❝Been dazed and confused for so long, it's not true.❞ - Led Zeppelin.

Mark Watney felt his heart hammering against his chest as his suit boots crunched on the Martian surface, his breathing out of sync as he struggled to interpret where everything had been before the storm wrecked havoc on their small Martian base.

"You wouldn't believe the mess, Bron," he murmured into his suit telecom, Bronwyn biting off a strip of adhesive bandaging inside the HAB as he spoke, "it'll be a Hell of a good time tidying this."

"I don't doubt," she breathed from inside, grimacing slightly as she tore away the remnants of popped staples dangling from the flesh of her wound before wrapping her waist with the material, "I'll be right with you in a second."

"Well it'll definitely be a two man job," he murmured, carefully pacing his steps on the terrain. He slowly creased his eyebrows as he watched his feet, his mind lapsing with how to ignite his idea of growing crops into a steady motion. They'd hardly have enough room to grow a sustainable amount for the two, even if they used the pop-up tents from the rovers too.

Casting his attention to their direction, Watney sighed with relief to see that the two rovers were thankfully intact. NASA had affirmed the crew that the rovers could withstand the vast majority of problems Mars had to offer and so far, that ran true.

"Shit," Bronwyn suddenly grumbled down the telecom, tugging her suit halfway over her waist before her bandage ripped, "bandage just ripped, fuck you Mars," she growled as Watney momentarily paused, questioning wether she'd said, 'fuck you Mark.'

"Duck tape, use duck tape on top of your bandage-" Watney replied causing her to furrow her eyebrows in confusion at his eagerness, "duck tape, not even NASA can improve on duck tape."

"Okay well," she slowly replied, slightly confused by his enthusiasm, "I'll just got do that then?.." her voice trailed off as Watney suddenly diverted his attention back to the rovers.

"Yeah, you do that," he distantly replied as he made his way to Rover 2, placing his hands firmly on its exterior before reaching for the pop-up tents. Pulling a latch of one of the pop-up tents, Watney crouched to his knees and began to set it up, a concentrated expression on his face as Bronwyn began to hum songs into the telecom, the sound of stripping duck tape accompanying her.

As Bronwyn continued to hum, 'History' by One Direction, she wrapped her bandage with the duck tape before rising back to her feet, peeling her suit past her waist again and onto her shoulder. The weight slightly tugged on the soreness of her wound, but she ignored it as she continued to hum the song.

Watney focused on the tune as he devoted his attention to the next pop-up tent, furrowing his eyebrows as he spoke in distaste, "is that One Direction?"

Bronwyn nodded despite him not being able to see, attaching her helmet to her suit and shutting her visor, "sure is pal, why- you a fan?" she mused, making her way to a electronic device on the table.

"Wasn't on Earth and definitely am not now here on Mars."

She smirked, "all the better," before suddenly 'History' blazed through the HAB, the speakers blasting the song so that Watney was almost deafened through the radio, causing him to turn it off with a string of profanities about his hearing. His expression only dulled furthermore when the sound didn't die down, the volume projecting the song prominently even outside the HAB.

Bronwyn laughed as she acknowledged he'd turned his radio off before reaching for the depressurisation passage door handle, the intensely loud music streaming through the passage. As she eventually breached the Martian surface, the music still blazing outside the HAB, the blinding sun scorched against her visor and she winced slightly. Stepping carefully on the sandy terrain, she shut the passage door behind her and caught sight of Watney immediately, rising to his feet after successfully deploying multiple pop-up tents.

With a smirk adorning her face, she made her way to him quietly before swiping out her leg to his ankle, sending him falling helplessly backwards. He yelped before he landed on his backside, staring up at Bronwyn in disbelief and betrayal as he tried to scramble to his feet again.

"Turn on your telecom you dork," she yelled through her helmet, her voice muffled to Watney as she extended her hand to him. He obliged, accepting the support as he heaved himself to his feet to click the sudden knot in his back.

"That could've killed me," he grumbled, ignoring her demand as he placed his hands on the back of his hips, straightening his back as Bronwyn reached for his helmet before pressing a button on the side of his head that connected the two again.

"Shame it didn't then," she retorted playfully as she glanced over her shoulder, twisting her body to acknowledge the pop-up tents more accurately as she did so. She contorted her face as she crouched to her feet to examine them, "planning an evacuation from the HAB anytime soon?"

"Well, I'm glad you're wondering why I did this," Watney replied, stepping foreword to stand behind her, "if we're going to survive, we've got to reach further than just supplies- we've got to grow our own, so, if we have more space to grow crops, we have more food."

"Watney-" Bronwyn objected, digging her gloved fingers into the sand and shaking it into her palm, "this-" she gazed up at him, "this is dead earth, we can't fertilise this-"

"Can't we?" He mused as she contorted her face with confusion, agitation growing on her from her cluelessness.

"No, we can't, you've lost me," she murmured as he hardened his gaze, raising an eyebrow to subtly indicate what he had in mind. She stared at him dumbfounded and furrowed her eyes before it then suddenly dawned on her, "shit- you've found me," she grimaced as she in unclasped the sand in her hand, slowly readying herself to rise to her feet.

"Glad I did," Watney spoke before suddenly placing his hand on her shoulder, forcing his strength down onto her so she collapsed back down with a yelp. With a triumphant air fist-bump, Watney cackled off as Bronwyn huffed a curl out of her face, sprawled out on the ground.

Raising her head from the ground to see Watney walking to the HAB, she furrowed her eyebrows before calling out, "where are you going?"

"To turn this shit excuse of music off, starting to believe it's worse than Lewis' disco," Mark yelled back, erupting Bronwyn into laughter which urged her to lay her head back down, "you can get started on wiping the solar panels whilst I'm gone."

"Sure thing pal," Bronwyn retorted to herself, still carelessly laying on the floor.

☇

Night drew in faster than they could have comprehended that day, enveloping their productive schedule to an end faster than they would have appreciated. The nights were freezing on Mars so the HAB's central heating blared up the temperature as the pair, sitting up on their bunks contemplated what areas of the HAB they'd willingly give up for the survival of the crops.

"Well we have four spare beds," Bronwyn pointed out, "if you continue to bunk in mine and Beck's bunk, we have two bedrooms which means four solid beds for the plants that we can alter how ever we'd like," she claimed as she pulled her curls into a bun, tugging a bobble from her wrist as she did so.

Watney dangled his arm down lifelessly off Beck's bunk, causing Bronwyn to contort her face in confusion as he yawned, "yeah- yeah, good idea," he replied on top of her bunk, his voice gruff with fatigue.

"Watney," she gently spoke, tapping his arm which urged it to swing helplessly from his tiredness, "go to sleep," she sternly commanded as he grumbled in distaste.

"I miss Ella today," he murmured sadly into his pillow, his raspy voice causing Bronwyn to frown empathetically.

"I know you do, I do too- just get some sleep, alright," she uttered as she reached out to turn the light off on the wall. As the room was engulfed by darkness, she pulled her blanket from its tucked in position and pulled it over her body as she simmered into her bed.

"Bronwyn- who do you miss today?"

She exhaled deeply, twisting her body to stare at the top of the bunk, "I miss everyone everyday-"

"That's not the rule, a person a day Bronwyn," he uttered into his pillow as Bronwyn rolled her eyes playfully.

"Okay well-" she paused, "my homegirls. My sisters and my best friends-"

"Homegirls-" Watney scoffed tiredly, "where'd you... get that from... Tumblr?" he drawled with fatigue, slowly being enveloped by sleep.

Bronwyn rolled her eyes with a laugh, "don't be salty, if I roll my eyes at you anymore they'll fall out of their sockets." His silence confirmed he'd fallen asleep, causing a small smile to etch onto her face as she turned over, tucking a hand under her pillow.

"Goodnight Beck," she whispered under her breath, a small painful tug at her heart at the memory of him.

☇

The dead night shift at SatCon wasn't something Mindy Park had in mind when she accepted the job, her mechanical engineering master degree wasting away as she'd sip endless supplies of coffee just to stay awake sending emails of imagery from satellites.

Taking a sip of her strong coffee, a sudden flicker on her screen notified Mindy that another set of images were ready to dispatch. Checking the name on the work order, Mindy composed an email to Venkat Kapoor and began to enter the longitude and latitude of the imagery: 31.2°N, 28.5°W.

Pausing for a moment, she reread the coordinates before finally realising it belonged to Acidalia Planitia, ARES 3. She frowned and out of morbid curiosity, clicked on the first of seventeen pictures.

She'd heard they were going to image it and feeling slightly ashamed about herself, she began to scour the image for any sign of the two astronauts dead bodies. After finally a few minutes of unrewarded searching, in slight relief and disappointment, she then continued to examine the rest of the image.

Boringly pursuing the rest of the picture for the basics, she reached for her coffee again but before she could take a sip, her eyes froze in disbelief.

In a sudden scattered frenzy, she brought up the NASA intranet onto her screen and navigated through site specifically for the crews mission log. Her heart dropped after her sudden research availed what she'd suspected and in a heart beat, she fumbled for the phone and dialled the only number relevant for the situation.

"Hello, security? This is Mindy Park in SatCon, I need the emergency contact number for Dr. Venkat Kapoor... And yes, it's an emergency," she gulped.

☇

Venkat was hardly impressed at the sudden phone call which summoned him to SatCon at unearthly hours. Barely having enough time to change his attire, Dr. Kapoor jumped into his car and raced to SatCon whilst in his pyjamas.

As Venkat finally appeared, Mindy felt an overwhelming surge of nerves gush through her as the director of the Mars missions visiting SatCon was a rarity, never mind in his pyjamas.

"Are you Mindy Park?" He gruffly asked, barely able to obtain manors as his sleep deprivation weighed him down.

"Yes," she squeaked, sinking furthermore into her chair, "sorry to drag you in."

"I assume you had a good reason, so?"

"Well it's the uh- imagery that was dispatched," she muttered as he pulled a chair and sat next to her desk, "it was uh- look-"

"Is it because of their bodies? Is that why you're shook up?" He interrupted before she shook her hand in protest.

"No," she pointed to a certain point on the image, "look."

A grim expression grew on his face as he leaned in to look closer, three white materials beside the HAB causing him to retort, "looks like canvas from the HAV, guess it didn't do too well."

"Uh-" she interrupted, "they look like rover pop-up tents."

Venkat re-looked nonchalantly, "well Commander Lewis probably ordered them deployed during evac, a good decision really. Have the emergency shelters ready incase the MAV didn't work and the HAB breached."

Mindy shook her head and clenched her eyes momentarily before opening another window on her computer, "no, this is the entire mission log, from sol 1 through to 6. They never deployed the pop-up tents."

Venkat paused, confusion beginning to grow on him, "well they obviously did, perhaps they just didn't log it."

"Why are the solar cells so clean?" Mindy choked back her words, "there was a huge sandstorm, they should be covered."

Venkat began to sink into his chair, slightly refusing to believe, "a good wind could have done it."

Mindy bit back her tears, "did I mention I never found their bodies?"

Venkat's eyes shot open, retaking another look at the screen, "oh God," he mumbled in disbelief, "oh my God."