Dead on Mars

Chapter 28 - Sol Four, Himalayas on the Plains
When Tang Yue woke up once again, he realized that he had fainted for an unknown length of time. He attempted to move again and realized that he was being hugged—someone or something was hugging his helmet.

At that moment, Tang Yue realized that his position had changed. He had previously been slumped on the ground face down, but now, he was lying face up.

“You woke up?”

Tang Yue was taken aback as he immediately looked up. Through the Radiant Armor’s visor, he saw a huge spherical head above him. It was looking down at him, and of course, it wasn’t an alien, but the helmet of Tomcat’s IVA suit.

Tomcat was looking down at him, having gotten Tang Yue to half lie on its legs while hugging the Radiant Armor’s helmet.

“Tomcat?” Tang Yue saw the cat face inside the IVA suit’s glass visor as he exclaimed in surprise, “You aren’t dead yet?”

“Dead your ass. If I had been another two hours, you would be the one dead, not me.” Tomcat pointed at the Radiant Armor’s wrist.

While lying on Tomcat’s legs, he raised his left hand and wiped the dust off the wrist display.

The life support system’s power had halved, and the Radiant Armor was giving off warning alerts. An orange-yellow exclamation mark was blinking.

The oxygen cylinder’s pressure had also greatly decreased, left with less than 0.5 atm of oxygen. It was already close to the warning red line. The life support system’s main oxygen cylinder could store 5 MPa of oxygen, a quantity enough to support Tang Yue to carry out his activities outside for eight hours.

Having been working all day, Tang Yue’s oxygen cylinder was nearly depleted.

According to the design, the main oxygen cylinder in the Radiant Armor decreased to 0.4 atm, the life support system would no longer deliver oxygen normally. During such times, the Radiant Armor would automatically connect to a spare oxygen cylinder, which was only used for emergencies. It only had 1.2 kilograms of oxygen, and could only last forty minutes.

Tomcat was right. If it had come another hour later, the oxygen and power in the Radiant Armor would have been completely depleted. Tang Yue would have either frozen or suffocated to death.

Tang Yue prodded the display screen and exhaled.

“An EVA is an EVA. Not having power is a common plot point.”

“Not having power is a common plot point?” Tomcat didn’t understand the meaning of those words.

“I’m talking about this.” Tang Yue pointed at his chest. “EVA system. Apart from it being the acronym for Extravehicular Activity, it’s also the name of a gigantic humanoid robot 1 . That thing will go berserk once it runs out of power.”

The official name of the Radiant Armor was an EVA system—Extravehicular Activity system. But just from its acronym, one would imagine it to be an extremely impressive secret weapon.

Tomcat helped him up as Tang Yue sat there. “How long have I been out for?”

“It’s now twenty minutes past eleven at night. You have been unconscious for about an hour. You were sprawled face-down when I found you,” Tomcat replied. “The wind speed is beginning to drop.”

Although there was a drop in wind speed, Tang Yue couldn’t tell the difference. It was still pitch-black everywhere, and the only thing he could see was Tomcat’s face. This was only thanks to the illumination from the lights inside the helmet.

“The wind speed is now 38 meters per second,” Tomcat said. “But why did you run out? Didn’t I tell you to stay in Kunlun Station?”

“I waited more than an hour for you,” Tang Yue replied. “You didn’t return the entire time… Then, when I pulled the safety rope back, the other end was free. That’s why I came out to look for you. But why weren’t you attached to the rope? You released it?”

Tomcat nodded.

“The rope had become entangled with the accommodation ladder, preventing me from moving. I could only release it.”

“But you didn’t return for more than an hour,” Tang Yue asked. “Why did you take so long? It took half an hour each trip?”

“I made trips back and forth more than once because I nearly got lost,” Tomcat answered. “I missed Kunlun Station and walked backward about a dozen meters before realizing that something wasn’t right. By the time I turned back and found Kunlun Station, I found you had gone. That’s how I followed the rope to you… Thankfully, you tied a safety rope to yourself; otherwise, there’s no way I could have found you.”

Tang Yue heaved a sigh of relief.

Tomcat was fine.

It had all been a scare. In retrospect, the greatest danger in the last trip that sent the supplies to the Eagle wasn’t what Tomcat faced, but Tang Yue… Tang Yue had fainted in the sandstorm, and the Radiant Armor’s life support system had nearly drained its power. If Tomcat hadn’t found him, Tang Yue would have frozen to death while unconscious.

In a sense, he had unknowingly rubbed shoulders with Death and had made a trip to the underworld and back—all thanks to Tomcat.

The Radiant Armor had begun producing warning messages. Tang Yue glanced at the display, and the main oxygen cylinder’s pressure had already gone under the red light. The backup gas cylinder connected with the Radiant Armor.

The internal pressure of the EVA suit was typically maintained at 40 kPa, which was 0.4 atm. This pressure was mainly provided by the oxygen cylinder, and once the backup cylinder was used, the forty minutes started counting down.

“Let’s go. We have to return. We only have forty minutes of oxygen left.”

Tomcat pulled Tang Yue and arduously crawled back with the help of the safety rope.

Tomcat crawled ahead as Tang Yue followed in tow. They were connected to the same rope, resembling a trek up the Himalayas.

After more than an hour of unconsciousness, Tang Yue had regained some of his strength. “Have you delivered the last crate?”

“Yes,” Tomcat replied. “All the supplies have been securely fastened inside the Eagle’s cargo module. All of them are ready for the launch.”

“Is there no need to check again?”

“I’ve already done what I could.”

Tang Yue felt slightly relieved. He had finally finished the last step. This delivery spanning four hundred kilometers was already in boxes, and it was possibly the most difficult delivery in history… If it wasn’t for the damn sandstorm, things wouldn’t have been that troublesome. It was true that the weather was unpredictable.

“When do we launch?”

“There are six suitable launching windows tomorrow morning. I had originally set the launch to be half-past eight in the morning… But all the plans are useless now.” Tomcat shook its head. “Based on the present situation, all the advanced planning was for nothing. We have to observe the wind speed, launching whenever it falls.”

“Fifty meters per second?”

“That’s a design limit,” Tomcat said. “Of course, the lower the speed, the better. It’s best if it’s below thirty meters per second… There will be a much higher chance if it’s below that threshold. If that happens, we might be able to reestablish communications with the United Space Station.”

Tang Yue nodded.

“Let’s hope we re-establish communications as soon as possible. That lass in the sky is probably crying in anxious terror.”