IT WAS THE beautifully faded red of the Martian landscape that allowed Maia to waken merely an hour before she was scheduled to, just as she had been doing so for the past eighteen sols. There was just something so enticing about watching the sun rise over the horizon of the barren planet. She adored the way the light bounced off of the distant ridges, sending a light shade of orange barreling across the vastness of Acidalia Planitia; she adored the way the light rolled over the smooth plains so elegantly, allowing the normally-rusted color of the oxidized dust to transition to a much softer and calming color.

This was a luxury Maia would miss having on Earth. On Earth, it was nearly impossible to wake up in the morning and witness something so spectacular without an enormous eyesore of a skyscraper obstructing the view, or some sort of factory allowing its horrid pollutants to completely eliminate the view altogether. That's what Maia loved and cherished so much about Mars and being on Mars. She loved the pureness of the planet—she loved the serenity. She loved the beauty and the calmness of it. She only wished she was able to experience it without the confines of her spacesuit.

Commander Lewis's voice reverberated loudly throughout the Hab, effectively removing Maia from her early morning trance. Numerous groans from her fellow crew-mates could be heard from their bunks, and Maia chuckled softly to herself before hopping down from her bunk and onto the Hab floor below.

On Earth, Maia would have made several complaints about waking up so early, but it was quite a different story while she was on Mars. It was very seldom that she was able to perform an EVA on the surface of the planet, as she spent most of her time inside the Hab in front of the computer screen, monitoring reports and tending to system updates. She wasn't able to experience Mars the way her brother or the rest of her crew-mates—aside from Beck and Johanssen—were, so her time in the morning spent gazing at the red surface was a particularly crucial aspect of her everyday routine.

Even if Maia had wanted to sleep in, she wouldn't. It was quite difficult to do so when the crew's mission commander was a well-trained naval officer who seemed to have no issue at all removing someone from their slumber simply by tipping them from the safety and comfort of their bunk. Maia had witnessed her do it once before on Mark, and it was not something she intended on bestowing upon herself.

A smile of amusement lit up Maia's face as she watched her good friend and fellow crew-mate, Chris Beck, roll out of his bunk and onto the floor at her feet. She looked down at him as he looked up at her, his tired blue eyes glistening.

"I still don't know how you do it," Chris muttered.

Maia held her hand out to him, which he didn't hesitate in grabbing. "You're a doctor, Chris. You should be used to waking up early," Maia chuckled lightly as she pulled him from the floor.

"I should be, but I'm not," he replied, bending down to pick his blanket up off of the floor.

Maia simply shook her head in amusement and proceeded toward the kitchen, leaving Beck alone to get ready for the day ahead. An overly-excited Martinez was the first to greet her the moment she made an appearance. He was military just as Commander Lewis was, which meant that he was more than used to the early morning wake up calls, unlike the rest of Maia's crew-mates.

"Morning," Martinez spoke to her.

Maia sent a smile in his direction and moved towards the ration cupboards, pulling her light brown, shoulder-length hair up in the process. "Good morning, Martinez. I trust you slept well?"

"As always, Little Watney," he responded with a smile, taking a sip of whatever liquid Maia could hear sloshing around inside his cup.

Referring to Maia as 'Little Watney' had become a thing among Vogel and Martinez to lessen the confusion regarding the situation between her and her brother, Mark Watney. Her other crew-mates, however, seemed to have their own nicknames for her.

Beck had been addressing her as Maia Moon since the two began training together. Maia believed the name to be kind of strange, though the story behind how it came to be was rather sweet and somewhat corny. Beck claimed that whenever he looked to the moon at night he thought of her. He compared the illuminating brightness of the moon to her smile, in which he believed to display an aura of comfort and contentment, just as he felt the moon did. Because of this particular—and seemingly harmless—notion, Mark was dead set on believing Beck had some sort of cosmic crush (as he liked to put it) on her, which Maia was quick to deny.

Johanssen addressed Maia as Mira. There was an entire anecdote behind the nickname, though it was one the two preferred to keep to themselves. But as an expert in nearly every existing field of technology, Maia was more than aware of what Johanssen was referring to when she first called her by the name. The name referenced the codename used for Microsoft Windows CE for Smart Displays, a program cancelled a year after Maia's birth. None of the other crew members were aware of the reason why Johanssen called Maia Mira aside from the two of them. They doubted they cared, though; their crew-mates had more important things to worry about rather than the origin of their crew-mate's peculiar nickname.

Commander Lewis had taken a more professional approach to Maia's name; she referred to her as M2, while Mark had acclaimed the title of M1.

Mark was a completely different story, however. Maia was known to him by many nicknames growing up, but during the mission she was simply known to him as Shithead and/or Intergalactic Shithead. It never bothered Maia; she was used to his antics and inappropriate pet names, just as she had been for the past thirty years.

Maia pulled an 'eggs' pack from the rations cupboard and proceeded with heating it up. One thing about space travel that she absolutely despised was the food. Compared to Earth food, she found everything she ate in space to be absolutely disgusting. It was beyond her comprehension why a multimillion dollar organization such as NASA could afford to send seven humans 33 million miles away to live on a barren planet for 31 sols, yet they couldn't afford to send them with food that was so much as decent in regards to taste.

She couldn't bring herself to make a verbal complaint about the matter, though. Since the first Ares mission back in 2029, millions have dreamed of being chosen for such a mission. She believed herself to be lucky to be among the few to receive the honor of being chosen, so her animosity toward the food was rather ungrateful.

Maia stood quietly against the counter as she ate her breakfast, watching as the remaining Ares III crew members, aside from Commander Lewis, began flooding into the kitchen for their early morning meal.

Mark was the first one in the kitchen. He greeted Martinez quickly and proceeded in strolling over to his younger sister, removing the half eaten pack of eggs from her hand before sitting down at the table to finish them off. Maia only rolled her eyes at his actions and turned back to the rations cupboard, barely missing a still-tired Beck heading into the kitchen.

"What are you gonna have this morning, Beck?" she questioned the flight surgeon as she rummaged through the cupboard for yet another pack of eggs.

"I don't care," he answered politely. "You can choose if you'd like to."

Maia bit her lip in concentration as she continued rummaging through the cupboards in an attempt to find what she was looking for. After several seconds of searching, she pulled out two packs of eggs for herself and Beck, as well as a pack of sausages for her German friend, Vogel. Maia handed Beck his pack and he smiled and thanked her before allowing her to proceed with hers and Vogel's breakfast preparations.

Vogel stepped into the kitchen seconds after she had prepared his meal, and his eyes lit up with gratitude as he noticed the plate sitting across from Mark on the table. He smiled and thanked Maia before sitting down to his meal, leaving Maia to finish hers in her original spot against the counter.

Johanssen stumbled into the kitchen minutes later. Her short, brown hair was a tousled mess on top of her head. She groggily made her way to the cupboard, in search of a coffee pack, her crew-mates assumed. Johanssen was obsessed with coffee and that was something Maia would never be able to understand. Maia hated coffee, both space and Earth coffee alike; she believed it was the most horrid substance in the galaxy.

"I take it you're not eating breakfast again today?" Maia chuckled as she watched Johanssen mix the pack of coffee with water.

Johanssen shot her a glare, one that was meant to say, "I'm Beth Johanssen, and you should respect me enough to not question my life decisions." It was a very common expression for her and one that made Maia laugh rather than cower away in fear. It was impossible to be intimidated by Beth Johanssen, no matter how much she tried to appear as the intimidating type. She was small and much like a kitten in Maia's opinion.

"That's a definite no," Mark said, his mouth full of food. "I've seen that face too many times before."

"She's gonna starve to death," Martinez chuckled. "I'm calling it."

"You can all suck a dick," Johanssen grumbled, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Mark is way ahead of you on that one," Maia joked.

Mark glared at her, though. "Listen here you little shithead—"

"There's a mission update from Houston," Commander Lewis's voice sounded, effectively silencing Mark before he could finish his sentence. "There's been satellite warnings of a storm approaching the mission site, but we're going to do surface operations before it touches down."

Maia furrowed her eyebrows at the news, an immediate feeling of discomfort settling into her body. "Are you sure that's a good idea, Commander?" Maia was not the only crew member who was seemingly reluctant about heading out to do surface operations with a storm on the way, and as she looked around at her fellow crew-mates and the expressions their faces held, she was met with such confirmation.

"Yes. Houston's permitting it," she answered. "Vogel and Martinez, I want you two outside with me. Johanssen and M2, you'll both be tracking weather reports. M1, you're working on your soil experiments today. Beck, I want you inside running yesterday's samples through the spectrometer."

"Are you sure you wanna do this with a storm coming, Commander?" Beck asked. "It could be dangerous."

Commander Lewis shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest. "The entire mission is dangerous. Suit up and get to work," she instructed before heading out of the kitchen.

"This isn't over, me and you," Mark said to Maia as he tossed his empty pack into the disposal.

"It's cute how you think I'm still scared of you, Marky."

Maia stood up from her seat and reached out to grab Mark's face, giving his cheek a pinch before heading off to her bunk to get ready for the long day of work she was sure to have ahead of her.