It was late at night.
Tang Yue opened his eyes. In the pitch-black darkness, there was a dark red light flashing. It was the electronic clock beside his pillow.
He reached out his hand from under the blanket and picked up the clock to check the time. The number on the LCD screen was 3284429, and it was still ticking second by second.
Light shone through the gap in the curtain of the passenger cabin, and there was a faint sound of typing on the keyboard. Old Cat was still working through the night. Tang Yue only slept for five hours a day, but Old Cat was working non-stop. They all wanted to finish their work as much as possible before the comet fell.
Tang Yue threw the clock aside, pulled up the blanket to cover his face, and closed his eyes. He wanted to go back to sleep, but he couldn't.
The clock face fell on the bed, and the countdown light flashed in the gap between the sheets.
In the past twenty years of Tang Yue's life, there had never been a moment like this where Tang Yue could feel the passage of time so clearly … Time passed through the night slowly and silently, like quicksand, like a river, and like neutrinos, it almost didn't interact with any matter.
In classical physics, time was the description of the change in the state of motion of matter. It was based on the experience of human perception, and it wasn't material or energy that could be seen or touched. However, the concept of entropy was introduced in thermodynamics to describe and measure the passage of time. This ruler was intuitive and measurable, and it wasn't an illusory and idealistic thing like sensory experience or psychological effects. The increase of entropy in the universe was irreversible, so time couldn't be reversed.
Tang Yue looked at the countdown again.
3284352。
"Mr. Cat … I …"
A girl's sobbing voice came faintly from outside the door.
Mai Dong never cried in front of Tang Yue. Although she and Old Cat both knew that Tang Yue was going to die soon, they still maintained their normal daily routine and work habits.
Mai Dong would still introduce the plants she raised to Tang Yue, describe the stars she saw with the telescope, or complain to him that there was a problem with the incubator. But in fact, this girl wasn't good at hiding her emotions. She often smiled and smiled, then her expression suddenly became lonely, and her eyes showed sadness like water.
Tang Yue lifted the blanket, put on his clothes, and got out of the passenger cabin.
The hall was dim, and the lights weren't turned on. The only light source was the computer monitor on the table.
"Can't sleep?" Old Cat asked.
"Can't sleep." Tang Yue pulled a chair and sat down. He glanced at the communication video, "Where's Mai Dong?"
"Tired from crying, she went to rest."
Old Cat replied, "She wants to find a way to save you, but none of the methods will work, so she's in despair again."
"This girl is really stubborn."
Tang Yue smiled. Although Mai Dong looked like a weak girl, she was actually quite stubborn … This could be seen from her determination to participate in the Mars Landing Project. Everyone advised her not to go, but Mai Dong gritted her teeth and boarded the pirate ship.
She was good at crying and stubborn. After crying, she wiped her tears and continued.
"She really wants to save you," Old Cat repeated.
Tang Yue was stunned. "I know."
There were very few things in this world that would make you stubbornly refuse to turn back until you hit the southern wall. Even if you hit the southern wall, you would still refuse to turn back.
Or it was about why you wanted to live.
"But you don't know how crazy she is. Miss Mai Dong even proposed to let the space station or Orion collide with the comet to change the comet's orbit."
Old Cat said, "This girl is a very bold and courageous person. She's willing to pay any price to achieve her goal."
"And the result?"
"Impossible."
Old Cat replied, "I told her that it's impossible. Whether it's Orion II or the Joint Space Station, their masses are too small to affect the comet's orbit."
Tang Yue nodded. This was an expected result.
The total mass of Orion II and the Joint Space Station was no more than a thousand tons. However, the total mass of the comet's nucleus was as high as 102 trillion tons. The former's mass was only one billionth of the latter's. This difference in mass was even more exaggerated than the difference between an ant and a whale. How could an ant's impact change the direction of a whale's swim?
However, this little ant was all that Tang Yue and Mai Dong had in their hands.
"You can't sleep because you're anxious and have insomnia?"
"No."
Tang Yue shook his head. "I just want to see the sunrise. After all, I can only watch the sunrise for a maximum of thirty-six times. Every time I see it, there's one less … After thirty-six days, the sun won't be able to see me. I really feel sorry for it."
"Other than watching the sunrise, before death comes, have you ever thought of trying something new that you've never tried before?"
"For example?"
"For example, taking off your pants and taking a dump outdoors."
Tang Yue was shocked. "I still want to live for two more days."
"Then you can take off your pants the moment the comet hits the ground and take a dump …" Old Cat said, "This will help preserve the body's integrity."
"Why?"
"When you bend your body and your buttocks face the comet's landing point, you're resisting the most violent impact with the most solid part of your body. This is like the heat-insulating bottom of a spacecraft's return cabin. Think about it carefully. Aren't the two very similar?
A shock wave will form on your gluteus maximus, and the airflow will flow along your back. This can significantly reduce the force on your body. "Old Cat was full of nonsense.
Tang Yue was dumbfounded.
"Then why don't I just dig a hole and lie down?"
"Obviously, lying down isn't cool enough."
Old Cat said, "Since you're going to die anyway, you might as well die in a dazzling way … Just like when Mount Vesuvius erupted, the young man in the ancient city of Pompeii who wanted to have sex at the last moment. The volcanic ash forever froze his heroic posture in the long river of time for future generations to admire."
"If you lie down, when people dig you out, they will only say, 'Oh, this is a person who died from the impact of a comet.'"
"But if you raise your buttocks towards the comet, then when people dig you out, they will be incomparably amazed, 'Oh, my God, this is a buttock-'"
"Stop!"
Tang Yue interrupted. God knows what kind of nonsense Old Cat would spit out if it continued. What exactly did Old Cat teach it?
"I think it's time to go out."
"There are still more than three hours before sunrise." Old Cat pointed at the hatch of the airlock.
"Then I'll go out and wait."
Tang Yue got up, took down the Bright Light Armour EVA suit hanging on the wall, opened it, and crawled into it. Old Cat came forward to help. Tang Yue tried to crawl into the helmet of the spacesuit. Old Cat helped him zip up the Bright Light Armour, installed the life support system, and patted the hands and feet of the Bright Light Armour. The green indicator lights lit up one by one, and all the modules were working normally.
"I'm going." Tang Yue patted Old Cat's shoulder.
"Don't go and never come back." Old Cat laughed. "Good luck."