Chapter 40

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                Everything went well until it didn't

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Everything went well until it didn't.

They were either too far, or too fast.

But the Ares 3 crew had not been sent to Mars without the brains to figure it out. Mark had launched, and had made it out of orbit, but he was way too low. His unconsciousness didn't help, but they knew that he was still in the MAV, and they had just under an hour to figure out how to retrieve him. 

When he did wake, he suggested he poke a hole in his suit and fly around like Iron Man; to which Lewis shot down, but decided to use the very idea but on the Hermes. First, they sped up, giving up a lot of fuel to do so. They had to figure out how to slow down, and that was when Lewis brought in Watney's Iron Man idea of igniting a bomb and blowing up the nose of the ship to slow it down. There was nothing NASA could do to tell them otherwise, everyone on Earth was holding their breath while the crew figured out exactly what they were going to do.

When they decided on the bomb, Vogel would make it, Johanssen would place it, Beck asked Alice if she could make sure his mice were safe and secure, that the sudden shift of pressure and speed on the Hermes would not send their cage toppling off the counter and onto the ground. She was still upset that he was willing to go out off of the tether, but she hadn't said anything more on it. When he mentioned it to Lewis, she told him that it was not an option, and Vogel backed her decision. That gave Alice a bit of hope.

She watched from the Med-bay deck as Beck moved along the outside of the Hermes to get to another door; the one he had been at was the one they decided to blow. When Lewis was asked if the plan failed what would they do, Lewis reminded them that if the plan to successfully blow a hole in the Hermes failed, they would all be sucked into space so fast they'd be turned into jelly, and it really didn't matter at that point. They were all willing to risk so much on account of saving Mark. Mars looked stunning, Alice felt herself thinking back to a few months ago when her and Beck were looking at Earth. A smile danced upon her lips and she knew, she just knew, that they were going to get Mark back.

Time seemed to move all to quickly and all to slow at once; Alice felt the strong lurch of the Hermes when the bomb blew, and she held her breath for a few seconds as she waited to be sucked through into space; it never happened, which meant they successfully closed the gap between them and Watney, and slowed the speed down to a reasonable and achievable speed. Beck would not have to go off-tether to get Mark; Alice wanted to witness it, to see every second of the rescue, but from where she was, she could no longer see. Everything was simply over the headsets; she could hear Beck stating each decision, each moment. He could see Mark, he had visual on Mark, he had grabbed Mark. Vogel was pulling him in.

Mark was aboard the Hermes for the first time in 549 Sols.

There was no time for tears of joy or hugs and celebratory moments; Beck brought Mark through to the Med-bay, got him down on a bed; Alice stood there, waiting for Beck to tell her to do anything to help. He took off his helmet, revealing the wide-grin on his face, the tears in his blue eyes. He'd saved Mark, they'd all done it, but Beck felt as though he had made up for the call he had made back on Sol 6. Beck looked up and his eyes met with Alice's, his tongue darted out and dampened his lips, and Alice knew that he was searching for words, but they were not coming just yet.

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