Dead on Mars

“Mr. Cat? Mr. Cat! Mr. Cat! Mr. Cat, is that you? I copy! I copy!” Mai Dong’s voice was suddenly infused with immense surprise as though she had a straw to clutch at. “Mr. Cat, are you both okay? Where’s Mr. Tang Yue?”

“Kunlun Station is completely operational,” Tomcat replied. “Tang Yue is also fine.”

“You guys gave me a fright… I was really frightened to death. You guys suddenly lost communications and there wasn’t any response no matter how much I radioed. What exactly happened?”

“Sandstorm,” Tomcat said. “The weather interfered with the communications, but thankfully, it didn’t cause any damage. We have resolved the problem now.”

Mai Dong heaved a sigh of relief.

“Miss Mai Dong, how’s your situation over there?” Tomcat asked. “How many resources do you have left? How many days can they last?”

“The final compressed biscuits were finished by me fifteen minutes ago. I wanted to keep them for tomorrow, but… I’m just too hungry. I couldn’t even sleep thanks to the hunger. There’s nothing that can be eaten on the space station now,” the girl said softly as though she had done something wrong. “I… I attempted to chew on the thermal inner lining of the habitation module… but I realized that I couldn’t bite through it…”

Mai Dong’s voice grew softer as Tomcat was left at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

It turned out that this lady was a glutton, and her hunger had caused her to try to eat the space station.

Tang Yue leaned against the airlock’s hatch while sitting on the ground. He had adjusted the Radiant Armor’s headlamps to their brightest but was still only capable of illuminating a meter ahead of him. Tang Yue felt as if he was located under the dark sea. On Earth, the only environment with any similarity was the deep sea. As long as the depths reached two hundred meters, all light would be absorbed by the seawater, making the depths completely dark.

Tang Yue imagined that if a diver on Earth was to sit at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, with more than a thousand meters of pitch-black seawater above him, that situation would resemble his… They were in equal danger and darkness, alone and helpless.

But how could a person sit at the bottom of the sea at such depths? Humanity had the ability to reach Mars, but no one was capable of diving to the bottom of the sea at such depths. Billions of tonnes of seawater were enough to flatten any creature… except for SpongeBob SquarePants.

Tang Yue was taken aback.

He imagined that if SpongeBob were to sit at the bottom of the sea and looked up alone, would he be waiting for someone?

“Tang Yue!” Tomcat shouted through the earpiece. “Adjust the antenna. Move the antenna slightly east!”

Tang Yue did his best to get up. He truly led a belabored life, and any recount of it only brought tears. Tomcat sat inside Kunlun Station chatting with a lady while he had to don the Radiant Armor to suffer the winds outside. As he battled the winds, he imagined SpongeBob SquarePants. He recalled how it was when he watched television back in his hometown, and how the one staying inside the house to stare at the television was always someone else, while he was always the one outside rotating the bamboo.

The antenna was by his feet, and the green indicator light was blinking rhythmically. Tang Yue gently rotated the tripod as he adjusted the direction of the antenna minutely.

“How’s this? Is it clear?”

“Move about two degrees east… Wait, turn it back slightly. Do it slower. You’ve moved past it!”

“Talk is cheap! Try making such micro-adjustments in a sandstorm with wind speeds of thirty to forty meters per second!” Tang Yue retorted without standing on ceremony. “It’s not easy to hold this firm! I’m hauling ass keeping this firm!”

“1.5 degrees! Adjust the circumferential angle by 1.5 degrees…” As the instructor, Tomcat obviously didn’t bother with Tang Yue’s gripes. Its only goal was to maintain smooth communication and make requests only based on this aspect. It didn’t matter if the wind speeds were at thirty to forty meters per second, one millimeter meant one millimeter even if the wind speeds were three to four hundred meters per second.

“What the heck is 1.5 degrees?” Tang Yue nearly went mad. Tomcat wasn’t even speaking anything human.

“1.5 degrees is one and a half degrees. Half a degree is thirty arc minutes!”

“I know it’s thirty arc minutes! But I have to tell you that my hand isn’t an angular measuring device! I’m unable to do such precise movements!” Tang Yue yelled.

“Then how precise can you be?”

“I can only be precise at the level of ‘approximately,’ ‘roughly,’ and “seemingly,’” Tang Yue replied.

“Then move the antenna east approximately, roughly and seemingly at an angle of 32 arc minutes and 15 arc seconds!”

“…”

The United Space Station’s near-Mars orbit had a speed of 3.5 km/s. Its location was constantly changing, so the antenna needed to keep changing directions. Tang Yue was a manual motor and orientation device. After some time, he needed to adjust the direction of the antenna to prevent any disruption or weakening of the signal due to the sandstorm.

As Tomcat was informing Mai Dong of the things to take note of for the launch tomorrow, it had to make use of every moment. The communications were only being barely maintained and weren’t stable. There was no telling when they could be cut off.

“Listen up, Miss Mai Dong. Towards the end, when the Eagle is docking with the United Space Station, which also means the final one hundred meter approach, the Eagle and United Space Station’s docking mechanism will begin evaluating the precise positioning and relative orientations. This process is entirely automatic, but it’s important. This is because it determines if the docking succeeds or not. The space station will use a Circle Fitting Method to carry out the precise positioning…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

“The intersection of the CRDS (Cavity ring-down spectroscopy) will capture the target vehicle’s traits. There’s a target marker on the Eagle, and this marker has six LED lights. When the Eagle approaches the space station, they will automatically light up. However, you have to take note that the marker that autonomously emits light as it is easily affected and disrupted by ambient lighting, especially by strong sunlight. You have to ensure that it doesn’t get hit by direct sunlight.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

“The Eagle’s docking interface is on the back of the space station. It’s an Androgynous Peripheral Attach System mechanism, which means to say that the Eagle’s docking mechanism is the same as the space station’s. However, one points outward while the other is inward. The docking mechanism uses an anti-rotation design. Only after the computer sends a lock-on command, will the docking mechanism lock tightly. After the docking succeeds, you have to ensure that the seal is tight and there are no air leaks…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

“During the docking process, there will be remote and proximity guidance before the approach, rendezvous, and docking. The entire sequence will be automatically completed by the space station. Originally, the remote guidance should have been provided by us from the surface, but the weather makes it impossible. The microwave radar on the space station is meant for the proximity guidance, but you will have to let it do the guiding for the entire process…”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

Tomcat spoke very quickly, telling Mai Dong everything it thought of.

“During the docking process, make sure the Eagle and the space station bidirectional link are unobstructed.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

“When the Eagle receives the feedback signal from the space station, it will activate its rocket engines according to the distance. It will gradually decelerate, and its final docking speed won’t exceed 5 m/s.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.”

Tomcat fell silent for a few seconds. “Miss Mai Dong, you kept saying ‘yeah’ the entire time. Do you understand what I’ve been saying?”

The girl wore a look of innocence and blankness.

“I didn’t understand a thing.”

Tomcat held its forehead.

“Then why did you keep ‘yeah’-ing?”

“I… I can’t just keep silent, right?”

Tomcat grunted softly as it held its chest, feeling as though it had suffered an internal blow as its motors seem to suffer a cardiac arrest.