Dead on Mars

Chapter 119 - Sol Hundred and Fourteen, The Return
Tang Yue was taken aback.

The voice was just too familiar to him. He even suspected that he was hallucinating in his reverie.

Tang Yue jolted to attention and turned around. Tomcat was standing inside the airlock, sucking in the heat with its cold body. It had clearly just stepped into Kunlun Station’s main entrance. It was covered in dirt, looking extremely wretched. Even the sanitation system hadn’t been able to clean it.

Tang Yue reached out to pinch Tomcat’s ears as his fingers trembled.

“There’s no need to touch me. It’s real. It’s alive.” Tomcat grabbed Tang Yue’s hand and slapped the latter in the cheek. “Doesn’t it hurt? You aren’t dreaming.”

“You… You…” Tang Yue turned agape. In that one second, he had a thousand questions to ask, but all of them were stuck in his throat as he couldn’t say a word.

Tomcat stepped into the Hab and closed the airlock hatch.

Only when the cat walked under the light did Tang Yue realize that Tomcat hadn’t had an easy journey. Before leaving, Tomcat was a white cat with soft and smooth fur, but after its return, it had turned into a stray cat that had rolled in the mud. Its fur was in a mess and large chunks of it had fallen off, revealing the polymer skin beneath. All its whiskers, that it cherished as much as its life, were gone. It looked like a casualty who had just returned from the front lines.

Tomcat panted heavily. It was using the air to disperse the heat to warm its internal components. This meant that it had all systems turned on at full power, and was close to its limit.

Tang Yue stood in front of it, unsure whether to laugh or cry. However, his eyes turned red.

He didn’t know if he should beat it up or hug it.

“Don’t cry. How unbecoming of a man like you to cry.” Tomcat waved its paw. “At this time, you should act like those strongmen in the movies, smiling while saying: You’re late.”

Tang Yue held back his tears and nodded.

“You’re late. You’ve been late for days. Do you f*cking know that?”

Tomcat took a step forward. “Give me your hand.”

Tang Yue extended his hand.

Tomcat placed a tiny black chip in Tang Yue’s palm. “This is that Intel TCU1524M temperature control processor. It’s the last piece in the world… Keep it well. Make sure to keep it well. Remember to install it in the OGS.”

Tang Yue nodded.

With that, Tomcat had completed his mission. It took a step forward and with a thud, Tomcat’s left arm fell to the ground.

Following that, Tomcat’s body leaned to the side and collapsed.

…

“Don’t move. All the fur on the back of your head is gone.” Tang Yue held up Tomcat’s head, using a brush to help smooth out its fur. “I’m trying to help you patch up the bald spot… otherwise, it’s just too ugly.”

Tomcat sat on the chair as it charged itself.

It had drained all its power returning to Kunlun Station.

“What happened to you? Why were you uncontactable for so long?” Tang Yue glanced at the mirror. “It’s been so many days. Mai Dong and I were using every means possible to find you such as using the radio telescope. But we just couldn’t find you.”

Tomcat held the left arm that had fallen off with its right paw as it did an inspection.

“It’s a long story.”

“That’s fine. I have plenty of time.” Tang Yue shrugged. “Go ahead.”

“Neither of you could find me because the Mars Wanderer and I weren’t on the surface at all. We were underground,” Tomcat explained. “I found the Chelomey the third day after I set off, but something happened on my return trip. We encountered a gigantic quicksand pit. The Mars Wanderer and I plunged inside.”

Tang Yue was alarmed.

“The pit was very deep. The vertical walls were about two to three stories high. The Mars Wanderer’s antenna was damaged during the fall, but it remained mobile.”

“Then how did you crawl out?”

“Crawl out? No, I didn’t.” Tomcat shook its head. “The Mars Wanderer has no way of climbing out of such a deep and steep pit. I drove the Mars Wanderer underground. Yes, there’s a huge space underground that allowed the Wanderer to pass through. It was like a tunnel or a result of some ancient underground river. Do you still remember the city wall I encountered on the way to Chelomey?”

“Yes.”

“Back then, I believed that it was either formed naturally or it was a sign of intelligent life. If it’s the latter, the underground tunnel might have been one of those constructions,” Tomcat said. “However, I was in a rush for time, so I didn’t carefully study the tunnel. After all, I needed to rush back to Kunlun Station, but there were many forks in the tunnel. It was like a massive subterranean tunnel group, or should I say an underground river interwoven together. The pathways were complicated like a maze. I lost Kunlun Station’s and the satellite’s directional guidance, and could only rely on myself and the data from the Mars Wanderer to roughly determine our direction.”

Tomcat touched on the recount lightly, but Tang Yue could imagine how difficult it was. To drive a vehicle forward underground in complete darkness could get them completely lost.

It was only because it was Tomcat who didn’t panic. Anyone else would have fallen into despair in such a perilous situation.

“Power? What about power?” Tang Yue asked. Without any sunlight underground, how did the Mars Wanderer and you recharge?

“We relied on the pit holes,” Tomcat said. “There would often be holes above the tunnels. Sunlight would shine in from above, but we could only get sufficient sunlight at noon. Furthermore, the underground space was narrow, making it impossible to unfold all the solar panels. Therefore, the charging was extremely slow. This is also why I was so many days late… I had to stop frequently to charge.”

“You eventually escaped the underground maze?” Tang Yue held a comb as he slowly combed out the sand that was stuck in the cat’s fur.

“Yes, that’s obvious. However, I messed up my direction. I spent two entire days underground and encountering many dead ends before I found an exit,” Tomcat replied. “However, the exit completely deviated from the correct direction. It wasn’t on the route from the Chelomey to Kunlun Station, but fifty kilometers northwest of Kunlun Station… I was quite perplexed when I first came out. Later, I relied on the stars for navigation before confirming my location.”

“That arm…”

“It was damaged from the fall.” Tomcat shook the arm. “It wasn’t too bad when the fall happened. I did some simple repairs, but later, due to the heavy lifting I needed to do, such as moving the solar panels and rocks or pushing the vehicle, the damage was aggravated… Thankfully, it just about survived to the end..”

“Can it be fixed?”

“I’ll try. I’ll leave it to fate.” Tomcat smiled. “However, what’s most important now is to fix the OGS’s temperature control… Is this tent built for those tomato sprouts?”

“Yes, but it was a failure. All the tomatoes froze to death. If you returned a few sols later, I might have left this world to see Buddha.” Tang Yue pressed his hands on Tomcat’s shoulders, moved the mirror away and said, “Take a look. How is it?”

“There’s a clump of fur that’s standing straight upon on the top of my head. What the hell, Tang Yue?”

“That’s called an ahoge 1 .”

“You’re the hoe!”

…

“Good morning, Tang Yue. How’s the vernalization of the tomato seeds… Cat… Cat… Cat… Cat…”

“Good morning, Miss Mai Dong. Hey lass, why are you crying? Don’t cry, don’t cry…”