Dead on Mars

“Get up—! Get up—! Stay in bed any longer, and the sun will be burning your arse! Stay in bed any longer, and Zhang Fei ¹ will be setting your house on fire!” A sharp voice broke the silence as it resounded across the Hab in a jarring manner.

“F*ck, didn’t I tell you to switch off that ridiculous alarm clock? Why is it switched on again? Tomcat! Did you hear me? Switch off that brain dead clock!” Tang Yue buried his head as he flailed his extended hand. “Tomcat! Tom…”

Tang Yue paused.

He crawled out of his blanket as he sat up. The air was biting cold as it seeped through his thin clothes like a winter morning in a southern city. The noisy alarm clock was still blaring away, urging him to wake up as though Zhang Fei was holding a torch outside the station, prepared to burn it down if Tang Yue didn’t get out of bed.

It was a mystery who had set such an alarm. None of what it said was normal. It revolved around “stay in bed any longer, and Zhang Fei will be setting your house on fire,” “stay in bed any longer, and Guan Yu ¹ will slay you while drinking alcohol ² ,” or “stay in bed any longer, and Liu Bei will come seek shelter under you ³ .” The most ordinary one was “stay in bed any longer, and you won’t be in time for the 50% discount on onions at the market.” It made Tang Yue seem like a housewife that had to make every second count just to save a few cents.

Tang Yue grumbled as he put his clothes on, wrapped himself in a thick blanket, and rushed into the Hab on tiptoes to switch off the alarm clock.

Kunlun Station instantly fell silent.

He turned his head to glance at the communication system. The stream only showed the space station’s wall—Mai Dong wasn’t there. He didn’t know if she was still in bed or if she was working. Tang Yue got a compressed biscuit from the cabinet and saw that its flavor was red-braised beef.

Tang Yue shook his head, threw the biscuit back, and took out a new packet. He was sick of red-braised beef-flavored compressed biscuits. Although it said it was beef-flavored, it tasted more like brick powder.

The new packet had pickled vegetable flavoring.

Tang Yue used a measuring cylinder to draw 500 milliliters of water. This was meant for drinking since Tang Yue had long stopped brushing his teeth daily. The main reason was that he had finished the toothpaste, and his toothbrush was pretty much unusable. Now, Tang Yue would just use his index finger to rub against his teeth. Even though the effect wasn’t as good as a toothbrush, it was better than nothing.

Legend had it that the ancients used salt to clean their teeth back when there wasn’t toothpaste, but Tang Yue found it an extravagance. He didn’t have that much salt to begin with.

Tang Yue took a bite of the biscuit and drank a mouthful of water. Indeed, the pickled vegetable flavoring tasted better than the beef flavoring. There was a faint taste of Earth.

What does Earth taste like?

Have you fallen down to the ground and end up eating a mouthful of dirt?

“Pui!” Tang Yue frowned as he looked at the blood he had just spat out. It was no wonder he tasted something raw. His gums were bleeding.

Tang Yue bared his teeth as he looked into a mirror. The bleeding was worse than before. The bright red blood was mixed with his spit, and his entire mouth was filled with blood. Yet, Tang Yue didn’t dare to spit it out, afraid that he would be wasting water and food. All he could do was swallow it.

The result of a serious vitamin deficiency presented itself. The symptoms of scurvy were becoming more apparent. This disease that plagued sailors who were out at sea for extended periods of time was enveloping Tang Yue. The spots that were a result of internal bleeding were increasing in number, and it was getting more common for his gums to bleed. In time to come, his teeth would begin to loosen, and his body would lose its strength as his muscles ached. It might even develop into pseudoparalysis.

In this godforsaken place, once he was paralyzed, it was a fate worse than death.

Tang Yue silently looked at the half biscuit in his hand.

There were still remnants of his saliva and blood on it, and the sight of it was alarming.

Tang Yue sat on a chair, first looking at the OGS and then the fertilizer on the ground. Finally, he looked at the empty water trough on the rack. These things combined together could save his life, but Mai Dong had mentioned before that tomatoes needed a warm environment of at least 20°C to germinate; otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to live even if they were planted.

The RTG was unable to provide that high a temperature, so all his hope could only be placed on the temperature control chip.

Without Tomcat returning, he wouldn’t have the chip.

Tang Yue knew his days were numbered, but he didn’t know how long he had. Yet, he needed to try to live alone on this barren planet and get used to a Kunlun Station without Tomcat.

Thankfully, it didn’t seem like there were many such days left.

Tang Yue threw the remaining biscuit into his mouth, munched at it and downed all the water in the cup. With the EVA suit’s life support system and oxygen tank fully charged and pumped, he took down the Radiant Armor from the wall.

A brand new day had begun, and he needed to continue with his daily chores.

On Mars, Tang Yue’s daily chores were rather monotonous. It involved inspecting Kunlun Station and the Mars Wanderer and putting out the solar panels. Now, there was another task—finding Tomcat. With 100,000 photos, that was enough to keep him occupied for three months. Tang Yue didn’t dare to imagine working as he had before, without eating, drinking, resting, or sleeping. Tang Yue’s physical condition wasn’t good to begin with, so if he were to collapse due to over-exhaustion, that would be the end.

He planned on continuing the search, believing it was his responsibility. As Tomcat’s friend and colleague, he needed to find the cat’s location.

Before that, he still needed to move the solar panels.

No matter if Tomcat was around or not, those were the jobs that needed his attention. Tang Yue would repeat the same routine of eating, sleeping, checking Kunlun Station, again and again until he met his end.

If he didn’t do it, he would immediately reach the end of his life.

The sky was still dark like velvet. The constellations that filled the sky remained hanging high above as the sun hadn’t risen. If Tang Yue was fast, he might even be able to see the sunrise.

The star that emitted blinding light had risen on this planet more than a billion times, but the number of times it had been witnessed by humans was unknown. Tang Yue felt that the sunrise on Mars was really dull. It was the same color every morning. If only the colors were different across the week… Red for Mondays, orange for Tuesdays, yellow for Wednesdays, Green for Thursdays, blue for Fridays, indigo for Saturdays, violet for Sundays. Just thinking of a green sun rising from the horizon was enough to forgive ¹ the whole Universe.

The man bent his back and crawled into the Radiant Armor. He extended his limbs into the EVA suit, wriggled his fingers and pushed up the light-filtering visor on the helmet. Then, he took a step back to connect the life support system.

“I think I’ll be lonely forever. This lonely all my life.” As Tang Yue gently hummed Rene Liu’s old song, “Lonely Forever,” he bent down to pick up his tool box. In terms of music appreciation, Tang Yue and the rest of the expedition team shared similar tastes. They all preferred retro songs and were fervent fans of Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Chinese singers from decades ago. These days, the Chinese billboard was filled with songs that had foreign influences. They were filled with incitement rhythms and electronic music. They were unlike the sweet melodies of the early 21st century.

Of course, there was conflict among the retro gang. Those who preferred absolute music and those who preferred pop music viewed each other as heathens. The absolute music gang called those who followed pop music as following a ‘greasy pig trend,’ a pun name for being non-mainstream, while the pop music gang called the absolute music gang’s music as mindless humming. Even though they were out of fashion for decades, Old Zheng always viewed such coexistence with contempt. Daily, he listened to Zhao Benshan’s “Our People ¹ .”

Tang Yue opened the hatch to the airlock and looked back into the empty Kunlun Station as he bade farewell. “I’ll be heading out. Bye!”

Tang Yue stepped into the airlock, and with a click, closed the hatch behind him. He then began humming his song.

“I think I’ll be lonely forever, lonely like this my entire life. The bluer the sky becomes, the more afraid I am to turn my head up to see it…”