Six days after the space station's accident.
There were still five days before Tianzhou 37's arrival.
Before dawn, Old Cat and Tang Yue got up and prepared to continue preparing for Tianzhou's landing. At this moment, the space station contacted Kunlun Station. Mai Dong informed them that the Hub module was missing.
"The Hub module is gone?"
"The Hub module is gone."
Mai Dong leaned against the window and looked out. The spherical module that was connected to the core module had vanished without a trace.
"The docking mechanism must have broken."
Old Cat was very calm. He took out two steel pipes from under the table and gently touched them. "That thing is weak to begin with. It's already quite tenacious for it to last this long. It wouldn't be surprising if it collapsed at any time."
After the collision, the Hub module and the Crystal module were the only two modules left, but no one knew how strong the connection between them was. For safety reasons, Old Cat had locked the hatch between the Crystal and Hub modules, preventing Mai Dong from entering the Hub module.
Old Cat originally wanted to disconnect the connection and release the Hub module, but the docking mechanism had already failed and was out of control. After several failed attempts, he could only give up.
Last night, the docking mechanism between the Crystal and Hub modules had finally collapsed. While everyone was sleeping, the Hub module had separated from the Joint Space Station. After Mai Dong woke up, the only thing left in the Joint Space Station was the Crystal module. As for the Hub module, it was likely that it had already fallen into the atmosphere.
"Is the problem serious?" Tang Yue sat on a chair, took off his earpiece, and turned to ask Old Cat.
"Under normal circumstances."
Old Cat was indifferent. He was expressionless as he used the steel pipe in his hand to strike the floor. "The Hub module will fall sooner or later. It's just a matter of time."
"Lass, what about the space station's attitude?
Is it affected? "Tang Yue asked.
"I can't tell," Mai Dong replied. "The Crystal Pod has been rotating slowly, and the angular velocity hasn't changed much."
"What about the orbital altitude?" Tang Yue asked again. "Can you roughly estimate your current altitude?"
Mai Dong held up the pencil, closed one eye, and found a reference point on the surface of Mars. She had already learned how to measure distance by jumping eyes. If she could go back two hundred years in time, she would definitely be a good artillery soldier on the battlefield.
"Hmm …" The girl in the channel muttered to herself.
"How is it?" Tang Yue squeezed the earpiece cable tightly.
"Hmm …"
"How is it?
How high is your current orbit?
Did it drop below 100 km/h? "
"Hmm …"
"Little girl?"
"Aiya, Tang Yue, don't rush me. You're messing up my thoughts. Shut up, shut up."
Tang Yue obediently shut up.
Half a minute later, the results were out.
"Tang Yue, my current altitude is … hmm, about 112 kilometers."
"About one hundred and twelve kilometers!
The Joint Space Station's current orbital altitude is 112 kilometers!
Old Cat! "
Tang Yue immediately took off his earpiece when he heard the results. He turned around and shouted at Old Cat, "Is this altitude safe enough?
Can you hold on until Tianzhou arrives? "
Old Cat's back was facing Tang Yue as he squatted on the ground and pieced together the steel pipes. He did not even turn his head as he raised his front paw and gave a thumbs up.
Tang Yue put on his earpiece. "Little girl, Old Cat says you're very safe."
"Above 100 kilometers is the safe altitude. At this altitude, the atmospheric density is not high enough to cause the Joint Space Station to slow down significantly. The space station can maintain a relatively stable state. 80 kilometers is the alert altitude. This is the middle layer of the Martian atmosphere. Once we descend to this altitude, the atmospheric resistance will increase exponentially, and the space station's energy will be depleted rapidly. 60 kilometers is the crash altitude.
Old Cat muttered behind Tang Yue, "112 kilometers, there's nothing to be afraid of … There's nothing to be afraid of …"
He straightened his body and placed the two steel pipes in front of him. He used his paws to flatten them to ensure that they were of the same length. Old Cat was 1.5 meters tall, and the two steel pipes were about the same height.
"What are you doing?"
"Making crutches," Old Cat answered.
"Crutches?" Tang Yue did not understand what that meant.
"Crutches."
Old Cat placed the two steel pipes against the wall and turned around to search for foam and cardboard in the junk pile. "We're not sure about Miss Mai Dong's current physical condition. It's better to make a crutches for her. It'll make it easier for her to move around when she comes down. After all, it takes time to recover … You can't be carrying her around, right?"
"As long as she's willing …" Tang Yue said, "I have no objections."
"Oh, you've grown up. You're no longer that lone wolf in the desert?"
Old Cat grinned and squinted his eyes. "We agreed to be single for the rest of our lives, but you secretly got a marriage certificate. Find a mirror and look at your silly smile."
Tang Yue picked up the mirror on the table and touched his cheek. He was a little puzzled. "I'm not smiling."
"The smile in your eyes is almost overflowing."
Old Cat wriggled in front of him again. "You're like a wild cat in heat now. You're restless. 'Ah, I'm finally not alone' and 'Ah, I'm so happy' are written all over your face. Sure enough, compared to a girl, human civilization and thousands of years of history are nothing, right?
Don't think that I don't know that you were secretly laughing under the quilt last night. "
Tang Yue was stunned and looked in the mirror again.
"Is it that obvious?"
"Human beings are really vulgar," Old Cat said.
"Human beings are vulgar to begin with."
"I don't object to being vulgar. To be honest, on this damn planet, compared to the happiness of you and Miss Mai Dong, human civilization and thousands of years of history are indeed nothing. Nothing in this world is more important than your life. The pursuit of happiness is never vulgar."
Old Cat took out a large pile of foam plastic from the drawer. "If you can have a perfect ending, then human civilization will have a perfect ending."
"If it weren't for the conditions, I would be happy to see you and Miss Mai Dong have a litter of cubs. Then I'll help you raise the cubs, give them a perfect education and care, and train them to become mathematicians, physicists, chemists, biologists, historians, writers, artists … When the cubs grow up, they can continue to give birth to cubs."
Old Cat continued, "When you've lived a happy life together, I'll bury you in the open space in front of Kunlun Station, set up a tombstone for you, and continue to raise the cubs' cubs' cubs until I'm old and lose my ability."
"Hey, hey, you're getting married."
Tang Yue reminded it that this idea was against human ethics. Old Cat's tone and words were not like raising children, but more like raising pigs.
Tomcat ignored him as it hugged its arms full of Styrofoam. It stood on the ground and looked out the window with a distant gaze.
"That's my ideal cat life."