History of Human Space Exploitation

Chapter 58: Escape from Mars 1. Meeting

Standing on the wide platform at the southeast side of the Olympus Pass, Liu Hengfei can see almost the whole picture of Tharsis City, and the Olympus University located to the west of the city is where he got his graduation certificate three standard months ago and is really heading towards social place.At this time, the western hemisphere of Mars is facing the sun. Standing on the highest mountain in the solar system, you can look at the red and black skyline formed by the planet and the black starry sky. A thin white mist hangs on the anti-fog treated vacuum suit visor.

Although the skyline scenery at this time is as fascinating as usual, Liu Hengfei's mood at this time can only feel the incomparable melancholy and despair brought to him by this blood-red planet and the black universe.

If humans have permanently settled on Mars for more than 100 years and started to live a self-sufficient life according to the tradition and practice, the job opportunities on Mars are always coveted by people in other places in the solar system, especially on the earth.University graduates like Liu Hengfei can always get a job that is not necessarily ideal, but can always be very satisfying.

Mars, with a total population of less than 300 million people, can always provide native Saturn immigrants with many advantages due to its rich mineral resources, extremely low aircraft launch costs, and the location advantage of connecting the asteroid belt in the inner solar system and many space stations in the outer solar system. job opportunities.But all this changed completely after 2081, to be precise, from 2113 to the end of the 22nd century.

"It's that observer named Gu Lanlan who discovered that damn asteroid more than 200 years ago in [-]s, and later said that this asteroid will definitely smash our Mars." Liu Hengfei thought angrily.

"If it weren't for this so-called prophecy about the Rausch asteroid, our population on Mars would not have decreased from 50 million people 80 years ago to less than 290 million people today. Neither will the Tenby Heights space station. In the past, there were aircrafts taking off and landing every day, and now it’s deserted and you can’t see anything for a standard month.” In this place where Liu Hengfei stood, the huge platform of Tenby Space Station can still be seen faintly, and even so, one can feel that it’s far inferior to it. The busyness and liveliness I saw in the school documentary.Even the air-cushion train he took today from Tarsis Passenger Station to the viewing platform of Olympus Pass has changed from the five or six trains a day that Liu Hengfei vaguely remembered when he was five or six years old to the current two trains a week. Classes, even one class per week.

Thinking of this, the wireless communicator in the helmet sounded a friendly but obvious synthesized female voice, urging Liu Hengfei to return to the platform station as soon as possible. The only round-trip hovercraft this week will return to Tarsis City in half a standard hour. .Originally, Liu Hengfei wanted to stay on the platform until evening to watch the sunset before going back to the city, but when he heard that there was nothing he could do about the temporary rescheduling of the train, he could only walk towards the station resentfully.

Liu Hengfei felt even more melancholy when he thought that this was the last standard comprehensive Mars free bus service that his university student card could enjoy.Because from two days later, Liu Hengfei will need to pay the same hovercraft fare, bus fare and aircraft fare as others for all his trips.This is naturally a very embarrassing practical problem for a young man like him who has no job yet and is at the same time cash-strapped.

Liu Hengfei, who originally wanted to take a free dry food in the scenic spot for dinner, could only get on the hovercraft in disappointment and headed towards Tarsis.His mood at this time is as full of a sense of nowhere as the old bus speeding down the Olympus ridge. Although the hovercraft will definitely dock safely at the station in Tarsis City, Liu Hengfei's dinner today It can generally be settled, but what about after a standard week or a standard month?He didn't dare to guess carefully.

There are more than 20 passengers in the silent hovercraft cabin including Liu Hengfei. It can be seen from the clothes that five or six of them are the staff of the Olympus Mountain Scenic Area after work. After all, they also know that at least There will be no tour hovercrafts coming here for the next week.

Although the distance from Tarsis Station to No. 197 Relief Station is only 5 kilometers, it is not an easy walk for Liu Hengfei, who was born and raised on Mars and has no food in his stomach.He thought of those travelers from Earth on the interstellar network platform, and always shook his head with a wry smile for the memories and videos of those happy and unforgettable times on Mars.However, the thought of seeing her sooner or later always gave Liu Hengfei more strength from his heart.

She is Ilze Garcia, a food distributor at Relief Station No. 197.The two met about a month ago. That should be the first time Liu Hengfei went to the No. 197 Relief Station to receive the free relief food uniformly distributed by the Mars Local Management Committee.In the first few "meetings", there was not even much eye contact between the two, but as Liu Hengfei repeatedly appeared in the crowd with extremely high mobility, Izel began to notice this person who looked a year or two younger than herself young people.

After more than half a standard month, when Liu Hengfei was sitting at the metal dining table eating his share of relief food, Izel Garcia also took his share and sat across from him, and the two began to For the first time, I communicated in a language other than "hello" and "thank you".

"It seems that you are also from the North District of Tarsis?" Liu Hengfei asked softly, looking at the heavy metal stains on the girl's hands like his own.

"Yeah, you observed very carefully. After graduating from Olympus a year ago, I was not assigned a job. After searching for a while, I couldn't find it. Then I volunteered here. It's been more than half a standard year, although I have no credit Some income, but at least two meals a day are managed here." Izel replied.

"So you are from 2302? One year older than me." Liu Hengfei murmured.

Izel nodded, but said nothing.

"In that case, we should all be descendants of the 'genetic diversity' project?" Liu Hengfei said, looking at the other person's forehead.

"Yeah, otherwise, why would I have been free for more than a year. Congratulations, you have also joined the ranks of free food." Izel looked at the free relief meal in front of him, then raised his head to look at the He stared at his partner and said.

Liu Hengfei could hear that there was no irony in this sentence, but an objective statement of the extremely realistic situation of the two of them, so he nodded silently.He could hear a resentment similar to his own in the other party's tone. After all, if the time goes back 100 years, no, it only takes 50 years, maybe the two of them should be working as engineers in a large joint machinery factory now, or Study what plants or animals are valuable to future humans in the space age in the microgravity laboratory.

From that day on, Liu Hengfei and Ilze Garcia ate and chatted together almost every day, and the two gradually became good friends.In the next few months, Izel was still working as a food distribution volunteer at the relief station every day, while Liu Hengfei was looking for possible job opportunities for the two of them in several big cities that went out to Mars every day.Sometimes Liu Hengfei missed the relief meal distribution time, and Izel would save a copy for him.In this way, Liu Hengfei and Izel began to get along like boyfriend and girlfriend.

One day, 160 seven standard days after the two met...

"Hey, Il, why is the portion of the relief meal less today?" Liu Hengfei tilted his head and quietly asked Izel who was next to him on his left.

"The 371 relief meals we received here today are all like this. The transporter who delivered the meals said that there seems to be a notice from the Planetary Distribution Headquarters, saying that from today onwards, the portion of the relief meals on Mars will be reduced to the usual 70.00 %five." Izel said.

"Have you heard of the reason?" Liu Hengfei didn't seem particularly surprised, but he still wanted to hear any interesting "gossip" from Izel. After all, you can hear it every day at the food relief station. There are naturally many "gossips".

"This... I heard that it is true that the crops we use to grow food on Mars and the crops used to raise livestock require a lot of nitrogen fertilizer. After all, it is so far away from the sun, although the atmospheric shielding is almost negligible, the sunshine is still very strong. Insufficient nitrogen fertilizer, so the amount of nitrogen fertilizer is much larger than that on the earth. But because our reserves and production here are very limited, we rely on transportation from the earth. I also often hear that the number of transport ships coming from the earth has decreased in recent months More than half of it...so...the ration of food is to match the total food and fertilizer consumption." Izel said with a fork, drawing in the empty lunch box.

"In this way, some of the things I heard a few days ago may be true? In the past few years, many rich people have fled to the earth, the moon, and the large space stations in the asteroid belt, and because of these 'consumption The main force' ran away, and the import of many varieties of goods has been suspended. I didn't expect that even the most basic food-related things have begun to shrink..." Liu Hengfei put his cold left hand on Izel's while talking. On the left shoulder, Izel shuddered.

"Hmph, pause, that's a nice way to say it. This word was said a few standards ago when the import of Earth's marine biological products was 'suspended' to Mars. Since then, in the markets of various settlement cities, gradually I can’t see seafood from the earth. At first they were fresh, then they were frozen, then they were marinated, and in the end even my favorite dried squid was gone…” Izel said angrily.

In the last half a standard year, Izel knew that Liu Hengfei had been working very hard to find a salary that could pay at least a meager credit point for the two of them.But as Mars continues to lose its population and space research, survival and activity in the inner solar system come to a near standstill, stricter food rationing began on the planet two months ago.And on this day, under the food rationing system that has driven many people crazy, even the rationed meals in the past can no longer be supplied in sufficient quantities.

Although the relief meals in the past were simple 'protein paste' and 'chlorophyll paste', which were also nicknamed by everyone as 'white snot' and 'green leaf sauce', they could at least meet the minimum energy requirement of [-] kcal per day for adults Intake. Both of them thought at the same time, will the three-quarters supply from now on be reduced to half or one-quarter at some point?

At that time, if everyone still has the strength to continue the most basic activities, there will be a huge question mark...

(End of this chapter)