EXT. MARS - SPACE

Sol 128

INT. HAB - DAY

Mark removed water from the water reclaimer and went down the rows of plants, watering one by one.

Mark said, "Now that NASA can talk to me, they won't shut up..."

INT. HAB - DAY

Mark spoke to the camera. "They've got a room full of people trying to micromanage my crops. Which is awesome. Look, I don't mean to sound arrogant here, but I'm the best botanist on the planet. So." Mark adjusted the camera to show more of the lab. Lush greenery of the potato plants was everywhere. "To clarify, I always love hearing from Esme. In other news, there's been a request for me to pose for a picture on the next transmission. I'm debating between "High School Senior..."" Mark leaned one elbow against an imaginary pillar and hooked his other thumb on his imaginary belt loops. "And "Coquettish Ingenue..."" Mark turned his back to camera, looked over his shoulder and bit on his thumb suggestively. "But I'm not sure how that will translate with the spacesuit on. One big bonus of this NASA communication: Email! Just like the days on the Hermes, I get data dumps. Not just friends and family, but NASA also sends choice messages from the public. Rock stars, athletes, even The President. The coolest one is from my alma mater, the University of Chicago. They say once you grow crops somewhere, you have officially "colonized" it. So, technically, I colonized Mars. In your face, Neil Armstrong."

EXT. HAB - DAY

Mark stood outside in their suits. He positioned himself in front of the camera and held up a notecard before posing.

---

Annie tossed a photo on the conference room table:

Mark, in his spacesuit, gave the camera a big thumbs-up. He held up a note that said, "Ayyyyyyy!" In small print was another sentence: "I love and miss you, baby."

"I ask for a picture and I get the goddamn Fonz and insulting?" Annie said.

Esme smiled and laughed. "Mark is making the best of his situation. When you're finished, can I keep this?"

Annie nodded. "We can print a copy for you."

"Thank you."

Vincent and Bruce were both on monitors from JPL and the former said, "Just be grateful you got something, Annie."

"It's not gonna work. I need something
with less-Happy-Days and more... Mark's face."

"I could tell him to take his helmets off, but then he'd , you know, die. Esme wouldn't like that."

"Let's release the photo when we detail
the rescue operation," Teddy said. "I want to announce we're launching some supplies to him next year during the Hohmann Transfer window."

"I'm on a plane to you this afternoon.
We'll have the release ready."

"Good, but Annie will handle camera
appearances." Vincent gave a look that said 'Et tu, Teddy?' "Bruce, is your team still on schedule?"

INT. NASA - CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY

"It'll be tight," Bruce warned. "But we'll make it."

"Nine-month travel time, that puts the
probe to Mars on Sol 868. Did we get the Botany Team's analysis?"

"They estimate Mark's crops will last him until Sol 912," Vincent answered. "They grudgingly admit Mark is doing great work."

"Grudgingly?" Mitch repeated.

"Mark has a tendency to tell them to have sex with themselves whenever they question one of his decisions."

"Get him in line, Vincent," Teddy ordered. "We can't afford any miscommunication. I hate this margin. 912 sols worth of food. We get there on 868. And that's assuming nothing goes wrong..."

EXT/ INT. HAB AIRLOCK - DUSK

Mark finished putting on his spacesuit. He snapped his helmet into place and grabbed his toolkit. Mark stepped into the airlock. He closed the door behind him.

As the depressurization process began, the canvas started to stretch and the sheet ripped.

The Hab breached. In one-tenth of a second, the tear traveled the length of the airlock.

The full force of the Hab's atmosphere rushed through the breach.

The airlock, with Mark in it, was launched like a cannonball. It flew forty meters through the air.

INT. HAB - DUSK

The crops inside the Hab were destroyed in the depressurization.

INT/EXT. AIRLOCK - DUSK

The airlock hit the hillside, Mark's body slammed into the wall, his faceplate shattered and the airlock flipped and tumbled down the hill. Mark was tossed around inside like a ragdoll in a washing machine.

The airlock rolled another fifteen meters before coming to a stop.

INT. AIRLOCK - DUSK

Panicked breaths sounded and ears rang.

Mark struggled to stay conscious. His head were bleeding.

He saw the collapsed Hab and the debris of ruined equipment scattering the field.

Mark wiped the blood from his brow and rolled to his knees. He struggled out of his suit. He checked his wound.

The sound of hissing air caught his attention and he realized the airlock was leaking.

Mark's heart started to pound. He searched frantically for the leak, checking every seam, every inch of fabric.

Mark checked his arm computer. Oxygen flow was steady. While it would keep him alive for the time being, he still had to find the leak.

He did an inventory. He had his toolkit. He had the patch kit from his suit.

He pulled the knife out of the toolkit and cut his own hair. He hacked a chunk clean out of it. He held the loose hair tight. Then he went back to the arm computer and boosted his oxygen flow. He yanked the wires from the power generator free and stripped the casing.

He held the wires in the oxygen flow and rubbed them together to create a spark. He lit the hair on fire, creating the key to his plan. Soon there was smoke.

Mark held his breath. He watched as the smoke wisped and curled toward the floor, heading right through the microscopic tear in the fabric.

Mark grinned. He went back to the toolkit and found duct tape.

Mark tore two pieces free. He placed the squares over the area in his suit and the hissing stopped.

Mark cut off one of the arms from his EVA suit. He opened the patchkit and worked fast to where the faceplate used to be. He glued the arm-hole shut.

Mark slammed his back into the airlock wall, hitting it with enough force so that the airlock rolled.

It was clumsy -- like rolling a phone booth from inside -- but it worked. The airlock rolled a little less than a meter.

Mark took a breath and girded himself to do it again.

INT/EXT. AIRLOCK/HAB - NIGHT

The airlock had traveled the fifty meters so that it was now close to the Hab.

Mark exited the airlock. He was wearing the patched-up suit, meaning his faceplate was completely covered with fabric, and they only had one arm free.

He pointed the free arm in front of him and began to walk.

Inside his suit, Mark was using the camera in his arm computer to navigate. The camera projected an image onto the inside of the faceplate which was unfortunately fabric.

Mark urried through the rip in the airlock. He stumbled through the deflated Hab, past the mess of debris, heading for the bunk. He found what he was looking for. Martinez' suit.

INT. HAB - NIGHT

Mark stood in the center of the Hab. It was a mess. Equipment was overturned and debris was everywhere.

The worst damage was the crops that Mark had worked so hard to plant and care for were ruined.

Mark stared at the disaster of frozen soil and uprooted plants. All his work, his lifeline, was destroyed. He stared at the mess for a long time.

Then he began to clean it up, thinking of how much he wished to get back to his wife. She was the one that kept him going, and she always would be the one.