Dead on Mars

Chapter 222 - Sol Three Hundred and Thirty-Three, Unverifiable
Chapter 222: Sol Three Hundred and Thirty-Three, Unverifiable

The first thing that needed handling was food and water.

After being resupplied by Tianzhou 37, Kunlun Station’s food reserves were rather plentiful. However, the Mars Wanderer had limited capacity. Tomcat and Tang Yue were unable to take all of it along. In the morning, just as the Sun rose, Tang Yue and Tomcat got up and began preparing.

“Tang Yue, how much food do you need?” In front of Tomcat was a mountain of soft-packaging canned food and reconstituted food. It was at a loss, having the desire to take everything but being limited by the capacity. It was a worry worth being happy about. Compared to the earlier days when Kunlun Station only had compressed biscuits for survival, there wasn’t any choice.

“Fifteen days of food will do.”

Tang Yue was outside the garage. The geolab had been removed from Mars Wanderer. He was clearing out all the apparatus in the lab.

The lab was Kunlun Station’s only mobile airtight module. It came with four wheels and could move by being attached to the Wanderer. Based on the coordinates, they needed at least nine days. Most of the time, Tang Yue would be wearing the Radiant Armor, but he also needed to eat, drink, and defecate.

“Only fifteen days?”

“There’s only enough oxygen for nine days.” Tang Yue threw the heavy spectrophotometer as it slammed into the sand. “Fifteen days of food is enough. The dead can’t eat. Since I’m not returning, having plenty of food is meaningless. It will only add to the weight and slow down the Wanderer.”

“What about flavors?”

“Anything will do except salted squid.”

Tang Yue turned around and entered the geolab. Soon, there were clunking and knocking sounds. Finally, he took out a computer monitor and threw it outside.

Tomcat took stock of each item while Tang Yue perspired heavily inside the garage. The latter had once again regained his strength and drive. He did things swiftly, completely unlike the three sols after the space station crashed. Tang Yue had lived those sols like a walking zombie. He had sat there in a daze with a blank expression, neither eating or drinking. In a sense, this letter of unknown origins had extended Tang Yue’s life, giving him a purpose to keep living.

“One… Two… Three… One sol, two sols, three sols… No salted squid. No salted squid…”

Tomcat counted, trying its best to select tiny, light, and high-calorie foods. For water, it took bottles. Each bottle contained 600 milliliters of water. Under normal circumstances, two bottles of water were enough for a day’s consumption. Just like food, fifteen days of water was prepared. That meant thirty bottles. The water in Kunlun Station’s water tank was precious, but at this stage, all of that was to be abandoned.

Tomcat separately packed the food and water, rather carefully arranging Tang Yue’s daily menu before labeling them.

“Tang Yue.”

“Yes?”

“If you’re willing to wait, I can make the trip first. It will take at most a month and I’ll be back. After I confirm that it’s safe, I can return to take you over…”

“I’m not willing to wait.” Tang Yue was squatting, dismantling the screws from the table’s legs.

“Got it.”

Tomcat didn’t make another mention of it again.

Having cleared the geolab outside the garage, Tang Yue began moving the solar panels.

The solar panels were the main source of power for the Mars Wanderer and Tomcat. The last time Tomcat headed out to find the Chelomey, it had taken thirty solar panels with it. It spent nearly ten hours a day recharging. This time, they planned on taking all the solar panels to shorten the amount of recharging every day. However, these things were bulky and heavy. They could only be bundled together and placed on the trailer.

The final form of the Mars Wanderer was like Thomas the Tank Engine. It hauled the geolab with the trailer behind. Food and water were stored in the geolab, while the solar panels were placed on the trailer. This was in a way an overload for the Mars Wanderer, but this was the final mission of its life, so it was only an inconvenience for that final haul.

After Tomcat tidied up all the supplies, it stepped into the garage and saw that not far away, Tang Yue was sitting against the Wanderer’s wheels. He was looking up with his hands on his knees. It was unknown what he was looking at.

“You got a cigarette?” Tang Yue knew that Tomcat was coming over. Still sitting motionless, he asked in passing.

“You smoke?”

“No, none of us smoke. The Orion astronauts are forbidden from smoking,” Tang Yue replied.

“Smoking is bad for your health.” Tomcat sat down, leaning against him. Looking in the direction where Tang Yue was looking, all it saw was a gray sky.

“I know it’s bad for your health. My dad forbade me from smoking. He once said that he would break my legs if he caught me smoking, but he smokes like a chimney in a way far worse than anyone,” Tang Yue said. “Now I know why no one in the world would really like smoking, but at times, what can we do apart from smoking? All I can see is a powerless and lost self.”

“Cigarettes are nothing. I can recommend you something more hardcore.”

“Huh?”

“Do you see the hydrogen-oxygen tank on Tianzhou 37? The nozzle is a meter thick with more than a hundred tonnes of thrust. That’s hardcore enough. Bro, you can try that.”

Tang Yue chuckled silently.

He took out the letter from his pocket and stared at it blankly.

He had already read the letter more than a hundred times. He could even memorize its contents, but Tang Yue still had no idea if it was authentic.

It claimed to be from an incredulous advanced civilization.

But there was nothing about it that proved this. If it could emit light and speak or fly in the sky, Tang Yue would have acknowledged the ridiculousness of it all. But it was just an ordinary piece of paper. It was unable to prove that it came from an alien civilization, nor could it prove that it was something that came from an Earthling.

In Tomcat’s words, if there were such intelligent lifeforms in the Universe, creating pulp to make paper and learning the human language was likely trivial to them. Now, if such a person were to slap a piece of paper like that in front of you, saying that they came from the other end of the Milky Way, you had no way of verifying their claims no matter how ridiculous it sounded.

Of course, this might also be Tomcat’s way of creating an illusion.

Tomcat wasn’t one to always speak the truth to Tang Yue. Back when the space station crashed, it had hidden the truth to protect him. It could do anything… For example, fabricate a letter from alien civilizations, coming up with a nonsensical coordinate, claiming that Earth could be restored, giving the dispirited Tang Yue the motivation to stand up on his feet again.

If it were really a ploy by Tomcat, it had undoubtedly succeeded. It had succeeded in extending Tang Yue’s life by at least nine sols.

“Tomcat… Do you really believe everything that’s written in this letter? Do you really believe in such an advanced civilization? Do you believe Earth can be restored?”

Tomcat received the letter from him.

After a few minutes of silence, it shook its head.

“I don’t.”