Dead on Mars

Chapter 228 - Sol Three Hundred and Thirty-Four, Waiting For Gold Hoe
Chapter 228: Sol Three Hundred and Thirty-Four, Waiting For Gold Hoe

Measuring latitude in the day and measuring longitude at night.

Tang Yue sat on the tiny campstool and cocked his head as he watched Tomcat hold the sextant as it kept walking around. The latter looked up at the Sun, pulling a thin thread against the protractor, carefully measuring the Sun’s elevation angle.

A weak gust of wind swirled dust across Tang Yue’s feet. He moved his gaze away from Tomcat. Behind the latter’s back was the black, barren soil that exposed dark-colored base rocks.

Having never experienced such a moment, Tang Yue had a deep understanding of what it meant to be in “no man’s land” as the three words seemed to inundate him. Mars was probably the biggest no man’s land in the human world. No matter which direction one took for ten thousand kilometers, one wouldn’t bump into a second person.

This wasn’t loneliness.

It was desolate.

“Tomcat.” Tang Yue looked down at his feet as he kicked a rock around. “Do you know of a play named “Waiting for Gold Hoe?”

“Waiting for Gold Hoe?” Tomcat turned its head. “What’s that? Why would one wait for snot, even if it’s gold?”

“It’s a comedy that’s very famous. It’s about two people sitting under a tree waiting for something.” Tang Yue thought and said, “They keep waiting and waiting, and in the end, the thing they were waiting for doesn’t come.”

“That’s Waiting for Godot, a tragicomedy play written by Samuel Beckett. It has great significance in the world of arts.” Tomcat shook its head in exasperation. “What do you mean Waiting for Gold Hoe?”

This wasn’t the first time Tomcat was worried about Tang Yue’s lack of culture.

“Alright, alright. Godot then.”

Tang Yue felt that he and Tomcat were like two desert travelers waiting for a public bus. Just like Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot, they were sitting at a bus stop at the ends of the world. On one side was the road and on the other side was an endless desert. The bus stop indicated that the bus would pass by, but no one knew when the bus would come, or what kind of bus it was. People didn’t even know if the bus existed.

The bus might appear across the horizon the next second, but equally, it might never appear.

The letter of unknown origins that Tang Yue was holding had prompted him to take this trip of no return. It was all for that speck of hope.

“They say they can restore Earth…” Tang Yue asked, “but how are they going to do it?”

“Perhaps they will replicate Earth based on all its data,” Tomcat replied. “There will always be such intelligence in the Universe that can perfectly record all the data of the fundamental particles on Earth and then replicate them in their original states.”

“But wouldn’t this violate the most basic principle of physics?” Tang Yue asked.

“Which one?”

“Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle,” Tang Yue replied. “An observer is unable to determine the location and speed of a fundamental particle at the same time.”

“Uh…” Tomcat pondered. “To be honest, this question exceeds what I know. I have no idea what the most fundamental matters that line the Universe are. After Earth vanished, human physics came to a complete stop, but advanced intelligence might have gone further than humans had. They might have made even greater breakthroughs and had obtained the microscope God used when creating the world.”

“Microscope used during the Creation?”

“A method unknown to humans, one that can peep into the deepest secrets of the Universe.” Tomcat shrugged. “I believe it will definitely be more advanced than a primitive tool that only relies on accelerating particles.”

“There’s nothing stopping us from being bold in our imaginations. Perhaps they are completely in a dimension above us? If they have the ability to enter a higher dimension, then time is just a piece of paper they can easily manipulate.” Tomcat pointed at the letter in Tang Yue’s hand. “Towards such a civilization, we are like fixed frames on a table. They can casually take out one frame and change the instantaneous reality of a particular moment.”

“They can rewrite history?” Tang Yue couldn’t help but shiver.

“Perhaps they don’t even have the concept of history.”

“Unimaginable.”

“Don’t even bother trying.” Tomcat put away the sextant. “I don’t suggest you try inferring that to the owner behind the letter. The human brain is unable to formulate something that exceeds your knowledge.”

Tang Yue was taken aback.

“No matter how strange and odd an entity your imagination can produce, it’s still a result of the known elements in your brain. Think about all the monster and supernatural movies you’ve watched; they are all modified and merged from Earthlings,” Tomcat said. “Ancients say that the way a dragon is drawn is to have a camel’s head, deer horns, snake’s neck, tortoise eyes, fish scales, tiger paws, eagle talons, and ox ears. It’s the same rationale.

“To date, extraterrestrial intelligence that humans can imagine and draw can’t escape this framework. Regardless of you imagining that aliens have four heads and eight arms, whether a solar year is 480 days, whether they will circle around a mushroom god at the end of the year celebrating the rise of the third moon, they are just a projection and modification of human society,” Tomcat said.

Tang Yue widened his eyes as he slowly nodded. He wasn’t sure what he could say.

It wasn’t common for him to let his imagination go wild usually. In his mind, extraterrestrials were probably like James Cameron’s Avatar. They were tall with blue skin as they rode on chariots, using spears and arrows to fight battleships.

As such, Tang Yue’s imagination of the lawsuit was of the defendant sitting there alone—a beautiful blue-skinned person with patterns drawn across its body in preparation for war. On its back were a bow and arrows.

“That’s why I think that all works that try to caricature another lifeform are pointless,” Tomcat said. “With the creator being human, it can never escape the human imagination. You can only use what’s at your fingertips and try your best to make it look odd. But no matter what you do, it’s actually just another version of yourself.”

But Tomcat shattered Tang Yue’s imaginations.

It told Tang Yue that such poor imagination was too lacking.

“This means… I’ll be fighting a lawsuit against a completely unknown existence?”

“Yes.”

“I’m already going to engage in a battle with so little preparation, and now you’re telling me that the enemy is a completely unimaginable existence? What about know the enemy and know yourself?” Tang Yue widened his eyes. “What’s the point in fighting then? Even if I drew Mickey Mouse and get assistance, there’s no way I can beat them. We’re doomed.”

“Doom isn’t necessary.”

Tomcat gently twirled its whisker.

It only had one whisker to twirl.

“Sir Cat, do you still have any other wise strategies?” Tang Yue asked. “You have to teach me how to defeat the enemy.”

“Lean your ear over.” Tomcat beckoned with its paw.

Tang Yue leaned in.

“If Mickey fails, draw Mario on the table,” Tomcat said. “Then, declare to all the living beings present that this cartoon image’s intellectual property belongs to you.”