Tang Yue and Mai Dong waited all night, until the sun rose and the sky brightened, but there was no news from Old Cat.
Tang Yue finally confirmed that something was wrong with Old Cat.
But what could be wrong with Old Cat?
It was an experienced resident of Kunlun Station. It drove a rover with enough solar panels. It didn't need oxygen, fresh water, or food. How could it encounter such a problem on the deserted Mars?
There wasn't even a robber on this godforsaken place.
Tang Yue became more and more anxious.
"No, Tang Yue, there's no response in the channel." Mai Dong tried to call the Mars Wanderer again. "I still can't contact Mr. Cat."
"What could be wrong with it?"
Tang Yue held the pen in his hand and mechanically tapped the table with the tip of the pen. He imagined all the difficulties that Old Cat might encounter in his mind and overturned them one by one. "Even if it encountered an unsolvable problem, can't it send a message? Could it have flipped over?"
Tomcat, the god of prams on Mt. Akina, would there come a day when it would fail?
Tang Yue couldn't imagine how to flip the Mars Wanderer. The Wanderer was an electric tractor that moved as slow as a turtle. Its wheels were big, its chassis was low, and its power was low. It was naturally insulated from all kinds of wonderful stunts. At full speed, it could barely outrun a Flying Pigeon bicycle. Its operating mode was simple, like a bumper car in an amusement park. Even if you asked Schumacher to sit in the driver's seat, he could only stare at the accelerator of this old scooter.
Unless you deliberately drove it into a pit, the Wanderer couldn't flip over.
"Unless it flipped over and broke the communication antenna, it's impossible that it hasn't contacted us for so long."
Tang Yue turned his head and looked out the window. At this time, Old Cat was still 90 kilometers away. This distance was nothing on Earth, but on Mars, it was like a moat. Tang Yue thought about leaving to find Old Cat himself, but the life support system didn't allow him to do so.
Wearing the Bright Light Armour, Tang Yue could only move outdoors for eight hours at most. Any longer and his power and oxygen would run out.
Eight hours obviously couldn't cover 90 kilometers on foot. Tang Yue would only die halfway if he went out rashly.
The loss of communications could be a serious matter. To put it simply, it could be that the Mars Wanderer's communications antenna had malfunctioned. Tomcat and the Wanderer were safe and sound as they rushed back to Kunlun Station at full speed. But to put it more seriously, it was possible that something had happened to both the cat and the vehicle. Tomcat had driven the Wanderer down a cliff, resulting in the vehicle's destruction and the cat's death.
There was only endless noise in the communication channel. Tang Yue turned the knob and repeatedly searched various frequency bands, but he found nothing. This kind of silence was the most disturbing. Not even a brief call for help could be received. This meant that the other party was either offline or dead.
"This damned cat, what the hell is wrong with you … You can even send me a comma!
Send me a comma … "
Tang Yue got up and paced back and forth in Kunlun Station. He moved his hands and rubbed them repeatedly, trying to get rid of the cold while looking outside.
"Tang Yue … Maybe Mr. Cat's communication system malfunctioned, and it's on the way back?
Don't be too anxious … "Mai Dong comforted him." Wait a little longer. "
Waiting like this was really worrying, but Tang Yue couldn't do anything. He could only stay in Kunlun Station and walk around like a bear in this area of dozens of square meters.
The OGS cabinet was blowing out cold air. After a night, the indoor temperature in Kunlun Station had dropped to minus 20 degrees Celsius. The temperature might rise after the sun came out, but it was still below zero.
Tang Yue had put on all the clothes he could wear, wrapped in a blanket, and relied on the RTG to survive.
"Calm down … Calm down!"
Tang Yue sat down again and took a deep breath. "Mai Dong, calm down first. Mai Dong, calm down first. Being anxious won't solve anything."
"I'm very calm. You're the one who needs to calm down, Tang Yue." The girl blinked.
"Okay, okay … I'll calm down first."
Tang Yue pressed his forehead and forced himself to calm down. "Let's analyze the situation Old Cat might be facing now and see if we can help."
Mai Dong nodded.
"It has lost contact with us. There is one thing that is without a doubt, and that is that its communication system is broken."
Tang Yue said. Of course, it was also possible that Old Cat had gone missing and deliberately didn't contact the station, but this possibility was very small, and Tang Yue wouldn't consider it.
"What caused Mr. Cat's communication system to malfunction?" Mai Dong asked.
"The communication system on the Mars Wanderer is a backup of Kunlun Station. It's very reliable, and the robustness of the entire system is very high. The Mars Wanderer's usage time is almost the same as that of Kunlun Station, but the communication system has never had any problems."
Tang Yue replied, "Just the day before Old Cat set off, I also checked the Wanderer. At that time, the communication system was all normal … So the possibility of a spontaneous malfunction is very low."
"So it's an external factor?"
Tang Yue nodded. "It's most likely an external factor, such as a strong mechanical impact, high temperature, strong radiation, man-made damage …"
Tang Yue and Mai Dong both had an ominous feeling in their hearts. Since the communication system was installed inside the Mars Wanderer and was damaged by a violent impact, wouldn't the Mars Wanderer itself and the driver, Old Cat, be in more danger?
"On the surface of Mars, factors such as high temperature, radiation, and man-made damage can be ruled out. The most likely possibility is that the Wanderer flipped over."
Tang Yue continued, "If it really flipped over, then it certainly wouldn't have been able to push the heavy Mars Wanderer back on its own. So, the most appropriate way to deal with it at that time would have been to abandon the Mars Wanderer and walk back to Kunlun Station alone … But Old Cat also needs to charge, so it has to carry enough solar panels with it … Damn it!"
Mai Dong held her breath.
If Tang Yue's inference was correct, then Old Cat was now dragging solar panels and walking alone in the wilderness.
"But this is just a possibility, just a possibility!"
Tang Yue shook his head and ruled out the idea in his mind. "If the severity of the accident is higher than we think, then it is very likely that Old Cat was destroyed along with the Mars Wanderer. It may have escaped, but it may have been severely disabled and lost the ability to move. It may also have died on the spot … Damn it."
The second hypothesis was too scary. Mai Dong didn't dare to imagine it. What did it mean to be severely disabled and lose the ability to move?
Did it mean that its legs were broken and it could only lie there helplessly waiting for death?
"Mai Dong … Mai Dong!"
"Ah?" Mai Dong was shocked and came back to her senses.
"We can't just wait like this. We have to understand the current situation of Old Cat!" Tang Yue said. "You have to help me!
Do you hear me?
Only you can help me! "
"How can I help?"
"First of all, we have to find Old Cat!" Tang Yue replied. "There are cameras on the space station. You can scan the space station from orbit …"
"But the scanning telescope and high-precision camera are all in the Dawn module. They have all been destroyed."
"Apart from the Dawn module, there are cameras in the other modules!"
"There are … but they are not used to survey the surface. The accuracy is not high," Mai Dong said. "And they can't plan the scanning route, nor can they identify automatically."
"It doesn't matter if they can't scan automatically. We can do it manually."
Tang Yue pointed at Mai Dong and then at himself. "It doesn't matter if they can't identify automatically. We can use our eyes!"
"No matter where we go, we have to find that cat!"