MAIA BASKED IN the glory of the task Commander Lewis had assigned her. Despite her love of being able to head out in her EVA suit, she didn't exactly feel the urge to do so today, as the threat of a potentially dangerous storm still loomed in the air. She was happy to spend her day inside the comfort and safety of the Hab with Beck and Johanssen, the two people she had come to call her best friends on the mission.

Maia grabbed a white NASA hoodie from her bin and threw it on, along with a pair of black compression leggings and her black Nike tennis shoes. After spending ten minutes trying to fix her unruly brown hair, she scurried away from her bunk and headed towards her shared work station with Johanssen.

Beck stood in front of a microscope with a headset on his head, no doubt running the samples he had been instructed to earlier. Maia's presence caught his attention, and he looked up to smile at her before tending back to his work. Johanssen was in her usual spot in front of the monitors with a headset on her head as well. The moment she took notice of Maia's presence, she grabbed the other one and held it up to her, to which Maia responded by taking it from her hands and placing it on top of her head.

"Any new reports?" Maia questioned as she took a seat beside Johanssen, readying her monitor in front of her.

Johanssen's eyes were narrowed at the screen in front of her, her expression very concentrated. "No, ma'am."

Maia merely shrugged in response, unsure of what to do rather than track the reports as she was instructed to do. There weren't any new ones, as Johanssen had just informed her, but there was still an abundant amount of them from NASA to analyze and report back to Commander Lewis. It was a very lengthy process for the two sysops, but their field of intelligence allowed them to work at a much quicker pace than most.

"Alright, team. Stay in sight of each other," Commander Lewis's voice could be heard in Maia's headset. "Let's make NASA proud today."

Maia bit her lip to prevent herself from making a smart remark about the death storm that was supposedly approaching the Ares III landing site. She did hope Mark would end up making one, however; she preferred listening to him being chastised rather than herself.

"How's it lookin' over there, Watney?" Martinez asked.

"Well, you'll be happy to hear that in grid section 14.28, the particles were predominately course, but in 29 they're much finer and should be ideal for chem analysis," Mark explained to him.

"Oh, wow," Martinez chimed. "Did everybody hear that? Mark just discovered dirt. Should we alert the media?"

Maia snickered in response to Martinez's joke, but kept her attention locked on the monitor in front of her.

"I'm sorry? What are you doing today, Martinez? Making sure the MAV is still upright?"

"Well, I'd like you to know that visual inspection of the equipment is imperative to mission success; I would also like to report that the MAV is still upright," Martinez shot back.

The three working inside the Hab laughed, as did Mark, but the feminine sigh in Maia's headset gave her some insight that the situation was not a laughing matter to Commander Lewis.

"Watney, you keep leaving your channel open, which leads to Martinez responding, which leads to all of us listening, which leads to me being annoyed," the Commander chastised him.

"Roger that," Mark said. "Martinez, the Captain would like you to please shut your smart mouth."

"We'd prefer to use a different adjective to describe Martinez's mouth," Beck followed quickly.

Maia smiled softly at Beck's remark. She truly did enjoy being a part of such an amazing crew; she doubted she would be able to stand making such a journey with a different crew. The members of the Ares III crew were complete lunatics in Maia's opinion, but they were her family, and being with the six of them made the entire experience all the more enjoyable for her.

"Oh, did Beck just insult me?" Martinez questioned as Mark laughed.

"Dr. Beck, yes," Mark confirmed.

"I'll be happy to turn the radios off from here, Commander," Johanssen spoke with a chuckle. "Just say the word. I can hardly concentrate on analyzing these weather reports because of Mark's big mouth. I don't know how Mira deals with this on a daily basis."

Maia laughed in response but stayed silent otherwise. Johanssen wasn't wrong about the weather reports. They were hard to analyze, and with Mark and Martinez bantering the way they were it proved to be extremely difficult for them to concentrate.

"Johanssen, constant communication is the hallmark of any team that—"

"Shut him off," came Commander Lewis's voice.

Johanssen chuckled before switching off the radios, ignoring Mark's pleas to keep them on.

Several wondrous minutes of silence passed, allowing Beth and Maia the wonderful opportunity to finally focus on analysis of the weather reports. It was much simpler without Mark's and Martinez's loud voices to distract them.

Maia was busy punching in codes for further analysis when the alarm sounded overhead. The two sysops glanced up at the monitor in front of them and watched as a MISSION STATUS UPDATE warning flashed across the screen.

"We have another mission update—new report," Beth informed Beck as Maia clicked on the box.

"Commander, you should come inside," Maia spoke as she looked over the update. "You're gonna wanna see this."

"What is it?"

"Another storm warning," Johanssen answered.

"Go ahead," Commander Lewis encouraged as Beck moved behind the two women, resting his hands on the back of Maia's chair.

"NASA upgraded their estimate to severe," Maia informed her. "The storm's to touch down in approximately fifteen minutes."

It took all but five minutes for Vogel, Commander Lewis, and Mark to return back to the Hab; Martinez stayed with MAV.

Maia watched the screen, slightly startled by the extremity the storm was supposed to meet. She had only ever dealt with one storm during the eighteen sols she and the crew had been on Mars. It had been very calm as well, almost the equivalent to a spring thunderstorm on Earth but without the rain. This one, however, was estimated to be a lot worse, and Maia could determine such to be true just by looking at the computer screen. It was growing darker outside as well, and Maia knew that they didn't have much time before they would be on the full brunt end force of the storm.

"1,200 kilometers in diameter, bearing 24.41 degrees," the Commander stated.

"The winds are now estimated at about 100 kilometers per hour and gusting to 125," Maia said as she typed away on the keyboard.

Mark sighed from his spot behind Maia. "What's the abort force?"

"7,500," Beck answered simply. "Anything more than that and the MAV could tip."

"Are we scrubbed?" Vogel questioned.

"Begin abort procedure," the Commander ordered.

"They're estimating with a margin of error," Maia said as she glanced back at Commander Lewis. "We could wait it out."

"Let's wait it out," Mark followed, defending his younger sister's suggestion. The look on the Commander's face, however, was enough indication that neither of them were going to get what they wanted.

"Commander?"

Commander Lewis glanced down at Johanssen before starting towards the airlock. "Prep for emergency departure."

"Commander?" Mark tried again.

"We're scrubbed," she reprimanded him. "That's an order."

Maia moved as quickly as she could, shuffling to peel her clothes off in order to change into her EVA suit. It was quite the difficult endeavor for her, especially with her nerves and trembling hands. The only reason she had even suggested waiting the storm out was because she was deathly afraid of them, and she had been since she was a little girl. It was something that would never change. Maia didn't want to go out in the storm at all. She preferred staying in the comfort of the Hab, but she knew she couldn't—the crew couldn't. She could already hear the deafening roar of the wind from inside the Hab, and she could see the sky growing darker and darker through the Hab windows. The crew was scrubbed—they were scrubbed and it had barely been fifteen minutes. She just hoped to make it through unscathed.

"Hey," Mark greeted Maia as she put her helmet on. "You look frightened."

Maia shrugged and double checked to make sure everything on her suit was working as it should. "It's a storm, Mark. You know me and storms don't exactly mix."

"Duh," he chuckled. "I came over here to keep you company during the journey to the MAV. It'll be a tough one, and I'd rather my scaredy-cat of a little sister to not deal with it on her own. We don't need you getting lost on Mars, now do we?"

Mark held his hand out to Maia, and she smiled before taking it. Despite their many differences, Mark was still her older brother and she loved him more than anything in the world. Her relationship with him was the most important relationship she had, besides the relationship she had with her parents. But she and Mark got to experience space together—she and Mark had traveled to Mars together, which was something that definitely strengthened the bond they shared with one another.

"Y'know, I'm actually pretty sure Beck would enjoy this more than I would," Mark said with a laugh.

Maia rolled her eyes at him and smacked him on the arm, though it was difficult to do through the bulkiness of her suit. "Shut up, nark."

"Watney!" Commander Lewis called out to the siblings from the airlock door. "Hurry up!"

Mark gave Maia a reassuring smile and squeezed her hand before pulling her into the airlock. All of the remaining crew members were paired up; Beck was at the front with the Commander, and Johanssen and Vogel were stationed in the middle, leaving Mark and Maia at the rear.

"If anyone gets lost, hone in on my suit's telemetry," the Commander instructed. "You ready?"

"Ready!"

The moment Commander Lewis pulled the airlock door open, the wind struck the six of them with a phenomenal force—a force strong enough to send them flying backwards. Had it not been for Mark catching Maia, the likelihood of slamming her face mask into the door behind her would have been extremely great.

"Commander! Are you okay?" Mark asked her as he steadied Maia on her feet.

"I'm okay!" she answered before heading out of the airlock.

After closing the airlock, Maia latched onto Mark, and he then latched onto Johanssen. The storm was powerful, much more powerful than anyone had originally anticipated it to be. The wind and the darkness made the storm nearly impossible to navigate through, but luckily they were able to manage. The crew's only hope was that the MAV would be able to withstand the brute force of the catastrophic wind.

"Commander," I heard Martinez's voice say. "The MAV is at ten degrees, and it's gonna tip at 12.3."

"Hey!" Mark called, his hand still tightly grasping his sister's. It was difficult for them to hold onto each other with the force of the wind threatening to separate them, but their determination at the moment seemed to be stronger than the winds. "We might be able to keep the MAV from tipping!"

"How?" Commander Lewis asked.

"Use the cables from the comms mast as guy-lines and anchor it with the rover's," he answered.

A whistling sound could be heard, followed by the sound of Commander Lewis's voice alerting everyone to watch out. Maia watched as something relatively large flew in her general direction and she ducked just in time, attempting to pull Mark down with her. She wasn't given the chance, though, as the piece of debris struck him, ripping him away from her. Even through the deafening roar of the winds she could hear her brother's pained screams.

"Mark!" Maia cried out, violently whipping her head around to see if she could spot him, only it was done to no avail.

"What happened?" Commander Lewis called out.

"He was hit!" Maia answered, still on the search for her older brother.

"Watney, report," Lewis followed.

There was no reply.

"Before we lost telemetry his decompression alarm went off," Beck said.

Maia looked down at the bio monitor on her wrist, shocked to find that Mark's signal had in fact been lost. "He's offline! I don't know where he is!" she exclaimed, tears burning in her hazel eyes.

"How are the vitals on his suit?"

Maia checked the monitor once, but she was unable to speak. The situation was becoming much too overwhelming for her to grasp.

"He's offline, he's offline," Johanssen answered frantically.

"Dr. Beck," Vogel spoke. "How long could he survive decompression?"

"Less than a minute," was the dreadful answer.

Maia was immediately met with a horribly nauseating sensation. She didn't want to believe that this was happening to her—happening to her brother. She needed to find him, otherwise she feared she would lose it. She couldn't lose her brother here—she refused to.

"Line up and walk west," the Commander ordered. "He may be prone; we don't wanna step over him."

"Commander, we're at 10.5 degrees tilting to eleven with all the gusts of wind," Martinez warned through the comm.

Maia didn't seem to care much about the storm anymore; all she cared about was finding her brother.

"Copy that," Commander Lewis returned. "Everyone, hone in on Martinez's suit. It'll get you to airlock. Get in and prep for launch."

"What about you, Commander?" Vogel asked.

"I'm gonna search a little longer," she answered, capturing Maia's attention. "Get moving!"

"I'm searching with you!" Maia said as she approached her.

Commander Lewis turned to face her. "No, get back to the ship!"

"He's my brother!" Maia argued.

Commander Lewis gave her a stern look, one that would normally send her cowering away in fear. The only fear she could feel at the moment, however, was the fear that her brother might not make it back. "I said go! That's an order, Watney."

Maia opened her mouth to speak again, but before she could, someone was pulling her away from the Commander. She turned around to see Beck, his eyes filled with numerous emotions she could not quantify for. "Let's go. There's no use in arguing with her, Maia."

Beck pulled Maia back to the MAV, much to her despair. It was difficult getting back, but they managed, although Maia would have preferred staying with Commander Lewis to continue the search for her brother.

Maia stopped at the ladder and held onto the railings, looking back into the darkness of the storm to see if she could locate any sign of Commander Lewis and Mark, but again she was met with nothing.

It was then that she came up with an idea. She found that there was a low possibility of it working, but she was desperate.

"Martinez, what about the proximity radar? Could that detect Mark's suit?" Maia asked.

"It's made to see the Hermes from orbit, not a little piece of metal from a single suit," he answered.

"Give it a try," the Commander spoke up this time.

Seconds later the two women received a dreaded reply: "We've got negative contact with the proximity radar."

"Nothing?" Maia spoke, her voice cracking slightly.

"No, it can barely see the Hab."

"Maia, Commander, I know you two don't wanna hear this, but. . .Mark is dead," Beck's strained voice sounded through the comms.

Maia choked back the tears as the heartbreaking reality soon began to set in. Beck was right, but she didn't want to accept it. Who would want to accept that their older brother had been swept away in a Martian dust storm after being struck with debris?

A loud creak tore Maia away from her thoughts, and she looked down at the ground with tear-filled eyes.

"We're tipping!" Johanssen called from beside her.

Maia tightened her hold on the railings but made no move to climb up.

"Commander, you need to get back to the ship now," Beck said.

"Commander!" Johassen called again.

"On my way!"

"Watney, Johanssen, let's go," Beck's voice sounded again.

Maia let out a sigh of defeat and began climbing up the ladder, Johanssen following closely behind her. There was nothing more that she could do, and there was no use in her disobeying Beck's orders. Had she refused him, he probably would have come to retrieve her himself.

Once Maia was safely inside the MAV, she hurried over to her seat, wasting no time at all in buckling herself in. Johanssen followed shortly, as did the Commander, each of them buckling themselves into their seats. The one person she so desperately wished would make an appearance did not. The chair beside her remained empty and the buckles remained undone.

"We are ready to launch," Martinez said.

Silence.

"Commander, I need you to verbally tell me—"

"Launch."

Martinez was silent as he activated the sequence, as was the entire crew. 

Maia's lip trembled violently as the burning tears made their way down her face. She looked away from the seat in which her brother should have been strapped into and closed her eyes, unable to bear the thought of what had just happened to her. Her brother was gone, and there was absolutely nothing she could do to bring him back.

Years had passed since she had lost someone important to her; years had passed since she had felt the pain of losing someone. But this pain, however, was unlike anything she had ever felt in her 33 years of life. Mark was not only Maia's brother, but he was her best friend—her very best friend. Aside from her parents, Mark was the one person she knew she could count on no matter what was going on in her life. He'd been with her through it all, just as she had been with him. The two shared a special sibling bond with one another, one that she was sure most siblings shared with one another. 

Maia would never forgive herself for leaving him behind, regardless of whether or not he was dead. He deserved more than a Martian grave; he deserved more than to be left on a barren wasteland, and it broke her heart that she wasn't able to give him that.

The MAV soared higher and higher into the air as it attempted to leave the Martian atmosphere. The only sound to be heard on board the relatively quiet ship were the sounds of Johanssen's gentle cries, as well as the sound of Maia's pained sobs.