SOL 505

[13:07] HOUSTON: You made it! Congratulations from all of us here at Mission Control!

[13:08] HOUSTON: Status?

And there it was. Mark felt like crying in relief, at the lines of text that had appeared on the console screen in front of him. Impulsively, he touched the screen with his fingertips, where the words 'You made it!' appeared. He wasn't alone anymore.

It was true. He'd made it. Somehow, he'd actually managed to haul himself halfway across Mars. He could just imagine the happy scene at Mission Control, as he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to hold back the tears.

Finally, he started to tap out a reply.

[13:21] MAV: Thanks!

[13:21] MAV: I'm doing okay! The rover and trailer have seen better days, but the AREC and Oxygenator are still working as expected.

He knew he had a fifteen minute wait between messages, but it was hardly enough time to get himself together. He was finally back in contact with Earth.

Oh my god. Finally.

He closed his eyes and just let it soak in.

[13:36] HOUSTON: We're so glad to hear it! We are seriously freaking out over here! The building was actually shaking from all the screaming and applause! You've done an amazing job, Mark!

[13:36] HOUSTON: Your physical status, please?

Unable to hold back a grin at the exuberant person on the other end of the comlink, Mark unpacked his portable memory drive that he'd brought from the Hab and started uploading the data from it, letting the uplink run in the background.

[13:50] MAV: To whom am I speaking, please? Kapoor is never this fucking cheerful. :-)

[13:51] MAV: No physical or other problems to report, other than, you know, the stuck on Mars part.

Now that all of his official logs had been sent out; he started in on the long-neglected experiment data. He knew how grateful the researchers would be for it.

[14:05] HOUSTON: You're right! Dr. Kapoor nominated me to be your new contact handler. We've met, actually.

[14:05] HOUSTON: Mindy Park.

Mark blinked.

He shook his head, as though doing so would allow him to wake up, maybe.

Was he… hallucinating?

He checked his nitrogen levels, just to be safe. They were normal.

He was talking… with Mindy?

Then, it hit him. This was NASA's idea of a prank! They'd epically trolled him, by figuring out who Mindy was, and now they were putting him in the hot seat by making him talk to her. He'd probably earned it, when he'd made the world ask, 'who's Mindy?'.

It was an excellent troll.

"Full fucking marks, guys," he heartily congratulated them, even though they couldn't hear him. "This one takes the cake."

He was laughing, despite himself. Whoever had planned this shit could give his dad a run for his money.

[14:21] MAV: ...

[14:22] MAV: From the Department of Hipsters? It's pretty obscure, but yeah, I think I remember you.

[14:22] MAV: I think I might have accidentally immortalized you, somewhere near the entrance crater to Schiaparelli.

[14:22] MAV: My bad?

Well, at least she didn't actively hate him, he guessed. And he'd never thought that he'd ever feel like flirting with the person on the Houston end of the com, here, but this had been a very unexpected journey all around, and frankly, at this point, nothing surprised him. He couldn't wait to see her response.

After he'd spent months imagining and remembering every little detail of their evening together, he could hear her voice in his head with every line she typed, and he couldn't hold back a huge smile, as new messages appeared from Houston.

[14:37] HOUSTON: Thanks for that!

[14:37] HOUSTON: I've done my best to return the favor, here on Earth.

[14:37] HOUSTON: Mark, your first data dump will be incoming, as soon as your file uplink is complete.

Uh, what did she mean by that, he wondered.

The mental image of HI MARK, written out in Morse on the surface of Earth somewhere as Mindy's revenge, came to mind, and he grinned.

He wasn't expecting another message right away, and he'd flopped back into the deep cushioning of the pilot's acceleration couch, reveling in the knowledge that he'd finally made it, and Kapoor had made Mindy his contact, and… wow. It was a lot to take in. What was he going to say to her? He was as nervous as a thirteen-year old texting his first crush, as he tried to think of something witty to say to her, that he wouldn't mind all of NASA getting to read, too.

The console chimed again, though, almost as though she'd been hesitating about continuing.

[14:39] HOUSTON: On a personal note…

[14:39] HOUSTON: Mark, I'm really glad you made it. There's something I really have been needing to tell you about.

[14:40] HOUSTON: For a very long time now. And I hope you're going to be sitting down, when you read through your personals.

[14:41] HOUSTON: I'm on duty until early morning your time, Mark. If you want to ask questions, about anything, I'm here.

Oh, wow, he thought, that sounded… promising. Maybe this crush he'd been nursing for nearly two years wasn't as one-sided as he'd thought.

[14:57] MAV: Copy that.

The packet that had been added to his personal drive was a large one, not surprisingly.

The flight director had labelled an audio message Listen to this first, and Mark brought it up and played it. It was almost surreal, and wonderful, to hear an actual human voice directed at him, for the first time since SOL 6. Henderson's gruff voice had never sounded so good.

"Watney," he said, "This is Henderson. I want to say, from all of us here at Mission Control, that you've done an amazing job getting to the MAV. I'm sure that you know, our only focus; our number one mission here, has been to bring you safely home. Part of our strategy for keeping you in the best mental state, from early in the mission, was to censor your personals."

Tell me something I don't know, Mark thought, amused.

"For the record," Henderson continued, "I was against all that. The order from Dr. Shields, that you were approved for unrestricted communications; well, it came down the same day that we lost signal from Pathfinder, and… well, at this point, we are in full agreement here that you've proven yourself able to weather any storm. You've done an admirable job."

"On your personal drive you'll find original versions of the messages your parents sent to you via Pathfinder, as well as a message from Mindy Park, and some media included for you. Pictures, and video.

Also, about your replies to your personals; well, from here on out, Watney, I give you my word, and that of Director Sanders; your messages will be untouched by my team. We don't read them, we don't look at them, and we don't censor them."

"Henderson out."

"O-kay," he grinned, one eyebrow cocked at the list of messages. "Somebody got in trouble," he laughed, trying to imagine the circumstances under which the Flight Director would feel obligated to report that he'd never again censor someone's personals.

The messages had numbers and timestamps, rather than subjects, so when he pulled up the first one, he was a little disappointed to see that it was actually an old message that he'd already read.

Wait a second.

Except now, it was complete.

Oh, shit. He leaned forward, reading through the familiar parts, quickly.

Dear Mark,

First things first.

We are so very proud of you, son. We always have been.

We love you.

We miss you.

We're looking forward to the day that we'll all be together again.

And then his eyes zoomed forward, to the section that they'd censored, and his mouth fell open, a bit, as he tried to make sense of it.

Mark, there have been some developments while you've been gone. This is going to come as a shock, and we very much wish that you could have known about it before now.

It concerns the young lady you met, shortly before you left Houston (We will not use her name here, to protect her privacy, in case people other than you are reading this.) She is a lovely girl, Mark, and your dad and I like her very much.

At your funeral, in November, we became aware that she is pregnant. Mark, my boy, you are going to be a father.

He immediately doubled back and read that again.

That feeling, of heightened senses and coursing adrenaline, how he'd felt when the MDV was in rolling freefall; he was feeling it again right now while sitting still, alone in the MAV. The only sound was that of his own irregular breathing and the pounding of his heart.

Low blood pressure caught him unaware, as he noticed that he'd jumped to his feet without realizing it. I think I'm going to pass out, he thought hazily, catching himself just in time, and lowering himself back onto one of the acceleration couches. He ran his hands through his hair, agitated, accidentally tearing out a clump that had gone unbrushed for a while. He didn't even feel it, though. Going to be a father? Him?

Please try not to worry. It will all work out. Be safe, and be smart, like you always are. Let us know if you have any questions and we will answer them the best we can.

Love,

Mom & Dad

Oh my fucking god, he thought, as it started to sink in, and the pieces started to fall into place.

No wonder they were in Houston. And they'd found out, in November? Over a year ago. And that didn't take into account the months he'd been on Hermes.

Jesus Christ.

He was already a father, then. To a one-year old.

The most irresponsible father in the history of forever, he thought, thinking suddenly of what the last two years must have been like, for Mindy.

Completely abandoned by the guy that got her into this situation… left behind to fend for herself. Jesus, she must have hated him for that.

I should have been there, he thought, fiercely.

He pulled up the next email.

It had been written the day after Iris had failed, and it was his mother informing him that he'd had a son. Mindy and his son… Mark blinked again, and shook his head, were both fine. Healthy. Reminds me a lot of you, his mother had written, and he could tell how much she already loved her grandson. He also got the impression that they were very fond of Mindy.

He tried to imagine his parents, trying to cope with the loss of their son, and then the added burden of finding out that he'd gotten a girl pregnant and abandoned her.

They'd moved to Houston to take care of them, he realized. To do his job. Clean up his mess for him. I fucked up, I really fucked this up, he berated himself, as he stared at the next message, written by Mindy, herself.

Mark,

Well, now that you finally know, I'm not sure what I should even say to you. I guess I should start by telling you this; I'm so sorry that you had to find out this way, and that I put you in this position.

You never asked for any of this.

I've made all the decisions so far without you, and that wasn't fair. I've done the best I could, but that doesn't even start to make this right.

So here's the deal:

Take some time to think things through, okay? And if you don't want to make a decision right now, that's fine. It can wait until you're home, or whenever you're ready. My point is, Mark, you can decide for yourself, what kind of role you want, in Henry's life.

I will fully support any choice you make, even if it's only to tell me that you want nothing to do with any of it. I promise I'll never speak publicly about it, or second-guess your decision. Ever. I owe you that much.

Dr. Kapoor thought that you would prefer to have me as your contact at the MAV, but there's no hard feelings at all if it's too weird, and you'd rather have someone else on the other end.

Mindy Park