Red Horizon (The Martian Fanfiction)

Chapter 15

SOL 36

Olivia was nestled against Mark's chest, her body fitting comfortably into the curve of his as they lay on the narrow bunk. Her leg, propped up on a pile of pillows to keep it elevated, still throbbed with a dull ache, but the pain had become a constant companion—manageable, if not entirely ignorable. Mark's steady breathing and the warmth of his arm around her waist helped ground her, easing the tension in her body that had built up over the past days.

She absently worked on the small cross Martinez had left behind, shaving away at it with slow, deliberate strokes. The rhythmic motion kept her focused, a small distraction from the heavier thoughts that always seemed to linger just beneath the surface. Mark, lying behind her, had one arm loosely wrapped around her middle, his tablet propped up on his lap as he logged the latest updates.

"The problem is water," Mark said, breaking the silence, his voice thoughtful as he glanced over at her. "I've created 126 square meters of soil. But every cubic meter of soil requires 40 liters of water to be farmable. So I gotta make a lot more water."

Olivia smiled faintly, not looking up from her work. "Good thing we know the recipe. You take hydrogen, you add oxygen, you burn."

He chuckled, the sound rumbling softly in his chest and vibrating against her back. "Now, I have hundreds of liters of unused hydrazine at the MDV. If I run the hydrazine over an iridium catalyst, it'll separate into N2 and H2. And then if I just direct the hydrogen into a small area and burn it."

Olivia rolled her eyes, her lips quirking up into a smile. "Luckily, in the history of humanity, nothing bad has ever happened from lighting hydrogen on fire."

Mark grinned, tilting his head slightly to look down at her. "NASA hates fire. Because of the whole 'fire makes everyone die in space' thing. So, everything they sent us up here with is flame retardant..."

"...with the notable exception of Martinez's personal items," Olivia added, shaking her head as she leaned back further into Mark's chest. "I am sorry, Martinez. But if you didn't want us to go through your stuff, you shouldn't have left us for dead on a desolate planet."

Mark laughed, the sound brighter now, and she could feel his arm tighten gently around her waist, a playful squeeze. "By the way, I'm figuring you're going to be fine with this given our present situation. Counting on you."

Olivia chuckled softly, feeling the absurdity of the conversation in contrast to the serious stakes they were facing. It was moments like these—these light, bantering exchanges—that kept them sane in the face of everything. Even stranded on Mars, with her leg in a cast and the constant threat of failure looming over them, Mark's presence made it all bearable.

Mark fell quiet for a moment, still typing away on his tablet as Olivia's hand slowed, the blade in her hand smoothing the wood of the cross with careful strokes. Her head rested back against his shoulder, her body relaxed despite the pain in her leg and ribs. She had come to depend on these small moments of peace, on the way Mark's presence seemed to calm her even when everything felt overwhelming.

Mark shifted slightly behind her, his fingers still tapping away at the tablet, but Olivia could feel the subtle change in his breathing, the quiet rise and fall of his chest against her back. There was something comforting about being so close to him, the warmth of his body, the steady rhythm of his heart—it was enough to make her forget, just for a moment, the weight of their situation.

Her hand stilled on the cross she had been working on, her focus slipping as the gentle quiet enveloped them. She let her head rest fully against his shoulder, closing her eyes for a brief second to take it all in. Despite everything—the pain, the isolation, the constant uncertainty—there was this. This small, quiet moment where it was just the two of them, breathing together, surviving together.