Dead on Mars

Chapter 46 - Sol Five, Third Life in the Whole Universe
Mai Dong held her hand to the glass as she focused her gaze on the incubator. The clear, black eyes reflected a tiny patch of faint green.

A tomato seed had finally sprouted.

It was unknown when this young life had peeked its head out while inside the incubator. It had silently torn through the tough testa, and the sprout was a few millimeters tall. Two light-green leaves and a white rhizome were quivering slightly in the wind produced by the ventilation system. The look in the girl’s eyes became enlivened.

Mai Dong had discovered this young life while doing her routine inspections of the experiment module. Then, she watched it for a very long period of time, completely mesmerized.

Mai Dong had a tiny region carved out for herself in the Hope experiment module. There was a batch of thale cress, tomatoes, and lettuce grown in the incubator. It was an experiment of the viability of cultivating vegetables during prolonged space missions. This technology’s short-term goal was to provide astronauts with fresh vegetables, allowing them to be free from the evil canned food. The long-term goal was to establish a self-sustaining ecosystem in the spacecraft, to provide the technological capabilities for future human migration.

However, the latter was clearly a long-term goal. Humanity had yet to create a reliable ecosphere. It probably had to wait until controlled nuclear fusion reached a certain level of maturity before self-sustaining ecosystems could improve… However, controlled nuclear fusion was still five decades away.

Mai Dong exclaimed in silence.

The second life in the United Space Station had finally be born—possibly the third life in the Universe. Mai Dong was astounded by its frailty and beauty. She felt that life was truly the most intricate object in the world. This tiny tomato sprout wasn’t even a centimeter tall, but inside its tiny body, there were billions of cells working together. Water would be drawn from its roots to its leaves as light and carbon dioxide would undergo photosynthesis. Everything worked in perfect order, in perfect balance.

Compared to this sprout, being inside the United Space Station made her feel as though she was in a crude and simple clay house.

She wished to immediately inform Tang Yue and Tomcat about this news, but unfortunately, the communications were still down. There wasn’t any reply no matter how many times she called out.

“I should give you a name…”

Mai Dong slowly circled the glass incubator as she wrangled her hair. “What name should I give you? Lil’ Tom? Lil’ Mato? Lil’ Oma? How about Lil’ Green?”

“Lil’ Green… Lil’ Green Hmm, that’s a nice name.” Mai Dong looked up at the ceiling as she nodded slowly. “It’s decided. From this moment forth, your name is Runtu 1 !”

With great seriousness, the girl stretched out and pointed at the tomato sprout inside the incubator. Her black eyes widened as she wore a solemn expression.

Half a minute later, Mai Dong couldn’t hold it in together as she laughed out loud, her hands over her belly.

Her volume slowly decreased as she laughed. Floating in midair, at a distance of a meter, she looked at the sprout behind the glass. Her eyelids drooped low as the look in her eyes was tinged with loneliness.

“Runtu o’ Runtu, thank you for accompanying me…” Mai Dong moved forward to gently hug the glass cabinet and plastered her forehead onto it. “However, we won’t live long, so… you have to grow quickly. Grow as quickly as possible, and become super, super big, so big that the cabinet can’t hold you in. Make it such that the experiment module can’t hold you in, and even the space station. Do you understand me?”

The tomato sprout shook a little amidst the airflow.

“You nodded.” Mai Dong smiled. “You promised me. Remember to keep your promise!”

She gently nudged the wall as she moved through the module’s hatch and left the Hope experiment module. Mai Dong still had something to do.

She was going to write a will.

…

“Plan B! We need a Plan B!” Tang Yue crawled out of the Radiant Armor, his back drenched with sweat. His clothes were already completely wet. “Do we have a Plan B?”

With only one attempt to make the rendezvous and docking, with the chance of success being lower than 5%, this definitely wasn’t something to attempt.

They couldn’t bet on it using Mai Dong’s life.

“Plan B? A Plan B doesn’t exist all the time.” Tomcat leaned into its seat as it rolled its eyes. It’s not like I’m some robot cat 1 who can find a Plan B just by rummaging through my pocket.

Wait a moment.

It was indeed a robot cat.

“But this isn’t something we should do! With only one rendezvous, there’s only a success rate of 5%. 5%! The chances of me being admitted into Tsinghua University after high school was even higher than that!” Tang Yue slammed the table in agitation. “What the hell can we do without a Plan B?”

“The chance of a successful dock is at most 2.477%. What 5%?” Tomcat threw up its paws. “Also, I believe the chance of you being admitted to Tsinghua University is less than 0.5%.”

“What?” Tang Yue glared at Tomcat.

“What what? You believe I’m underestimating your high school results?”

“No, no, no, no! I’m not talking about that. The 5% chance of getting admitted into Tsinghua was what my high school teacher said. His original words were ‘Tang Yue, if the eight million students across the country hand in a blank piece of paper during the exam, you will have a 5% chance of getting admitted into Tsinghua’… I was talking about the 2.477%. Didn’t you say that the chance of a successful docking was 5%?”

“The 5% success was if we succeeded in entering the parking orbit. Now, we have even failed to complete the first step. Do you still think we have a 5% chance of success?” Tomcat said. “What did your teacher mean? Why did you only have a 5% chance of entering Tsinghua when all eight million students across the country handed in a blank piece of paper? What happened to the other 95%?”

“You mean we only have a 2.477% chance now?” Tang Yue was alarmed. “The remaining 95%? The remaining 95% chance was with the Ministry of Education declaring that the examination results were null and void.”

“That’s right, we only have a 2.477% chance.” Tomcat nodded. “Those results can be made null and void?”

“If only a person named Tang Yue was able to answer the questions across the country while everyone else handed in a blank piece of paper, you should commit harakiri if you didn’t declare the examination null and void as education minister…” Tang Yue sat on the chair. He didn’t wish to continue the silly topic over the National College Entrance Examination with Tomcat. He knew that there was no way he would be admitted to Tsinghua in this life.

If he could be admitted into Tsinghua, why would he come all the way to Mars to do all kinds of menial work? Having nothing better to do? He would have long gone to Wall Street to enjoy upper-class society’s decadent life of alcohol, money, and women.

Tang Yue slowly facepalmed.

The chance of success was decreasing at every turn.

What did 2.477% mean?

In a hundred attempts, the number of successes was fewer than three.

Tomcat focused on the computer on the work desk as it fell silent for a few seconds. “You have to understand the current situation. The Eagle failed to enter the correct orbit and is on the verge of plunging into the atmosphere. We lack propellant, our communications are severed, and there’s no one to guide it. Such a situation would be a dead-end no matter when. Doom is guaranteed. There’s no chance of turning this around… Having a 2.477% chance of success is already a miracle.”

Tang Yue was taken aback.

What Tomcat said was right. 2.477% wasn’t too low. It was too high… Tang Yue suddenly realized something as his scalp tingled.

The Eagle’s failure to enter the correct orbit, the lack of propellant, the severed communications, the lack of manual guidance. Any one of these conditions was enough to wreck a space mission. Yet, with all these unlucky factors happening together, doom was pretty much guaranteed. He should have failed long ago, but there was still a 2.477% chance of success?

Something was propping up that weak sliver of hope as if it was the last flame in the night. Even though the elements were striking at it, it refused to extinguish.

“What is it?” Tang Yue looked up.

Tomcat turned its head over. “Huh?”

“What is it? What is giving up this 2.477% hope?” Tang Yue asked. “What is maintaining this last bit of hope?”

Tomcat turned its body diagonally and raised a single paw to tap on the keyboard. A window popped open as Tang Yue came close. On it was the Eagle’s payload capsule main structure. The massive first-grade rocket engines and propellant reservoir had been detached. This made the lander much smaller. All that was left was the command module, the cargo module, and the ascent rockets.

Tomcat used the mouse to draw a rectangle, pointing out the exhaust at the bottom of the cargo module.

The RD-0172 rocket was built by the Russian NPO Energomash.

It was a reliable Russian product.

It was a very tiny rocket, and it didn’t stand out in the massive chain that depicted the Mars landing mission. It was purely responsible for the safety of the payload capsule and the orbital maneuver.

If the Eagle’s Raptor 3D and 3C rockets were powerful cruise ships, the RD-0172 was no doubt a small dinghy. Now, the cruise ship had sunk, and all they could rely on was this tiny dinghy as their final lifeboat… Thankfully, the dinghy was built by a race that descended from warriors. Powered by vodka and the auspices of the former president, Putin, it made it possible for the dinghy to be used as a towboat!

“Without this engine, our chance of success is zero,” Tomcat replied. “It’s the final 2.477%!”