Dead on Mars

Mai Dong felt that she was on the brink of death.

In the past ten hours, she had forced herself to sleep six times. This was the seventh time her hunger had woken her up. Over the past two days, Mai Dong had only eaten two sandwiches, three compressed biscuits, and had two cups of water. All of that was enough for an adult’s lunch, but Mai Dong had no choice but to split it into six portions.

She had finished her final piece of compressed biscuit six hours ago.

Mai Dong searched all the modules in the United Space Station, opened every cabinet, and bit down on anything that she suspected to be edible. She was after all a lady from Guangzhou, Guangdong—famed for its inhabitants to eat anything and everything. But even if she was from Guangdong, she would still starve to death from the lack of food on the United Space Station.

The girl curled herself into a sleeping bag, looking at the module walls above her with her eyes wide open. Her face was pale, and she was as weak as a reed.

Mai Dong’s sleeping quarters were a cramped compartment. The space wasn’t much bigger than a bathroom. The sleeping bag was tied to the module wall with nylon bands, and the entrance to the compartment only had a curtain pulled across for a door.

The United Space Station was constantly filled with a pounding noise as if a construction site was just opposite. Mai Dong wasn’t able to shield herself from the noise, even with earplugs. All she could do was tie Styrofoam material securely around her sleeping quarters before stuffing her head into the sleeping bag.

Mai Dong attempted to close her eyes. Moments later, she opened her eyes again.

She just couldn’t fall asleep.

She was just too hungry.

Never had Mai Dong ever felt so close to death. She stared blankly at the opposite module wall’s rope and post-its, as though she could see her end. If nothing unexpected happened, she would silently die alone. She would slowly turn to dust and bone in a corner, unreachable by anyone.

This gave her a suffocating sense of despair. She felt as though she was trapped inside a cage that was being dunked into deep water. In space, no one can hear you scream.

A tiny Shiba Inu doll entered the girl’s vision as Mai Dong reached her hand out and grabbed the toy.

She squeezed the dog with the conniving expression, kneading it again and again as she silently laughed.

“If only you were a real puppy…”

Mai Dong whispered.

“That way, I could eat you.”

Blinding sunlight seeped in from the curtains. Mai Dong knew that the sun had risen again when the white beam of light, shining on the dark inner lining of the living module, moved.

The United Space Station didn’t actually have any night or day. The space station’s orbit period was eighty minutes. This meant that it took less than one and a half hours to circle Mars once, allowing a person in the station to see the sunset and sunrise once. In Earth’s twenty-four hours, the United Space Station would have seen the sunset and sunrise sixteen times.

Therefore, Mai Dong’s sleeping followed a temporal plan. She set an alarm for herself to sleep at fixed intervals, waking up to work when the alarm rang… But, Mai Dong didn’t have much work to do. She was a botanist by profession. In the space station, she had a tiny experiment module for her to plant potatoes, tomatoes, and lettuce. Her research was on the growth of edible plants in microgravity.

Mai Dong crawled out of her sleeping bag, gently pushing the cabin’s wall before floating backward out of the sleeping quarters. Then, she passed through hatches after hatches of cabins, as though she was passing through a tunnel.

The United Space Station was clearly a claustrophobic place, but Mai Dong still found it spacious alone.

Mai Dong had a fixed route. She would first head for the experiment module to check on the seeds she had grown in the vessels after waking up. Then, she would make a trip through all the facilities in the space station to check their functionality.

The United Space Station was similar to the International Space Station which orbited around Earth. It was a modular structure. The biggest part of the solar panels was a 150-meter-long metallic frame. All cabins and solar panels were attached to this frame. There were a total of seven main modules. Mai Dong would make a trip through these utility modules to ensure that nothing was wrong with them.

These modules had varying functions. They carried all kinds of precision scientific equipment. But they were all shut down. Mai Dong alone had no use for a magnetic spectrometer or X-ray analysis machine. All the power-hungry equipment had been shut down to reduce power expenditure.

After circling the entire space station once, Mai Dong would return to the core module and attempt to contact Kunlun Station.

During the period she lost communications with Kunlun Station, Mai Dong really lost her nerve. She would cry out for Tang Yue at every fixed interval, to the point of forgetting to get herself some food to eat.

Mai Dong looked at the time. It was 03:16, 16 August 2052 A.D. based on Earth’s calendar.

Today was the day of the Eagle’s launch.

The girl rolled inside the core module, floating in it as she slowly spun around. There were instruments and knobs all around her. The core module, the Crystal module, was the only module that maintained all its functionality. This was because the space station’s mainframe was here, along with the communications system.

Through the window, Mai Dong saw the magnificent surface of Mars. The huge orange-red planet nearly filled the entirety of her vision. The slightly curved equatorial line split the Universe into two. One was a pitch-black night sky, and the other was brownish-yellow land. The sun was gradually rising, illuminating the thin Martian atmosphere like a resplendent diamond bangle.

“Kunlun Station, this is United Space Station. I say again for the 460th time, please answer if you copy… Mr. Tang Yue, Mr. Cat, please answer if you copy…”

There was no response from the channel. From the looks of it, the sandstorm hadn’t weakened.

In the communications a few hours ago, Tomcat had informed her that Kunlun Station had been hit by a sandstorm. The inclement weather had disrupted communications, and they were hard at work to resolve the matter. Also, it had consoled her by saying that the Eagle was prepared. They could launch at any time, and she was told to wait at ease for the resupply.

She had no idea of the resolution.

Mai Dong placed her chin on her knees as her short, black hair gently fluttered in zero gravity. All sorts of tiny items floated around her.

“Kunlun Station, this is United Space Station. I say again for the 461st time, please answer if you copy… Mr. Tang Yue, Mr. Cat, please answer if you copy…”

“Kunlun Station, this is United Space Station. I say again for the 462nd time…”

Mai Dong repeated again and again into a machine. United Space Station was like a tiny broadcasting station on a deserted island that was surrounded by an endless, uninhabited sea. However, it kept emitting a message, hoping that someone would receive the radio transmissions.

Just the thought of it made her feel alone.

This was probably the last broadcasting station in the Universe. Mai Dong believed that if the resupply plan failed, she would set the radio communications of the United Space Station to its maximum efficiency. After she was dead, she would broadcast Joe Hisaishi’s piano piece, Summer, to the entire Universe.

It was her favorite piece.

It was unknown how long the United Space Station would remain in orbit. As long as it was still in orbit, it would keep broadcasting the piece, making this warm and cheerful tune become the background music for Mars, or even the entire Universe.

On Mars, if Mr. Tang Yue and Mr. Cat were to turn on their radio receiver, they might hear this music from space. Perhaps, it might spice up their lives.

How nice.

Mai Dong laughed.