Dead on Mars

“Why did the Orion I disappeared?” Tang Yue was alarmed. “You know the reason?”

“I’ve no idea.”

Tomcat was very direct.

“Didn’t you say you were meditating?”

“I was,” Tomcat replied, “but I didn’t figure it out.”

In the past three months, Tang Yue and Tomcat had discussed the reason for Earth’s disappearance on more than one occasion. He had come up with many postulations, but all of them were overturned. They just couldn’t figure out how a gigantic planet with a mass of nearly 6 × 10²⁴ kilograms would suddenly vanish. This exceeded any natural phenomena or even their imagination. The physics known to humanity was unable to support any inference.

The most powerful weapon created by humanity at present was the AN602. It also had a legendary nickname known by all—Big Ivan. This 50 Mt hydrogen bomb was detonated by the Russians in the North Pole during the Cold War. The explosion produced a mushroom cloud more than 60 kilometers high, and its yield was about ten times more than the combined energy of all the conventional explosives used in World War II.

Nuclear fusion was indeed the most powerful method of energy production wielded by humanity. Physicists were able to release the energy in the atom, making it a revolutionary improvement. As a result, humanity’s understanding of the world had transcended to a brand new level.

However, the sun had been silently been undergoing fusion for five billion years.

For the Universe, fusion was a common reaction. If Jupiter’s mass was increased by thirteen times, the strong gravity generated was enough to fuse deuterium. It would go from a huge gaseous planet to a brown dwarf… The powers wielded by humanity were far from enough to rock a planet.

It was impossible that the Earth’s disappearance was done by humanity. If humanity had this ability, the Earth would have exploded a hundred times over with the way humanity acted.

Finally, Tomcat shared two of his postulates.

First, it was a natural phenomenon.

One had to know that the Milky Way and the Solar System were in motion. If one were to observe the Solar System from a relatively still state, the Solar System wouldn’t appear like a spinning plate, but a helix that spun forward.

Tomcat said that there were places in the Universe that didn’t abide by the conservation of physical laws. To be honest, it would be truly stumped to say something that shook its worldview.

If the physical laws weren’t conserved universally in the Universe, it meant that space wasn’t even as humans believed it to be. And Earth was just unlucky to have fallen into one of those uneven pits.

Following that, humanity had vanished.

Second, it was due to beings of higher intelligence.

To this point, humanity had yet to discover any highly intelligent creatures—apart from chimpanzees, on Earth.

However, this didn’t mean that other civilizations didn’t exist in the Universe. There was still no answer to the Fermi paradox—the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence for extraterrestrial civilizations and high estimates of their probability. But in the words of Tomcat: With Earth gone, who the hell cares about the Fermi paradox?

Who could explain the Earth’s disappearance paradox?

Pushing the blame onto extraterrestrial civilizations was actually a very irresponsible action. Although extraterrestrials had been blamed for many things in the past century, with crop circles on inhabited islands or the building of stone monuments being pinned on them as though extraterrestrials had nothing better to do but to come to Earth to have some fun. Extraterrestrials had never been blamed for something this major—the annihilation of trillions of lives and the planet.

The Earth and Moon had vanished together. Clearly, everything within a distance of 380,000 kilometers from Earth had vanished. This covered 99.999% of humanity’s biosphere, including all the spacecraft in near-orbit.

Tomcat did the math, and at present, the few man-made objects in the Solar System included some retired observation equipment; other than Mars’s Kunlun Station, the United Space Station, and the communications relay satellites.

There were also the Voyager and Pioneer which had long flown far away. They had gone past Pluto’s orbit and had taken on new horizons. There was also the atmospheric entry probe, Huygens, on Saturn’s moon, Titan, and a bunch of gadgets the Soviets had scattered above Saturn. There were also the defunct Mariner and Dawn spacecraft.

These were what the human civilization had left in the world.

Not one of them could be used. The Voyager had probably flown into the Oort Cloud and would visit Proxima Centauri in the constellation of Centaurus seventy thousand years from now. This punk had left home without ever intending to return.

It was depressing just hearing that.

But even more puzzling was the disappearance of the Orion I.

When Earth disappeared, the Orion I had just left the Mars United Space Station and entered a transfer orbit between Earth and Mars. It was still far from Earth, so why had they lost communications with the Orion I as well?

In the first few days after Earth’s disappearance, Tang Yue still had hopes of contacting the Orion I. Commander Old Wang and company were aboard, so there were survivors and supplies onboard. But unfortunately, it had also vanished the moment Earth disappeared. This was first discovered by Mai Dong.

In the past three months, Tang Yue and Tomcat had assiduously analyzed the possible locations of the Orion I. They had gone through every possibility in the hopes of finding the spacecraft, but towards the end, the two gave up. They had no choice but to admit that the Orion I had gone missing.

Tomcat said that it was possible that someone had shot from outside the Solar System, killing two birds with one stone, skewering the Orion and Earth together.

“In Buddhism, there’s gradual enlightenment and instant enlightenment,” Tomcat said. “Gradual enlightenment is enlightenment through a slow process, while instant enlightenment is a rapid one. As I undergo gradual enlightenment, I have instant enlightenment. Together, I’m figuring out the possible reasons for the Orion I’s disappearance.”

Tang Yue frowned.

“You are able to say something that goes against your idealism, despite being a robot? Aren’t you afraid that Asimov will haunt you in the middle of the night?”

“This isn’t idealism. To a robot, there’s a mathematical explanation for gradual enlightenment and instant enlightenment,” Tomcat replied. “So-called gradual enlightenment is known as an exhaustive approach. It’s done by listing down all the possibilities, such as using the exhaustive method to prove the Riemann hypothesis. This is the gradual enlightenment method of the Riemann hypothesis.”

“What about instant enlightenment?”

“Instant enlightenment is the random approach. For instance, I give you a number axis, and let you randomly stab at the number axis to find a rational number… This is the mathematical method of instant enlightenment.”

“Then, what are the chances of success with the two approaches?”

Tomcat shook its head and said slowly, “Zero.”

Tang Yue donned the Radiant Armor and prepared to head out to inspect Kunlun Station and unfold the solar panels. He slowly opened the airlock’s hatch and his knees suddenly buckled as he knelt to the ground.

“Tang Yue?” Tomcat came over to help him. “Are you alright?”

Tang Yue stood up with the help of the wall as he looked at the floor. After a short daze, he shook his head. “I’m fine. I just missed my footing.”

Tomcat patted him on the helmet. “Good luck.”

“Tang Yue, take care.” Mai Dong waved from the screen.

Tang Yue gave a thumbs up before entering the airlock.