"Mai Dong … Miss Mai Dong!
Miss Mai Dong!
Please answer if you hear me!
Please answer if you hear me! "
After an unknown period of time, the space station had entered the shadow of the back of Mars, and a short forty-minute night descended. Mai Dong slightly brightened the lights in the cabin, and a hurried voice suddenly came from her earpiece. The voice was very clear.
Mai Dong looked up abruptly.
"Mr. Cat?"
"It's me. The situation is very urgent, so I won't waste any more time. Listen to every word I say!"
Old Cat spoke very quickly, and in the background, there was a rapid tapping sound. It could be imagined that he was rapidly typing on the keyboard while talking. "Mai Dong, listen up. In five minutes and forty seconds, the Eagle will rendezvous with the Joint Space Station!
Are you in the core module of the Crystal right now? "
Mai Dong was shocked by this sudden news.
In five minutes, the Eagle would dock with the Joint Space Station?
"Yes, yes, yes, yes, Mr. Cat, I'm in the core module of the Crystal right now, beside the porthole." The girl pressed down on her earpiece and nodded quickly.
She did not know how Old Cat had restored the communication. Could it be that the sandstorm above Kunlun Station had weakened again?
The communication in the channel was very clear and stable, and the static was almost gone. Such high communication quality had not been seen since the sandstorm began.
"The Eagle has entered the orbit's apogee!
Prepare for the orbit change!
We have to succeed in one go! "Old Cat said." Now turn on MR.! "
“MR？”
"Microwave radar!
Turn on the microwave radar! "
"W-w-w-microwave radar …"
Mai Dong was flustered.
"Are you beside the porthole?
Look to your upper left. There's a gray control panel with the Boeing logo on it. There's also the English abbreviation RAD in white. Do you see it?
Damn it, girl, hurry up … Tang Yue is going to die soon … "
"White abbreviation … RAD … I see it, I see it!
I found it! "Mai Dong floated up and grabbed the handle on the panel." Mr. Cat, what did you just say?
What happened to Mr. Tang Yue? "
"Don't talk nonsense!
Have you found the control system?
Okay, now turn on the red switch on the right side of the panel!
Listen, the Eagle is about to enter the long-range guidance phase. I'll teach you how to operate it!
Do as I say, step by step. Don't make a single mistake!
Is that clear? "
The girl nodded solemnly.
"Understood."
·
·
·
Kunlun Station.
The storm raged.
Old Cat felt that Tang Yue was really a lunatic. Mai Dong did not know why the connection suddenly returned to normal. She thought that the intensity of the sandstorm had decreased, but in fact, the wind speed had not decreased at all. As the cyclone's low-pressure zone gradually moved away, the wind speed began to increase crazily. Now, it had risen to 40 m/s. Kunlun Station was pitch-black.
The reason why Old Cat could reestablish contact with the space station was because of Tang Yue.
That lunatic had said that he would ensure that Old Cat would be able to contact the Eagle before the next orbital change window. Old Cat thought that he was just being courageous because no one could guarantee that they would be able to contact the lander in such weather conditions. Who knew that he really did it?
"Tang Yue!
Tang Yue, can you hear me?
How's the situation on your side? Can you still hold on? "
"The situation … is still alright!
I can still hold on. Don't worry about me. Focus on docking the Eagle with the space station! "
Tang Yue shouted in the comms. He wore Bright Light Armour and stood in the darkness against the storm.
"Damn it!"
Old Cat cursed softly. If something really happened to Tang Yue, it would not be able to rush to his rescue in time.
Tang Yue's position was not at the entrance of Kunlun Station.
Instead, he was at the edge of the garage a hundred meters away. He was standing behind the Mars Wanderer with a huge communications antenna strapped to his body.
This was Tang Yue's method. The emergency backup antenna was too weak. He decided to reactivate Kunlun Station's own communications antenna. The latter was a two-meter-tall guy with powerful power. It could maintain communications even in the storm, but it had been blown down by the strong winds in the sandstorm and had lost its function.
It was not that Old Cat had not thought of setting up the large antenna again, but it was placed beside the garage. It was too far from Kunlun Station. To activate the antenna, he had to go to the garage. It was a hundred meters away, and Old Cat might not even be able to return. If anyone else went there, it would be a dead end.
Tang Yue, the fool, groped his way over while singing "Katyusha" and "Unity is Strength." He firmly tied one end of the safety rope to the airlock's hatch and reconnected the antenna's data cable. Then, he crawled and rolled in the dark storm for more than forty minutes. Old Cat almost thought that he had died in the sandstorm, but in the end, Tang Yue still arrived at the garage.
Then, Tang Yue drove the Mars Wanderer out and used the tall body of the Mars Wanderer as a windshield. He then set up the communications antenna. In the wind speed of forty meters per second, the antenna could no longer hold, so Tang Yue firmly tied the antenna to his body. He used his body weight of more than 140 kilograms and the 120 kilograms of Bright Light Armour as a human support to resist the raging sandstorm.
This lunatic really did not want to live anymore.
He was a complete outlaw.
"F * ck … you have to come back alive!"
Old Cat stared at the screen. Tang Yue had created unprecedented communication conditions for him. The Eagle and the Joint Space Station continuously transmitted real-time data to Kunlun Station's computers.
Tang Yue had fulfilled his promise. He had done what he said he would do. Now, it was up to Old Cat … As they had given up on the plan of two orbital maneuvers and only carried out one, the difficulty of control had increased sharply. The acceleration, deceleration, and attitude control had to be just right, and the timing had to be grasped precisely.
Old Cat, the experienced driver, had to control the Russian-made tractor above his head and make the RD-0172 rocket engine carry the Eagle through a super large drift, changing lanes at high speed, and accurately reversing into the garage!
When docking, the distance deviation could not exceed 300 millimeters, and the angle deviation could not exceed 5 degrees. This operation was very difficult, but it was not a problem for the legendary Mt. Akina's pram god!
The Eagle gradually approached the space station. The two man-made spacecraft were flying in the vast vacuum. Although their relative positions were close, the two were actually on completely different orbits. They came from different directions and headed in different directions. Once they missed this window, the distance between the lander and the space station would rapidly increase.
Old Cat had to grasp this opportunity.
He wanted the Eagle to jump into the space station's orbit!
The computer's timer was synchronized and began the countdown.
Five seconds left.
Old Cat slowly narrowed his eyes. He placed his paw on the keyboard and slowly exerted pressure with his fingers. The two cursors on the screen flashed one after another.
Three seconds left.
The lander flew to its apogee.
Two seconds left.
The space station entered its perigee.
One second left.
Old Cat pressed the activation button. At the instant the button was pressed, the Kunlun Station's computer system transmitted an electrical signal to the antenna through a cable. The communications antenna shot a modulated radio wave into the air. The electromagnetic wave passed through the Martian atmosphere of more than a hundred kilometers at the speed of light and entered the relay satellite's receiver in 0.06 seconds. 0.02 seconds later, the relay satellite changed the direction of the signal and sent Old Cat's command to the Eagle from hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.
The Eagle received the command and the RD-0172 engine ignited!
It began the orbital maneuver!