Dead on Mars

Chapter 10 - Sol One, Mars Wanderer
“Send half?” Tomcat was astonished.

“Why? You think it too little?” Tang Yue asked. “How about sending 60%?”

“Are you mad?” Tomcat said. “What will you eat if you send 60% of your resources to her? Do you have a death wish?”

Tang Yue sat down, his hand holding the half-meter long brush, as he wore the Radiant Armor EVA suit. It was extremely draining on his stamina to move about since the suit was thick and heavy like a turtle’s shell. Therefore, Tang Yue often had to rest for a while after a period of work.

“I can’t say why either. I feel like I have experienced a particular change in the way I think… It seems as though I’ve become rather indifferent towards living or dying,” Tang Yue said. “I feel like my life has become one with the Universe, reaching the supreme realm of being at one with the Heavens. I’ve come to understand how Gautama Buddha and Jesus thought, years ago. Tomcat, do you think I’m really becoming Buddha…”

“Become your ass. Speak something sane!”

“Alright. I only feel the resources should be split equally,” Tang Yue replied sulkily. “Between two people, isn’t it fair if each person gets half? Is there a problem?”

The wide solar panels were installed on the ground with a half a meter tall rack propping them up. They were, in fact, very heavy and couldn’t be handled roughly. Therefore, it wasn’t easy to move them about. Tang Yue typically used a tiny cart to move them into the garage.

“There’s no problem splitting it equally,” Tomcat said with a suppressed tone. “But Tang Yue, have you thought about it? There’s only one Eagle, and it can only be used once.”

Tang Yue stared blankly for a moment. “I know.”

There was only one Eagle and it could only be used once. This implied that Tang Yue only had one chance to send material resources to Mai Dong. This four-hundred-kilometer delivery trip could only be done once.

After sending the goods, Tang Yue would lose all capability of escaping Mars’s surface. Mai Dong would no longer get any replenishments, and the space station would lose some of its resources. In other words, Tang Yue could only push back the day of her expending all her resources without changing the outcome. There wouldn’t be any significant change to Mai Dong’s outcome.

Tomcat suppressed its voice. “That woman’s outcome has long been written in the sand. No one can change it, but you are different. You’re on Mars. You can support yourself in a much better way than on the space station. You have a larger quantity and variety of material resources and tools. There might still be a chance for you to live on for a prolonged period of time.”

Tang Yue pricked up his brows.

“If you were to send half of your resources, that would be equivalent to cutting off any outs you might have.” Tomcat’s tone was solemn. “There’s no way you can save her. At best, you will push back the day of her death, but it will only serve to bring you harm!”

“As emperor, my decision is final. There’s no need for you to persuade me otherwise.” Tang Yue waved his hand. “I’ve already said I’m sending half, not one gram less.”

“You…”

Tang Yue slowly got to his feet, walked to the garage’s door and exerted strength on the handle.

“Beep—” A green LED indicator lit up as the garage’s door slowly opened. Tang Yue once again saw the huge Mars rover.

The garage had a simple layout. It was a container with the logo of China’s XCMG hanging above, and it was used to store and protect the rover. Back when Tang Yue was tidying up the Kunlun Station, he had carried out a thorough inspection of the rover before parking the vehicle inside the garage. According to the original plan, the doors to the garage would only be opened two years from now.

The Mars rover’s name was Mars Wanderer. It was the only transportation vehicle the scientific team had for traveling on Mars’s surface. It was eight meters long, three meters wide, and three meters tall. It had six metallic wheels and was about the size of a truck.

Compared to the tiny, manually-powered lunar rovers that were the size of a tricycle, the Mars rover was a behemoth. At the head of the vehicle was the piloting station. It carried four people, including the driver. As the vehicle’s interior wasn’t airtight, there was a need to wear EVA suits inside.

Mars Wanderer was a mobile laboratory. The back of the rover hauled a trailer with a hinge. In fact, the trailer could be modified into a cabin for experiments.

During the mission, the scientific team’s geologists would often drive the rover, pulling an exploration drill’s boring crown and geologic hammer as they headed for all sorts of destinations. Mars Wanderer’s highest speed was 30 km/h—not much faster than a bike, which made Tang Yue nickname it as Mars Tractor.

Tang Yue stepped into the garage and looked at the temperature gauge hanging on the wall.

–25°C.

The temperature inside the garage was a lot higher than it was outside. Outside, the temperature was at least –40°C, going as low as –70°C after sunset.

The reason the garage could modulate a stable temperature was thanks to a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, also known as an RTG.

The RTG looked like a cylinder about half a meter tall. There were six plated spokes around its outer shell.

Such a generator used Plutonium-238 as its energy source and didn’t need any sunlight to operate. Plutonium-238 generated a stable amount of heat as it decayed. The electric generator used the temperature difference from the radiation to produce electricity.

An amount of the heat would be dispersed into the air; thus, maintaining the temperature in the garage.

Furthermore, Plutonium-238 has a half-life of 87.7 years, which meant that Tang Yue wouldn’t outlive it.

Tang Yue pushed a tiny cart out and loaded it with the solar panels.

“Tomcat, do you know Karl Marx’s theory of human nature?”

“Human?”

Tang Yue pushed the cart as he nodded. “Karl Marx said that the essence of man is an ensemble of social relations. Humans are ultimately social creatures that require people to stay together to live on. It’s impossible for a human to live alone in this world.”

“So the reason you are sharing half the resources with Miss Mai Dong stems from a fear of loneliness?”

“Tomcat, you’re a robot. You probably have no way of understanding how I feel.”

Tang Yue huffed and puffed as he pushed the tiny cart into the garage. After unloading the solar panel, he turned back out and continued moving the rest. “The reason I can talk to you is that my brain still can’t accept the fact that Earth has vanished. Perhaps, the day I come to terms with this reality, my brain will finally turn around, but it might also spell my mental breakdown.”

Tomcat fell silent.

“Thankfully, the Earth is just too far. I can’t see it or touch it, so my subconscious is still lying to my brain, saying that the Earth still exists,” Tang Yue continued. “If the Earth had vanished in front of me, I might have gone mad right there and then… Living alone is more terrifying than dying together.”

There was no source from the transmission as Tomcat remained silent the entire time.

“Tomcat?”

“Humans are truly complicated creatures.” Tomcat shook its head. “At times, you wouldn’t make survival your number one priority. This is a shameful form of betrayal.”

“Betrayal?” Tang Yue asked. “Who did I betray?”

“You betrayed your genes,” Tomcat said. “Genes are all selfish. Their goal is to survive and reproduce. Yet, you are dying before you can even reproduce.”

“Are you f*cking hinting and mocking my status as a bachelor dog!?” Tang Yue was enraged. “You don’t have a wife either. So why are you putting on airs?”

“I’m a robot.” Tomcat was very calm. “I don’t need a partner.”

“Then neither do I need one!” Tang Yue angrily pushed the cart into the garage. Then, he shouted into the empty, vast, desolate wasteland. “What’s a bachelor dog? I, Tang Yue, am a gigantic lone wolf on Mars!”