Dead on Mars

Chapter 77 - Sol Hundred, Picasso’s Full Name
Mai Dong turned off the psychological test. The computer had warned her to seek advice from a psychiatrist, but the advice was of no value. She was the only one on the United Space Station, so who could she turn to?

The girl adjusted the temperature in the Crystal module as the space station had entered the shadows of Mars. A pencil slowly floated across her eyes. Without any external forces exerting on it, it would continue moving in a straight line until it hit the wall. Mai Dong reached out to flick it, sending the pencil in another direction.

Mai Dong turned around to leave the core module, passed through the passage connecting the modules and entered the Hub APAS module.

The Hub was a nearly spherical module. It was located in the middle of the United Space Station, and a crossroad. It had the most APASs and was in charge of connecting the other modules.

On the left was the Hope experiment module, and on the right was the Discovery experiment module. Ahead was the Harmony service module.

All of Mai Dong’s plants were planted in the Hope module. It came with a fully-equipped microgravity vegetation incubation system, with a total of twelve incubators, and each incubator having eight units.

Due to the restrictions of the environment, the plants cultivated in the space station couldn’t be grown the same way on land—planted in soil with water and fertilizer. To get the plants to grow normally, the space station needed a set of complicated cultivation equipment. The equipment was spearheaded by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in which they referenced former space cultivation systems from the Americans and Russians, before enhancing it with socialism with Chinese characteristics.

For growth in a microgravity environment, the delivery of water and nutrients was crucial. In a weightless environment, liquid didn’t flow freely. It would only float about like a ball due to surface tension. Therefore, engineers needed to use special negative pressure perforated tubes to deliver the nutritional fluids that would flow into the plant’s substrate by osmosis.

The final outcome was a rather complicated piece of equipment. This tiny space-greenhouse was split into several main modules. The computer automatically controlled the delivery of light, water, and temperature.

Mai Dong had planted eight tomato plants, twenty-three lettuce plants, and seventeen potato plants in the United Space Station. The species were high-quality specimens specially chosen on Earth. They grew fast and had a high chance of survival. All the tomatoes had borne fruit, and the ones that developed the fastest had ripened. Mai Dong picked the ripe tomato and store it in a refrigerator.

There were still about five tomatoes that hadn’t ripened. They were green with hints of red. They hung heavily in the glass box and were a joy to look at.

Mai Dong enjoyed staying in the Hope module. She found it the liveliest place in the space station as it was filled with vibrancy. Although the plants couldn’t speak, they were definitely whispering to one another in a manner humans couldn’t detect. Mai Dong closed her eyes and felt as though she could hear their voices. Such voices were filled with the vibrant nature of life.

At times, Mai Dong would play music to the tomatoes and potatoes. She had heard that soft, gentle music aided the growth of plants… Her gentle maternal instincts had nothing to act on, so all she could do was give it to the speechless plants.

Mai Dong opened the incubator and carefully inspected the growth of the lettuce.

“Hmm… Ah Chang, you need to grow a little longer. Classics beside you has already borne fruit.”

Ah Chang was a tomato’s name.

Likewise for Classics.

Mai Dong had given every plant a name. The first tomato seed that sprouted was name Runtu, the eldest brother.

Ah Chang was the fifth tomato seed that had sprouted, so he was the fifth brother.

Classics was the sixth.

The tomatoes in the space station were a big family with eight brothers. Since tomatoes were hermaphroditic plants, they were brothers if Mai Dong said so.

The youngest tomato’s name was Zha, an animal like a badger created by Lu Xun.

…

Kunlun Station.

Night had already descended and the stars were bright. Without any man-made light pollution, one could see the grand Milky Way across the surface of Mars.

Without the series of problems, Mars was indeed a place that provided the soul with a catharsis. Some people said that Kunlun Station was the closest spot of human society to the Universe. Others said that heading for Kunlun Station was a pilgrimage. There were indeed people who participated in the Mars missions with such ideas.

In the past ten plus landing missions, many experts had been devout Christians. They traveled millions of miles to Kunlun Station, partly to discover the scientific truth, and partly to narrow the distance between them and God.

However, these people mostly fell into deep self-doubt after returning to Earth.

The feeling of really stepping onto another planet struck them. This was the first time humanity was using their feet to measure the extensiveness of the world. They began to suspect if God, that arose from humanity’s own thoughts, really had the ability to create such a Universe. The thought of God creating everything was perhaps only an anthropocentric aspect of human arrogance.

In contrast, Tang Yue didn’t think much about it.

As an atheist born under the red flag, he had received uplifting influence from Marx and socialism. From a young age, his education involved: Mars? Mars is just another huge mud egg, a mud egg just like Earth that circles the sun. There are a few other mud eggs in the Solar System, so it’s nothing special.

Whatever God or Creation was just bullshit.

It was all much ado about nothing.

Sigh.

Tang Yue had spent the entire day stirring shit. Kunlun Station might be the furthest holy land from the mortal world, but here he was, stirring shit in the holy land. It was quite impossible to make things holy.

Tang Yue and Tomcat finished making two containers of feces, before placing them both in the garage where they were accompanied by the radioisotope thermoelectric generator to await fermentation. There was still a batch of dehydrated feces that had yet to be handled, so Tang Yue placed them in the garage and decided to deal with them in the future.

“Tomcat.”

Tang Yue sat by the window as he looked out while resting over his cheeks.

“Yes?”

Tomcat leaned on the table, crossed its legs, and closed its eyes.

“Mai Dong told me previously to leave some records of human civilization.” Tang Yue turned his head over. “What do you think about writing some memoirs?”

Tomcat opened one eye.

“Let me ask you, which country was Picasso from?”

Tang Yue was taken aback. Which country was Picasso from? This was apparently taught in middle school history. However, it had been so long ago that he could no longer remember. He knew that Picasso was a famous artist, but he wasn’t sure which era or country Picasso was from.

Tang Yue tried hard to recall.

He was European, probably an ancient European.

Perhaps he was in the same era as Davinci?

“What’s his full name?” Tomcat carried on asking.

“His surname is Pi, and his name is Casso?”

“Picasso passed away only in 1973. His full name is Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso.”

Tomcat shook its head and closed its eyes.

“You want to chronicle human civilization when you can’t even remember Picasso’s name? It’s time to wake up.”