Interstellar → Chris Beck

S O L 5 4 - E A R T H

NASA SATELLITE COMMUNICATIONS engineer, Mindy Park, sat quietly in her chair as she and Mars Mission Director, Vincent Kapoor, awaited the arrival of Teddy Sanders and Annie Montrose. Mindy was still in shock over what she had just recently discovered, though she couldn't help but feel a bit happy with her discovery. Mark Watney was alive, and that much she was sure of, but he was also stranded on a barren planet with no way to contact NASA, and the realization of it killed what little bit of happiness was inside her body.

"What's this about, Vincent?" Teddy's voice echoed slightly through the almost-empty room. "It's two-thirty in the morning."

Mindy and Vincent turned to look at Teddy, both watching as he strolled into the room with Annie following closely behind him. Vincent turned back to the computer monitor, where the satellite image of the Ares III landing site was still being displayed.

"Mark Watney's alive," Vincent said.

Annie's eyes widened slightly as she glanced up at the screen, while Teddy simply shot Vincent a look. Watney being alive was impossible, or at least that's what he wanted to believe.

"You're sure?" Annie asked, skepticism in her tone.

Vincent only nodded in response.

Annie gaped up at the screen, a seemingly shocked expression on her made up face. "You've gotta be shitting me."

"How sure?" Teddy then followed.

"A hundred percent."

"Prove it to me."

Vincent leaned down towards the keyboard in front of Mindy and pressed a button, moving back and forth between the satellite images from sol eighteen and sol fifty-four. "For a start, the solar panels have been cleaned."

"They could've been cleaned by wind," the director rebutted.

Vincent gave him a look before pressing the button once more. "Look at Rover Two. According to the logs, Commander Lewis took it out sol seventeen and plugged it into the Hab to recharge; it's been moved."

"She could've forgotten to log the move," Teddy mused.

Mindy shook her head quickly. "No, not likely."

"Why don't we just ask Lewis?" Annie suggested. "Why don't we just get on CAPCOM and ask her directly right now?"

"No," Teddy answered quickly. "If Mark Watney really is alive, we don't want the Ares Three crew to know."

Annie scoffed, unable to believe that he would keep something so crucial from the crew. "How can you not tell them? His sister is a part of that crew, Teddy."

"The crew has another ten months left on their trip home. Space travel is dangerous; they need to be alert and undistracted, especially his sister. She's already got me in a mood as it is with her constant squalling," Teddy answered Annie.

"Because she thinks he's dead—they all think he's dead," Annie remarked.

"And they'd be devestated to find out they left him there alive," Vincent sighed.

Annie let out a dry chuckle. "I'm sorry, but you have not thought this through. What are we gonna say? 'Dear America, remember that astronaut we killed and had a really nice funeral for? Turns out he's alive and we left him on Mars. Our bad. Sincerely, NASA.' I mean, do you realize the shitstorm that is about to hit us?"

"How are we gonna handle the public?" Teddy asked her.

"Legally we have twenty-four hours to release these pictures," Annie breathed out.

Teddy nodded in understanding. "We release a statement with them. We don't want people working it out on their own."

"Yes, sir," Annie agreed.

"But if my calculations are right, he's going to starve to death long before we can help him," Teddy spoke as he looked back up at the screen.

The three of them looked up at him, all of them with incredulous expressions upon their faces.

Vincent shook his head and looked back to the screen. "Can you even imagine what he's going through? I mean, he's fifty million miles away from home, he thinks he's totally alone, he thinks we gave up on him. What does that do to a man—psychologically? The hell is he thinkin' right now?"

Mindy, Teddy, and Annie did not answer Vincent. All they could do was remain quiet as they tried to process the heart-wrenching information.