The crew gathered in the mess for dinner. Earth was large in the windows and was growing larger by the hour as they slowed down to fall into orbit. In just a few days they would spend one day in orbit meeting the first of the rehab crews. Martinez and Beck would help guide them into a rendez-vous and docking with Hermes.
The plan was to spend a minimum of an hour briefing the rehab crew on the status of all systems and hardware. The information would be recorded and could be accessed through those records, but it was always good to get information directly from the astronauts on board as they might have a different idea of what would need to be done first to ensure Hermes was liveable for the various rehab crews over the next eighteen months or more until the Ares IV crew came aboard and headed to Mars. That is if the Ares IV mission continued as planned. After the briefing, they would climb into their Orion spacecraft which had been hanging out attached to the larger ship for the entirety of their trip, and head back to Earth.
They were excited to see their families again but were not looking forward to the two weeks of debriefing on the mission. That wouldn't have been so bad if they were all there, but although they had all been working through their grief, Mark's absence once again felt obvious, and their conversations had become stilted though they tried to pretend they weren't.
"Everyone have everything packed and ready to load into Orion?" Lewis asked when the entire crew was seated and eating.
Vogel and Beck nodded.
"Almost done," Johanssen said. "I'll finish up everything after dinner, except for what I need for the next few days. It won't take me long."
Lewis turned to the pilot who was looking intently down at his plate. "Martinez?"
"Nope, not done yet," he replied, quickly shoveling a forkful of food into his mouth.
"Have you even started?" Beck asked.
"That depends on what you mean by started." Martinez looked up and grinned.
"Martinez," Lewis chided, shaking her head.
"So you've spread everything out all over your room, right?" Beth said.
Rick's cheeks turned red. "I have to organize before I pack," he defended himself and turned redder at the others' groans.
"You have two days Martinez," Lewis reminded him. The Hermes would stop its spin as they went into orbit to allow the rehab crew to dock. For years, astronauts had noted how difficult it could be to pack in zero-g and the Ares crews had more things to pack than other crews as they were on the ship for longer than any other crews. They had more personal effects though not more clothing to return. They did as every other crew had done and wore clothes until they were pretty much worn out and then stuck them in a sealed supply capsule that would be jettisoned into the atmosphere to burn up. Even then, the Ares crews had taken to washing their clothes, if you could call it that, by using their ten-minute shower allotment at least once a week to scrub their clothes instead of themselves or in the case of Watney and Martinez, showering in their clothes, although Rick hadn't done that since they left Mars.
"In the meantime Commander," Beck said, "we need to pack up Mark's room too."
"I should check with Mission Control to see what they want us to do," she replied.
"What do you mean?" Martinez asked.
"They may want us to wait and have someone else pack his things up or they may want them to come down with a rehab crew instead of with us. They prefer to save weight whenever they can, as you know," she replied.
"Screw that," Beck snapped. "Sorry Commander, but I honestly don't care what NASA has to say about this one. We can handle packing up Watney's things and I'm not going back to Earth without taking his stuff to his parents. It's bad enough we're not bringing him back to them. We're not making it worse by coming back essentially empty-handed. The first rehab crew will be up here for what three months? No, that's way too long. Not to mention I wouldn't put it past NASA to say 'stuff it in the trash.' I refuse. Mark's stuff is coming back with us."
The others all made noises of agreement.
Lewis pursed her lips and then nodded. "You're right. I won't ask. I won't bring it up in any way. When everything is loaded on the ship I'll just report that everything is packed."
"And if they ask you directly about Mark's personal effects?" Rick asked.
"They won't, but if they do I'll tell them exactly what Beck just said," she replied simply. "And if they still want to argue I'll leave my stuff to be sent down later."
"Way to go, Commander," Johanssen cheered.
"I'd leave mine too," Beck said.
"Ja, me too," agreed Vogel.
"Count me in," Rick said.
"You're just looking for an excuse not to pack, Martinez." Beth poked him in the arm as they all laughed.
"Are you kidding? Do you know what Marisa would do to me if I came home without my things knowing she'd have to go through them later?"
"You could just man up and sort your laundry, and put everything away yourself instead of making your poor wife do it. She's been raising your son alone for over a year now," Vogel pointed out.
Martinez ducked his head. "She likes to take care of me and she likes to complain about it. It's just how things work for us."
Beck shook his head. "Whatever you say, Rick but you ought to at least try until she tells you to stop."
"And throws a shoe at me?" Martinez's eyes were wide.
Beth gasped, "Would she?"
"She might."
"I don't get it," Beth said.
"Me either," Lewis said, "but it's not for us to judge."
"Sorry Commander."
"Yeah, sorry Commander, sorry Rick."
Martinez shrugged and laughed, "It's all good, our family doesn't get us either. I can pack Mark's stuff."
"Really?" Beck said, raising an eyebrow. "Are you sure you want to do that?"
"Are you volunteering Chris?" Lewis asked.
The doctor held up a hand. "Whoa? Wait a minute, how does my asking if Rick wants to pack Mark's stuff mean I'm volunteering to do it? I mean I will, doctors typically act as chaplains or whatever you would call the person who'd handle that kind of thing, but I'm not sure how you jumped to that conclusion."
"That was an odd jump, Lewis," Beth agreed. "Though I vote Beck does it too. Don't think we can trust Martinez to finish in time."
"Hey," Rick protested.
"You haven't even packed your stuff but you're going to get that done and all of Watney's?" Beth shook her head. "Yeah, no way."
"Watney's stuff is more important than mine, even Marisa would understand that."
"Never mind," Beck sighed. "I'll pack it tomorrow and get it on the ship."
Lewis nodded, "Now that that's taken care of we need to talk about what's going to happen when we get back."
"We splashdown, wave to our families, and go into quarantine to be gradually exposed to those from the outside until they're sure we're not going to suddenly come down with every Earth illness we haven't been exposed to in over a year," the pilot recited as if he'd said the same words over and over again. "But I still don't know why we have to do that. The ISS astronauts that stayed for a year didn't have to quarantine when they returned to Earth. So why do we have to?"
"That desperate to get laid?" Beck joked.
"Just because you're a miserable lonely fool who didn't leave anyone behind and you have no chance-" Rick teased.
"Ok boys, enough," Lewis said tiredly, cutting off Martinez mid-sentence. "You know the ISS astronauts didn't have to quarantine because they were still exposed to other visiting crews every few months. We haven't, so they just want to be safe."
"And it means they can debrief us until our heads explode," Beck said, rolling his eyes.
"Ew, I'm not cleaning that up," Beth said.
"Ha, ha," Beck retorted and rolled his eyes.
"On the serious side," Lewis began.
"We know, debriefing is important and not something to joke around about but it's just the idea of spending days on end repeating ourselves that gets to us," Martinez interrupted.
"Be that as it may," Lewis continued, "debrief will be more important than ever for our mission, so other than packing, our schedules are cleared until we land and everyone should spend that time going over our mission records. We want to be as detailed and accurate as well as consistent in our answers as we can. It's nearly guaranteed that the debrief records will be subpoenaed."
"Your Congress will be holding hearings, yes?" Alex asked as he stood and moved to dispose of his food tray and refill his coffee.
"God, I hate politicians," Rick groaned. "Like there aren't a million and one other problems in the country and the world they could be solving, but all they do is hyper-focus on one thing at a time and then bitch when others don't take it as seriously as they do. Honestly, we need to get rid of all of them and start fresh."
"Now that we can agree on," Beck replied. "No doubt it's going to be a big ass media circus too. The hearings will be televised, streamed, whatever, and you just know some representatives would love to see NASA disappear. They see it as a complete waste of money no matter how many developments come out of what we do."
"Yes, it is incredibly bothersome. Nonetheless, we need to take it seriously or it really could mean the end of NASA or the end of the Ares missions at the very least," Lewis said.
"Oh I will," Beck assured her. "And I won't hesitate to play on heartstrings and push to go back as part of Mark's legacy…provided his parents approve of course."
"Didn't Borman do something like that with Grissom's words from a letter or interview or something to get things going again after the Apollo one fire?" Beth asked, "Or was that made up for the miniseries about the program then?"
"I have no idea," Chris said, "honestly it was probably Hollywood, you know they love the sappy stuff but that doesn't mean we can't use it as an example."
"Good point," Beth said. "So how do we do it? What exactly do we say? Shouldn't we plan who says what so we don't all repeat the same things?"
Lewis leaned back in her chair and listened as her crew began to collaborate on the best, most subtle ways to bring Mark's dream of space travel into the testimony. She shook her head barely concealing her smile. It was a thought she'd already had and had considered quite a bit. She planned on speaking to the Watneys herself as soon as she could, but she wanted to do it in person.
Over an hour later they dispersed throughout the ship. Lewis and Martinez both went to the bridge with Lewis leaving the pilot there alone just moments later. Vogel returned to his quarters to call his wife as they were now close enough for near real-time conversations. Johanssen floated in the cupola.
Beck found himself standing outside Mark's quarters, staring at the door. No one had entered the room since Mark had closed it before they climbed into the MDV. He knew he'd said he was okay doing the packing but he wasn't sure that he was. There was a huge difference between watching all the videos Mark had made and stepping into his friend's room knowing he would never return to it. Packing up his best friend's clothes and personal effects that he'd brought along to remind him of home wasn't something he was looking forward to doing.
Finally, forcing himself to get on with it, he opened the door and stepped inside. He shook his head and huffed out a laugh at what he saw. Just like Martinez, Mark's stuff was spread out everywhere. Then again there had been no reason for Mark to pack it all up and leave it neat when they went to the surface. He'd planned to return as they all had. He'd thought he'd have months to spend in this room, plenty of time to clean. As he looked around, Beck would have sworn, if asked, that Mark somehow had managed to bring more personal effects than any of the rest of the crew.
He sighed, shook his head again, and shrugged.
"Only one thing to do," he said to himself, before opening the closet and removing a storage container.
He placed the container on the bunk after shoving several items of clothing aside. He sighed as he began trying to sort through the clothes to determine which belonged to NASA and which were Mark's clothes.
"There's a whole lot of sighing coming from this room," Rick said from the doorway.
"Martinez, shouldn't you be packing?"
"I'll get to it. Do you want help first?"
"Nah, go ahead and do your own thing man," Beck replied, "but thanks for the offer."
"You don't have to do this by yourself and spare us from it. We can help you," Rick reassured him.
"I know. I think I need to do this. I just didn't realize that until now."
"Well, if you need me, I'm right next door."
Beck nodded, "Thanks."
He continued sorting the clothes on the bunk, ending up with three piles: clothes to go home, clothes to burn up in the atmosphere, and clothes that could be left on Hermes for future crews to use.
He moved on to opening the drawers in the smallest cabinet and found himself shaking his head and chuckling.
"What's so funny?" Lewis asked from the doorway.
Beck flinched then turned. "The drawers," he said.
"Do I want to know why Mark's drawers are so amusing?"
"According to him, they're Star Trek drawers."
"Ok, you're going to have to explain that to me."
"All I can tell you is what he told Martinez and me. When we first got to Hermes and checked out our quarters after we spun up and had gravity, he got all excited. He was in here giggling and talking to himself. Rick could hear him, but before he could ask what was going on Watney came rushing out calling both our names."
Lewis smiled as she pictured the moment.
"When we all met in the hallway he made us follow him to his room and showed us the drawer. He was babbling on about having to push them in and they would pop out like drawers on Star Trek. I think he said Next Generation but I wasn't honestly listening at that point."
"You were probably rolling your eyes and laughing, right," Lewis said.
Beck looked a bit chagrined but chuckled. "I wasn't the only one."
"No, I'm sure you weren't. I'm surprised the two of you didn't tell the rest of us so he could be teased mercilessly."
"Hey now, we wouldn't do that," he protested.
She raised an eyebrow.
"Ok we would, or at least Rick would. We did go to tell Johanssen, but she was just as excited. She went running into his room and the two of them carried on about it for a while, so we just left them to it."
Lewis laughed. "Do you need any help?"
"Thanks, but Rick already offered and I've got it."
"Ok, well if you change your mind-"
"And want help from someone who's done with their packing?" Beck asked with a wink.
"Exactly," she said.
"I know where to find you, and thanks."
Lewis nodded and then left.
He returned to the drawers, emptying everything onto the bunk, trying to arrange it in some semblance of order. Then he pulled all of the pictures down off the wall.
"How did he have this much stuff?" Beck mumbled to himself as he began to pack pictures and small knick knacks into the storage container.
"Talking to yourself is a sign of-"
"Martinez, you can't be done packing yet," Beck said without looking up from the container he was trying to arrange so that everything fit back in.
"It's like Tetris isn't it?" Rick asked.
"Yeah," Beck said and chuckled, "and Mark was better at it than I am."
"Same here. Why do you think I came back out to talk to you again."
"Giving up already?"
"Nah, just taking a break man."
"Do you remember this night?" Beck asked, holding out a picture of him, Mark, and Rick.
Rick took the picture, laughed, and shook his head. "Vaguely. I mean I remember going to the bar and getting a pitcher, then Mark getting a pitcher, then you, then well, it gets hazy. There was karaoke at some point wasn't there?"
"You don't remember?"
"What? You think I'm lying?"
"I didn't think you were that drunk that night. Mark was, but you seemed more with it. Well, other than the karaoke that is. That was all your idea."
"Did you even drink that night? And I would never suggest karaoke, not even if I were drunk," Martinez protested.
"Maybe karaoke was Mark's suggestion," Beck responded.
"Or yours."
"Nope, not mine," Beck denied. "Anyway, the song choice was all yours."
"What song? I remember holding the mike. Dancing maybe, but I can't remember the song."
"Oh, it'll come back to you. Just give it time. In the meantime, if you insist on hanging around here, you may as well help me pack this stuff."
They spent the next several minutes packing, unpacking, and repacking Mark's belongings.
"Oh no," Martinez mumbled as they neared the end. "We didn't?"
"Didn't what?"
"Girls just wanna have fun?"
"Told you it would come back to you."
"Ay Dios Mio! What the hell came over me? Please tell me you didn't record it?" Rick pleaded.
Beck grinned. "Of course I did. I was saving it for the post-mission celebration." His smile faded. "Guess maybe I won't share it now."
Rick nodded. "Send it to me though, okay?"
"Will do."
"Marissa will love it. Should we finish this up?"
"Yeah. You gonna go talk to his parents?" Beck asked. The three of them had had a 'just in case' conversation before they'd launched. They'd each agreed to go speak to the parents of the others, and Martinez's wife.
"Yeah. Don't want to, never thought we'd have to hold up that promise, but I won't break it."
"Me either. We can go together."
"As soon as we finish debriefing and I see Marissa and David, then we will go."
"Ok then. I think this is it." Beck placed the last photo in the storage container and placed the lid on top, snapping it down.
Without a word, they both went to the spacecraft that would return them to Earth. Beck carried the tub, and Martinez tucked it into its designated space. Then they stood just looking at it.
"Mark, miss you man," Rick said.
"Me too," Beck said. "Gonna keep missing you but I guess it's time to say goodbye. Life won't be the same without you buddy."
"Don't worry we'll keep an eye out on each other, and Beth."
"Bye Mark."
"Adios Hermano."