Mai Dong sat in the commander's seat, fastened her seatbelt, and adjusted the back of the chair so that it was in a load-resistant position.
"How do you feel?" Old Cat asked.
Mai Dong stared at the bare ceiling. There used to be a control panel and monitor here, but Mai Dong had just removed them all. The large and small holes were all left behind after the monitors and buttons were removed. There were also traces of white glue and messy wires that had not been cleaned up in time.
Next, she needed to use a large piece of plastic to cover all these holes.
The girl took a deep breath. "It's very dark … It's very quiet."
The Eagle lander was completely out of power, and there was no light. The only source of light was the LED lights on both sides of the spacesuit's helmet.
The protective panels outside the porthole were all closed. At this moment, the lander was a small, sealed metal box. Most people would feel uneasy staying in such a place, but only a sealed metal shell could protect Mai Dong's life. In the violent impact of landing, the stronger the shell, the better.
The life support system had stopped working, so she couldn't hear the noise of the fans and the air pump. Mai Dong was wearing a soundproof earpiece, but the sound of collars and hair rubbing against each other still traveled through her bones into her ears.
She looked around and saw fine dust floating in the light of the LED.
"The commander's chair seems to be a little bigger than ours." Mai Dong patted the armrest of the chair. "This is the first time I'm sitting in the captain's chair."
"There's a red lever under your chair," Old Cat said. "Can you touch it?"
Mai Dong turned her head and put her hand under the chair. "Lever?
Yes, I feel a handle … There's more than one. There's one on both sides, and it's locked with safety bolts. "
"Yes." Old Cat nodded. "Try to hold it."
Mai Dong held the lever in her hand.
"Is it easy to exert force?"
"Hmm … It's okay, but this position is a little strenuous." Mai Dong sat in the chair, clenched her hands, and tried to exert force.
"This is the switch for the emergency disconnect system. It's purely mechanical, so it requires at least 30 Newtons of force to pull it."
Old Cat explained, "On the left is the emergency disengagement switch for the docking mechanism, and on the right is the activation switch for the escape hatch."
"On the left is the interface switch."
"Yes, the left side is the interface."
"On the right is the escape hatch."
"That's right. The escape hatch is on the right."
Old Cat said, "The escape hatch is on the bulkhead behind you. The sequence of these two switches is as follows: When you land, you need to pull the lever on the left to let the Eagle lander leave the crashed Orion in time. After you land safely, you pull the switch on the right to blow open the escape hatch and quickly leave the lander."
"First left, then right." Mai Dong repeated.
"First left, then right."
"But how do I know when to pull the lever?"
Mai Dong asked. During the landing process, the Eagle lander was in a completely sealed state. The people in the cabin could not see the situation outside. In other words, Mai Dong did not know if it was time to leave, but the timing of departure could not be delayed. If it was too early or too late, there would be problems.
"You don't have to worry about that. We'll take care of it."
Old Cat said, "We'll keep in contact with Orion II's computer. It'll inform you when to leave … Miss Mai Dong, during the entire landing process, you only need to do your part of the operation. Tang Yue and I will take care of everything else. There won't be any problems."
"I understand." Mai Dong nodded.
"Is there a problem with the seatbelt?"
Old Cat asked. "The landing this time will be very violent. The seatbelt must tie you firmly to the chair."
"How … how violent?"
"You'll hit the ground directly, then bounce up, then hit the ground again, then bounce up again."
Old Cat said, "Until the kinetic energy is exhausted, Miss Mai Dong, you have to be careful not to let the seatbelt strangle you, and don't hit anything. You must protect your spacesuit well. There mustn't be any damage. This is your only life support system."
"But my spacesuit can only work for eight hours at most."
Mai Dong unbuckled her seatbelt, and her body separated from the seat.
"Yes."
Old Cat was silent for a few seconds. "Tang Yue and I will find you within eight hours. I guarantee with Tang Yue's life that we will find you within eight hours, Miss Mai Dong."
Mai Dong laughed.
"Why do you have to use Tang Yue's life?"
"Because I don't have any life support." Old Cat shrugged.
"But Tang Yue doesn't have any life support either," Mai Dong said.
"As the last human on Mars, he has the right to declare sovereignty over the entire Mars, and even the entire solar system."
Old Cat said lightly, "Tang Yue has nothing now, but he also has everything. He is the supreme king of this lonely and uninhabited kingdom, and also the last person."
"What kind of king am I?
My citizens only have fifteen tomato plants, fifteen carrots, and a few barrels of fermenting fertilizer. Have you ever seen a king whose job is to pound feces every day? "
A certain idiot's muttering went into Mai Dong's earpiece.
"Then you should take good care of your tomatoes and carrots. When they become intelligent, they can help you pound feces," Old Cat said.
"Old Cat, are you stupid?"
Tang Yue's voice sounded. "If tomatoes and carrots can become intelligent, they will definitely be beautiful ladies with long legs. How can you let them pound feces? Hehehehehehehehe …"
Mai Dong silently cut off the connection.
·
·
·
Tang Yue finished watering the plants, organized and filed the "A Brief Study of the Development of Modern Art Schools", and pulled up the observation data from the space station's telescope.
He would check the situation of Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai I every day. This huge comet nucleus with a diameter of thirty kilometers would cause the most serious impact accident in the solar system this century. Old Cat predicted that it would hit Mars, and the energy released would be equivalent to 5.2 trillion nuclear bombs exploding. At the same time, it would destroy everything within a radius of a thousand kilometers, and the resulting shock wave would be able to blow away half of Mars's land.
Mars had not suffered such a violent impact for more than three billion years. The solar system's Big Impact era had already passed for four billion years.
"Have you predicted the comet's impact point?"
Tang Yue flipped through the photos one by one. The telescope's continuous exposure allowed him to take deep-field photos. At this distance, the comet's tail was already beginning to glow, but it wasn't obvious. It was like a blurry and thin fog.
"More than half of the workstation's processes are doing this. Why else do you think it keeps crashing?"
Old Cat replied. "At present, the comet is still 1.7 astronomical units away. The distance is too far. We can only be sure that it will hit the target, but we can't know where it will hit."
"It better not hit our heads."
"We shouldn't be that unlucky."
Old Cat said. "If you were given a pistol, you wouldn't be able to hit the target from fifty meters away, let alone two hundred million kilometers …"
"Stop stop stop!
Don't raise flags again!
I beg you to shut up. It's as if your mouth has been blessed. "
"As long as the comet's impact point is more than 2,500 kilometers away from Kunlun Station, I have enough confidence that Kunlun Station will survive," Old Cat said.
"What about the secondary disaster?"
"It depends on luck."
Old Cat twirled the pen in its paw. "I told you before that 30% comes from energy, 70% comes from hard work, and the remaining 90% comes from luck. If you're lucky, you'll live a little longer. If you're unlucky, you'll live a little shorter. There are so many ways to die. You can choose any one of them. Death by collision, death by smashing, death by freezing, death by suffocation, death by starvation, death by dehydration. Which one do you want?"
"I want to die of old age."
"Tang Yue, you've grown up. You have to learn to distinguish between reality and daydreams."
"I want to die from overeating."
"Go out and eat mud. As long as you eat enough, you'll die from overeating. However, constipation is very uncomfortable."
"Then I'll choose to die from anger. Old Cat, you can make me die from anger."
Old Cat pondered for a moment.
"Tang Yue, you single dog."