There was dead silence in the hall.
This time, Tang Yue heard it clearly. Something was knocking on the door from the outside, and it was knocking on the inner door of the airlock. He thought it would be the sound of sand and stones being blown by the strong wind hitting Kunlun Station. It was said that such things often happened in the highland radar stations on Earth. The sudden strong wind would blow sand and stones, and the stones would hit the walls and doors with a bang.
But Tang Yue quickly ruled out this reason. The air density on Mars was not that high. No matter how fast the wind was, it would not be able to blow the stones up.
He was stunned for a few seconds. His brain was spinning, but he could not find the command to give his limbs. Tang Yue had undergone a lot of training, but none of it told him what to do when someone knocked on the door of Kunlun Station.
The mission manual for Neil Armstrong's moon landing certainly did not have an entry that said, "What to do when you open the door of the lunar module and see the ceremonial welcoming team instead of the barren moon surface?"
Old Cat's reaction was faster than his.
It picked up a steel pipe and held it tightly in its paws. Then it shouted at Tang Yue, "Bright Light Armour!
Tang Yue!
Put on the Bright Light Armour! "
Tang Yue jumped up and ran out to put on the Bright Light Armour. Old Cat pounced in front of Tang Yue to protect him. It held the steel pipe in one paw and the can in the other, as if it was facing a great enemy. Looking at its posture, if the door was pushed open in the next moment, it would throw the can out.
Unfortunately, it was not a combat type. Otherwise, it would have taken out an AKM automatic rifle.
Tang Yue hurriedly put on the Bright Light Armour, buckled on the life support system, and connected to the oxygen supply. In an emergency situation, protecting oneself was always the top priority. Even if Kunlun Station broke down, Tang Yue would not immediately suffocate. The protection of the Bright Light Armour would leave enough buffer time.
"Old Cat?"
"Back off." Old Cat pointed behind Tang Yue and said softly.
There was no more sound outside the door. Old Cat stared at the airlock door. It did not know what was knocking on the door, and it did not know if it was still outside.
"Back off again." Old Cat motioned Tang Yue to back off again.
Tang Yue retreated to the wall.
Old Cat gently took the IVA suit hanging on the wall. It used all four of its legs to get into the mask..... Then it turned its head and looked at Tang Yue..................
. "Tang Yue nodded.
Old Cat gently put the can in its hand on the table. It switched the steel pipe to its other paw and approached the airlock door step by step. The barometer by the door showed that the air pressure in the airlock was far lower than the standard atmospheric pressure. It was less than one percent of the standard pressure. This was the atmospheric pressure data on the surface of Mars. This meant that the airlock had just been connected to the outside world. It also meant that something had opened the outer hatch. That thing had come from the outside world.
The circulatory system began to inject air into the airlock. The air pressure gradually rose until it was equal to the air pressure in the hall. At the same time, Old Cat tightly held the turntable in the center of the hatch. It calmly exerted force and slowly turned it bit by bit.
It did not use an electronic lock. The advantage of manually opening the hatch was that it could stop the operation at any time if there was an accident.
With a "click", the heavy lock slowly retracted.
Old Cat's face was gloomy.
It used the steel pipe to push the hatch open slowly.
Tang Yue curiously tried to poke its head out to take a look.
For mankind, this was likely to be a historic moment. Its significance was no less than that of Gagarin flying into space, Armstrong landing on the moon, and Kunlun Station being built on Mars. Tang Yue might become the first human in the history of Earth to come into contact with an alien civilization. Of course, it would also be the last.
Tomcat furrowed its brows.
It thought more than Tang Yue. Of course, it was also more flustered than Tang Yue. It pretended to be calm.
The moment the inner hatch of the airlock was knocked, the inherent worldview in Old Cat's mind had already collapsed. This was the concept instilled in it by the engineers who made it. Behind it was the result of the observation and cognition of the universe by all mankind. It was rigorous, reliable, and indestructible. It was based on unshakable physical and mathematical logic.
But in just a second, the narrow cognitive view that human civilization had spent thousands of years to establish, centered on Earth and mankind, was completely destroyed.
Although mankind had looked up at the starry sky for thousands of years and talked about the alien civilization for hundreds of years, this kind of thinking was essentially no different from the pantheism of primitive people who worshiped nature. It was a derivative product that was emitted with oneself as the template and oneself as the center.
This was a kind of innate centralization.
But at this moment, human thought was inevitably decentralized.
The world was unprecedentedly vast.
Tomcat originally believed that its knowledge was indisputable. This was because it was, in essence, mathematics, inference, and logic. It was one plus one equals two. As long as one plus one equals two wasn't wrong, it couldn't be wrong.
If you wanted it to prove why it could not observe an alien civilization, Old Cat could give you hundreds of examples from various aspects, each of which was irreproachable. But if you wanted to prove that an alien civilization was around, you did not need to say anything. You just needed to let it knock on the door outside Kunlun Station.
In Old Cat's words, this soft "dong" sound was as terrible as the Big Bang.
The universe was far more complicated than anyone imagined.
The hatch opened.
Tang Yue took a deep breath, opened his eyes wide, and prepared to welcome this historic moment.
He had already prepared his lines, and it was a rather formal diplomatic speech.
"Our country solemnly condemns you for being untruthful to us …"
He took the wrong script.
“That’sonesmallstepforaman，onegiantleapformankind.”
The first thing that came into view was the white bulkhead. The inner wall of the cylindrical airlock had rings of reinforcing ribs. The top of the airlock was lit with LED lights, and the floor was covered with fine sand. Old Cat and Tang Yue were directly facing the circular outer hatch. In the center of the hatch, there was a manual unlocking turntable, just like the door of a safe. The outer hatch was closed, and the indicator light was red, indicating that the hatch was locked.
Old Cat and Tang Yue's eyes wandered around, scanning every corner of the airlock. Then, they were both stunned.
There was nothing in the airlock.
Nothing at all.
Tang Yue came forward and stood side by side with Old Cat at the door, frowning.
"Empty?"
Old Cat put down the steel pipe and nodded. "It's empty."
It secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The airlock was empty, and there was nothing in it. Then, the sound just now could be directly eliminated with Occam's razor. Perhaps it was not a knock on the door at all, but a sound made by the structure of Kunlun Station or something else. It was a normal natural phenomenon, and not an alien creature knocking on the door.
Old Cat's worldview did not have to collapse.
"Then what was that sound just now?" Tang Yue raised his head and looked around.
"Maybe the hatch's hinges were unstable, and there was a collision," Old Cat answered. "It could also be the sound of a component falling off."
Tang Yue was not satisfied with this explanation. He still remembered the sound just now. Tang Yue was sure that it was definitely not a component falling off, but the sound of someone bending their knuckles and knocking on the hatch.
But Old Cat's explanation was the most realistic.
In real life, how could there be so many strange things that could not be explained?
After a false alarm, Old Cat turned around and wanted to put the steel pipe back. At this time, Tang Yue suddenly grabbed his arm. "Old Cat …"
"What's wrong?" Old Cat turned his head.
"Old Cat … You … You … You, you, you, you, you, look …" Tang Yue pointed at the floor under his feet. "Look at the floor!"