Die on Mars

The old cat glanced at the time, put away the tools, turned around and got into the cab, "We can only get here today. The rest of the work will be done tomorrow. We have to go back and move the battery panels."

Tang Yue looked at the sunset, which hung low over the red wasteland. He recalled Wang Wei's poem, "The lonely smoke is straight in the desert, and the sun is setting round the long river."

"There was once a piece of fertile land in front of me, but I didn't cherish it." Tang Yue said, "It's only when I lose it that I regret it. The most painful thing in the world is this."

"If God could give me a chance to do it again..."

The old cat lazily interrupted him.

"Do you want the earth to disappear and start over again?"

The old cat started the Mars Stray Dog, the car trembled slightly, and began to turn slowly. Tang Yue sat in the car, and as the car swayed, he returned all the bottles and cans on the workbench and fixed them. Close the cover of the photometer and turn it off.

"Miss Ophiopogon japonicus, what if we can't find suitable soil quality? We are only sampling an area within a few kilometers. Will there be any huge differences in the soil in such a small area?"

The old cat held the steering wheel and looked forward.

The wheels of the Martian stray dog ​​ran over the sand, and the tires left two neat ruts on the surface.

"It's hard to say," Maidong replied, "because liquid water once existed on the surface of Mars. The topography and mineral distribution of areas where water flows will change, which can also cause large soil quality differences in a small area, such as There is a difference in soil quality between alluvial plains and riverbeds... We have to find soil with better basic conditions, more balanced acidity and alkalinity, and higher water retention properties. This kind of soil is more suitable for plant growth."

"Miss Maidong, did you ever find qualified soil when you were at Kunlun Station?" the old cat asked.

"Unfortunately, no." Maidong shook his head, "Lao Zheng and I have done research in this area. He is an expert in environment and geology. He told me that Mars is an area of ​​142 million square kilometers. huge arid saline-alkali land.”

The old cat was stunned for a moment and sighed.

"We need a Yuan Longping."

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The stray dog ​​on Mars crossed a depression. The old cat said that this might be an ancient river channel, and liquid water might have flowed here hundreds of thousands or even millions of years ago.

"Mars was once a planet rich in water resources." Tang Yue looked out the window. The Martian stray dog ​​climbed up a low sand dune. There was a brown sand pillar standing up at the other end of the dune. It was moving slowly. Only when he looked carefully did he realize that It was a small tornado, "Where did all that water go now?"

"Part of it evaporated and escaped. The geological activity of Mars has been stagnant for millions of years. The magnetic field has almost disappeared, and the atmosphere and water molecules have been stripped away by the solar wind." The old cat answered, "Part of it remains in the polar regions and depressions where the sun cannot shine. In the form of ice, the last part is probably underground and becomes water combined with ice and some chemical compound."

"Is there water underground?" Tang Yue asked, "Then if I dig down, is it possible to dig out water?"

"Do you use your shovel that looks like a spoon to dig?" the old cat sneered, "I have never seen anyone dig a well with a spoon. You will probably have to dig until the end of the world."

The Martian stray dog ​​was driving on the gravel-strewn desert beach. Since there was no shock absorption and suspension, Tang Yue's butt hurt.

"If there was water, would it be possible that there were living things on Mars?" Tang Yue stared out the window, chatting away.

"Of course." The old cat nodded, "If you dig twenty meters deep under your feet now, you might be able to dig out some fossils of ancient Martian creatures."

"If there are living things, is it possible that there was civilization on Mars?" Maidong asked.

"Miss Maidong, this is hard to say." The old cat shrugged, "Wisdom and civilization have never been the goals of evolution. The purpose of biological evolution is to better adapt to the environment, not to grow a more developed brain. Why should you be certain? Should intelligence be regarded as the standard for higher life? From an evolutionary and biological perspective, the most successful creatures have always been the most adaptable to the environment, not the ones with the largest brains - on the Mesozoic Earth, large reptiles did not have high IQs But this does not prevent them from dominating the world."

"I just think that if there was civilization on Mars, then everything would become very romantic." The girl said, "What we are facing is no longer a dead planet without life, but an ancient planet." The remnants of civilization.”

Tang Yue was stunned and looked down at his feet. He imagined that beneath the surface of the Mars rover passing by, there were huge and magnificent buildings like the Pantheon in ancient Rome. They were passing through a broad and straight avenue, and among tens of thousands of Years ago, residents of the Martian civilization worshiped their gods here.

"Even if civilization existed, it would be difficult for us to see their remains." The old cat said leisurely, "Tang Yue, look to the left."

Tang Yue obeyed, stood up and looked to the left side of the car.

At the end of the wasteland, there are layers of crimson hills, intertwined and full of ravines.

"What do you see?"

"Sand, moorland, and linear hills."

"That's the Yadan landform." The old cat asked, "Do you know what the Yadan landform is?"

"Wind-eroded landform?" Maidong said.

"It's the wind-eroded landform. The undulating rocky mountains you see like the dragon's back are all the result of wind erosion. On this planet, there is no force more powerful than wind, sand and flowing water. No matter how tall and solid the buildings built by any civilization , will be eroded and broken by the knife-like airflow over a long period of time, and eventually turn into yellow sand all over the sky." The old cat said lightly, "The slowest and silent force has always been the most powerful."

"Nothing in this world can beat time. A civilization that has developed for tens of thousands of years can erase all traces of it in ten million years." Old Mao continued, "But on the huge scale of geological time, we generally Calculate time in units of hundreds of millions... Any dynasty's hegemony or civilization's achievements are all sand in the end."

Tang Yue and Mai Dong both fell silent.

They don't know what to say. It's always awe-inspiring to measure the scale of time with the insignificance of human beings.

The old cat paused and chanted loudly:

“Visitors returning from overseas have seen ancient desert countries.

There is a stone statue that was half destroyed, with only its huge legs remaining, squatting among the gravel.

The head of the statue fell to the side, half buried, but the human face is still formidable. "

Tang Yue was stunned and didn't know what the old cat was talking about. Maidong whispered in his earphones and reminded him that this was Shelley's poem from the famous "Osymantis".

The old cat raised his voice.

"The sneer, the arrogance of giving orders,

This shows that the craftsman can see through the master's heart.

Only then did he carve the stone statue with a lifelike expression.

The hands and heart of the stone statue have long been reduced to ashes!

The large characters on the base read:

I am the king of kings, and I have made unparalleled achievements. I dare to impress God! "

The Martian stray dog ​​walked on the vast and dead desert, with gravel everywhere, and the old cat's voice became vast and vast. Tang Yue looked at the wind and sand in his eyes, and felt desolate in his heart.

But the old cat's voice slowly dropped again, like a cry, like an elegy.

"There is nothing else but the ruins around,

The lonely flat sand is vast and empty,

Stretching out into the desolate surroundings. "