Tang Yue dragged the cable up the hill and stood under the setting sun, looking into the distance. Under the light brown sky, the horizon was flat. Old Cat said that the Isidis Planum was a huge crater, formed by the impact of a huge meteorite 3.9 billion years ago. Its diameter was more than 1,500 kilometers, and there were hundreds of thousands of craters like this on Mars.
"What are you looking for?"
"Let's see if there's anything suspicious." Tang Yue extended his hand and pointed ahead. "Is our target in that direction?"
"Yes."
Old Cat crossed its forelimbs. "But it's still a hundred kilometers away from us. What do you expect to find?
Such a long distance has long exceeded the limit of human vision. "
"Don't we still have you?"
"But Mars is a sphere. Even if there's a Burj Khalifa at those coordinates, it's still below the horizon. We won't be able to see that far even if we carry the Haier telescope on our shoulders." Tomcat shrugged.
Tang Yue was somewhat disappointed. They had been trekking through the desert for such a long period of time, but all they saw ahead of them were unchanging hills and desert. There had never been anything that piqued their interest.
Of course, it was impossible for a building like the Burj Khalifa to exist on Mars. If it did, it would have been discovered a long time ago. Humans probably did not even know how many probes had been sent to Mars in the past few decades. The small satellites brought by the Mars Landing Project were counted in sacks. Sacks of space junk were thrown out by the Orion spacecraft in the low-Earth orbit of Mars. Each probe was related to the graduation of thousands of undergraduate and master's students.
"Aren't we going to court with them?" Tang Yue asked. "Is our destination the court?"
It was impossible to have a court with tall pillars like the one on Earth. Tang Yue thought that it was more likely to be a circuit court.
In this day and age, circuit courts were quite rare. However, in the remote mountains of the west, in order to take care of the parties who were inconvenient to travel, the judges would still carry the national emblem on their backs. They would use local materials, set up two tables and chairs, and build a simple open-air court. Relying on this simple court, the ownership of many cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, and homesteads was solved.
In Tang Yue's imagination, when they arrived at the coordinates, what awaited him and Tomcat was the Circuit Court. A strange-looking aircraft would descend from the sky. Following that, the hatch would slowly open. Short-armed, short-legged little green men would carry a table and walk down the stairs, huffing and puffing. The little green men would set up the table and chairs on the sand before taking their seats. The one sitting in the middle would slam a gavel and shout, "Who is suing me?"
"It could also be a spaceship or something," Old Cat said.
"Who knows? This is probably the only problem we face in our lives where we can't find the experience of our predecessors for reference."
Tang Yue stood on a high ground. In front of him was a gradual downward slope. At the bottom of the slope, there was a shallow ditch, which was probably a trace of water flow. In a certain season of the year, water would flow through here, and the gravel would be polished by the water flow over a long period of time.
The sun was about to set, and Old Cat went back to clean up the solar panels. Anyway, there were only a few days left, so there was no need to put away the solar panels at night. When the sun rose the next morning, they could continue to charge, saving the trouble of moving them around.
Tang Yue sat down cross-legged and wanted to support his head, but found that the Bright Light Armour couldn't do so, so he had to give up. He put his hands on his knees and imagined the circuit court of the little green men … As a pure tech guy, he had only seen court sessions on TV. In fact, Tang Yue didn't even know the specific procedures of the proceedings. In Tang Yue's impression, the image of the judge and the image of the auctioneer probably overlapped, because they both held a small hammer and knocked around.
Suddenly, Old Cat's voice came from the earpiece.
"Tang Yue, come over and do me a favor."
"What's wrong?"
Tang Yue turned his head and saw Old Cat squatting next to a solar panel, his back facing him, motionless.
"Come here."
Old Cat's voice was deep and serious.
Tang Yue got up and walked over. Old Cat squatted on the ground, staring at the solar panel, and holding a brush in his right paw. He was as stiff as a statue.
"Old Cat?" Tang Yue was stunned.
"Don't touch me."
Tang Yue's hand that was about to reach out suddenly stopped in mid-air.
"Left arm," Old Cat said, "Pinch my left arm, below the shoulder, with both hands."
"What's wrong with you?
What's the problem?
Can't you move? "Tang Yue squatted down beside Old Cat, holding Old Cat's arm with both hands.
"Use more strength."
Old Cat whispered, "Now listen to my instructions, turn counterclockwise, slowly, not too fast. Stop when I tell you to stop."
"Like this?"
Tang Yue nodded and began to slowly turn Old Cat's left arm. He immediately realized that something was wrong. Old Cat's arm was rusty, and when he turned it, it felt like rough metal rubbing against each other. Then he felt something suddenly snap, like a steel wire being stretched to its limit. Old Cat's body suddenly trembled, and he gritted his teeth and said, "Stop!"
Tang Yue stopped and didn't dare to move again.
"Let go of me."
Tang Yue stared at him in a daze.
"You can let go of me now." Old Cat sighed in relief. "It's fine now, just an old problem."
"An old problem?
When did you get this old problem? "Tang Yue let go of Old Cat's arm and was very surprised.
"Didn't I break this arm when I went out to find Chelomey last time?
The conditions in Kunlun Station are too poor, and it's difficult to completely fix it. "
Old Cat grabbed his left shoulder and pushed and pulled like an orthopedist, making cracking sounds. "This arm doesn't listen to me from time to time, like it's having a cramp. What's worse is that the rest of my hands and feet are also starting to have problems. One of them is down, and the rest are down together. I'm really getting old."
"Is there any way to fix it?" Tang Yue asked. "Teach me, and I'll help you fix it. I'm an expert in repairing electrical appliances."
"You're only an expert in repairing tractors and refrigerators. This is not within your scope of expertise. There are no key materials on Mars, and it can't be fixed without returning it to the factory."
Old Cat tried to move his forearm. "It's fine now, don't worry … Look, this arm is fine now."
Tang Yue was still worried.
"It's really fine."
"I don't study much, so don't fool me." Tang Yue said, "Is it really fine?"
"It's fine."
Old Cat threw the brush into the air, and then accurately caught it with his left paw. "Look, isn't it as flexible as before?"
"I'll do all the work from now on. You go back and rest." Tang Yue took the brush from Old Cat's paw.
Old Cat looked at him, and his ears pricked up.
"Go back!
Go back to the car!
You're already disabled, what are you still doing here?
You old stupid cat! "
Old Cat looked around and showed a cat's unique expression of disgust. He purred and got up to walk towards the Mars Wanderer.
Tang Yue squatted next to the solar panel and was about to clean the sand on the panel when suddenly a strong force came from behind him. He staggered and almost fell to the ground.
Tang Yue was shocked and quickly turned around. He found that the charging cable connected to the Bright Light Armour had been pulled out. Old Cat tripped over the cable and fell to the ground. He lay there motionless, and his left arm was thrown a few steps in front of him.