The Martians
Chapter 10
Beth felt pretty good about herself on her return to Hermes. She had taken responsibility for Mark's personal gear, taken it from the ship, kept it safely at home, and returned it to the ship, placing it back on his bunk. Not once did she look through it.
A folder, sealed by Velcro and an elastic string, was on Mark's bunk, held in place with a bit of tape, with a note from the refurb crew. "Dr Watney, we found this on your shelf and didn't want it vented into space. All still here, good luck and come home safe!"
A glance wouldn't hurt, maybe it wasn't even Mark's, she really should confirm that it was. Just a quick peek. It appeared to be printed photos, of Mark and friends, his parents, Mark and his parents, a few shots of him and the crew, then a few of him and some girl in a black dress. They had smiles and drinks in their hands and it looked recent, in the sense of that was how Mark looked when the Hermes first shipped with Ares III. She looked familiar, but she couldn't place her. Sort of Asian maybe, but not really. Long dark hair, thin, not really model beautiful, but certainly fortunate in the looks department. Her eyes were almost mesmerizing. Certainly they were her most easily noted feature. Oh well, probably some girl he met before he met Beth. Nothing to be concerned about, Mark and she had committed to talking about their future, so it wasn't like he would be having that conversation with anyone else. Plus, Beth knew that she, with Irene's help, had her emotions under control. Still, the girl looked familiar. Several weeks later she would still think about that girl, trying to figure out who she was, but just could not place her.
Over a month later and nearly 300 million miles away, the Orion III crew was waking up. All had stayed up half the night, Mark had hardly slept at all. He had finally calmed down but was still distraught and overly emotional at everything. A sense of doom pervaded him, and he knew he would die on Mars. He had known that for months and the only reason he fought it was for Missy. She should live even if he couldn't. Now they had reached relative safety and he knew Missy would make it, but he would probably die there. Mark had made his peace with that and had left his final testament in his work already. If Mars had to kill him, he was ready. He would not go down without a fight, he had come to hate Mars, but deep down knew he was outmatched.
The entire crew had slept piled up on the cot in the command room and none had slept comfortably. The cot was the largest on the ship but still too small for five. Each had taken turns taking care of Mark, holding him and assuring him he was going to be alright. When he eventually fell asleep it was from emotional as much as physical exhaustion.
Mindy woke first and hit the shower. Mark woke next as he slept fitfully anyway. Dana woke with him.
"Come on, let's get you fixed up Mark" she smiled, and Mark didn't argue. He was tired of living like he knew he was going to die. Even if he did know he was going to die. Mars had passed his death sentence, execution had been withheld, but it would come. He knew it would.
At the med station, which was just beside the showers and between the dining/meeting table and the EVA suit storage, Dana unlocked the cabinet with her thumbprint, reached onto a shelf and pulled out a large medicinal bottle.
"Mark, normally you take three for three days, then one per morning and evening for a week, then one per day, but to help you get right faster we are going to do three in suppository form for quicker absorption."
"Huh?"
"No, just fucking with you. Take these. There is water over there or red drink in the fridge."
"Red drink?"
"It's what we call it. Its red. You drink it. We have coffee too, but it comes out pretty hot and you probably want it to cool a bit before you drink it."
"Oh, that sports stuff? Yeah, I don't know what it is supposed to be called either. Haven't had it in ages. We ran out a month ago at least."
"One red drink coming up, do you want yellow, green, orange or traditional red?"
"I have a choice! I'm in heaven!"
"Oh! Just for you Mark, the elusive blue red drink!" Dana smiled.
"Ambrosia!"
"Hey guys, good morning." Mindy said she stepped from behind the privacy screen with her hair wrapped in a towel and wearing a jump suit with wet spots on it from having to put it on before fully dry.
"Oh, you didn't have to put on clothes for us Mindy" Dana grinned.
"Hush. Mark is here. No more naked Wednesdays."
"Oh, don't stop on my account Commander." Mark said before snickering.
That he could crack a joke, even a bad one, was a good omen for Dana, even though the meds would not take effect for days. It merely meant he was beginning an upswing, which was expected since he had gotten a decent number of calories, was in apparently a safe place and had gotten at least some rest.
"Hush. I'm just fucking with you Watney."
"I thought Commander Lewis said..."
"Shut up Dana, not appropriate." Mindy smiled as she unwrapped the towel from her head and began scrunching her hair dry.
"Hey, I didn't think to mention it Mindy, but I like the short hair, and the blonde thingy you got going on." Mark said in an effort to change the subject before it got weirder.
Mindy sat opposite Dana and sighed.
"I couldn't keep it long and wear an EVA suit, and NASA hates long hair. I'll be honest Mark, I cried when I got it cut. The blonde thingy as you so artfully word it is a comb in highlight treatment as we can't bleach or dye in space. Its curled up because I don't have a straightening iron. Honestly the worst part of space flight is the absence of product."
"It looks good. Different, but good. She used to have long, straight almost black hair. It was beautiful but, I don't know, I sort of like this." Mark said.
"Thanks. Last night I wasn't sure you recognized me at first."
"No. Your eyes. I would know you anywhere. So, what's on the schedule today?"
"For you? Nothing. If you're nice we might give you a tour of Orion. You slept upstairs, this is downstairs, and below us is storage and mechanical. Below that is engines and Mars. Tour's over. Same for Commander Lewis, rest. You are both on rest until further notice, expect to be for three or four days. Seriously Mark, I'm shutting everyone down, all five of us. The flight exhausted us too. Your trip wore you guys out plus all you did before that. Commander Lewis and Mindy may be in charge, but I'm still the med officer and I say after all that everyone needs some down time and rest. Is there anything else in the rover that we need to bring in?"
"Well, we should pump the water into the Orion then bury the RTG. Everything else can wait I think, might ask Mis... uh, Commander Lewis."
"We're in down time right now if I heard correctly Mark," Missy said as she and then Anna came down from the command compartment.
"So?" Dana asked.
"When we are off duty, we use first names. We should probably bring in the food, samples and laundry." Missy smiled. She had thought about it and given the group's need to bond she thought it would be a good idea to continue as long as discipline didn't get too sloppy. For now anyway. Only Anna was military so it would be confusing to inflict on them too fast anyway and she had picked up last night that Mindy had never used titles. "Besides, everyone here has a title now and"
"I don't have a title." Anna smiled.
"Hmmm, we'll get you one. That's my job for the day. Wait, I thought you were a Major in the Air Force" Missy replied."
"I am, I wanted a NASA title so I could be in the cool kids club." Anna replied.
"Back up. You have an RTG in the rover? Why in the name of all that is holy would you do that?" Mindy asked.
"Heat. Running the heater would suck up half our power so if we did, we would still be on the road. Dirt path. Traveling across desolation. Whatever." Mark said.
"But, why did you let him do that?" Mindy asked.
"What? It was her idea." Mark answered.
"What is an RTG?" Dana asked.
"Radioactive box of death." Missy answered. "Do you have coffee here?"
"Yes!" Dana answered, "the food service units are old school and it is instant, and you have to use a drink decanter, but yes. One scoop or two?"
Dana opened a container of instant coffee and added two scoops to the container as Missy held up two fingers in answer.
"Anyway, for all its shortcomings as a box o' instant death, the RTG kept it toasty warm in the rover. Not as warm as it is in here, what's up with that?" Mark asked.
It really wasn't overly warm in the Orion, but it was a dry 74 degrees, and Mark usually had his air on 70. Or 68. Or "Meat locker" if the setting was available.
"Oh, Commander Lewis, we need to have a brief on duty discussion if that's alright."
"Okay Commander Park. What's up?"
"Well, on the way here we had a lot of time to think and we developed a few ship wide rules in addition to the standard ones. These are specific to Orion III due to its physical layout and operating parameters. I'd like to review that with you. We felt it would make for an efficient and happy crew. If you approve, we would like to leave them in effect. We can go over them all later, but we need to get the most important one out of the way."
"Which is?"
"Dr Watney is never to be told where the internal thermostat is, or how to operate it." Anna smiled.
"Approved. Save the less important ones for later Mindy?"
"Yes. Thanks. I thought we should get that one out of the way since it is clearly mission critical."
"I agree. You know, maybe it's because we haven't had any in ages, but for NASA this coffee doesn't totally suck." Missy smiled.
"It's not as bad as the tar in the break room at Satcom, but it's not a cappuccino from that place outside the gift shop either." Mindy said.
"Oh gifts! That reminds me!" Mark said as he stood and walked across the room to his EVA suit. He unzipped the front right pouch and pulled a sample bag from it, then went to the dispenser and poured some hot water in the bag while the rest of the crew stared. Dana held a hand up for silence as this was something important to Mark and to be snarky might be particularly harmful given his mental state. Though he seemed happy that morning, it was probably just a rebound from a low point and he would be switching to a more manic phase until meds got him balanced.
Mark poured the water out into the recycling drain, then laid a towel on the table, before pouring out five truly beautiful stones onto it.
"What are..."
"Opals. Hydrated silica. They're beautiful Mark, why" Missy asked.
"I wanted to thank you guys somehow and Mars doesn't have any gift shops. I got one for Beth too. Found them yesterday when I was dropping the panels. I... thought they were pretty, they are everywhere out there around the crater. I want to find a few for Alex and Rick's wives and kids too."
"Mark... just..." Mindy tried to speak but was at a loss for words as she hugged him.
"Do we have to turn them over to NASA though?" Dana asked.
"I'm the geologist and I'm keeping mine. Forever. Thanks Mark." Missy answered as she too gently embraced him.
"Uh, I'm kind of tired, I think I will go back to sleep now. Unless you need me to"
"You're off work today. We're supposed to do the conference, but I think we are having video trouble aren't we Mindy? We can just type back answers."
"Yes, the flux capacitor on the oscillation overthruster is acting up. I should have it fixed tomorrow. Or the next day." Mindy smiled.
Mark turned and grinned at the "oscillation overthruster" reference.
"Not my planet pizza girl!"
"You've seen 'Buckaroo Banzai'! You are truly a cultured polymath of astonishing proportions Dr Watney,and speaking of pizza there are a few slices left." Mindy replied.
"There are? Nap time can wait, I'm on it. Blue red drink and cold pizza for breakfast. Is this heaven?" Mark replied.