Dead on Mars

Half an hour later.

Mai Dong was out on her second EVA trip. The mission involved removing the sensor’s control conducting wire.

It was a very complicated procedure. First Mai Dong needed to remove two conducting wires—B3074 and B3075—that were in the way. After that, she had to remove the cause of the break in the circuit, the C1002 wire that was deep inside. This was a surgical procedure that needed her to use a screwdriver, scissors, and tweezers. However, Mai Dong wore such heavy equipment that her gloved fingers were as thick as sausages.

“B3074 has been removed.” Mai Dong reported. She felt like a bomb specialist, facing a bunch of red, blue and green wires inside a bomb as she held scissors, unsure which wire to cut first.

Mai Dong had watched many movies where the bomb specialist would suddenly gain divine inspiration or recall their family or comrades at the last second, and under the halo of being the protagonist, cut the wire decisively as the popcorn-watching crowd sat at the edge of their seats. With a crisp sound, the red liquid display countdown would come to an abrupt halt.

Later, Commander Old Wang told her that it only happened in movies. In real situations, bomb specialists didn’t care about the wires; they just got a robot to pick up the bomb and throw it straight into a liquid nitrogen cylinder.

“OK!” Tomcat nodded. He saw the disconnection notice on the space station’s computer system that B3074 had been disconnected. “Miss Mai Dong, do you need a rest? I see your heartbeat rising.”

Mai Dong nodded. She was quite tired. An EVA mission might not be much for a strong man like Old Wang, with him spending six to seven hours outside. However, Mai Dong’s stamina could hardly handle it. After the first mission, Mai Dong had some food to eat and rested until the sun rose again.

Mai Dong put all the tools in her hand into the pouch and rested in the vacuum. Without gravity, there was no distinction between up and down. It didn’t matter if she stood up or lay down.

She looked at Mars, which appeared inches away from her, as though she could touch the orange-red world if she just extended her arm.

But it was distant like another world.

She and the space station were hurtling in orbit at a distance of four hundred kilometers from the surface. This distance was so close that Mai Dong could see the details of the Martian surface with her naked eyes, but the laws of the Universe forced her to stay revolving around the planet. The space station was in flight its entire life, and even though it was flying at a speed of 3 km/s, it wasn’t able to get any closer to Mars.

Gravity was a wall that Mai Dong couldn’t breach.

“The Isidis Planitia… Mr. Cat, Tang Yue, I see the Isidis Planitia.”

Mai Dong saw the tiny plains on the Martian northern hemisphere close to the equator. It would have been easily missed if one didn’t look carefully. She knew that Kunlun Station was on the plain, but it was just too tiny for the girl’s eyesight… It was truly a miraculous feeling. You knew that they were there, but you just couldn’t see them.

If one had a powerful microscope that could magnify them, you would be able to see Kunlun Station and the tiny human and cat inside.

She had the baffling feeling that she was looking at a miniature model.

Mai Dong was surprised at her own thoughts. The first thing that had come to mind was a microscope instead of a telescope. It meant that her mind was occupied with the concept of size instead of distance. Subconsciously, Mai Dong had treated Mars as a massive body that bordered on being a living creature and a non-living creature. Kunlun Station was only an extremely tiny appendage to this massive body.

“Tang Yue, Mr. Cat, can you see me?” Mai Dong asked. “I’m on the same side as you guys.”

“The sunlight is too bright in the day. We can’t see you,” Tang Yue replied. He was speaking the truth for it was impossible to see the space station in the day due to the bright sunlight.

“Even if you see her, you won’t be able to precisely track her. Miss Mai Dong, your orbit is too low and you move too quickly on the celestial sphere,” Tomcat said. “To keep tracking the space station, we need a high-precision equatorial mount.”

“If only you guys could see me. It’s different meeting face to face compared to over the camera and computer screen.”

Tang Yue’s heart stirred a little.

Indeed, the camera and radio allowed them to communicate by video, but a video call was ultimately behind a layer of glass. Having a pane of glass in between them made it seem as though Kunlun Station and the space station were in two different worlds.

However, if he could see Mai Dong on the space station without any obstacles, locking their gazes despite four hundred kilometers in between them, it would make it seem as if the duo had returned to the same Universe.

…

Mai Dong carefully put the screwdriver and conducting wire into the pouch, heaved a sigh of relief and said, “B3075 removed.”

“Next up is C1002. Mai Dong, do an observation first and decide what’s the most energy-conserving method. Don’t be in a rush,” Tang Yue advised. “Do it in a way that conveniences you.”

Mai Dong held the pair of tweezers in her hand as she got Tomcat to slightly adjust the robotic arm’s positioning.

“Tang Yue, Mr. Cat, I see it. However, the screw is a little stuck…” Mai Dong clenched her teeth and held her breath, hoping that she could wrench it off, but she failed. “I might have to twist it around first, or I won’t be able to exert my strength. So I’ll be switching to pliers. Pliers… Here they are.”

“Slowly. Slowly.”

“The gap is too narrow. I can’t insert the pliers. I’ll need to expand the hole a little. Strange… Is this rust? No, it’s just coating that peeled off.”

Tang Yue and Tomcat sat in Kunlun Station staring at the monitor. Mai Dong’s breathing undulated over the comms, and clearly, she was exhausting a significant amount of her strength. After a short time, Mai Dong had to rest.

“It’s exhausting. I never knew that repairing the space station was actually this draining.” Mai Dong panted as she rested again. “It’s truly amazing that the Commander and the rest were able to continue working for six hours like this.”

“How can you compare with Old Wang?” Tang Yue shook his head. “Old Wang and Thomp are men with ripped with muscles. They often brawl in the bathroom, draining even more energy than this; yet, they remained brimming with energy.”

“Why would they be brawling in the bathroom?”

Tang Yue thought for a moment.

“It was often because of a bar of soap.”

After about half an hour of struggling, Mai Dong finally removed the C1002 conducting wire. With that, the EVA mission was a success. Mai Dong was also completely exhausted. After returning to the space station, she poured out nearly a liter of sweat from the EVA suit. She was drenched.

When she returned to the core module, she didn’t say anything or even wear any noise-canceling earplugs as she fell asleep hugging a pillow and Ah Q. The sunlight slowly receded away from them.

In Kunlun Station, Tang Yue and Tomcat were discussing the next step. The line that demarcated between day and night slowly moved across the Martian surface.

The United Space Station once again flew to the back of Mars.

Mars was still revolving around the sun at 24 km/s.

The Solar System was still revolving around the Milky Way’s core at 250 km/s.

The Universe was expanding silently.