Dead on Mars

The dark red warning windows disappeared one after another as Tomcat temporarily stabilized the situation in the United Space Station. Only then did it heave a sigh of relief… It had shut down a few hatches between the modules and stopped any airflow between them. This was a safety mechanism on the original designs of the Mars United Space Station. It allowed for remote emergency shut down of hatches, and it was finally put to use, thus, saving the entire space station.

Tomcat had found the module that had lost pressure. Without a doubt, it was the Dawn module. It was the module that had suffered the brunt of the Eagle’s direct impact. The Dawn experiment module’s APAS had been completely destroyed and the tremendous impact had caused the walls to crack. The air within the module was leaking, and the Dawn was basically in a vacuum state. Its temperature had fallen below freezing point.

Sealing shut the hatches saved the other modules. Next to the Dawn module was the core module which presently maintained standard atmospheric pressure and a temperature of 20°C. At the very least, Tomcat no longer needed to worry about Mai Dong suffocating to death.

The smoke alarms had come to a stop as well. The smoking Dawn was already in a vacuum state, so without oxygen, it was impossible for a fire to break out.

The United Space Station was temporarily preserved.

However, Mai Dong remained uncontactable.

No one knew what had happened to Mai Dong during the collision. Anything was possible in such a serious accident. She could still be alive, or she might have died in the accident.

“Miss Mai Dong! This is Kunlun Station. Miss Mai Dong, answer if you copy!

“Miss Mai Dong! This is Kunlun Station. Answer if you copy!

“Miss Mai Dong! Answer if you copy!”

Tomcat was worried as it cried out again and again.

There was no response over the frequency. There was only dead silence.

“Damn it!” Tomcat smacked its paw on the table. The Eagle’s rear-ending of the United Space Station had resulted in disastrous repercussions. Both spacecraft had lost control and had exited their original trajectories. The space station’s situation was slightly better. Tomcat was able to initialize the attitude control rockets on the space station to stop it from spinning.

However, there was nothing that could be done for the Eagle. It had insufficient propellant, and the rendezvous was a complete failure. The collision had changed the direction of the lander, as it lost control of itself and tumbled through space, far into the distance.

Tomcat took a look at the distance.

Sixty kilometers.

The gap was still opening up.

While Tomcat was desperately trying to save the United Space Station, the Eagle’s trajectory kept decreasing in height. It was accelerating as it tumbled along a trajectory at high speeds, and would ultimately plunge into the Martian atmosphere. No one could stop it.

“Tang Yue, I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?” Tomcat pushed the keyboard as it sighed.

“… Let’s start with the bad news.”

“The bad news will take a year to spell out,” Tomcat said. “Are you sure you want to hear the bad news?”

“Good news.”

“The good news is that the United Space Station is temporarily secured, and the losses aren’t too great. The Dawn module is pretty much decommissioned, but it helped the space station absorb a large part of the impact… This might have to do with the Russians preferring to use flexible material to construct their modules,” Tomcat said. “There aren’t many problems with the other modules, and they are presently in an operational state.”

Tang Yue recalled which part the Dawn module was… It was connected to the core module, which was situated between the core module and APAS. This module had provided a buffer for the core module.

“Anything else?”

“None.” Tomcat shook its head. “This is the only piece of good news, but the bad news is a laundry list… Miss Mai Dong is still uncontactable, and her situation is unknown. The Eagle is dashing down a route of no return. The rear-ending seriously increased its speed as it’s beginning to plummet towards Mars. It will take about six rounds before the Eagle enters the atmosphere.

“Six rounds?”

“Six rounds.”

“Is… Mai Dong still alive?”

“I’ve no idea.”

Tang Yue fell into a prolonged silence.

“Do we still have any chances?”

“It’s impossible to have any.”

Tomcat’s voice sounded emotionless other than the immense fatigue.

According to the Kunlun Station’s telemetry data, the United Space Station was presently at a height of 400 kilometers. However, the height of the Eagle’s orbit was only 320 kilometers. The straight line distance between them exceeded a hundred kilometers.

The lander lacked the power to accelerate in another orbital maneuver. As a robot, Tomcat could empathize with the feeling of despair. This was a despair rooted in physics and numbers, an irreversible and imperturbable outcome. The Eagle’s orbit was 80 kilometers lower than the space station, and this distance was constantly widening. RD-0172’s engine no longer had the capability of another orbital maneuver. No one could raise its orbit by another 80 kilometers, and the only force exerted on it was gravity… It would be pulled down by gravity, constantly lowering its height until it plunged into the atmosphere.

There were another six more rounds before the Eagle would plummet and be destroyed.

Its orbit took an average of about fifty minutes. Six rounds meant three hundred minutes.

The Eagle only had five hours left.

Tomcat focused on the predicted orbit on the screen. The space station would continue operating as per normal, but the lander’s trajectory no longer had any intersection with the space station. They had missed the only encounter, and what lay ahead was an ever increasing-distance.

The Eagle’s signal was intermittent. It periodically flashed as a result of its spinning. Every spin it did, its antenna would reach the relay satellite.

Tomcat looked at the blip gradually widen the gap and hope dwindled.

…

Tang Yue was leaning against the Mars Wanderer. He had been continuously working for more than ten hours that day and hadn’t had a single drop of water. The reason Tang Yue had persisted without collapsing was solely because of his firm will and belief. But towards the end, even his mind went into a blur. Tang Yue could only rely on his weight.

At present, Tang Yue’s seventy-kilogram body couldn’t hold on. He was blacking out and had no choice but to fasten himself to the Mars rover with rope to force himself to find his footing.

A strong feeling of powerlessness overwhelmed him. Just minutes ago, Tomcat had told him that everything was going great and success was imminent, but with a blink of an eye, everything had changed.

Tang Yue patted his visor, wiping away the sand on it. He suspected that he was hearing things due to extreme fatigue. Can such a thing actually happen in this world? With success just inches away, how was it suddenly thrown into despair?

It’s nonsense.

It’s truly nonsense.

Tang Yue’s mind froze as he couldn’t understand anything that had happened.

“Tang Yue, I know you find it unacceptable,” Tomcat said softly, “but this is reality…”

The entropy in the Universe would forever increase, and the arrow of time was only pointed in one direction. The harshness of reality was that no one had a chance to redo things. Even if you missed time at the Planck scale, the outcome was forged in reality.

You would have no choice but to face the cruel outcome’s aftermath, as well as endless regret.

“We’ve failed. It was an utter failure.” Tomcat continued, “Whether Miss Mai Dong is alive doesn’t matter. No one can save her now.”

Tang Yue thought for a long time as his stiffened brain began to whir before he thought of a word.

“Cruel.”

“That’s right… The Universe is very cruel.” Tomcat leaned back into the chair as it looked up at the ceiling. It had a blank look in its eyes. “It’s far crueler than we imagined.”

At that moment, Tang Yue thought that he would prefer that Mai Dong had passed away in the accident than face the despairing situation of being alone and with no help provided to her. The Eagle’s docking had failed and the space station was out of food. If the girl was still alive, she would have no choice but to wait for a slow death. Tang Yue didn’t dare imagine what kind of torture that would be.

“Mr… Mr. Cat? Mr… Mr. Tang Yue? Can… you hear me?”

A weak but clear female voice suddenly sounded over the channel.

Tomcat and Tang Yue were taken aback.

“I… I’m Mai Dong. What exactly happened… Did the docking succeed? Mr. Cat?”