Dead on Mars

Chapter 100 - Sol Hundred and Nine, Mai Dong Sucks at Naming
Chapter 100: Sol Hundred and Nine, Mai Dong Sucks at Naming

After an unknown period of time, Tang Yue’s eyes became sore. Tears kept flowing as the prolonged staring at the images on the computer was a time-consuming and mentally draining task. Over time, Tang Yue’s eyes began to cross.

The number of photos that needed identification went on endlessly. Furthermore, each photo looked almost identical. The only difference between the last photograph and the next one usually came from the label number. Upon zooming into the image, there were only gray pixels. Staring at such images easily resulted in eye and mental fatigue. To ensure that he didn’t miss any clues, Tang Yue often shut his eyes to rest them.

Mai Dong’s camera coverage was a rectangle with an area of 2,000 square meters, with lengths and breadths of about forty to fifty meters. With the Mars Wanderer’s length exceeding five meters, together with the shadows cast by the sun being even larger, it should have been possible for Tang Yue and Mai Dong to rapidly identify it if it had been captured by the space station, just like a reef in the middle of the ocean.

Tang Yue attempted to find even more traces, such as the Mars Wanderer’s tire marks, or traces of the solar panels being unfolded, but he eventually gave up such pursuits. The image resolution was too low, and a truck-sized vehicle like the Mars Wanderer could barely be identified, but the tracks would find themselves buried in the mosaic. All the details were blurred into a square pixel, making it impossible for Tang Yue to identify anything.

Sand dune.

Sand dune.

Rock.

Shadow.

Sand dune.

Mountain.

Rock.

Another rock.

Yet another rock.

Tang Yue closed his eyes as he left the desk. All the computer screens were images of the Martian surface. He had reached Label 320, which meant that he had finished looking through more than three hundred photos, covering an area of 640,000 square meters. However, he had not found any clue of value; there just weren’t any signs of Tomcat.

As a robot, Tomcat didn’t need anything apart from electricity. In a particular sense, this made it harder for Tang Yue to find it. If Tomcat were an ordinary human, it would definitely have left its mark like nomads. Humans left plenty of traces from their daily life, generating copious amounts of trash. These abnormal traces would stand out in the environment, making it easier to pinpoint.

However, Tomcat just needed the solar panels and the Mars Wanderer. While in motion, it would put away the solar panels, step down on the accelerator, and vanish into the vast deserts. The winds would cover the Mars Wanderer’s tire tracks, wiping away all traces.

Tang Yue pressed down on his eyes as he rested for 30 seconds. He stole a glance at the time when he opened them, and without realizing it, he had continued the search for more than three hours.

During these three hours, the United Space Station had passed over Kunlun Station once. Mai Dong had taken another thousand photos and had sent them to Kunlun Station’s computers for storage, adding to the number of photos that needed identification.

“Tang Yue, did you see the spot I circled? What do you think it is… I think it resembles signs of the Wanderer. The direction is a match as well.” Mai Dong was munching on crackers as she turned her head around to the camera. She too was as exhausted as Tang Yue. In fact, her workload was greater than Tang Yue’s. She hadn’t had any time to eat, and could only tide herself over by eating a cracker.

Tang Yue shook his head. “It’s only the shadow of the riverbed, not the tire marks of the Mars Wanderer.”

“What about the second spot I circled? That circle is so regular. Is that also naturally formed? Could it be signs of Mr. Cat’s activity?”

“It has nothing to do with Tomcat. It’s likely just a pit.”

By carefully searching the Martian surface, Tang Yue and Mai Dong would often discover particularly strange features that didn’t seem naturally-made or man-made. For example, a particular photo had what appeared to be a gigantic statue with a protruding chin. It was something Mai Dong couldn’t explain at all. Tang Yue suggested that it was just a piece of ordinary rock, and due to the low resolution of the photo, the rock had turned into something that triggered their imagination because of the lighting and shadows.

This was just like the Face on Mars which once caused quite a stir. In the 1970s, the Viking orbiter discovered a clear human face on the Martian surface, but facts later proved that this face had nothing to do with intelligent life on Mars. It was simply an optical illusion thanks to the angle of illumination. Later, other probes had taken new pictures of the area and found it to be an ordinary hill.

Mai Dong rubbed her dry eyes. Even closing them made her see flickering shadows.

She needed rest. Staring any longer only made her see double.

The United Space Station was already behind Mars, and in another hour or so, it would once again sweep above Kunlun Station. In that one hour, Mai Dong seized the time to identify the images to lessen Tang Yue’s load. The girl had completed more than two hundred photos, and she was a very meticulous lady. She repeated the monotonous work of identification more than a hundred times with meticulous attention to detail. She ensured that each image was completely unquestionable before going to the next.

After two scans, Mai Dong had taken photos spanning an area of 6,000,000 square meters, which was 6 square kilometers. However, the total area she needed to search reached as high as 190 square kilometers. She hadn’t even completed one-thirtieth of the work.

Just the thought of the remaining photos from the sea of images was harrowing.

Mai Dong grabbed the floating Shiba Inu doll and began squeezing it before placing it over her head.

“Lil’ Q, where do you think Mr. Cat is?”

The Shiba Inu’s name was Ah Q. Very clearly, Mai Dong sucked at giving names. The names she gave were basically an anthology of Lu Xun’s literary collection. Even the tomatoes in the incubator had names like Runtu and Zha.

The furry doll stared with its large, pitch-black eyes, wearing a look of innocence.

Mai Dong exchanged looks with it as she widened her bright, black eyes, also wearing a look of innocence.

“There are still 100,000 photos… 100,000! 100,000!”

The girl squeezed the furry toy, saying “100,000” with each squeeze, causing the toy’s face to deform as a result.

“God, can someone help me… I think I’ll drown in 100,000 photos…” The girl slowly covered her face and let out a long sigh.

“Mai Dong?”

“I’m here!” The girl opened her eyes as she propped herself up. “Sir, why have you summoned me?”

“Look at this photo.” Tang Yue sent the photo over. “There are two very uniform dark-colored marks. They are almost parallel. Do they look like tire marks?”

Mai Dong stared at the screen and after a long time, she said, “No… That’s not right. They aren’t tire marks. Compare it with the surrounding environment. Look at the scale. If they are tire marks, then the tires would be more than three meters wide. The Mars Wanderer’s tires aren’t that wide…”

Tang Yue didn’t say a word, probably because he was scrutinizing the image as well.

“I think it’s likely the shadow formed from the sides of a rectangular sand dune. Tang Yue, try turning the photo a little.” Mai Dong suggested. “The two shadows aren’t depressed, but protruding.”

“I get it. Next one.”