Dead on Mars

There was silence over the comms.

“Miss Mai Dong.”

“Yes?”

“The simulation test has ended. You are free to move about.” Tomcat pushed the keyboard away as the monitors in front of it switched off one after another. The workstation had ended the simulation and was beginning to exit the various programs.

In the HP workstation’s internal storage, Orion II stopped its descent at an altitude of 11,657.3 meters. Due to the spacecraft’s loss of attitude, the spacecraft had snapped with the excessive stress.

Following that, the propellant reservoir tank’s ruptured causing the explosion to go from soup to nuts. Tomcat and Tang Yue didn’t need to watch any further. An explosion at this altitude could only be survived by the Hulk. 10,000 meters was a chasm that Orion II couldn’t cross.

Tang Yue slumped into his seat as he hung his hands down by his side, looking up at as he sighed.

“Am I still alive?”

Mai Dong didn’t move.

“Of course you are, Lady,” Tang Yue said. “You are talking to me at this very moment. You can try touching your face if you doubt me. See if it’s warm.”

“I’m wearing a helmet.”

“Then take it off.”

Mai Dong raised her hands, unlatched the helmet, and took it off. Nudging it gently with her index fingers, the spherical glass helmet slowly floated away and the girl’s short black hair fluttered in zero gravity. There wasn’t a heater in the Eagle, so the temperature was a little low. The breath Mai Dong exhaled condensed into a white mist.

The lander’s protective screens at the windows shuttered open, allowing golden sunlight to beam in.

Outside the window was Mars’s dark red surface. She was still in orbit at a height of 300 kilometers.

Mai Dong sat in the Commander’s seat for some time in silence. She knew that the simulation test had failed. She had been listening in on the communications between Tang Yue and Tomcat, and Tang Yue’s final words were: “Orion’s truss has cracked and has disintegrated.” If this had been a real descent, Mai Dong would already be dead.

The girl wriggled her fingers. The simulation hadn’t been anything intense, nor were there any actual sensations. From start to end, the only thing she did was sit in the seat and look at the time. No matter what Tang Yue or Tomcat shouted—deviations or loss of control—the Eagle lander remained in silent orbit around Mars.

Tomcat and Tang Yue had gotten her to experience the full descent process ahead of time, but the outcome was that of a crash and death.

“I’m still alive. It’s just a little cold in here.” Mai Dong touched her cheek. “The lander doesn’t have a heater since I dismantled it. I shouldn’t have dismantled it so early.”

“You are still in the lander?” Tang Yue asked.

“Yeah.” The girl nodded. “The Commander’s seat is rather comfortable. It’s wide and soft, so I wish to stay here a little longer.”

“Are you fine in zero gravity, Lady? Is the seatbelt buckled on too tightly?”

“Tang Yue.”

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“Tang Yue.”

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“Tang Yue.”

“Lady, what’s up? Tell me.”

“Nothing. I just wanted to say your name.” Mai Dong removed her seatbelt. “Tang Yue! Tang Yue! Tang Yue! Tang Yue! Tang Yue!”

Tang Yue was baffled.

Tomcat grabbed Tang Yue and whispered to him, “This lady is under too much stress.”

Tang Yue was taken aback. As a straight, insensitive man who had an engineering background and had not had any interaction with members of the opposite sex for twenty-six years—other than the auntie at the cafeteria—his ability to detect what was on a girl’s mind was inferior to a cat’s.

Indeed, Mai Dong had been under too much stress.

She had been fighting alone in the space station all this time, and no matter how much work or how tedious it was, the lady had shouldered it. Mai Dong’s EVA frequency and hours were catching up to Old Wang’s. Tomcat had also quipped that this was a workload that could break any person. If anyone else were to do such work, they would have gone on strike. Yet, Mai Dong had gritted her teeth to persist… Every time she returned to the space station, she could pour out two liters of sweat from her EVA suit.

She had no choice but to persist because this was to save herself.

At the same age, other girls would be surrounded by flowers and gifts, being protected by her family, school, and others like a princess.

But now, Mai Dong had become a miserable and exhausted repairman.

With the first simulation failing and Orion II crashing, Tomcat wouldn’t be surprised if Mai Dong broke down. Tomcat even wished that she could vent out by crying.

“Mai Dong.”

“Yes?”

“Mai Dong.”

“Yeah? I’m here.”

“Mai Dong.”

“I heard you. What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. I just wanted to say your name,” Tang Yue said. “Mai Dong.”

“That’s enough. You don’t have to keep calling my name…”

“Whatever you do is meaningful.”

Mai Dong was taken aback.

“We will be succeeding soon. Now, we are just short of the final step. We have overcome so many difficulties and obstacles. This is all the fruit of your labor. Now, we are just one step away from final success,” Tang Yue said. “As long as you take that one step, we will clinch ultimate victory! You have to be confident! The Party and People believe in you!”

Mai Dong burst out into laughter.

“Are you a political commissar?”

Tang Yue wasn’t able to say anything moving. All his words of encouragement often sounded like Stalin’s urging of soldiers to be cannon fodder during wartime.

“There’s no need to be depressed. The test’s failure was within expectations. The first mock’s goal is to gather data and correct the program. There’s no insistence that it succeeds in one go. We got plenty of feedback.” Tomcat patted its paws and got up. “Based on the goals of the mission itself, we have perfectly completed the first simulation test. It’s something worth celebrating!”

Tomcat began clapping its paws as it raised them high, gesturing to Tang Yue to clap with it. It had a look that depicted: “Let’s party!”

Tang Yue coldly swept a glance at the cat before ignoring it.

Encouraging Mai Dong was something, but to applaud and celebrate a test failure was something he couldn’t bring himself to do.

Realizing that it had been given the cold shoulder, it sat down and turned a monitor to Tang Yue. On the monitor was a list that Tang Yue couldn’t understand.

“These are the problems discovered in the simulation. I’ve already collated them and will begin modifying the Orion II spacecraft’s system. I’ll tweak the details that couldn’t be determined previously,” Tomcat said. “There’s a total of 1842 articles.”

“When’s the next simulation?”

“Once I fix the computer control system. Many problems were exposed during this test. Many details have proven that our expectations were completely erroneous. After I fix the program, we can try the second test,” Tomcat replied. “It will be finished by tomorrow at the earliest. The second mock will definitely allow Orion II to pass the chasm of 10,000 meters and allow it to safely land.”

“Can the second mock succeed?” Tang Yue darted his eyes to the side.

“Massive confidence.”

“How massive?”

Tomcat pondered for a moment and drew a huge circle on a piece of paper.

“This big.”