Die on Mars

Tang Yue carried the solar panels onto the Martian stray dog's cart. The isotope thermoelectric generator and battery were both on the cart. The old cat was about to go on a long journey. The latter did not need food supplies, but the power reserve must be sufficient. Tang Yue put the energy on board All the batteries he took away in the car were given to Lao Mao.

It is foreseeable that after the Tomcat-Tang-Mai comet hits Mars, it will cause extremely serious derivative disasters. Old Cat may be able to escape the impact and earthquakes, but the large amount of material thrown into the sky during the impact will plunge Mars into boundless darkness. The dust that covers the sky will completely cut off the source of solar energy, which is the main problem that old cats have to face.

So Tang Yue put all the batteries in the car. He was worried that the old cat would not get enough power.

The old cat comforted him and said that the density of the atmosphere on Mars is low and the wind is weak, so the smoke and dust will not stay in the air for too long. At worst, he will shut down and go into sleep. He will get through the darkest period first, and then he will explore with the Chelome Like other devices, humans cannot go without breathing for more than three minutes, but old cats can sleep on standby for a long time, minimizing power consumption.

As the saying goes, it is hibernation.

Tang Yue walked around the Martian stray dog, slapping the cab and wheels of the Mars rover. Lao Mao and Tang Yue lacked the tools to repair the stray dog, so the broken car was still covered in bruises. When Lao Mao drove it, it fell into There were ruins of underground rivers, the cab was flattened and the windows were shattered.

The previous stray dog ​​was a husky.

Now it can only be called a bulldog.

"You've worked hard too." Tang Yue put his palms on the car body. You must know that this car was originally painted in light yellow and white, and it looked like a young man who was just starting out. But now it is covered with sand, spray paint and The coating peeled off completely, and rough scratches ran from the front to the rear of the car. The young man also turned into an old man covered in scars. "From now on, follow the old cat and leave here. Go as far as possible." Travel this planet in your lifetime.”

Tang Yue tied up the solar panels with cables. The front of the stray dog's car dragged a cart with large and small bags of luggage tied to it.

"Tie it up securely."

Tang Yue pushed the batteries on the cart hard to make sure they would not come loose.

"Say good-bye to Kunlun, silly dog."

The old cat was wearing an indoor spacesuit, sitting on a chair, holding the spacesuit's glass helmet in his arms.

It turned its head and looked at Tang Yue, who was walking back and forth outside the window, packing its luggage quickly. Tang Yue went back and forth between the garage and the rover over and over again, pushing the heavy battery panels onto the cart.

"He is smiling." the old cat said softly, "should you smile when you say goodbye?"

"Mr. Cat, if he says goodbye to you in tears..." Maidong asked, "then will you leave?"

"I'm not leaving." Old Cat put the helmet on the table and replied without hesitation, "But that silly boy just won't cry. For so many days, every time I look at him, he smiles and tells me to get out of here. Come on, get out of here, don’t stay and die.”

The old cat clamped his head hard and hit his forehead on the table. "As long as he sheds a tear in front of me and tells me not to leave, I will rush out and dismantle the wheels of the stray dog, pull out the battery wires, tear them up and swallow them." Go down, but he refused to say anything. The boy just smiled and told me to get out of here, get out of here, don’t stay and die.”

"Damn it, do you think he can't cry just once?"

The old cat slapped the table and cursed.

"I'm the fucking stationmaster, the stationmaster of Kunlun Station! An experienced senior assistant and guide of the Mars scientific expedition team. I have solved a total of 167 major and minor accidents! I have saved the lives of thirteen people! Let a rookie hang on My boss...I...I...I don't want to face..."

The old cat turned his back, his voice trembled and dropped intermittently, and his shoulders shrugged slightly.

"Mr. Cat." Maidong said sadly.

"Miss Maidong."

"Um?"

"Sadness is the enemy of humans." The old cat said something without reason, "It is also the enemy of cats."

"Do cats get sad too?"

"Yes, cats can be sad too." The old cat turned his back to Ophiopogon japonicus. "If the shit-sweeper is gone, the cat will be very sad. It will wander over and over again where the shit-sweeper lived, and then jump on The cat was climbing on the frame, holding a small dried fish in its mouth, staring blankly at the empty room."

Maidong hugged Ah Q tightly in her arms. She didn't know how to comfort this sad cat. Cats are born as lonely and cold creatures like elves. If they are sad, they will lose their ghosts and turn into ghosts wandering around the world. .

However, a cat as fat and short as the old cat would probably not be able to roam around, and the orange cat has been expelled from the cat registry.

Tang Yue stepped into Kunlun Station with the cold air outside and took off his Mingguang Armor. He worked all morning, loading the solar cells and RTG into the car, and put the hard drive that stored the history of human civilization in the car. Go up, these things must be taken away by the old cat and cannot be destroyed along with the Kunlun Station.

"Phew... I'm exhausted. I've finally packed my suitcase." Tang Yue poured a large glass of water, "How are you preparing? Old cat, are you ready to go?"

Old Mao glanced at him, Tang Yue's tone was as normal as ever, as if nothing was wrong, as if the person who was leaving was not Old Mao but him.

"I'll sit down for a while."

"You said this three days ago. You still said this three days ago. You have been sitting here until today. The comet will fall in a few days." Tang Yue said, "Sit for one more second." A clock saves one second of travel.”

"I know it well."

"You have a damn number."

"I don't need you to remind me when to leave."

"If I don't remind you that you can sit here forever, do you think you are Bodhidharma?"

"Do you believe I won't leave?"

"you dare?"

"Tang Yue, let me tell you, I am the stationmaster of Kunlun Station in the real sense, appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations!" Old Mao shouted, "You have no right to command me to do anything."

"The Secretary-General of the United Nations does not care about this. His designated identity has no legal effect. Don't use a chicken feather as an arrow. The rotating station commander of Kunlun Station is the commander of the mission, so the station commander is Lao Wang." Tang Yue said , "You are just a cat."

"What's wrong with the cat?" The old cat stared.

"The problem is you're still a fake cat."

The old cat immediately suffered 10,000 points of critical damage, and Tang Yue's stab was hard and accurate.

"Fake cats are also cats!" the old cat was furious.

"Since you are a cat, you must be obedient." Tang Yue stepped forward and hugged the old cat's shoulders tightly, saying in a deep voice, "The bickering is over, let's go, old man, leave quickly, it will be too late if you don't leave. …You can’t save me, so why bother struggling?”

All the words the old cat wanted to roar were lost in an instant, and it fell silent.

No matter how hard the old cat rolled on the ground and struggled, it could not save Tang Yue.

Delaying time will not do anything. The comet will eventually hit the surface of Mars. No one can change this result.

"You are all gone...what's the point of my existence?"

"Ophiopogon japonicus is still there." Tang Yue said, "Protect her."

The old cat nodded slowly and hugged Tang Yue tightly. It and Tang Yue took one last photo together in front of the camera, saying that it could be hung on the front of the car to ward off evil spirits. Maidong also took a selfie and sent it to the old cat. Cat, said it was a souvenir.

Maidong did not say when she would leave, but judging from her plan, she must stay until the last moment before the comet arrives.

The old cat took a step back, put his legs together, stood at attention, and raised his paws in salute.

"Comrade Tang Yue, Comrade Mai Dong, job title number UNMEP360037A, senior assistant and guidance specialist of the Mars Landing Program, Cat, say goodbye to you! Cherish the journey!"

Tang Yue and Maidong tightened their expressions and raised their hands in return.

"Comrade Mao, job title number CNMEP390012C Mars landing plan payload expert, mechanical and electrical engineer Tang Yue, bid farewell to you! Cherish the journey!"

"Comrade Cat, job title number CNMEP390022C Mars landing plan payload expert, plant and agricultural ecology technician Maidong, bid farewell to you! Cherish the journey!"

Lao Mao put on his helmet, took one last look at Tang Yue and Mai Dong, turned around and stepped into the airlock door.

With a "click", the hatch closed.

The old cat is gone.

It will never come back.

The seriousness and calmness that Tang Yue maintained forcibly collapsed instantly. He stepped back step by step and sat down on the chair.

"Tang Yue, aren't you going to see Mr. Cat off?"

Tang Yue turned his back to Maidong and shook his head.

"Maidong, do you know why I can't go out? Because...because I'm afraid that if I chase it out...it...it will go...and it won't be able to go..."

"Is it because Mr. Cat doesn't want to leave?"

Tang Yue shook his head and stopped talking.

Maidong's eyes lowered, and she looked at the man's shoulders that couldn't restrain their shaking. This might be the first time in his life that he had cried so sadly.

·

·

·

ten minutes later.

Tang Yue lay on the table, tilting his head, staring blankly at the computer monitor. Kunlun Station was silent. Maidong was still online, but she said nothing.

There is a photo of Ophiopogon japonicus on the screen. It is a selfie that the girl just left for the old cat as a souvenir. She is facing the camera, wearing a blue overalls and a peaked cap, smiling, as serious as an ID photo, with the background It was the control panel and various monitors - she originally wanted to take the photo in a more playful way, but she really wasn't in the mood when she was leaving.

Tang Yue moved the mouse, not knowing what he was thinking.

Deciding to stay and face death alone is a heroic act.

But only he knew how Tang Yue felt at this time.

During the long wait, the computer entered standby mode and the monitor went dark. Tang Yue lay on the table and closed his eyes.

He wanted to get some sleep.

There was a sudden "click" and Tang Yue raised his head.

The door of the airlock was pushed open, and the old cat appeared, and it actually came back.

Tang Yue and Maidong were both surprised and overjoyed at the same time. They had the feeling that Uncle Liu Huang had seen Xu Yuan go straight and come back.

"You...what did you come back for?"

The old cat had a solemn expression and was walking in a hurry. It was covered in wind and sand. It didn't answer Tang Yue's questions. It didn't even say hello to Tang Yue. It didn't even have time to take off its space suit. It walked straight over and pushed Tang Yue away and sat down. Go to the front of the desk and activate the computer.

The old cat retrieved the photo from the computer. It was a selfie that Maidong sent to the old cat.

"Miss Maidong! Can you hear me? Miss Maidong!"

"Mr. Cat...what's wrong?"

"Wait, wait, don't talk, don't talk yet... This is the photo you just sent me, right? This is the selfie photo you just sent me!" The old cat's voice was trembling, and it was holding the mouse. His paws were also trembling, and both Tang Yue and Maidong realized something was unusual.

"Yes."

The old cat framed a screen in the background of the girl's photo and enlarged it - the dark starry sky on the monitor looked blurry in the photo, probably the observation image of the space station's telescope.

"Ms. Maidong! Is this display the star-finding system of the survey telescope on the Joint Space Station?"

Maidong didn't know why and nodded.

"You had the telescope tracking that comet?"

"Yes."

"Old cat?" Tang Yue was confused.

"Shut up! Don't talk! Don't interrupt me." The old cat shouted, staring at the photo on the monitor, "Miss Maidong, in your photo, you can see several people approaching you. celestial body?"

"In this photo, how many celestial bodies are moving towards me?" Maidong didn't understand why Old Cat asked this. She opened her laptop and pulled up the observation data from the survey telescope, "Isn't it obvious? There’s only one, comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai…wait, what is that?”

Maidong's last question surprised Tang Yue who was listening. He didn't know what happened, but it was obvious that something unusual had happened.

"Yes, why is it here? It shouldn't be in that place at this time! How is this possible? This is not its track!" The old cat was so excited that his whole body was shaking slightly, and he slammed his fists on the table. " It's impossible, impossible, impossible, it's completely impossible! It's impossible!"

"What on earth are you talking about?" Tang Yue came over.

Lao Mao turned the computer screen over and showed Tang Yue the complete observation photo. At first glance, it looked no different from other photos taken by the space station's survey telescope. The old cat pointed to a bright spot on the left side of the photo. The halo was clearly visible under the lens of the telescope, and asked: "Do you know what this is?"

"comet?"

The old cat nodded and moved its toes slightly, "What about this one?"

Tang Yue was startled. After looking carefully, he discovered that there was another bright spot in the comet's halo. What was going on? Is this also the nucleus of a comet? Comet Tomcat has two nuclei?

"This...is also the nucleus of a comet?"

"No." Old Cat shook his head, "That's not the comet nucleus. It's actually not inside the comet. It's just that the two were squeezed together because of the shooting angle..."

The old cat paused.

"That's Deimos."

·

·

·

Deimos, Deimos.

It is the smallest satellite in the solar system. It is more than 23,000 kilometers away from the surface of Mars and has a diameter of more than 12 kilometers. In Greek mythology, Deimos is the satellite of Ares, the god of war, and Aphrodite, the god of love. Son, this little satellite orbits Mars at 1.35 kilometers per second, completing one revolution every more than thirty hours.

Because it is so small, its presence is extremely low. Occasionally, Ophiopogon japonicus can find that small bright spot passing by in the deep sky 20,000 kilometers away, extremely inconspicuous among the bright stars.

"I don't know why it's here. The orbital inclination of Demos is 0.93° and the eccentricity is 1.79! This is completely off its orbit. How did this guy fly here? It simply can't and shouldn't be Show up here!" Old Cat typed frantically on the keyboard, "This satellite has been running steadily in its orbit for billions of years, why did it suddenly change?"

The workstation is running at full capacity, and huge amounts of data are being transmitted from the space station.

The old cat jumped impatiently while muttering something about "impossible, impossible, absolutely impossible."

It is building a model, a model that accurately predicts the flight trajectory of simulated comets. Tang Yue and Maidong are watching nervously.

"We have never considered Deimos before, because its orbit and the comet are not on the same plane at all, and the orbit period is wrong. When the comet hits the surface, this little guy should hide on the back of Mars to enjoy the cool air!" Old Cat was very excited. , speaking as fast as a machine gun, "Human beings have observed this result in the past hundreds of years, and there has been no change!"

"But the observations from the Joint Space Station and Miss Maidong's photos just told me that its orbit has changed... Damn it, this guy has derailed! How is this possible? A behemoth weighing 1.8×10∧12 tons, who Can it easily change its orbit? Who can push a mass of 180 billion tons? Is there really some unknown force pushing it in the dark? Or is there something wrong with Mars itself? No...that's not right... wrong……"

The old cat said to himself, and was shocked by his own speculation.

All the clues gathered in his mind and were linked together to finally arrive at the answer.

It slowly widened its eyes.

It's not some unknown force that is causing trouble in the dark.

It's not that Mars has changed.

"The movement of celestial bodies in the solar system is a chaotic system. There are too many influencing factors and it cannot be accurately predicted. A single move can affect the whole body. A 60 trillion-ton thing 100 million kilometers away suddenly disappeared for no reason. Therefore, this little thing The orbit of the moon was affected! In front of the real giant of the Earth, Deimos is too small and light, so the impact was quickly apparent..."

Tang Yue and Maidong were already stunned.

They didn't expect that their home planet, which had disappeared a long time ago, would save their lives in this way.

The two of them did not dare to speak for fear of disturbing the old cat. Within five minutes of leaving the house, it rushed back in a hurry. It must be for a very important thing - it might be able to turn things around.

The mathematical model is constructed.

The old cat hit the enter key hard.

The code went out and the computer screen dimmed. The comet's trajectory was represented by blue lines, and Mars was still a large red circle. At this distance, the Kunlun Station's computer could already predict the comet's flight path very accurately.

"Tang Yue! Miss Maidong!"

"Um?"

"Um?"

"Let's throw the dice one last time. Do you think we can roll six?" asked the old cat.

Comet Tomcat moves slowly on the screen, drawing a blue arc.

"What is the probability of rolling a six?" Tang Yue asked.

"It's very, very small, smaller than the probability of a comet hitting Mars." Old Cat replied.

Tang Yue smiled.

"The problem is that the comet is already hitting Mars."

"Yes." Old Cat nodded and grinned, "The comet is about to hit Mars."

At that moment, Tang Yue raised his head. He could feel some powerful force and oppression coming towards him in the distant deep sky. Never before had Tang Yue been able to sense the existence of Comet Tomcat so clearly, as if Someone gave him a God's perspective, and he could see the huge comet nucleus rolling and evaporating in deep space, dragging a long tail of thin water vapor and carbon dioxide.

Tang Yue suddenly understood why some people believe in mechanical fatalism. The universe is a huge machine, the solar system is a flywheel, Mars is the gear on the flywheel, and comets are crankshafts or connecting rods that move back and forth. Everything is moving precisely. operation. Think about Ptolemy's geocentric theory. The planetary movement is a structure of epicycles on epicycles and deferents on wheels, just like gears that mesh with each other. This seemingly extremely complicated theory is actually reflected at the deepest and lowest level. The most concise and simple mechanical mathematics.

Will Deimos save their lives?

Tang Yue didn't know either.

"Throw boldly!"

The big blue spiral gradually approaches Mars on the screen. This result is exactly the same as the workstation predicted before. It will fall on the Great Thetis Plateau and destroy everything.

Tang Yue clenched his fists.

Maidong hugged Ah Q tightly in his arms.

A white line suddenly appeared on the edge of the screen, which was the orbit of another celestial body! The little Deimos broke into everyone's field of vision - Lao Mao never included Deimos in previous calculations and predictions, because it was excluded from the beginning. Satellites in fixed orbits are the best predicted positions. , according to the existing data, it only takes a second for the computer to deduce that it has no effect on the comet.

Demos has been orbiting for billions of years, and no one knows that it has quietly changed its position.

Deimos flies much slower than Comet Tomcat, but the white orbit is still extending unhurriedly, and even a blind person can see that if it continues flying like this, it will stop right in front of the comet.

Tang Yue pinched the old cat's shoulder, and the old cat put his paw on the back of the former's hand to signal him to calm down, but the old cat himself couldn't calm down, and his legs under the table were shaking like chaff.

Both of them were staring at the two lines on the monitor. This was going to be the scene of a space car accident. The Tomcat Comet was a heavy-duty truck that was speeding to 70 miles. It was out of control, and it was blocking and killing the gods. It was crashing head-on. In the residential area across the road, Demos is an unconscious Chery QQ, driving slowly from the intersection. Whether the two people and the cat in the residential area can be saved depends on whether the Chery QQ can Hit the Mercedes-Benz truck.

This possibility is another comet hitting Mars, but Comet Tomcat became the victim.

Bang it, bump it, bump it, bump it, bump it, bump it!

Hit it hard!

Hit it hard for me——!

Tang Yue clenched his fists, his face flushed, just like a spectator watching a game on the court. With the scores tied, there was still half a minute left before the end of the game, but our players had already broken through the enemy's defense with the ball. , enters the enemy's penalty area and kicks the ball. A successful shot is a sure win!

Maidong buried his face in Ah Q's stomach, not daring to look any further.

Tang Yue didn't know how long it had been. It might have been just a dozen seconds, or it might have been several hours, or even as long as a year or even a lifetime. The moment the two tracks intersected, there was a "beep-" sound. A large amount of data burst out, and a red pop-up window popped up.

IMPACT!

At the moment before the end of the game, our own player kicked the ball hard!

Killer!

Within two seconds after the impact, the computer gave the result. Demos’ Chery QQ came up from behind and struck him. To be honest, Demos was also very confused and innocent. He didn’t know. How could he be hit by such a huge creature? It was truly a disaster from heaven. Comet Tomcat collided with Deimos at a very small angle. The result of the collision was that the orbits of both parties changed. It was similar to the collision of two billiard balls. Momentum was conserved and both parties changed the direction of their speed at the same time.

Deimos was pushed hard, and the orbit has since changed into a large oblate ellipse. The nucleus of Comet Tomcat is subject to the reaction force far away from Mars, and its closest distance to Mars will be increased to more than 10,000 kilometers. Mars passed by.

Lao Mao pushed away the computer and chair, turned around and hugged Tang Yue tightly.

"Hahahahaha it's successful hahahahaha we're successful! Miss Tang Yue Maidong, we can survive! Hahahaha!"

"Hahahahahahaha! Hahaha we can survive! We can survive! We can survive Ophiopogon japonicus!"

"Hahahahahahahaha saved!"

One person and one cat hugged each other, crying, laughing, and jumping up and down.

·

·

·

No one witnessed the real impact scene. When the Tomcat-Tang-Mai comet collided with Demos, it was a sunny day on the Kunlun Station, and the United Space Station was located on the back of Mars. Just in case, the space station put all The solar panels and radiators were folded to prevent the impact of debris from posing a threat - in fact, this space car accident occurred 23,000 kilometers away, and the debris generated would hardly threaten the space station.

Lao Mao used a telescope to observe and found that there were much fewer fragments than he thought. After all, Deimos and the comet did not collide head-on, but passed by at an angle. Deimos is a large rock with a diameter of twelve kilometers. The density and hardness are far greater than that of a loose comet nucleus. This time the impact was an egg hitting a rock - but the larger one was the egg.

The main components of Comet Tomcat are water, methane and dry ice. The broken dry ice evaporates quickly under the sunlight.

Sure enough, evil people still need to be punished by evil people. Human beings are no longer able to deal with such a huge celestial body as Comet Tomcat, and can only leave it to God to deal with it.

The space station and the Orion spacecraft are ants and whales to comets, but Deimos is another whale, and only a whale can shake a whale.

Night falls.

Tang Yue and Lao Mao went out to watch the comet.

Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai tripped over a stone at the door of Mars' home, which saved Tang Yue's life and also saved its own life. The comet passed Mars at an extremely close distance, and then Crossing the orbit of Mars at a speed of more than 60 kilometers per second, it continues to run towards the sun.

Tang Yue was lucky enough to see the most spectacular comet of this century. Apart from detectors, no comet has ever been seen at such a close distance in human history. It dragged two long comas and its light spanned almost the entire sky. The evaporated gas from the comet's nucleus is ionized in the solar wind, emitting blue and red light, like the skirt of a goddess.

At this moment, nothing in the world can overpower her brilliance and beauty. She is the most dazzling girl on the dance floor, attracting the attention of the whole universe.

"Strictly speaking, we are inside the comet now." Old Mao said leisurely, leaning against the wall of Kunlun Station and sitting on the sand. "The comet's head is hundreds of thousands of kilometers in diameter, and its tail is hundreds of thousands of kilometers in diameter." Thousands of kilometers long, the entire Mars is actually inside the comet.”

Tang Yue sat next to Lao Mao, looking up at the comet under the sky.

"How long will it stay here?"

"The orbit of Comet Tomcat is a parabola. It will stay inside the orbit of Mars for more than a month, and then leave from the other end of the solar system, never to return."

"Aren't you coming back again?"

"Won't come back."

"It's a bit of a pity and regret..." Tang Yue rested his arm on his pillow, "I think."

"What's a pity?"

"After all, it is a comet that we named ourselves. It has also visited the solar system. This means that we are destined to meet it thousands of miles away. It is really not easy to be destined to something in this huge universe. It would be nice if it could come back to see us in the future, even if we are no longer here.”

Tang Yue felt that he had established some kind of connection with the comet that nearly destroyed everything. This connection was illusory, just because it had been in the solar system, just because you had named it, but even though it was so fragile Connections are extremely precious in the vast universe, so precious that you can ignore hatred and sadness and easily reconcile with it.

"You haven't mastered your fortune-telling skills yet." The old cat suddenly said.

Tang Yue was startled.

"The last time you did your fortune telling, the hexagram was Wei Ji. You said Wei Ji meant a bad omen." The old cat said, "Actually, Wei Ji doesn't mean the end of the road, but that things are not over yet, and there is still hope in despair. I hope that there will be a bright future after the end of the road... The cuttlefish master in your hometown likes to eat cuttlefish. You always send squid to others. It is obvious that they have not taught you real kung fu."

Tang Yue was surprised.

"Is it?"

The old cat nodded.

"I'm thinking that to us, this comet is just a passerby." Tang Yue said, "If it is destined to hit Demos the moment it enters the solar system, then it actually has no impact on us. threaten."

The old cat was startled. From a certain perspective, Tang Yue's statement was correct.

They were so nervous, as if they were facing a formidable enemy, simply because Old Cat had miscalculated Deimos's trajectory.

If they had detected the change in Deimos' orbit from the beginning, the computer could have immediately concluded that Comet Tomcat would hit Demos.

This is downright philistine.

Tang Yue stood up and walked towards the desert, then stood under the starry sky waving his hands and shouting towards the receding comet: "Hi -! Goodbye -! Bon voyage! Goodbye -!"

"goodbye--!"

The old cat sat lazily, looking at the young man in the distance who waved goodbye to the comet under the stars. Tang Yue's small back fell into the old cat's eyes. He stood alone on the sand dune and talked to the universe. The cat didn't know whether what was shining on Tang Yue at this moment was the brilliance of the stars, or the intertwined light of humanity and divinity.

Suddenly, there was a shower of shooting stars overhead.