Interstellar → Chris Beck

S O L 1 3 6

MAIA HEAVED OUT a breath as she continued her work on the zero-gravity plant growth experiment she had been assigned to work on nearly two hours ago. Normally, a job such as the one she was currently working on wouldn't have taken her so long, let alone long at all. It was Botany, a field in which she excelled in due to her brother's status as a Botanist, but there was just far too much on her mind at the moment, and this caused her to slack a bit in her department.

Since she and the rest of the crew had learned Mark was alive, Maia's mind had been running a million miles an hour. She felt so many emotions; she was still very much angry given NASA's failure to inform the crew of Mark's status, but she was also exceedingly happy given Mark's status. However, she did feel a little bit anxious regarding her brother's status. Maia wondered when she would finally be able to speak with him, and she wondered when she would finally be able to see him and hug him again. It was killing her, knowing he was alive but also knowing that not much had changed since thinking he was dead.

As Maia continued her work, she only grew annoyed. She understood the importance of her experiment, but at the moment she didn't necessarily care. Sure, understanding the effect gravity had on the growth of plants was important, considering plant life would definitely be necessary in order for life to flourish on the planet NASA was currently working on inhabiting, but the only thing important to Maia at the current moment was her brother and the countless thoughts zipping through her head on just how she was supposed to get back to him.

Maia hypothesized that she wouldn't see her brother again until the Ares 4 mission to Mars, which wouldn't be for at least another two years. This was not something that Maia particularly welcomed, but from her perspective it seemed as if she would have to. Part of her feared that Mark wouldn't even last the allotted time needed in order to retrieve him from the planet, and this was the part of her that wanted nothing more than to just turn around and go get him herself. She did have faith, however, faith that he would make it. He had to.

Maia had been so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed the presence behind her. She jumped up as that presence pressed a kiss to the top of her head, though she calmed herself down once she realized it was only Beck. He let out a small chuckle at her startled state and sat down beside her, his bright blue eyes meeting her light green ones.

"You scared me," Maia breathed out. She ran a hand through her hair and placed her pen down onto the table in front of her. "What are you doing up here?"

Beck raised a brow and glanced over at the plants sitting in front of her. "I could ask you the same thing, Maia. Normally you have this stuff taken care of in thirty minutes or less, but you've been working on it for two hours now."

"I'm just distracted, is all," Maia told Beck with a frown on her face, her eyes flashing down to the notebook full of her almost undecipherable scribbles. "I keep thinking about Mark."

"I figured that." Beck pursed his lips and crossed his arms over his chest, "I've had my fair share of thoughts about him over the last few days as well. I can't imagine how he must be feeling being all alone on fucking Mars."

Maia smiled slightly as she thought of her brother and Beck's words. She knew Mark enough to know how he was feeling. "I can imagine him feeling really annoyed with NASA's workers, as they're likely trying to dictate every little thing he's doing on the red planet. I wouldn't put it passed him to offend these workers' mothers and daughters with his name-calling either," Maia snorted out a laugh.

"What do you mean by that?" Beck questioned her curiously.

"It's just that Mark always has this habit of calling people's mothers and daughters prostitutes and whores when he gets fed up with them," Maia told him with a rather amused expression on her face. "It's a shtick of his."