"Old Cat?
Old Cat, can you hear me? "Tang Yue got up and tried to contact the Old Cat." Old Cat, where are you?
Can you hear me? "
Tang Yue suddenly froze.
He saw the time on the control terminal on the Bright Light Armour's wrist.
7:23。
7: 23 am.
Tang Yue subconsciously turned his head to look at the porthole. He thought it was still after midnight, and the sky was still dark, so it was dark outside the window. However, the clock showed that it was already 7 am … Why was the sun still not up at this time?
This was not the polar region, and there was no long polar night.
"I can hear you. Are you awake?"
At this time, Old Cat's voice came from the headset, and then the hatch opened. With a dull click, the Old Cat came in from the outside. Tang Yue noticed that it had already put on an IVA suit. The Old Cat took off its helmet. "How did you sleep last night?"
"I slept okay, but there was a hundred-pound fat behemoth on my leg that made my leg numb … What's going on?" Tang Yue pointed out the window. "Why isn't the sun up yet?
Is the sun out?
Is it the end of the world? "
"Come out." Old Cat put on its helmet and stretched out its paw to pull Tang Yue. "See for yourself."
"Is there any problem?"
"No problem."
Tang Yue followed Old Cat out of the experiment cabin and carefully landed. It was really dark outside the cabin. Tang Yue raised his head and looked around. Through the glass of the Bright Light Armour's mask, he could see that it was not night, because the darkness was not in the sky, but in front of him. It was just a few centimeters away from him. Tang Yue felt like he was immersed in ink, and he could not see the slightest bit of sunlight.
Tang Yue turned on the headlight of the Bright Light Armour, and the light beam shot out less than five meters away. The dark air was a murky reddish-brown color under the light, and the dust was stirred up by the violent airflow.
"This is the smog you were talking about?" Tang Yue turned his head and looked around.
"Yes … heavy smog."
Old Cat replied, "The air quality today is a bit bad, worse than I thought."
"The smog in your house is like this?
It covers the sky and the sun, and you can't even see your own fingers? "Tang Yue glared." Do you live in a coal mine chimney? "
"You just realized?
Let me tell you, I've lived a hard life since I was young. I was sold to a black coal mine in Shanxi less than five months after I was born. I worked day and night, and the black-hearted boss didn't even give me money for my meals … "
"Say something useful!"
"Well, to be honest, I didn't expect it to be so serious. The atmosphere is extremely murky, and I can't see the slightest bit of sunlight. I woke up half an hour earlier than you and tested the solar panels."
Old Cat stood beside Tang Yue. "Obviously, when we were sleeping last night, the sandstorm passed over our heads. It carried a huge amount of sand and dust, and it covered the surface of Mars like a blanket 30 kilometers thick. Sunlight couldn't get in at all."
"How long will it last?" Tang Yue stretched out his hand and opened his palm in the dark. "I can't feel the wind."
"It's hard to say how long it will last. This could be a global storm. There won't be any wind for three years, but when it does, it will last for half a year."
Old Cat replied, "It's normal that you can't feel the wind. The range of the sandstorm is very large, but this doesn't mean that the wind speed is very high. In such a thin atmosphere, you're wearing such thick gloves. Of course, you can't feel anything."
Old Cat and Tang Yue touched the body of the Mars Wanderer and walked forward step by step. Tang Yue turned off the headlights of the Bright Light Armour. Old Cat held the small light bulb in its paws and raised it above its head, emitting a faint light.
"What do we do next?" Tang Yue asked.
"Everything is going according to plan."
Old Cat walked in front. "I said that the weather won't affect our progress. It's just walking in the dark."
"You can still find the way in this kind of visibility?" Tang Yue was a little surprised.
"You say it as if we can find the way just because the visibility is high." Old Cat snorted. "Anyway, it's just a blind cat looking for a dead mouse. What difference does it make whether it's dark or not?"
Old Cat finally revealed its completely unreliable side. The sextant, the star chart, and the latitude and longitude were all just to fool an outsider like Tang Yue. It had always been a blind cat looking for a dead mouse in the desert.
Tang Yue was dumbfounded.
"You, you, you, you, you!"
"What about you?"
Old Cat spread its paws and bared its teeth. "That damned letter just casually gave us the coordinates and asked us to find it. The desert is hundreds of kilometers away, and we don't have any reliable navigation equipment. What are we going to use to find it?
Use our heads to find it?
It's just a matter of luck … If we're lucky, we'll find it. If we're unlucky, we won't find it. "
The silly cat wasn't afraid of boiling water.
Tang Yue couldn't do anything about Old Cat. He knew that Old Cat was telling the truth. Whether it was the sextant or the star chart, they could only rely on visual inspection to point out the general direction. It was impossible to achieve high precision like the GPS. Along the way, they relied on measurement seventy percent, intuition twenty percent, and luck.
Tang Yue and Old Cat walked to the front of the car and climbed into the driver's seat one after the other.
The open driver's seat was no different from a convertible. Tang Yue fumbled around and sat down, fastening his seatbelt. Old Cat put a small light bulb on the center console. The dim yellow light illuminated the wooden photo frame in the dark. Tang Yue looked at it again. The smiles of the Orion crew were still bright, but they seemed more distant.
Old Cat started the engine of the Mars Wanderer. The indicator light on the control panel lit up, indicating that the Mars Wanderer's battery was fully charged. There was still ninety-six percent remaining.
"Do you know which direction to drive in?
This damn weather … "Tang Yue stretched his arm forward. He couldn't see his palm at arm's length. It was as if he had put his hand into a pool of thick ink. How could he drive in this kind of visibility?
Wouldn't he fall into a ditch?
"Drive forward," Old Cat said calmly. "I'm driving. Are you still worried?"
The next moment, the headlights of the Mars Wanderer lit up, like two sharp swords piercing through the darkness. Tang Yue subconsciously narrowed his eyes. He was slightly surprised. He had never gone out to carry out a mission at night, and he had never turned on the headlights of the Mars Wanderer. He didn't expect that Earth had installed two powerful kryptonite dog eyes on this old dog.
"When have I ever flipped the car?"
Old Cat looked straight ahead with an indifferent expression. He stepped hard on the accelerator and started the car. He spun the steering wheel smoothly. He was indeed an experienced driver.
The Mars Wanderer shook slightly and began to accelerate.
"Hey … wait!
Stop the car!
Old Cat, stop the car! "Tang Yue suddenly remembered something." The solar panels!
The solar panels are still on the ground. They haven't been installed yet! "
"I know. Don't."
Old Cat turned the steering wheel and continued to accelerate. "Throw away everything that can be thrown away. Let go of all the burdens. Anyway, this storm will last for more than half a year. There's no point in keeping the solar panels. We'll go light for the last thirty kilometers!
We'll go straight for the enemy! "