Dead on Mars

Chapter 241 - Sol Three Hundred and Forty, The Desert’s Emperor Penguin
Chapter 241: Sol Three Hundred and Forty, The Desert’s Emperor Penguin

“If only we could light a bonfire.” Tang Yue began stacking rocks on the ground. “Back when I was training with Old Wang at the Taklamakan Desert, we often picked up withered branches and tumbleweeds to build a bonfire. The temperature difference between night and day in the desert is huge. The moment the sun set, the temperature plummeted. We had to cling tightly to our wool blankets in front of the fire.”

“Unfortunately, we have nothing flammable.” Tomcat picked up a rock and gently placed it on the stack of rocks. “We also do not have enough oxygen. In this godforsaken place, every oxygen molecule is precious.”

“You know something? With the Radiant Armor between me and the world, I sometimes feel like I’m very far from it.” Tang Yue threw a rock up and caught it. “I’ve never really touched this land before. All I’ve seen has the glass visor between us. Who knows what’s real?”

“Even if you don’t wear the Radiant Armor, what you see and touch are just nerve signals. They are in essence an electric current between cells. Must whatever you see, touch, or feel, be real? Humans have their brains sealed in a body, relying on the nerves that cover their entire bodies to sense the outside world.” Tomcat shrugged. “Strictly speaking, you have never managed to know the world. All you do is passively receive information.”

“Brain in a vat?” Tang Yue thought. “That’s too philosophical.”

“It’s actually not a philosophical question,” Tomcat said. “It’s a very serious biological, physical, and psychological question. Before Darwin, Pasteur, and Jung figured out the human brain, it’s best if you, Mr. Immanuel Kant, have a seat for some afternoon tea. It’s not the time for a philosopher like you to get all riled up.”

“There are always people who say that the end of scientific development is philosophy, and the end of philosophy is theology.”

“I suggest that people say such things to relive life again.” Tomcat continued stacking the rocks. “To put strict experiential knowledge, repeatable experimental evidence, and ubiquitous methods with nonsense said by charlatans means that their twelve years of compulsory education was for naught.

“When humans realize the difficult journey they were in, Darwin and Huxley were undoubtedly the vanguards in a charge. Freud and Jung could be considered reinforcements of sizable force. Kant and Rousseau were the ones who set up the flank. As for Aquinas, his mommy was calling him back for dinner.”

“Alright, I know you’re a cat that despises theology.”

“No, I’ve never despised theology.” Tomcat shook its head. “I’m serious.”

Tang Yue expressed his doubts.

“I’ve never denied the importance of theology in human culture.” Tomcat continued stacking the rocks higher. “In a tower of human history, each piece is essential. If you were to pull one of them away…”

Tomcat pinched a rock gently and pulled it away.

Everything crumbled down.

“It would suddenly collapse.”

Tang Yue stared at the rocks that scattered to the ground. Suddenly, he laughed.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“You started it.” Tomcat spread its paws.

“At times, I feel like a philosopher, the only one and the last one in the world.” Tang Yue leaned his body back and raised his head to the sky. “I later thought about it. The Universe is so huge and vast. A person’s thoughts are just too puny… Is thought really as great as the starry sky?”

“Once humans think, God laughs.”

“I can already imagine a particular white-bearded elder throwing away his cane and laughing his ass off.”

“I can only imagine an old, white-whiskered cat laughing its ass.”

Tang Yue and Tomcat were simply finding a topic to talk about. Tang Yue was right that they were lacking a bonfire. If they could light one, the lonely and cold desert night would probably warm up.

“Wait a moment.” Tomcat got up and returned to the geolab. A few minutes later, it returned with a tiny lamp.

Tomcat half-buried the lamp in the sand and switched it on. Their faces were illuminated by the pale yellow light.

“A solar emergency light. When it’s fully charged, it can last for two hours. It’s just not too bright,” Tomcat said. “Do you feel a little warmer?”

“The Radiant Armor’s interior temperature is 25°C.” Tang Yue sat cross-legged and looked at the tiny source of light in front of him. “I’m not cold.”

“Then I’ll put it away.”

“Hold on a moment.” Tang Yue reached out to stop it. Looking up at the cat’s dirty face, he said, “Leave it here. I feel a little warmer.”

The man and cat sat around the faint light. The orange-yellow light wrapped their two figures within a tiny space. The solar emergency light wasn’t stable as it occasionally flickered, making it look more like a candle.

“I find ourselves resembling two emperor penguins,” Tang Yue quipped.

“Emperor penguins?” Tomcat asked.

“Emperor penguins would gather together before a storm to resist the harsh weather,” Tang Yue explained. “In this world, only when most creatures gather together can they withstand any external damage.”

“But this is a desert,” Tomcat said. “There aren’t any emperor penguins in the desert… Think of the scene. Penguins are walking across the sand in groups wobbling. When they climb to the top of a sand dune, they will press their bellies to the ground and slide down the sand dune. Man, that’s sure a sight to behold.”

“No.” Tang Yue wagged his index finger. “We are emperor penguins in a desert.”

Tomcat was taken aback before it understood what Tang Yue was getting at. They were penguins that were trekking across the desert. The fat birds that were black and white couldn’t fly and moved slowly and clumsily on land. All they could do was adapt to the extreme cold temperatures. On a hot arid desert, they were doomed. However, Penguin Tang Yue was wearing a spacesuit, carrying enough water and ice on him. It needed to use the ice to lower its temperature as it advanced. This made it totter in its footsteps as the ice block reduced in amount.

On a planet covered in desert, where could emperor penguins go?

Tang Yue imagined that the lonely and helpless emperor penguin would be looking everywhere in the desert, tottering forward and leaving shallow footprints in its wake. Before it died of thirst, could it find a refrigerator in the barren desert?

An emperor penguin searching for a refrigerator in the desert.

Tang Yue thought silently.

Is the former incredulous or the latter just wild fantasy?

“Did the recharging of the Mars Wanderer take longer today?”

“Yes,” Tomcat replied. “From tomorrow onwards, it will take longer for it to recharge. This is because the sunlight’s intensity has weakened.”

“The weakening is because of the season?”

“Yes,” Tomcat said. “We are gradually entering the summer. The atmospheric activity is intensifying and the air is turning turbid; thus lowering the luminous flux available.”

Tang Yue sighed.

“Can Wanderer last to our destination?”

“No problem,” Tomcat replied. “We only have sixty kilometers left. We will reach our destination in two sols. Even if Mars were to be destroyed, it wouldn’t happen in two sols.”