Venkat Kapoor trudged into his office, dropping his briefcase on the floor next to his desk as he walked on over to the window, where he stood with his arms crossed looking out. Moving into this office when he became director of Mars operations had been like every other move he'd made at the agency, except for this window. It wasn't just that he finally had a window; it was that this window overlooked the entirety of the Johnson Space Center.

Building 1 was at the heart of the complex. From his window, he could see all the way to Mud Lake. There were times that though he himself would never set foot on Mars he became so entrenched in the planning, so focused on the missions and the planet that he needed to reground himself to life here on Earth, this window allowed him to do that. Today it was a reminder that Mark Watney would never again get to be grounded to life on Earth and yet he couldn't look away. Mark had been the eighteenth astronaut to set foot on Mars and the seventeenth to die on a NASA mission. Venkat could almost hear the fun-loving astronaut in his head saying at least he'd moved up a notch, except even Mark wouldn't joke about death. He sighed.

"You ok Venk?" came a familiar voice from the doorway.

Venkat looked over his shoulder at the owner of the voice, Teddy Sanders, NASA administrator. He shrugged. "Guess so. It was a nice service," he said for lack of anything else to say.

Teddy walked over to stand next to Venkat at the window. "I'm surprised you didn't speak; I know they asked you to and you've been closer to this crew than the previous two."

"Didn't want to, you knew that."

"I didn't either but it's not like I had a choice."

"And you think as head of Mars Missions I shouldn't have either."

Teddy looked at the other man out of the corner of his eye, "It would have been nice, like I said you know this crew better, still I suppose we had more than enough people say something. Especially since we were able to get those recorded eulogies from the crew. Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I've been fine. I didn't think today would get to meet since it's been two months. I suppose it made me a bit maudlin, but I'm okay."

"Ok then," Teddy placed a hand on Venkat's shoulder. "Then let's get back to work."

It was Venkat's turn to look out of the corner of his eyes though he did it to gauge the reaction of his boss."Sure, let's start with you authorizing my satellite time."

The administrator shook his head and dropped his hand. "This again."

"Yes, this again. What is the problem?"

"What's the point?"

"Are you serious?" Venkat turned to his boss, eyes alight with frustration.

"Just walk me through what it is you want," Teddy said, trying not to sigh and fighting the headache brewing behind his eyes, barely resisting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose. "What exactly are you after?"

"Ares 3 was a failure, but we can salvage something from it. Currently, we're scheduled for five Ares missions and as they're already in the budget Congress won't take them away, or at least it's a fight most of them won't take on. I think we can get them to agree to a sixth." He raised a hand to cut off the protest he knew was coming and continued. "Trust me I know just how unrealistic that sounds on the same day we held a memorial for a lost astronaut but that's part of the reason to push this now, sentiment is on our side. The crew evac'd after only six days. That means that there are still enough supplies up there for a complete thirty-day mission due to our overpreparing. We can still supplement and send more but first I need to know what's there. We need regularly scheduled satellite images to keep an eye on the site and the condition of the Hab and rovers. The MAV struts and fuel plant as well as the MDV are all there too which can be scavenged and tested for long-term exposure to Mars. We can name the site after Mark. We can even make plans to bring his body back to help his family have further closure."

Teddy paced to the door and leaned against the wall, "We have to concentrate on Ares 4 and their supply missions and now we need to look into any additional supplies we need to send for their safety to avoid anything like this happening again. We need to focus on Schiaparelli crater if we don't want to slip the launch by two years."

"I don't get it, Teddy. What's the problem here? I know you can see the upside of this so why are you fighting me? There are twelve satellites in orbit around Mars; I'm sure one or two can be spared for just a few hours now and then every few months and we can use the rest for Schiaparelli. I can give you windows for each one and when they'll be at the right angle for Ares 3 shots-"

"It's not about the satellite time, Venk," Teddy interrupted.

"Then what Teddy? Why the hell won't you work with me on this."

Teddy sighed, "We're a public domain organization. There's no such thing as secret or secure information."

Venkat processed that for a moment then gritted his teeth, "I never took you for a coward. A PR problem, you're afraid of a PR problem. You're afraid that if we look at the site now we'll get a picture of Mark's body and you don't want that out there."

"He'll be within twenty meters of the Hab, maybe partially buried in sand, but still very visible, and with a comm antenna sticking out of his chest from what the crew report said, or at least that was their assumption from what they could see in the sandstorm. Hell yes, I'm worried about the optics of the situation. Do you really think it's a good idea to have that image on the front page of every newspaper in the world? Screw newspapers, as soon as it's on our website it'll be linked to anything and everything. Annie would agree with me."

"That's because PR and media is Annie's job," Venkat retorted, "but even she would see the advantage to my plan."

"Venk, the media's obsession with Watney's death is finally starting to taper off. We're beginning to dig our way out of the hole of bad press that's been going on for two months strong. Today's memorial gives people the closure they need. The last thing we need is to dredge it all up again and keep it active. Your proposal does have merit but we really can't do it right now. We're only able to keep the program going right now because it's already in the budget and the fact that we're years from Ares IV. The length of time between missions is the time we need to complete an investigation and make changes. If we push this right now, they may force us to postpone and postponement could lead to cancellation."

"He's not going anywhere though. You do know that right? He's not going to decompose, that's why we can say part of a new mission would be to recover his body."

"No, I had no idea," Teddy intoned sarcastically. "It's not like I'm the head of NASA or anything."

"Teddy, you've had the job for almost five years now. I've been here for over twenty-five and seen your position filled by a number of people, some who understand what we're doing here, one who was a former astronaut and the best-damned administrator I've worked under ever, and then some are simply here as payback for donations to the president of the moment," Venkat snapped. "Forgive me if I don't know your resume off the top of my head and am completely unaware of what you do and don't know."

"I may not have the Ph. Ds you have but I do know how to find out information." He expected this attitude from others but he'd never had any conflicts with Venkat until now and he understood the man was frustrated and trying to do the best he could with his department so Teddy took a deep breath before continuing. "Meteorology has assured me that within a year he'll be covered in sand from normal weather activity."

"A year?" Venkat nearly yelled. "A year? Are you insane? If we wait a year to say we want to bring his body back no one will give a damn. By then even the members of Congress on our side now won't want to vote for it because it'll dredge it all up again and at least half of them will be up for reelection and won't want to stick their necks out for us."

"Dr. Kapoor, you are not that naive," Teddy chided.

"What do you mean?"

"What exactly do you think will be happening ten months to a year from now?"

"The Ares III crew will be returning to Earth."

"Which means what?" Teddy prompted.

"The anniversary of Mark's death will be in the news not only because it's been a year but because the crew will be landing and it will be abundantly clear when only five astronauts disembark from the Orion capsule instead of six like the previous two missions," Venkat sighed.

"Exactly, no matter how much positive press we get between now and then, that will be the story and it will be front-page news and we'll be critiqued by everyone again. This is why Russia kept their launches secret for so long and why China still does. The court of public opinion is dangerous and negative more often than not."

"So if we can look at the images then and propose the trip to bring his body back or to simply create a memorial to him there would be incredible press."

Teddy just nodded.

"Fine, as long as you understand that with the possibility that his body is covered in sand, other things may be as well so we may not get a complete inventory. I'll prepare a more comprehensive debrief for the crew when they return and assign a few people to review all of their logs so we can get as complete a picture as we can to take to Congress." He turned and moved to his desk, opening his laptop and sitting down.

Teddy nodded again and opened his mouth to speak but seeing that Venkat was already typing furiously he instead simply turned and left.