Interstellar → Chris Beck

S O L 7 0 - M A R S

MARK HAD JUST finished conjuring up a set of plans that could help him reach the Schiaparelli Crater by the time the Ares IV crew arrived. He now sat in the Hab's kitchen munching on a pack of sweet and sour chicken, his mind reeling over the countless thoughts that moved dangerously fast through his head. He hated the situation he was in, but he was determined to do whatever it took in order to get out of it. He had to get back to his crew—he had to get back to his sister.

Maia had been weighing heavily on his mind as of lately. Mark worried for his little sister; he worried about her feelings. He couldn't help but wonder what was going through her mind and what had been going through her mind since sol eighteen. Mark had literally been ripped from her grasp during the dust storm, and he was sure it hadn't been a very ideal experience for her.

He could very vaguely remember hearing her call out to him through the roar of the wind; he could remember hearing the fear and the pain in her voice as he flew through the air, and that was something that still bothered him after so many sols.

Maia was Mark's little sister—his very best friend—and when she was in pain, Mark was, too. Mark did whatever he could do to keep Maia happy when the two were growing up together. He hated seeing a frown on her face or tears in her eyes, regardless of the reason for it. Mark was protective over Maia just as any older brother was protective over his sister. When something made her upset, he was quick to confront it in order to make her feel better. Now Mark was the reason behind her tears, he was the reason behind her feelings, and there was nothing he could do to make her feel better, at least not now, and the realization of it pained him more than he cared to admit.

Mark let out a sad sigh and slid his empty plate aside. He stood up from his seat and ventured toward the bunks, stopping when he came to his sister's. He reached into her overhead compartment, pulling out the white box with her name written across the lid in black ink. He sat it down on the floor and yanked the lid off, allowing yet another sigh to escape him. He picked up the stack up pictures sitting soundly in the corner of the box and began going through them.

The pictures consisted of Maia with members of the Ares III crew—more specifically, Beck and Johanssen—Maia with hers and Mark's childhood dog, and Maia with their parents. The last picture he stumbled upon was of him and Maia together. It had been taken the day the two of them had first gotten the news that they would be joining each other for the Ares III mission to Mars, which had been one of the happiest days for the two siblings. The picture took Mark back to better times, times in which he wasn't stuck on a barren planet fighting to survive. But as he looked at the picture, though, he found one of the sole reasons he was even bothering to fight in the first place—Maia.

"I'm gonna make it back to you," Mark spoke quietly as he looked down at what was now his favorite picture of him and his little sister. "I promise I'll make it back to you, Maia."