The Law of Attraction [Chris Beck]

Chapter 39

It amazed Alice to think that one more day, and they would have Mark back on board. That was best case scenario, of course, there was still a lot that could go wrong. But so much had gone awry and Mark still pulled through and managed to defeat all the odds. On Mars, he had good communication with NASA, and they were helping him prepare for his trip to the Ares 4 landing site, where he would alter the MAV so that he could get out of orbit and intercept with the Hermes during the flyby. That was the plan, but things never truly went according to plan; life was always going to be messy, but if it wasn't, what would be the point? Mark lost contact with NASA well before he left for the Ares 4 landing sight, a technical error, a mistake by Mark. But the plan was already in motion, he knew what he needed to do, and he continued according to plan with only a few hiccups.

When he left on his trip, he was not able to be informed of the massive sandstorm that he would be driving through. Given that his Rover was run entirely by solar panels, the sandstorm could have been the final curveball that life could have thrown at Mark, and it could have been the death of him. But Mark Watney had survived Mars, Mark Watney knew that Mars was never going to be easy on him, and he managed to get out of the sandstorm before it was too late. The Hermes crew only got updates from NASA on their speculations from watching Mark move along the red planet, and they had to silently hope that he made it, and that their return trip to Mars had not been for nothing but false hope.

But he had overcome all obstacles, and he was waiting patiently on Mars now. Alice was preparing herself for both outcomes; saving Mark and having to be there for him through all the mental and physical trauma that he had gone through over the duration of his time on Mars. And the other outcome, which was that they were unable to rescue Mark, and how she was supposed to help the crew and herself get through something like that. She did not think she was up for the job if they didn't save Mark, she wasn't sure how they could cope with something like that. Devastating was not a strong enough word to begin to describe how it would be.

They'd gone over it over and over, and over, and once more. Martinez had gone through every possible outcome of piloting the MAV and gotten Mark safely every time; Johanssen threw many curve balls at him to test his abilities, and the only ones Martinez didn't successfully accomplish were the ones where the MAV blew up. It was dark, hard to think about, but it had to be a considered possibility. Beck was to go out and retrieve Mark when he was close enough, Vogel standing in as back up to get Beck if anything were to happen. The other three would be in the cockpit changing course as needed to get the proper velocity and intercept; Beck could only handle to much.

Alice would be waiting, again, in the medical wing where -if anything were to happen to Beck- she would have to be the one to assist Watney. He was going to be in rough shape even before the ascended from Mars, and flying out of Mars' orbit in a "convertible" MAV would likely leave him with broken bones, possible head injuries, it was more likely that he would be unconscious as well. He would be severely malnourished, weak, and likely mentally strained to the point of confusion. Alice needed Beck to make it through this, she couldn't do it without him no matter how much he had gone over what she would need to do if anything were to happen to him.