Interstellar → Chris Beck

S O L 1 1 4

THE ARES III crew members, aside from Martinez and Commander Lewis, were all gathered together in the rec-room. Maia lay on the couch tinkering with a deck of cards, Beck was at one of the tables scarfing down a bit of dinner, Vogel was prepping his dinner, and Johanssen was sitting at the computer waiting for the data dump from NASA to finish completion.

"Commander Lewis," Johanssen spoke through comms. "The data dump is almost complete."

About a minute later, Martinez and Commander Lewis made an appearance in the rec-room.

"I've got a batch of personals and I'm dispatching them to your laptops now," Johanssen informed her crew-mates. "I don't need to read Vogel's weird, German-fetish emails."

"They're telemetry updates," Vogel defended himself.

"Hey, whatever does it for you, man."

Maia laughed at her friends and got up from her seat in order to retrieve her laptop, but Johanssen's voice stopped her in her tracks.

"There's a video message addressed to the whole crew," Johanssen once again informed the team.

The remaining crew members stopped what they were doing and headed over to the large computer monitor Johanssen sat in front of. Maia found a place beside Commander Lewis; Beck found his spot beside Maia; Vogel stood at Beck's side; Martinez stood at the Commander's opposite side. In seconds, Mitch Henderson's face was being displayed on the screen, much to the curiosity of the crew.

"Hello, it's Mitch—Mitch Henderson," he began. "I have some news. There's no subtle way to put this, but Mark Watney is still alive."

Johanssen let out a soft gasp, and Maia's mouth parted slightly in shock.

"I know that's a surprise, especially to you, Maia. And I know you'll all have a lot of questions. We're going to answer those questions, but for now I'll give you the basics. He's alive and he's healthy. We found out two months ago and decided not to tell you; I was strongly against that decision," Mitch continued.

"Two months?" Martinez remarked angrily as the rest of the crew assessed their thoughts silently.

"We're telling you now because we have communication with him and we've come up with a rescue plan. We'll give you a full write up of everything, but just know it isn't your fault. Mark stresses that every time it comes up. So, yeah. . .take some time to absorb this. Henderson out."

Mitch's words removed an overwhelming weight off of Maia's chest, yet it also sent an overwhelming amount of nausea into her system.

Her brother was alive, that much she was aware of—that much she was exceedingly ecstatic about. What she wasn't ecstatic about, however, was the fact that NASA, the organization she had dedicated so many years of her life to, had the audacity to keep news as crucial as this from her—from the crew. They'd known about Mark for two months, which meant that Maia had spent an additional two months trying to come to terms with her brother's death, when, in fact, he had never been dead to begin with.

Aside from the secrecy, there was another issue gnawing dangerously at the very edges of Maia's slowly mending, yet still-broken heart. They had left Mark to die on Mars; Maia had left her brother to die on a barren and rusty wasteland. The realization alone was enough to send the burning tears rolling down her face. She would never forgive herself for allowing such a thing to happen, no matter how much Mark seemed to stress that his situation was in no way at fault of the crew.

"I left him behind," Commander Lewis said from her spot beside Maia.

Maia looked over at her. "No," she said, her voice slightly strained. "We all left together; we all left him behind."

"You were all following orders," she said, her eyes pooling with tears. "I left him behind."

Maia only wiped the tears from her face and shook her head before storming off.

She was angry; she was completely and utterly livid. Information such as this was supposed to make a grieving loved one happy, and Maia was more than happy, but she just couldn't get over the fact that she was lied to and betrayed by the very people she'd practically dedicated her entire life to. As Mark's sister, Maia felt that she should've been among the first to know of Mark's situation, yet, because of the mission, because she was a part of the Ares III crew, NASA decided the intelligent thing to do would be to withhold that very crucial information from her.

There were so many things Maia wanted to say at the moment and so many things she wanted to do. She wanted to scream at the top of her lungs, and she wanted to give every single NASA employee just a small sliver of the words she was thinking inside her mind, as well as anyone else who knew about Mark and refused to tell her and the crew.

It all made some amount of sense, though, as to why they hadn't found out earlier. The crew had only been allowed emails or written messages from their family and friends, all of which go through NASA before being sent to the crew. Maia figured that everything that had come through had been censored, as she knew their family and friends would have informed them about Mark the moment the news he was alive surfaced. The fact of it all just allowed her to find a new nickname for the piece of dickweed that called himself NASA's director.

"Maia," Maia heard Beck call from behind her.

She stopped immediately and spun on her heel to face him. "What?"

"What's the matter?" he asked as he approached her. "You should be happy, but you aren't."

Maia let out a sigh and ran a hand through her hair. "I am happy, Chris, but I'm also extremely pissed off. My brother has been alive this entire time and I'm finding out four fucking months later because of NASA's audacity to keep the information from us. Not to mention, he's also stranded on some desolate planet because we left him, because we thought he was dead. There's no limit to the happiness I feel in this very moment, yet there is also no limit to the immense amount of pain and anger I feel too."

"Maia. . ." He trailed off, much like he did when he wasn't sure what to respond with. It was either that, or Maia's sobs had distracted him from the words he had yet to utter.

"I just want my brother back, Chris," Maia sniffed. "That's all I want."

"I know, sweetheart," Chris sighed, pulling her into his arms for what seemed to be the thousandth time throughout the entire mission. Maia could not complain about it whatsoever. Being in his arms was an enormous relief and brought her the comfort she had longed for during the past few months. Maia knew that she could always count on Chris to make her feel better, regardless of the situation she was in, and the past four months saw something such as that difficult to accomplish within herself, yet with him she was somehow able to achieve it.

"I can't bear the thought of him being there when he should be here with us," Maia cried into his hoodie. "It's not fair. He doesn't deserve it."

"We'll get him back, Maia," Chris assured her, squeezing her a bit tighter. "I don't know how and I don't know when, but we will. Mitch said they're working on rescue plans right now. It shouldn't be too long before we see him again."

"I hope you're right, Chris, I really do. You and him are the only reasons why I haven't completely given up, so, yeah, I really do hope you're right," Maia said, her breath shaky.

Beck's breath hitched in his throat at the sound of Maia's words, and she could only assume his reaction was because of her words.

Without Chris, Maia would be nowhere. She would most likely still be writhing in pain over losing her brother and drowning in tears as she forced herself to listen to sad music. Because of Chris, however, Maia was happy, or at least she was slowly getting there. This newfound information that her brother was alive, though, would do wonders in speeding up that process.

Maia was indeed grateful and exceedingly thankful for the wonderful man known to many as Dr. Chris Beck. He not only remained by her side throughout the toughest obstacle she'd ever had to face in her life, but he did so with the utmost patience and affection she'd ever seen a human being capable of. He was an absolutely amazing person, which Maia was sure he knew himself. What he did not know, however, was how truly special he was to her, nor was he aware of just how lost she would be if she didn't have him in her life.