Dead on Mars

According to Tomcat, to survive the intense quake that would envelop the northern hemisphere of Mars, Tang Yue needed to dismantle Kunlun Station and break it down to its elements to roll with the punches. Once the quake was over, they could rebuild Kunlun Station.

Tang Yue had never attempted to dismantle Kunlun Station before. This massive tent was indeed modular in design, the designers had racked their brains to reduce Kunlun Station’s weight and reduce the complexity involved. Otherwise, the astronauts from the seventh landing mission wouldn’t have been able to set it up with their hands alone.

However, the engineers on Earth had probably never considered the problem of dismantling.

Kunlun Station was going to be a permanent base that would sit there from the day it was built until the day it was abandoned. No one had expected to dismantle it.

Tang Yue donned the Radiant Armor and headed out to circle around Kunlun Station. The Hab’s perimeter exceeded fifty meters and had vertical walls that were more than two meters tall. Printed on the hull were huge blue words: Kunlun Station. Further up was a dome that resembled an inverted wok. It was mostly made from glass fiber reinforced PEEK composite. It felt smooth and firm to the touch, and according to the maintenance manual, the hull’s tensile strength was four to six times that of steel. However, its mass was only a tenth of the latter.

The hull was the main structure of Kunlun Station. It was very thin, only a few millimeters thick. Yet, it was mostly thanks to this paperlike hull that Tang Yue could survive. The hull guaranteed Kunlun Station’s airtightness and shielded most radiation. It isolated the harsh Martian environment outside, propping up the scientific research station with the aluminum alloy frame underneath its skin.

The hull’s inner lining was made of thermal insulation and airtight foam. If any dismantling was necessary, everything needed to be dismantled, leaving nothing untouched.

“The batteries, OGS cabinet, and the water tank. These are the worst of all.” Tang Yue stood far away in the desert with a starry sky over his head. The sky had already darkened after simulating an entire day. Time flew quickly with each failure. “How do we ensure that nothing bad happens to them?”

Tomcat sat in its chair. “The batteries and OGS cabinet are relatively simple. After cutting the power, we will wrap them up and place them inside the garage… As for the water tank, it’s best we dismantle it ahead of time and freeze it by placing it outside. Once it’s frozen into a block of ice, we don’t have to worry about it leaking.

“The water tank won’t crack, right?”

“The water tank has plenty of excess space inside. It will be fine,” Tomcat said. “In the past, Kunlun Station would be shut down in between missions, so the excess water in the tank would remain in a frozen state.

“Then the tomatoes I’ve grown probably won’t live.”

“I’m very sorry,” Tomcat said. “We’ll have difficulty surviving ourselves, so there’s no way we can find a way of protecting them. Plants are just too fragile. Once they leave the protection of Kunlun Station, they will die. You can only give them have a meaningful death.

“Cut them up and let them rot to become fertilizer. Let them provide nutrients for newborn seeds. I believe they will agree to it.”

“There’s no world for the old,” Tomcat said. “Have you heard of the Japanese legend, Obasuteyama?”

“What’s that?”

“Legend has it that in a mountain village in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture that due to poverty, it cannot support that many people. Aged villagers will be taken to the mountainside after their seventieth birthday and abandoned,” Tomcat explained. “Elderly women would be carried up the mountain by their children on a cold winter day, then left to die. That’s also why the mountain is called Obasuteyama, literally ‘the mountain for abandoning grandmother.’”

“For real?” Tang Yue was alarmed. He imagined that such an act in China which extolled the need for filial piety would be universally condemned.

“In situations when resources for survival are limited, systematically abandoning the old and weak is a necessary measure that a group has to take,” Tomcat said. “Think about it. In the legend of Obasuteyama, most of the people are aged. They might volunteer to head up the mountain, leaving the resources they took up for newborn children. And when the children grow old, they too will volunteer to head up the mountain to open up a spot for the next generation.”

Tang Yue fell silent for a few seconds.

“What a tragic story.”

He didn’t know if this was an extreme cold or extreme warming act, whether it was an act of extreme rationality or extreme emotion.

“After this batch of tomatoes dies, the next batch of tomatoes will be born,” Tomcat said softly. “Every life is precious; only life can bring about life.”

Tang Yue slumped down on the ground, looking at the dark, distant desert. The resplendent Milky Way was rising above a sand dune, spanning across the entire horizon. The ancients called it a road of milk, but Tang Yue felt that it was more like an irregular rift in the pitch-black sky. It was like a bottomless abyss where countless stardust fell.

It was very difficult to see such a starry sky on Earth. This made Tang Yue recall bonfire night back in Lop Nur. He and Old Wang had burned dried desert poplar and camelthorn and huddled around it for warmth. Based on Tomcat’s explanation, the night sky on Mars was very similar to Earth, but there were minute differences. For example, Mars’s celestial sphere didn’t have Polaris forever hanging north.

Tang Yue glanced at the temperature reading. It was –20°C.

Tomcat had opened the airlock’s hatch and walked out as well. In the cold, thin air, it shook its fur.

It walked to Tang Yue’s side and lay down on the sand, resting on its paw and crossing its hind leg.

“Is the test done?” Tang Yue asked.

“The eighteenth simulation. I succeeded in getting Orion II to descend to 3,700 meters.” Tomcat glanced into the sky. “Unfortunately, the workstation went on strike. I’m restarting it.”

“Success is at hand?”

“Almost.” Tomcat leisurely shook its hind leg. “I’ve combed Orion’s control program again and fixed 873 bugs. We will let it land successfully during tomorrow’s simulation.”

“How much confidence do you have?”

Tomcat gestured at the Milky Way.

“Then, let’s wish us luck.” Tang Yue raised his fist.

“May we have good luck.” Tomcat fist-bumped him.

Tang Yue lay down as well, leaning against Tomcat, using his arm to prop up his head. He subconsciously tried to search for where Earth once was, but it was still a deep, empty space.

“Do you know what that star is?” Tomcat raised a claw into the night sky.

“I’ve no idea.”

“You have probably been told before.”

“I’ve forgotten.” Tang Yue was thick-skinned. “I might have, but you need to know how long it has been. I’ve long forgotten everything.”

“That’s Ursa Minor, or the Little Bear constellation. That dipper-like star is Alpha Ursae Minoris. It’s more commonly known on Earth as Polaris.” Tomcat pointed into the sky and said their names one after another. “The constellations on Earth can also be seen on Mars. This big cross is Cygnus. The very bright star is Deneb, and next to it is the Cephus constellation. There’s also Aquarius…”

Mars didn’t have any light pollution or bright moons. Even the atmosphere was very thin, so on a clear night, the stars appeared extremely bright. Tang Yue could see more than three thousand stars simply with his naked eye. It felt as though the gods had poured diamonds onto velvet that emitted dazzling glimmers.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Tomcat asked.

“This world is beautiful,” Tang Yue said, “but it’s also very cold and harsh.”