Die on Mars

Maidong sat on the commander's seat, fastened his seat belt, and adjusted the back of the chair to slowly tilt back to a load-resistant position.

"How do you feel?" asked the old cat.

Maidong stared at the bare top panel - there were originally control panels and monitors here, but they had just been removed by Maidong. The large and small eye-catching holes were all left after the monitors and buttons were removed. There are still traces of white glue and messy wires that have not been cleaned up.

Next she needed to cover all the holes with a large sheet of plastic.

The girl took a deep breath, "It's dark...very quiet."

The Eagle lander has been completely powered off and has no lights. The only light source is the LED lights on both sides of the spacesuit helmet.

The protective baffles outside the portholes have all been closed. The lander at this moment is a closed and narrow metal box. Most people will feel uneasy staying in such a place, but only a closed iron shell can protect Ophiopogon japonicus during a violent landing. During impact, the shell should be as strong as possible.

The life support system has stopped working, and the noise of the fan and exhaust machine cannot be heard. Maidong wears sound-isolating and noise-cancelling headphones, but the sound of the friction of her collar and hair still enters her ears along bone conduction.

She looked around at the fine dust floating in the LED beams of light.

"The commander's chair seems a little bigger than ours." Maidong patted the armrest of the chair, "This is my first time sitting in the captain's chair."

"There is a red lever under your chair," the old cat said. "Can you touch it?"

Maidong turned his head and put his hand under the chair to fumble, "The lever? Well, I found a handle... more than one, there are two on both sides, and they are locked with safety bolts."

"Yes." The old cat nodded, "Try to hold it."

Maidong held the lever in his hand.

"Is it convenient to use force?"

"Hmm...it's okay, but this posture is a bit strenuous." Maidong sat on the chair, tightened his hands, and tried to use force.

"This is the switch for the emergency escape system. It is purely mechanically driven, so it requires at least thirty newtons of force to pull them." Lao Mao explained, "The one on the left is the emergency escape switch for the docking mechanism, and the right is the activation switch for the escape hatch. .”

"On the left is the interface switch."

"Yes, the docking port is on the left."

"On the right is the escape hatch."

"That's right, the escape hatch is on the right." Old Cat said, "The escape hatch is on the bulkhead behind you. The order of use of these two switches is as follows: when landing, you need to pull the left lever first. The Eagle lander escaped from the crashed Orion in time. After landing safely, you can pull the switch on the right to blow open the escape hatch and quickly leave the lander."

"First left, then right." Maidong repeated.

"First left, then right."

"But how do I know when to pull the lever?" Maidong asked. During the landing process, the Eagle lander was in a fully enclosed state, and people in the cabin could not see the situation outside the cabin. In other words, Maidong could not see the situation outside the cabin at all. I don’t know if it’s time to leave, but the time to leave cannot be delayed. If it’s too early or too late, there will be problems.

"You don't have to worry about this, it's under our control." Old Cat said, "We will keep in touch with Orion 2's computer, and it will notify you when to leave... Miss Maidong, during the entire landing process, you only need to You need to do the part of the operation that you are responsible for, and Tang Yue and I will handle everything else, and there will be no problems."

"I understand." Maidong nodded.

"Is there a problem with the seat belt?" Old Cat asked, "This landing will be very violent, and the seat belt must tie you firmly to the chair."

"How...violent was it?"

"Smash it directly on the ground, then bounce up, then hit the ground again, and then bounce up again." The old cat said, "Until the kinetic energy is exhausted, Miss Maidong, you have to be careful not to let the seat belt get in the way." Don’t hit anything yourself, and be sure to protect your spacesuit without any damage, as this is your only life support system.”

"But my spacesuit can only work for eight hours at most."

Maidong unbuckled his seat belt and disengaged his body from the seat.

"Yes." Old Mao was silent for a few seconds, "That boy Tang Yue and I will find you within eight hours. I guarantee with Tang Yue's wealth and life that we will definitely find you within eight hours." , Miss Maidong."

Maidong chuckled.

"Why use Tang Yue's wealth and life?"

"Because I have no net worth." Old Cat shrugged.

"But Tang Yue doesn't have much wealth either." Maidong said.

"As the last human being on Mars, he has the right to declare sovereignty over the entire Mars, and even the entire solar system." The old cat said lightly, "Tang Yue has nothing now, but he has everything. He is the most important person in this lonely unmanned kingdom. The supreme king and the last man.”

"What kind of king am I? My people only have fifteen tomato plants, fifteen carrot plants, and a few barrels of fermenting fertilizer. Have you ever seen a king whose daily job is to pound shit?"

The muttering of some idiot got into Maidong's earphones.

"Then you should take good care of your tomatoes and carrots. When they become sperms, they can help you make poop." The old cat said.

"Old cat, are you stupid?" Tang Yue's voice rang out, "If tomatoes and carrots can become sperm, they must be beautiful girls with tender long legs. How can you let them pound shit? Hehehehehehehehehe... …”

Maidong silently cut off the contact.

·

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Tang Yue finished watering the plants, sorted and archived "A Brief Examination of the Development of Modern Art Schools", and retrieved the observation data from the space station telescope.

He checks the condition of the Tomcat-Tang-Mai comet every day. This huge celestial body with a nucleus of up to 30 kilometers in diameter will cause the most serious impact accident in the solar system this century. Lao Mao predicts that it will hit Mars and release The energy is equivalent to the explosion of 5200 billion nuclear bombs, which simultaneously destroys everything within a radius of 1,000 kilometers. The shock wave generated can tear off half of the surface of Mars.

Mars has not suffered such a violent impact for more than three billion years, and four billion years have passed since the solar system's major impact era.

"Has the impact point of this comet been predicted?" Tang Yue looked through the photos one by one. The continuous exposure of the telescope took deep-field photos. At this distance, the comet's tail has begun to shine, but It's not obvious yet, like a hazy and thin mist.

"More than half of the workstation's processes are doing this, otherwise you would think it would crash frequently." Lao Mao replied, "Currently, the comet is still 1.7 astronomical units away. It is too far away. We can only be sure that it will crash." On the target, but the point of impact cannot be known.”

"It better not hit us on the head."

"It shouldn't be so unlucky." The old cat said, "Give you a pistol. You can't hit the target fifty meters away, let alone two hundred million kilometers away..."

"Stop, stop, stop! Stop flagging! Please shut up, it's like your mouth is open."

"As long as the comet's impact point is 2,500 kilometers away from Kunlun Station, I have enough confidence that Kunlun Station will survive." Lao Mao said.

“What to do about secondary disasters?”

"It depends on luck." The old cat twirled the pen in his paw, "I have told you before, 30% comes from vitality, 70% depends on hard work, and the remaining 90% is luck. If you are lucky, live longer. For a while, if you are unlucky, you will live for a while. There are so many ways to die, you can choose any one, be killed by being hit, crushed to death, frozen to death, suffocated to death, starved to death, dehydrated to death, which one do you want?"

"I want to die of old age."

"Tang Yue, you have grown up and must learn to distinguish between reality and daydreams."

"I want to hold on until I die."

"Go out and eat mud. If you eat enough, you will stuff yourself to death, but constipation will be uncomfortable."

"Then I choose to be angry to death. Old cat, you can make me angry to death."

The old cat pondered for a while.

"Tang Yue, you single dog."