The Law of Attraction [Chris Beck]

Chapter 1

             "Well, well." His voice rung through the entire conference room; the original crew of the Ares 3 mission was meeting their newest member. "If it isn't Alice Blake."

                The brunette had mentally prepared for her encounter with Chris Beck, but even when she turned to address him she felt herself hesitate just slightly as she came face to face with him. The rest of the crew wasn't there and she hadn't anticipated that she would be alone with him. However, she was more than ready for such a situation, because it was her job and her duty to put aside all history that might cause any problems on the mission. Such a serious mission could not be ruined by something that happened so many years ago. Alice smiled at Chris, a sigh coming from her bare lips. "That's Doctor Alice Blake, actually."

               "Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you major in psych?" He was a foot away from her now and he stood almost a foot taller than her.

              But it was not daunting, threatening or humiliating for Alice to be facing Chris again. It had been a few months since she had agreed to join the crew and she had been training vigourously for such a mission. Her head was in the mission and nothing could get in her way. From what she remembered from her brief history with Chris and from what she had read on him in his files and peer evaluations, he was a humourous man with a way with words. She recalled it was that way of words that had her smitten years ago when she was only twenty-one years old, head strong with determination to get through five more years of university.

             Alice cleared her throat. "You're not wrong, Doctor Chris Beck."

           "That's not even real science." He scoffed, planting a hand on her shoulder. "You and Watney should get along great."

           She smiled brightly, her cheek bones lifting and her eyes brightening under the fluorescent lighting. She fake coughed. "Superiority complex."

           "You are just as full of sass, what, eight years later?"

            "Eight years later." She smiled. "But let's not dwell on an unfortunate past, shall we?"

             "It wasn't that bad." He grinned. "In fact, I think I recall you stayed the night."

             "I recall being out at the crack of dawn." She finished the conversation and slipped away from his hand that was on her shoulder. 

             Alice could feel his eyes on her as she walked towards the large windows overlooking the entire station; in a few months time they would be leaving the entire planet from this very station. For one hundred and twenty-four days they would be stuck on a space ship travelling across the galaxy until they hit Mars. Thirty-one days on Mars -although Alice wouldn't be going to the red planet herself but staying on the Hermes- and another one hundred and eighty-one days home. Over all, it was thirteen months. The first two missions had gone smoothly, but Alice began to wonder how the third one would go. Alice stood tall, her shoulders back and her head high; their past was exactly that, the past. She hoped Beck wasn't planning on bringing it up again anytime soon; if Lewis caught word that they had history that might bubble up, it would be Alice who would be taken off the mission.