Dead on Mars

Tang Yue sat in the front passenger seat as the Mars Wanderer advanced amidst the darkness. To be honest, Tang Yue didn’t have any confidence. At the very least, he had lost all his bearings. With one’s vision hindered, no one could accurately determine their bearings. In the beginning, he still knew where north and south were, but after taking two bends in the darkness, Tang Yue was completely lost.

However, Tomcat appeared fully confident. It didn’t show any hesitation when making turns.

The Mars Wanderer could only illuminate about five meters ahead of it in the sandstorm, and they were still at least thirty kilometers away from their destination.

“Ditch!”

“I see it.” Tomcat gripped the steering wheel tightly. “However, it’s not too deep. We can run over it.”

The Mars Wanderer was moving at its fastest speed in the pitch-black sandstorm. This was a nearly crazy action. In a situation where Tang Yue and Tomcat couldn’t even see past five meters, they were unable to react in time to any obstacle they met with the clumsiness of the Wanderer.

“Why don’t your eyes have night vision? Are you a beggar’s version? Wasn’t it installed on you when you came out of the factory?” Tang Yue asked loudly.

“Cut the nonsense!” Tomcat pointed at its eyes. “This pair of eyes are much better than yours! They are Carl Zeiss lenses! Those found on the Huawei P400! High-performance low-light night vision!”

“Then why can’t you see a thing!?”

“In this kind of goddamn weather, any form of night vision equipment is useless!” Tomcat shouted. “This is a sandstorm! The air has large amounts of dust suspended in it. It’s basically blocking out all the light! Night vision is useless!”

“Ditch! Ditch!”

“I see it!” Tomcat roared as it abruptly turned the steering wheel. The Mars Wanderer immediately drifted horizontally, dodging the deepest part of the ditch in a rather harrowing manner. When the wheel hit the sunken area, it immediately bounced up, lifting Tang Yue off his seat and causing him to hit the roof.

“Have you never read Wang Xiaobo’s Hong Fu Eloping at Night?” Tang Yue held onto the vehicle’s frame and shouted.

“Why are you thinking about Hong Fu Eloping at Night? Can’t you read the situation? It’s the Wanderer Eloping at Night!” Tomcat yelled as it slammed on the brakes and switched directions. A huge basalt boulder over two meters tall had suddenly appeared in the lights, giving Tang Yue and Tomcat a ghastly shock. If they had collided with it, it would be a repeat of the Titanic tragedy. The Mars Wanderer showed how reliable it was, using its powerful tires to grip the ground as its tail swung out. The old dog had seemingly learned new tricks.

“Unfortunately, there’s no Hong Fu or Li Jing here. Nor are there any eloping stories. There’s only a man, a cat, and a vehicle who are in dire straits!” Tomcat avoided the obstacles en route and continued accelerating. The Wanderer dashed forward amidst the hurricane.

They were advancing with strong headwinds as the sand inundated them. Thankfully, the Martian atmosphere’s density was not enough to produce any obvious air resistance. As for the Mars Wanderer’s turtle speed, it didn’t need any streamline designs to reduce the resistance.

“I’m saying we can pray to Mr. Wang Xiaobo to bless us! He will definitely bless us!” Tang Yue held onto the vehicle frame. If not for the seatbelts securing him tightly to his seat, he would have long fallen out. For some reason, Tomcat had selected a path filled with potholes. The Mars Wanderer bounced the entire way, to the point of having all four wheels lift off the ground at times.

“Downslope! Downslope—!”

The Mars Wanderer’s head suddenly plummeted as Tang Yue widened his eyes. There was a steep slope ahead of them once again. It was unknown how long it was since the lights weren’t powerful enough to tell them. The Wanderer dashed down with him and Tomcat.

“Shut up. Be careful you don’t bite your tongue!” Tomcat replied with gritted teeth. “Mr. Wang Xiaobo probably can’t help you at this moment in time.”

“Then pray to Lu Xun. He once said that Tang Yue and Tomcat would definitely reach their destination successfully!” Tang Yue said. “The six literary masters, Lu, Guo, Mao, Ba, Cao—one of them—will definitely bless us.”

“When did Lu Xun say that?”

“2 p.m., 20 October 1892. Lu Xun said it on the Hundred-Plant Garden while skipping class from the Three Flavor Study!”

“How do you prove it?”

“How do you prove me otherwise?”

The Mars Wanderer dashed down the steep slope before reaching a flat plain. Tang Yue noticed that the gravel on the ground was becoming less as the vehicle vibrations also declined.

“Do you know how far we have been running?” Tomcat asked.

“You’ve been driving the Wanderer like a roller coaster. How would I know how far we’ve gone.”

“Five kilometers,” Tomcat replied. “Five kilometers have passed since we set off. To be precise, 5.25 kilometers. We are still 24.75 kilometers away from our destination. The coordinates should be 15° east from where we’re facing. That’s why we need to steer slightly right.”

Tang Yue was surprised.

Tomcat spoke confidently. It had calculated the remaining distance rather accurately and didn’t appear as though it was bluffing. But how did it do it? In such harsh weather conditions and bad terrain, they could neither see the sun, stars, or even their fingers. With the sextant and star chart useless, any precise measurements were just guesses.

“A ruler we have ourselves. The wheels,” Tomcat explained. “The Mars Wanderer’s wheels have a diameter of 0.75 meters. One revolution is 2.36 meters. As long as you know how many revolutions it has made, you will know how far it has traveled. And the Mars Wanderer will tremble slightly once every fifteen revolutions. Pay attention. Three… Two… One! Listen!”

Tang Yue sat in his seat, and just as Tomcat finished its sentence, he heard a faint bumping sound. It sounded like a spring had been compressed to its limits before bouncing up instantaneously. This sound wasn’t transmitted over the air, but through the vehicle’s metallic frame into his ears. It was extremely soft and almost undetectable.

Tang Yue focused and found that the sound was very regular.

“Since we set off, Wanderer’s wheels have rotated 2,244 times. Ignoring the bends we took and the course corrections, it’s five kilometers.” Tomcat explained. “The Wanderer’s batteries are at 70%. It should barely be enough to get us to our destination.”

“Are the headlights heavy on power consumption?” Tang Yue asked.

“Quite.”

“Can you switch off the headlights?”

“We will fall into a ditch if we do so.” Tomcat shook its head. “That pair of eyes is the only thing that allows us to deal with the sandstorm. In this darn weather, even night vision equipment is useless. Infrared is useless, so is low-light imagery. What we need are bulbs! Huge bulbs! The bigger the better! With enough brightness, any type of weather will succumb to it. God said let there be light!”

Tang Yue looked down at his Radiant Armor. The battery’s indicator was still green. The EVA suit could work for eight hours independently, so in those eight hours, he needed to complete his mission. Otherwise, he would die when the EVA suit ran out of power.