“Do it,” Lewis said.

“Aye, Commander,” Martinez said.

“Hold on,” Johanssen said. “That’ll get the intercept range to zero, but the intercept velocity will be forty-two meters per second.”

“Then we have thirty-nine minutes to figure out how to slow down,” Lewis said. “Martinez, burn the jets.”

“Aye,” Martinez said.

• • •

“WHOA,” ANNIE said to Venkat. “A lot of shit just happened really fast. Explain.”

Venkat strained to hear the audio feed over the murmur of the VIPs in the observation booth. Through the glass, he saw Mitch throw his hands up in frustration.

“The launch missed badly,” Venkat said, looking past Mitch to the screens beyond. “The intercept distance was going to be way too big. So they’re using the attitude adjusters to close the gap.”

“What do attitude adjusters usually do?”

“They rotate the ship. They’re not made for thrusting it. Hermes doesn’t have quick-reaction engines. Just the slow, steady ion engines.”

“So… problem solved?” Annie said hopefully.

“No,” Venkat said. “They’ll get to him, but they’ll be going forty-two meters per second when they get there.”

“How fast is that?” Annie asked.

“About ninety miles per hour,” Venkat said. “There’s no hope of Beck grabbing Watney at that speed.”

“Can they use the attitude adjusters to slow down?”

“They needed a lot of velocity to close the gap in time. They used all the fuel they could spare to get going fast enough. But now they don’t have enough fuel to slow down.” Venkat frowned.

“So what can they do?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “And even if I did, I couldn’t tell them in time.”

“Well fuck,” Annie said.

“Yeah,” Venkat agreed.

• • •

“WATNEY,” LEWIS said “Do you read?…Watney?” she repeated.

“Commander,” Beck radioed. “He’s wearing a surface EVA suit, right?”

“Yeah.”

“It should have a bio-monitor,” Beck said. “And it’ll be broadcasting. It’s not a strong signal; it’s only designed to go a couple hundred meters to the rover or Hab. But maybe we can pick it up.”

“Johanssen,” Lewis said.

“On it,” Johanssen said. “I have to look up the frequencies in the tech specs. Gimme a second.”

“Martinez,” Lewis continued. “Any idea how to slow down?”

He shook his head. “I got nothin’, Commander. We’re just going too damn fast.”

“Vogel?”

“The ion drive is simply not strong enough,” Vogel replied.

“There’s got to be something,” Lewis said. “Something we can do. Anything.”

“Got his bio-monitor data,” Johanssen said. “Pulse fifty-eight, blood pressure ninety-eight over sixty-one.”

“That’s not bad,” Beck said. “Lower than I’d like, but he’s been in Mars gravity for eighteen months, so it’s expected.”

“Time to intercept?” Lewis asked.

“Thirty-two minutes,” Johanssen replied.

• • •

BLISSFUL unconsciousness became foggy awareness which transitioned into painful reality. Watney opened his eyes, then winced at the pain in his chest.

Little remained of the canvas. Tatters floated along the edge of the hole it once covered. This granted Watney an unobstructed view of Mars from orbit. The red planet’s crater-pocked surface stretched out seemingly forever, its thin atmosphere a slight blur along the edge. Only eighteen people in history had personally seen this view.