Dead on Mars

Chapter 207 - Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Seven, That’s My Ideal Life As A Cat
Chapter 207: Sol Three Hundred and Twenty-Seven, That’s My Ideal Life As A Cat

Sixth sol after the space station’s incident.

There were another five sols before Tianzhou 37 arrived.

Before dawn, Tomcat and Tang Yue got up to continue the preparatory work for Tianzhou 37’s landing. It was during this moment when the space station established communications with Kunlun Station. Mai Dong informed them that the Hub CBM module had vanished.

“The Hub’s gone?”

“It’s gone.” Mai Dong leaned against the window as she looked out. The spherical module which was connected to the core module had already vanished.

“The docking mechanism broke off.” Tomcat was very calm. It took out two steel rods from below the table and tapped on them likely. “It was weak to begin with. For it to have lasted this long shows how resilient it was. It’s not a surprise for it to break down.”

After the collision accident, the Hub and Crystal modules were the only two modules left. However, no one knew how secure their connection was. For safety reasons, Tomcat had shut down and sealed shut the hatch between them, disallowing Mai Dong from entering the Hub.

Tomcat originally wanted to sever the connection and release the Hub, but the docking mechanism was already out of order and not under its control. After repeatedly trying, it could only give up.

It was last night when the docking mechanism between the Crystal and Hub had finally broken down. When everyone was sleeping, the Hub had left the United Space Station, leaving Mai Dong to find the Crystal module the only remaining module of the United Space Station when she woke up. As for the Hub CBM module, it could very well have fallen into the atmosphere by now.

“Is it serious?” Tang Yue sat on the chair, removed his earpiece, and asked Tomcat.

“It’s normal.” Tomcat seemed indifferent as it wore a deadpan expression. It struck the ground with the steel rods. “It was only a matter of time before the Hub fell off.”

“Lass, how’s the space station’s attitude? Was it affected?” Tang Yue asked.

“I can’t tell,” Mai Dong replied. “The Crystal is spinning constantly. The difference in angular velocity doesn’t seem great.”

“What about the altitude?” Tang Yue asked again. “Can you do a rough measurement of your current altitude?”

Mai Dong raised the pencil, closed one eye, and found a reference object on the Martian surface. She had already learned the method to estimate distance. If this were two centuries ago, she would definitely make a good artillery soldier on the battlefield.

“Uh…” The girl muttered over the comms.

“How is it?” Tang Yue grasped the earpiece tightly.

“Uh…”

“How is it? What’s your present altitude? Has it dropped below a hundred kilometers?”

“Uh…”

“Lass?”

“Hey, stop rushing me, Tang Yue. Don’t mess up my thought process. Shut up. Shut up.”

Tang Yue obediently shut his mouth.

Half a minute later, the results were out.

“Tang Yue, my present altitude is… Hmm, about 112 kilometers.”

“112 kilometers! The United Space Station’s present altitude is 112 kilometers! Tomcat!” Tang Yue immediately removed the earpiece when he heard the result and shouted at Tomcat. “Is this altitude safe enough? Can it last to Tianzhou’s arrival?”

The crouching Tomcat had its back facing Tang Yue as it connected the steel rods. Without turning its head, it raised its dewclaw.

Tang Yue wore his earpiece. “Lass, Tomcat says you are very safe.”

“An altitude above 100 kilometers is safe. At this altitude, the atmospheric density is not enough to greatly decelerate the United Space Station. The space station can maintain a rather stable state. At 80 kilometers, that will be a warning zone as that’s the middle of the Martian atmosphere. Once it drops to that altitude, the atmospheric resistance will rise sharply, rapidly siphoning away the space station’s energy. 60 kilometers is the crashing altitude. This is already the entrance to the troposphere. Once it reaches this altitude, it crosses the chasm of no return,” Tomcat muttered behind Tang Yue, “112 kilometers. There’s nothing much to be worried about… Nothing much to be afraid about…”

It got up, held the two steel rods vertically in front of it and measured it with its paws to ensure that they were the same height. Tomcat was 1.5 meters tall, and the two steel rods were nearly its height.

“What are you doing?”

“Making a crutch,” Tomcat replied.

“Why?” Tang Yue was confused.

Tomcat leaned the two steel rods against the wall and turned to rummage through the junk pile to find some foam and cardboard. “We aren’t aware of Miss Mai Dong’s present physical condition. Preparing a crutch for her is just a precaution. It will allow her to move about when she comes down. After all, it takes time to recover… You can’t be carrying her around, right?”

“As long as she’s willing…” Tang Yue said, “I don’t mind.”

“Oh, that’s some improvement. So you aren’t some desert wolf anymore?” Tomcat grinned as its eyes turned into a slit. “We agreed to be single all our lives. Yet, you secretly got your marriage registered. Find a mirror and look at your silly grin.”

Tang Yue picked up a mirror on the table and touched his cheeks, feeling baffled. “I’m not smiling.”

“The smile in your eyes is almost overflowing.” Tomcat began twisting lasciviously in front of him again. “You are now like a feral cat on heat. You can’t sit still and it’s written all over your face, ‘Ah, I’m finally not single,’ ‘Ah, this is bliss.’ Indeed, compared to women, human civilization and its thousands of years of history is nothing, right? Don’t think I’m not aware of you secretly sniggering away in bed.”

Tang Yue was taken aback as he looked into the mirror.

“Is it that obvious? Besides, I slept the moment I hit the pillow last night… You heard me snoring, right?”

“Humans are indeed crass,” Tomcat said.

“Humans were crass to begin with.”

“I’m not against being crass. To be honest, on this godforsaken planet, the joy of being with you and Miss Mai Dong is infinitely more important than human civilization and its thousands of years of history. There is nothing in this world that is more important than your own lives. Seeking happiness is never something crass.” Tomcat grabbed some foam from a drawer. “If the two of you can have a perfect ending, then human civilization will have a perfect ending.

“If it weren’t the prevailing conditions that prevent you from doing so, I would be happy to see you and Miss Mai Dong have a litter of kids. I’d help you raise them, giving them a complete education and care, nurturing them into mathematicians, physicists, chemists, biologists, historians, writers, artists… When those kids grew up, they could continue having kids,” Tomcat continued. “When the two of you complete a blissful and full life, I’d bury the two of you in the empty plot of land in front of Kunlun Station and raise a tombstone and continue bringing up the kids of the kids of the kids until I break down from age.”

“Hey, hey, that is incestuous,” Tang Yue reminded it that its ideas were contrary to human relations. Just the tone and way Tomcat described it sounded more like it was rearing pigs instead of children.

Tomcat ignored him as it carried a pile of foam and stood there looking out the window, its gaze distant.

“That’s my ideal life as a cat.”