The Doctors (Chris Beck)(EDITING/ON HOLD)

Chapter 3

"How does she look?" Thomas asks me as we walk onto the track, the rest of the crew following behind me. I push my Aviators to cover my eyes as I admired the machine in front of me.

"Like a dream," I smile. "And Gomez?"

"Connected and at your disposal, Dr. Moran," the AI's voice can be heard in the car.

"Lovely." Satisfied, I turn to face my crew. "You know, shotgun is always open. Beck, you in?"

"Oh hell yes," he says, walking up to my side.

We pull open the doors of the Mustang, and get into our seats, strapping ourselves in. Thomas and the crew have since reentered the building, and Thomas' voice comes through the speakers.

"Alright Katherine, let's go through pre-test checks. Pilot?"

"Go," I respond.

"Primary system?"

"Go," Gomez speaks up.

"Passenger?"

Beck grins, before saying, "Go."

"Whenever you're ready, Katherine."

"Gomez, get me something with a beat." As a heavy bass comes through the speakers, I turn to Beck. "Hold on. I'm putting this piece of art's speed to 190."

And with that, we were off.

_____________________________________________

A week later, and the crew has now decided that the place to be during lunch breaks is my office. We've grown closer over the past week, as we spend so much time together in pre-training meetings with the mission organizers. I won't turn down the company, as I used to use my lonely lunch hour to get ahead on work.

"Okay, everyone," Lewis says, looking at her phone as it aggressively buzzes. "I just got a text from Montrose with Public Relations, and she says the press conference is in 15 minutes, and if we're not there, she will, quote, 'Hunt us down like wild animals'."

"Now I can't decide if I'm excited for this or not," Watney speaks up.

"Montrose says we have to be in the main conference room in less than five," Lewis replies. We gather our stuff together, and head out to the elevators, leaving Maria and Christian to watch over the lab with Gomez.

We all climb into the elevator, and head up to the conference rooms' floor, taking a few moments to straighten our appearances in the reflective surface of the lift. PR is good with keeping us up to date with all of our public appearances, but if we are even 30 seconds late to one, they'll have our heads.

Lewis moves in front of the elevator door to lead us once the doors open. They part, and we can hear the flashes of cameras and the introduction sentences from various reporters talking to their stations. We walk down the hall to the main conference room, where Annie Montrose stands, furiously typing away on her smartphone.

"Finally! Alright then, the press is waiting, and we can't keep them that way," the small blonde says quickly, looking up from her tiny screen to see us. "There will be microphones out there. We'll go Lewis, Martinez, Johanssen, Moran, Beck, and Watney. Remember, this is not a press conference about your work; it's all about who you are as human beings and why you were chosen. Smile, stay positive, and don't do anything extremely idiotic."

We are immediately chauffeured into the conference room, and the flashes of cameras are buzzing in my ears, causing Beck to match my pace and rest his hand on my lower back after he notices my miniscule wince at all of the commotion. We walk to the seats behind our respective name tags. Beck pulls out my chair for me, and I look down, blushing and murmuring a "thank you", as I sit. He sits next to me, and gives me a smile. Nice to see that chivalry isn't completely dead.