent.

"Can I ask why?"

Well, so much for tact, but Nathaniel wasn't expecting any less. "It isn't my decision. In fact, I'd be happy to tell the world that-"

"Do you have an explanation?"

Nathaniel sighed and got to his feet, pacing around Watney's office. Holographs decorated the walls, most of them of fellow astronauts. And books. Lots of books.

"Sarah Elliot dying on Mars was a tragedy," he said. He looked back at Watney. "The story of human colonization of Mars is always going to be marred by that fact."

"So?"

"So how does it sound that the ISA screwed up so badly that Sarah Elliot wasn't screened for pregnancy? That we created a situation where the first human born on another world wasn't planned?"

"Some might call that a miracle."

"And others might call that a FUBAR." He took his seat again. "Take a guess where most of the ISA stands on the issue."

Watney didn't and returned his gaze to the iReader. Nathaniel began folding his hands together. Maybe this was a waste of time, he reflected. Watney's words carried weight with the world, but he was still a man of another era. A time when humans exploring Mars was an achievement in itself, not a common routine. Not a world where space colonization was a living, breathing reality.

"So Gardner wants to come home," Watney said. "I'm going to go out on a limb that there's certain issues there. Cost, for one."

Nathaniel nodded. "Getting a ship to Mars is still expensive in this day and age. Now get a sixteen year old on the return trip, account for food and weight, and that increase in cost is still felt."

"And his biological situation?"

"He's grown up on a world where he's lived with little light, little gravity, and little of everything we take for granted on Earth. He's got no immune system to speak of, his muscles might not support him here, not to mention the risk of organ failure, and there's also the psychological impact to consider."

"So," Watney said. He put the pad to one side. "FUBAR, then."

"Or a SNAFU. Gardner's only ever lived on Mars. At this time of discussion, he's still on Mars. Some even say that he's living proof that a human being can live and thrive on an alien world."

"Is he thriving though?"

Nathaniel didn't answer. He didn't know. By his own standards, no, he couldn't imagine what living on Mars for over a decade would be like. Well, he could – Sarah Elliot and her crew had all volunteered, but they'd at least had a choice. They'd at least grown up on Earth before departing for less green pastures.

"So why are you here?" Watney asked. "Why come to me?"

"Um…"

"Scientific advice? Moral advice? An autograph?"

"I…" Nathaniel sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. Even now, as the 21st century drew to a close, eye surgery hadn't removed the need for glasses. Maybe it was for the best. He wouldn't have to meet his eyes with Watney's without some kind of shield.

"Let's go over history," he said. "You were stranded on Mars for the over a year. Bringing you home cost trillions of dollars, and despite the scientific data you brought back, ranging from the human capacity to live on Mars to advances in botany, there were some, right up to the moment you were brought home, who questioned whether it was worth it. Why spend all that time and money on one man, in a world that still had problems?" He put his glasses back on. "That still has problems."

Watney didn't answer.

"Now apply that to a sixteen year old who isn't stranded on Mars, who wasn't born on Earth, and whose existence is, let's be frank, far less important to the future of space colonization." Nathaniel held up a hand before Watney could answer. "Yes, I know, but let's face it – you're a hero. Elliot is, in every sense of the word, an accident."

Watney remained silent for a moment, raising a hand to his chin. Right then, right there, he looked old. Possibly the first time Nathaniel had ever seen him look old. Maybe even the only time – he wasn't counting on a meeting after this.

"Do you know why I wasn't surprised when NASA and China tried to save me?" he asked eventually.

"Why?"

"Because people aren't psychopaths. Some, are, to be sure. But it's human nature to rescue anyone caught in any disaster. It's human nature to want to help."

"Are we helping Elliot though? Are we sending a good message in catering to the whims of a sixteen year old, and setting up a taxi service between Mars and Earth?"

"Five centuries ago the world wasn't even fully mapped," Watney said. "Two centuries ago, the airplane wasn't invented. One century ago, space colonization was the stuff of science fiction."

"And now?"

"And now, as I enjoy fame, fortune, and my name being cited in biology textbooks, I'm left to ask what colonization actually means. Is Earth the home of humanity, or is home where someone is born? Are people born on the Moon human in the same sense as us? Do we colonize Mars, or actually establish links between it?" Watney lay back in his chair. "Y'know, when I was on Mars, I had a thousand questions. Mostly about how I was even going to stay alive. Elliot, at least, has posed a question based on whether something should be done, as opposed to whether it can be done?" He leant forward. "Can it be done?"

Nathaniel nodded."Then if you want my advice for the ISA, then do it. Do the moral thing." He smiled. "Bring him home."

A/N

Update (15/04/17): Corrected Gardner's name.