Tang Yue sat on the roof of the Mars Wanderer experiment capsule, looking at the setting sun as it fell below the horizon. In the same direction, the night sky and the stars slowly rose.
Tang Yue had heard of the legend of the Ultimate. In the era when navigation technology and astronomy were not developed enough, the ancients thought that the earth was flat. At the end and edge of the world, there was an endless waterfall. Endless seawater poured down from the cliff into the endless void. It was an unimaginably magnificent scene.
He tried to imagine Mars as a huge flat surface. If Mars was flat, then Tang Yue should be able to see the bright Milky Way rising from under his feet when he stood on the edge of the earth … If only Mars was flat, then he could look at the universe face to face without looking up.
Raising his neck was too painful.
The Old Cat climbed up from the side and sat down beside Tang Yue.
The man and the cat sat side by side.
"How far have we walked?"
"Ninety kilometers."
"How much further?"
"One hundred and ninety kilometers."
"It's so long … This is really the longest road I've walked in my life," Tang Yue said. "What do you think is still supporting me to continue walking?"
"Hope?"
"Not hope."
Tang Yue shook his head and whispered, "What hope is there? In fact, you and I both know that this letter isn't reliable. Even if it's real, there's no way I can win the lawsuit. I'm not a lawyer. This battle is destined to be lost. There's no way Earth can be restored."
"Then what is it?"
"It's inertia."
Tang Yue replied, "People and wheels are actually the same. If you push a wheel forward, even if it loses power, it will keep rolling until its energy is exhausted and it falls to the ground. I'm now this wheel. I have no power, but I'm still rolling forward. When I hit an obstacle and can't roll anymore, it will stop."
Tang Yue sighed as he lay down with his face facing the sky. He stretched out his limbs in a '大' shape.
Tomcat lay down as well, stretching out its limbs to form the character '大'.
"Look at the sky … Are those clouds?"
"Yes."
Under the dark night sky, Tang Yue saw extremely thin white floccules, emitting a faint light. They were moving slowly at a speed that was almost imperceptible to the naked eye.
"There are clouds here too?
That's rare. "
"Of course, there are clouds in the atmosphere of Mars … It's just that you don't usually pay attention to them. After all, there are traces of water and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The clouds you see may be ice crystals condensed by water or dry ice condensed by carbon dioxide, but they are much higher than the clouds on Earth," the Old Cat explained. "They are distributed in the upper atmosphere above forty kilometers."
Tang Yue looked at the translucent cotton-like cloud and suddenly felt that it was like the egg white mixed in the Tortoise Jelly.
He could not be blamed for not paying attention. The presence of these clouds was too weak. Tang Yue could barely recognize them against the dark background of the night. These extremely thin clouds floated in the atmosphere tens of kilometers above the ground, reflecting the sunlight. During the day, the sunlight was so strong that no one could find them at all.
The weather changes on Mars were often subtle and slow. If there was a weather forecast here, then the weather tonight should be sunny and cloudy.
Sunny.
Sunny.
Sunny.
Sunny.
Sunny.
Sunny.
Tang Yue suddenly laughed. He felt that such a weather forecast was inexplicably funny. One word could be used for ten thousand years.
"It may not always be sunny. There are storms."
Tang Yue suddenly recalled that the global storms on Mars could last for months to half a year. It left a deep impression on him. "The storm we encountered last time won't happen again, right?"
"It won't."
Old Cat decisively denied. "The storm we encountered last time was an extremely rare small-scale strong convective weather. Such a strong storm can be counted on one hand in history. The conditions for its formation are very harsh. The probability is even lower than winning five million in the lottery. You will only encounter this once in your life. If you encounter it again, then you are the chosen one. The responsibility of saving the world will be on you."
"What about a global storm?"
"You don't have to worry about a global storm because it is cyclical and has a pattern to follow."
Old Cat scratched its ear. "Don't be scared by the word 'storm'. The intensity of the global sandstorm in this godforsaken place is actually very low. It is not even comparable to the smog in Beijing."
Compared to the strong convective microclimate that came and went like a thunderstorm, a global storm was much milder. It usually came slowly and left slowly. It left softly, just as it came softly. With a wave of its sleeve, it brought a large cloud of smog — when it arrived, it was just like the smog in Beijing.
In front of the Chinese people who were used to all kinds of big battles, a mild Martian sandstorm was really nothing.
"The climate on Mars is very cyclical. To give an extreme example, if there's a strong gust of wind here this year, there might be another strong gust of wind here next year at the same time at the same place," Tomcat said. "Do you understand?
Because of the cyclical nature of global storms, we can predict their arrival and end. "
"When will the next global storm come?"
"Global storms come about once every three to four Martian years. The next storm will come in the spring one Martian year later, which is two Earth years later. The earliest is two years later, so you don't have to worry at all."
Old Cat made a solemn vow.
There would only be a storm two years later. In Old Cat's view, it would definitely not affect Tang Yue. By that time, Tang Yue would either be gone or dead. After they died, it did not matter if there was a flood or if the wind blew up the earth. Therefore, Old Cat could set up flags to its heart's content and set them high on Olympus Mons.
Let the whole universe see it!
"But …" Tang Yue hesitated for a moment.
"But what?" Old Cat asked.
Its flag stood tall and was indestructible. No one could pull it out because standing behind it was Newton, Joule, Pascal, and Helmholtz!
Predicting storms was essentially a problem of the climate, and a problem of the climate was essentially a problem of heat. This wasn't metaphysics like astrology or divination, but rigorous and precise physics. With reliable data, Tomcat could boldly plant flags all over the universe!
"But … isn't this the old data you observed in the past?"
Tang Yue voiced his concerns. "After Earth disappears, won't the orbit of Mars be affected?
Will the heating and circulation of the atmosphere be the same as before? "
Old Cat froze.
His eyes bulged.
F * ck!
I was wrong, I was wrong. I will immediately go and pull out the flag on Olympus Mons!