Die on Mars

The comet is gone.

Tang Yue packed up, patted his butt and prepared to go home.

"We have saved a life." Lao Mao and Tang Yue walked side by side, strolling on the sand. Above their heads were meteors all over the sky. A large number of small ice crystals in the coma of Comet Tomcat drew bright lines after entering the atmosphere. Streamer, "At the most critical moment, six points were thrown."

"If there is a god in this world, what is he doing right now?" Tang Yue asked.

"Maybe he's petting the cat." The old cat said calmly, "I think God is a cat slave."

"Why isn't he walking the dog?"

"Because all the dog gangs in this world have perished."

"I suddenly understood a little bit about those believers who firmly believe in the existence of gods. If I were a Christian and encountered this kind of thing, I would definitely kneel down and cry bitterly to thank the Lord for his gifts and salvation... There will always be a hundred people in this world. Tens of thousands of believers pray to God when they encounter difficulties. Among them, the prayers of 999,900 people have no effect, but there will always be a hundred coincidences." Tang Yue said, "In the end, these one hundred coincidences were eliminated. Consider it a miracle.”

"Survivor bias?"

Tang Yue thought for a while and nodded.

"Comet Tomcat hits Mars and Deimos hits comet. The probability of these two events is extremely small for us, but for the person above us..." Old Cat pointed to the starry sky above his head, "It's a million-to-one chance. Whether it is a probability of one in a billion or a probability of one in a billion, it is meaningless. To the universe, everything is mediocre. This is the principle of mediocrity.”

"Principle of mediocrity?"

“We think it’s incredible that Demos would hit a comet because the probability is too small, but in fact the probability of Demos appearing anywhere is equal, and its orbital eccentricity can change from 1.79 to 1.80 to 1.81 It could also be 1.82, and every result would be mediocre."

Tang Yue asked leisurely: "Are we mediocre too?"

The old cat nodded, "Yes, you and I are both mediocre."

"This sentence sounds a bit disappointing." Tang Yue smiled slightly, "You have to know that everyone has imagined that they are the center of the world."

The old cat took off the helmet of the space suit, threw it into the air and stretched out his claws to catch it, "There is no conflict between the two. If you want to make yourself sound more important, you can use the principle of human existence to prove this. a little."

"Tang Yue, Mr. Cat, this is the United Space Station." Maidong's voice sounded in the earphones, "Can you hear me? Is there any communication problem?"

"The signal is normal, girl, are you okay?" Tang Yue asked, "The space station is not affected by the comet, right?"

"Everything is normal inside the space station."

The collision between Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai and Demos formed an extremely sparse halo in an orbit 20,000 kilometers away - the nominal halo cannot be seen with a telescope. Lao Mao said that if the halo is If the material fragments are evenly distributed in the orbit, the distance between every two small ice crystals larger than one millimeter will be more than 400 kilometers.

Laomao estimates that Comet Tomcat left 500 billion tons of material in the orbit of Mars, most of which is thin gas.

This thin halo has no impact on the space station in low-Earth orbit. The only thing that may be interfered with is the Mars communication relay satellite. The three relay satellites are all located in synchronous orbits at an altitude of 17,000 kilometers. Lao Mao and Tang They were worried that they would be damaged in the impact, but fortunately their worries have not come true, and the relay satellites are still working normally so far.

"Girl, we are having a meteor shower here."

"Really?" Maidong's eyes lit up, "How big is it?"

"It's very, very big." Tang Yue took a deep breath. "This must be the most spectacular meteor shower that humans have ever seen. It does not come from a certain constellation...it happens all over the sky."

The girl exclaimed in the channel that she could not see meteors on the space station. Ophiopogon japonicus had never seen a meteor shower, and she could not imagine the most spectacular meteor shower in human history. This was a gift from fate to congratulate the three of them for surviving the catastrophe. and fireworks.

"Human language is always clumsy in the face of the most shocking natural landscapes. Your brain capacity is not enough to accommodate the greatest creation in the world, and your vocabulary is not enough to describe the most majestic power in the world. , you can only say big, very big, very, very big." The old cat grunted, "Cats are different."

"What would the cat say?"

"Cats can say..." the old cat replied, "meow."

Tang Yue opened the door of the airlock and the old cat got in.

Tang Yue followed Lao Mao into the airlock and closed and locked the outer hatch.

The lights were on in the hall of Kunlun Station, and there were various monitors on the table. Two armchairs were casually tilted in front of the table. It was still quiet and warm. Tang Yue stepped into the hall, as if he had walked out of a wet and cold winter rainy night. When I got home, I put away my wet umbrella. There was a fire in the fireplace in the room. The steaming heat burned my face, and the wood made a crackling sound in the flames.

Tang Yue took off his Mingguang Armor, held a glass of water, and stood in front of the shelf playing with the tomatoes.

"Sons, daddy is back alive again." Tang Yue held the dropper and irrigated the plants one by one, "Are you happy?"

"Tang Yue, Mr. Cat." Maidong asked, "I... what should I do next? Do I still need to go down?"

The comet no longer poses any threat to the space station. The joint space station is currently in a very safe situation, and Maidong no longer needs to make a forced landing.

"Do you want to come down?" the old cat asked, "Miss Maidong."

Maidong nodded, "I think so."

"As I said before, we will not force or guide you to make any choice. The choice is yours." Old Cat said, "You can choose to stay on the space station or land, but I need to remind you. You...Miss Maidong, you must consider the risks behind the choices you make."

It is undoubtedly the safest to continue to stay in orbit. Using the Orion 2 spacecraft to force a landing would be extremely risky. At that time, Lao Mao decided to use this method because the impact of the Tomcat comet would 100% destroy the space station. Under the pressure, it had to do its best to rescue Ophiopogon japonicus and choose the lesser of two evils.

But now the comet is gone.

Maidong can completely regard the coming of the comet as an episode. How she lived before will be how she will live in the future.

"But...but hasn't our simulation test been successful?"

The old cat sighed secretly.

They planted a seed in Maidong's heart, telling her that it was possible to land successfully, so this girl could no longer live as she had before... Once you give a person in a desperate situation a possible escape route, An illusory hope, a specious promise, then this person will no longer be willing to sit where he is.

"Miss Maidong, the ground simulation can't explain anything. There have been so many accidents in history, which ground test has not been successful? But the accident still happened." Old Cat said, "Since the threat of comets is no longer there, you have absolutely no It is necessary to take this dangerous road.”

"I……"

"I agree with Old Cat." Tang Yue stood in front of the shelf, "It is too dangerous to land Orion 2. Girl, there is no need to gamble with your life."

"What if I insist on going down?" Maidong bit his lip, "Would this decision be selfish?"

The old cat was startled.

Tang Yue was also startled.

They all laughed.

"No, no, Miss Maidong, you have the right to make any decision and bear the consequences. This is just a choice. There is no right or wrong. No one can blame you." The old cat said, "If you insist on coming down, then We can only initiate the landing plan."

Tang Yue finished watering the tomatoes and sat on a chair wrapped in a blanket.

"A new day is coming again and I'm so happy for the sun."

"Why?"

"Because it can see me again, I think the sun will feel relieved when it sees the comet leaving the orbit of Mars, and will express this emotion: Tang Yue will rise as usual tomorrow."