Die on Mars

Tang Yue and Maidong waited all night, until the sun rose and the sky was bright, but there was no message from the old cat.

Only then did Tang Yue confirm that something was really wrong with the old cat.

But what could go wrong with an old cat? It is an experienced resident crew member of the Kunlun Station. It drives a Mars rover and carries enough solar panels. It does not need oxygen, fresh water, or food. It can encounter such trouble on the uninhabited Mars. ? There's not even a robber in this damn place.

Tang Yue became increasingly anxious.

"No, Tang Yue, there is no response in the channel." Maidong tried calling the Martian stray dog ​​again, "Still unable to contact Mr. Cat."

"What problems can it cause?" Tang Yue held the pen in his hand and mechanically tapped the tip of the pen on the table. He imagined in his mind all the difficulties that the old cat might encounter, and overturned them one by one, "Even if it does, Isn’t it possible to even send a message to a trouble that cannot be solved... Could it be that the situation has overturned? "

Could it be that Lao Mao, the god of baby carriages in Qiu Mingshan, would one day have his car overturned?

Tang Yue couldn't imagine how he could drive over the Martian Stray Dog. The Stray Dog, an electric tractor with a speed as slow as a turtle, had big wheels, a low chassis, and low power. It was naturally insulated from all kinds of exciting stunts. It would be difficult to move at full speed. It surpasses the Flying Pigeon bicycle, and its simple control mode is like a bumper car in an amusement park. Even if you asked Schumacher to sit in the cab, he could only stare at the accelerator of this old scooter.

Unless you deliberately drive it into a hole, a stray dog ​​cannot turn it over.

"Unless it overturned and broke the communication antenna, it would have been impossible for it to not contact us for such a long time." Tang Yue turned to look out the window. At this time, the old cat was still 90 kilometers away. This distance is nothing on earth. , but it is like a chasm on Mars - Tang Yue thought about setting off to find the old cat by himself, but the life support system did not allow him to do so.

Wearing the Mingguang Armor, Tang Yue could only be active outdoors for a maximum of eight hours, and the power and oxygen would be exhausted any longer.

It was obviously impossible to cross 90 kilometers on foot in eight hours. If Tang Yue went out rashly, he would only end up hanging halfway.

The loss of contact is a big or small matter. At the most minor level, it may just be that the communication antenna on the Mars Stray Dog has malfunctioned. Both the old cat and the rover are safe and are rushing back to Kunlun Station at full speed. But at the most serious level, it is possible. Even the cat and the car had an accident. The old cat drove the stray dog ​​off a cliff, and the car was destroyed and the cat died.

There was only endless noise in the communication channel. Tang Yue turned the knob and searched repeatedly on various frequency bands, but found nothing. This kind of silence was the most disturbing. He couldn't even receive the briefest call for help, which showed that The other party is either not online or no longer alive.

"This damn cat, what's wrong with you... Just send me a comma! Send me a comma..."

Tang Yue stood up and paced back and forth in Kunlun Station, moving his joints with his hands. He rubbed his hands repeatedly, looking outside while warding off the cold.

"Tang Yue... maybe there is just a communication system failure on Mr. Cat's side, and it is on its way back? Don't be too anxious..." Maidong comforted him, "Wait a moment."

It was really unnerving to just wait like this, but Tang Yue couldn't do anything. He could only stay in Kunlun Station, circling like a bear in this area of ​​several dozen square meters.

The OGS cabinet is blowing out cold air. After one night, the indoor temperature at Kunlun Station has dropped to minus 20 degrees. After the sun comes out, the temperature may rise, but it still fluctuates below zero.

Tang Yue had already put on all the clothes he could wear, wrapped in a blanket and relying on RTG to survive hard.

"Calm down... calm down!" Tang Yue sat down again and took a deep breath, "Mai Dong, please calm down first. Mai Dong, please calm down first. Rushing will not solve any problem."

"I'm very calm. It's you, Tang Yue, who needs to calm down." The girl blinked.

"Okay, okay... I'll calm down first." Tang Yue pressed his forehead and forced himself to calm down. "Let's analyze the current situation that the old cat may be facing and see if we can be of any help."

Maidong nodded.

"It lost contact with us. There is no doubt that there is a problem with its communication system." Tang Yue said. Of course, it is also possible that the old cat went missing because of a brain convulsion and deliberately did not contact the space station, but this possibility It was so trivial that Tang Yue didn't consider it.

"What caused Mr. Cat's communication system to malfunction?" Maidong asked.

"The communication system on Mars Stray Dog is the backup of Kunlun Station. It is very reliable and the robustness of the entire system is very high. The usage time of Mars Stray Dog is almost equal to that of Kunlun Station, but the communication system has never had any problems." Tang Yue replied, "Just the day before Lao Mao set off, I also checked the stray dog. At that time, the communication system was normal... so the possibility of a spontaneous failure is very low."

"So it's an external factor?"

Tang Yue nodded, "It's most likely due to external factors, such as strong mechanical impact, high temperature, strong radiation, man-made destruction..."

Tang Yue and Maidong both had an ominous premonition. Since the cause of the communication system failure was external factors, and the communication system was installed inside the rover and was damaged by a violent impact, then the external Mars stray dogs Wouldn’t it be more dangerous for the old cat himself and the driver?

"On the surface of Mars, we can exclude factors such as high-temperature radiation and man-made destruction. The most likely possibility is that the car overturned." Tang Yue continued, "If it really overturned, then it would definitely be unable to push the heavy Martian stray dog. Yes, so the most appropriate way to deal with it at that time was to abandon the rover and walk back to Kunlun Station alone... But the old cat also needs to be recharged, so it has to carry enough battery panels with it... Damn it!"

Maidong held his breath.

If Tang Yue's inference is correct, then the old cat is dragging the solar panel and walking alone in the wasteland.

"But this is just a possibility, this is just a possibility!" Tang Yue shook his head and eliminated the idea in his mind, "If the severity of the accident is higher than we imagined, then it is very likely that the old cat will accompany the Mars rover. Destroyed – it might have survived but was severely maimed and incapacitated, or it might have been dead on the spot…damn it.”

The second hypothesis is so terrible that Maidong cannot imagine it. What does it mean to be severely disabled and lose the ability to move? Did he have his legs broken and could only lie there helplessly waiting to die?

"Ophiopogon japonicus... Ophiopogon japonicus!"

"Ah?" Maidong was shocked and came back to his senses.

"We can't wait like this anymore, we have to understand the current situation of the old cat!" Tang Yue said, "You have to help me! Do you hear me? Only you can help me!"

"How to help?"

"First we have to find the old cat!" Tang Yue replied, "There is a camera on the space station. You can scan the bottom in orbit..."

"But the scanning telescope and high-precision camera are all in the Dawn cabin, and they have all been destroyed."

"In addition to the Dawn cabin, there are cameras in other cabins!"

"Yes... but it is not used to survey the surface, and the accuracy is not high." Maidong said, "And it cannot plan a path scan, nor can it automatically identify it."

"It doesn't matter if it can't be scanned automatically, we'll just do it manually." Tang Yue pointed at Ophiopogon japonicus, then pointed at himself, "It doesn't matter if it can't be automatically recognized, we'll just use our eyes!"

"We all have to find that cat!"