THE PAST TEN days or so had been relatively slow for the Ares III crew, especially Maia. She had spent majority of her free time playing cards and watching movies with Beck and Johanssen, which Martinez would joke about and claim that such an activity was "life-sucking torture," while it was actually quite fun from Maia's perspective. The past ten days on the Hermes had been some of the best for her since Mark's death, and it had everything to do with Beck and Johanssen—more specifically Beck, who held the sole responsibility for Maia's change in mood.

With each passing day, Maia grew to be more and more thankful to have the flight surgeon by her side. His presence alone was becoming enough to give her the comfort she needed to help her get through her days, and although it made her happy, it also terrified her. She was more than aware of the feelings Beck held for her, but her newfound knowledge came solely from Johanssen, who had done everything in her power to plant the information inside her head. Johanssen had woken Maia up at one in the morning just so she could explain the whole situation to her, as Beck had been too nervous to do it himself, or at least that was what had come out of Johanssen's mouth.

Johanssen had started with explaining to Maia the origin of Beck's feelings, which was when they began their mission training back in 2032. Maia was a little shocked to learn that Beck had apparently had feelings for her for the past three years, especially since he hadn't bothered to speak up about them, but as she dug deep inside her mind, things began to make sense to her—his actions, his words, and his need to be there for her.

The information had served as sort of a trigger for Maia, and she found herself growing closer and closer to the flight surgeon, despite how desperately she wished to push herself away from him. Her feelings regarding the situation were completely out of her control, or so it appeared to be.

It was no secret that the two crew members had been spending a substantial amount of time with one another since leaving Mars, and it was because of this that Maia found herself slowly becoming attached to Beck. It wasn't a friendly attachment either, and Maia had come to realize that shortly after her conversation with Johanssen. She wondered whether or not she should avoid Beck for both of their sakes, but she could hardly bear the thought of doing so; she could hardly stand not being around him when she wasn't. Thinking of doing something so idiotic sent an aching feeling throughout her body and to rid herself of it, she went to him, and it was upon her arrival that she realized she could not do without him in her life.

The realization of that had been the most frightening aspect of the entire situation. It was a rare occurrence for Maia to allow herself to grow so attached to a person, especially a male. She was a fairly reserved person in regards to the way she felt about other people, but because of the pain she felt from Mark's death, her reservation seemed to disappear, which allowed her to succumb to the attachment she now possessed for the flight surgeon. It was terrifying for her, but she knew there was nothing she could do to put a stop to it, even if she had wanted.

Maia let out a sigh and turned over in bed to stare up at the ceiling. She was alone, just as she had been for the past three hours, and being alone was not something very idealistic for someone as emotionally damaged as she was. Being alone allowed her to delve deep into the torturous thoughts she had spent countless days trying to rid herself of.

This was the very reason Maia needed Chris in her life; this was the very reason why she could not allow herself to push him away. He was the reason she was able to get through her days without losing her sanity; he was the reason why the burning pain inside her heart grew duller and duller as the time passed. Beck was her distraction—her relief from the pain—and his absence only gave that pain the permission it needed in order to sneak its way back to her. Maia despised being alone and she despised being without him, but for the moment she would have to find some way to occupy herself until she was able to be with him again.

Maia pulled her laptop from her overhead storage compartment and opened it up, though she wasn't given the chance to switch it on before a familiar voice rang through her eardrums.

She poked her head out of her bunk to see Commander Lewis heading toward her with a rather annoyed expression upon her face. Maia sat her laptop down and hopped down to the floor, reluctant to find out her reasoning for being in her room rather than with the rest of the crew.

"Hey, Commander," Maia greeted her. "What's up?"

"Are you busy?" Commander Lewis asked, eyeing the laptop sitting on Maia's mattress.

Maia simply shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest. "Not really. Why do you ask?"

Commander Lewis let out a sigh and ran a hand through her red hair. "We're experiencing some technical difficulties, and I am thoroughly annoyed because of it."

Maia furrowed her eyebrows in question. "What's wrong?"

"We're getting signal and navigation interference; Houston is attempting communication with the Hermes, but to no avail, and Martinez is struggling with navigational calculations. Johanssen hasn't been able to detect the issue internally from any of the ship's computers, so I'm assuming external machinery is at fault," she explained to Maia.

Maia nodded her head in understanding, allowing the Commander's words to soak into her muddled mind. "And you were. . ."

"I was wondering if you would mind doing an EVA to see if you could possibly detect and correct the problem," she finished for her, a small smile coming onto her face.

Maia chuckled in response and nodded, already more than aware of what the problem was—the ship's transponders were acting up. As a mechanical engineer, and someone who was very familiar with both the internal and external aspects of the Hermes, Maia could determine the issue without putting much thought into the Commander's words.

The transponders on the Hermes were used to transmit and receive information by translating digital electrical signals into radio signals for sending data to Earth; they translated radio signals to digital electrical signals for receiving commands from Earth as well. They also listened for and detected signals coming from Earth, to which it was supposed to automatically respond. The navigational function of a transponder transmitted several types of signals that provided the crew with critical navigation clues; it enabled navigators on the ground to make precise calculations of the Hermes's speed and distance from Earth.

None of that was possible, though, if the transponder was not functioning as it should. The Hermes was equipped with two transponders—one for main function and a second one for redundancy—both of which should have been working perfectly fine in regards to the ship's navigational and communications systems, but they weren't. This meant that something was not only wrong with the main transponder, but also the redundant transponder as well, and it was Maia's job to figure out exactly what it was.

"Detecting the problem is simple," Maia stated. "The main transponder isn't working, which, in actuality, means that the redundant transponder should be functioning in place of it. It's not, though, obviously."

"Do you think you can fix it?" the Commander asked. "If you're not up for it, I can always get Vogel or Martinez to go out."

Maia shook her head quickly, her need for a distraction influencing her answer. "No, I can do it. I need something to do to distract me."

Commander Lewis nodded. "Alright. Meet Beck in airlock one and get to work."

Maia sent the Commander a curt nod of her head before taking off for airlock one.

For Maia, accepting a dangerous task such as this one wasn't exactly a very intelligent idea for someone who was being dictated and tortured by every single aspect of their mind. Her current mental state was far too compromised for her to be venturing out into space and it was because of that issue she faced the possibility of allowing it to effect her work. Had she not spent the last month out of work, she probably would've made a much more intelligent decision, but she missed working, and she was also in desperate need of a distraction—a distraction that was waiting for her in airlock one.

Maia allowed the lack of gravity to carry her small body through the Hermes and to airlock one where Beck was patiently waiting for her. He was in his EVA suit just as Maia had anticipated him being, and the moment he saw her a smile lit up his face. She returned it before climbing over to an individual EVA suit.

"Any assumptions as to what is going on with our communications and navigational systems?" Beck asked as Maia switched on her comm.

"Redundant transponder malfunction, most likely," she answered as she popped her helmet onto her head. "My theory is that something is preventing either of the transponders from detecting a signal from Earth in order to transmit the signals and commands they're supposed to. We just have to find out what that something is."

"Think you could speed up that process a bit?" Martinez's voice sounded in Maia's ear.

Maia rolled her eyes while Beck only smiled and opened the airlock door.

"Think you could shut up before I beat you over the head with my keyboard?" Johanssen said seconds later.

This time Maia laughed, the sound of it eliciting a fluttering sensation inside Beck's stomach. It had been much too long since he had heard it.

"Oh!" Martinez exclaimed. "The great Maia Watney laughs. Oh, how dearly I've missed the melodic sound of her pig calls."

Maia pulled herself along the hull of the ship with Beck, silently wishing Martinez was outside with them just so she could throw him and his smart mouth into the depths of space.

"You sure think you're funny, Martinez," Maia retorted.

"I don't think I'm funny, cute stuff—I know I'm funny," he retorted, much to Maia's dismay. She wished she could shut him of, but she needed him on comms in order to fix the transponders.

"I would much prefer you address her as Maia or Little Watney, Martinez," Beck replied to him, earning a laugh from Johanssen.

Maia couldn't help the smile that fell upon her face as the words flowed out of Chris's mouth. He sounded only slightly agitated with the nickname Martinez had referred to her as, and that only further confirmed what Johanssen had told her only days ago. She believed it to be cute, just as she thought he was.

When Maia was finally able to reach the box that held the two transponders, she pulled the latch open. Both were offline just as she had suspected them to be, though neither one of them looked to be broken. It was then that she knew the issue—their chips had run their cycle and needed to be changed. She knew this because she had been the one to change the chips during her first spacewalk several years ago.

"I've determined the issue," Maia spoke, breaking her three crew-mates out of their banter.

"What is it?" Beck asked her.

"The chips just need to be changed. I'm sure if NASA could communicate with us they would've informed us they needed changed," Maia answered breathlessly as she removed the chips from their holsters.

"Do you think you could go inside and get two transponder chips from Johanssen?" she then asked Beck.

He nodded and took the two chips from her hands. "Copy that. Are you going to be okay out here alone?"

"Yes," Maia smiled reassuringly. "Johanssen, Martinez, I need you two to turn the systems off and reboot when I give you the order to do so."

"Copy that, Little Watney," Martinez said.

"Shutting down now," Johanssen followed.

As Maia awaited Beck's return with the chips, she found herself gazing out into the beautiful vastness of space. The stars shone brightly, much brighter than they would if she were to be back on Earth staring into the sky. Maia truly did consider herself lucky to be among the few who were able to experience something as extravagant as space, but as she gazed out at the infinite amount of stars and planets in the distance, she couldn't help but think about her brother.

Normally, whenever she was called to fix a mechanical issue such as the one with the transponders, Mark was always the one to accompany her. He was a mechanical engineer just as she was, meaning that the two of them were the most qualified crew members for completing such tasks. She could recall numerous times in which she and Mark had been sent out to do external system checkups, and each time had proved to be much better than the last.

Working with Mark had been fun for Maia and it was something she still wished she was able to do. He made her time in space and on the Hermes worthwhile, and she doubted she would've been able to take on the mission without him by her side, though she was struggling tremendously without him. She needed him with her making stupid comments about every little thing she did; she needed him with her to correct her whenever she did something wrong. Maia hated not having her brother with her, and no matter how deep that hatred would remain buried, there wasn't a thing she could do about it except move on, no matter how desperately she wished not to.

"Maia," a voice called out to her, startling her out of her trance.

Maia jumped back, which proved to be one of the biggest mistakes she believed she'd ever made. She released the grip she had on the railing along the hull, which sent her floating away. Her attempts to latch back onto the ship were done to no avail, and this only scared her further.

"Chris!" Maia screamed as she floated further away.

The terrified look in Beck's blue eyes was enough to further frighten Maia.

"Maia, hold on!" he called to her, his voice trembling slightly.

Maia's breathing was quick, and she could feel her heart pounding inside her chest. This had never happened before, and she was blaming it solely on her stupidity in accepting this task. Had she not grown so distracted she wouldn't currently be in such a dangerous situation.

"What's going on?" Johanssen asked frantically through comms.

Maia wasn't even given the chance to answer her as she collided with something harder than a rock itself. The impact knocked the breath out of her and sent her body lurching forward. Her head slammed into the corner of her helmet, sending a sharp pain coursing through her small body. A thick, warm liquid began trickling down the side of her face, and though Maia appeared to be slightly out of it, she knew enough to know that it was her blood. Her head ached violently as she began to feel her consciousness slowly slipping away from her.

"Hold on, Maia. I've got you." Those were the last words Maia heard before finally succumbing to the darkness.