Die on Mars

When Tang Yue opened the door of the airlock of Kunlun Station alone and stepped onto the land of Mars, before he had time to express his emotion: "This is only a small step for me, but it is a giant leap for mankind." .

The assistant told him.

The earth exploded.

Tang Yue's mood collapsed.

He later estimated the time when his brain was blank. The subjective time was probably a few hours, and all the brain cells in his brain stopped working. The current on the surface of the nerves and synapses suddenly stopped, and all the cells, tissues, and organs in the body were petrified.

In other words, he should have been brain dead once.

Tang Yue threw all his work aside, turned around, and started checking the computer system at Kunlun Station.

A good earth.

Such a big earth.

How do you say it exploded?

Tang Yue soon figured out what was going on. There was nothing wrong with the computer. It had indeed lost all contact with the earth. The routine connection that was supposed to be done every half an hour was suddenly interrupted. No matter how many calls or waits there were in the background, nothing happened. respond.

The computer decided to call the police.

It asked the assistant robot Laomao to notify Tang Yue.

But when the words "lost contact" reached the mouth of a second-rate robot, it turned into a terrifying sentence: "Tang Yue, your hometown has exploded."

Tang Yue really wanted to kill this stupid assistant.

This is Kunlun Station, call Jiuquan Center! This is Kunlun Station, call Jiuquan Center! Can you hear it? Kunlun Station calls Jiuquan Center! Call Jiuquan!

No response.

This is Kunlun Station, call Xichang Center!

No response.

This is Kunlun station, calling Baikonur!

No response.

Call Plesetsk!

Call Houston!

Call Kennedy!

Calling French Guiana!

Damn it, call Kenya! Call Pakistan! Call Afghanistan!

Tang Yue was sweating profusely.

He had tried all means of communication.

But all failed without exception.

Being alone on an alien planet and losing contact with the earth is really a fatal problem.

If he couldn't be contacted again, he would jump over the wall and call Tathagata Buddha and the Jade Emperor.

"You have been calling here for six hours stupidly. You have not established a communication mechanism with French Guiana at all. Is it useless for you to call them?" Assistant Old Mao stood at the side, "Look at the big words on the screen. Miss you?"

A huge "NO SIGNAL" flashed on the computer screen.

"How long will the communication delay between Mars and Earth be at this time?" Tang Yue asked.

"About fifteen minutes." The old cat replied.

Tang Yue's hands and feet were numb. The airtight work clothes were not breathable and the inner lining was soaked with sweat.

He strictly checked each system of the workstation according to the procedures for handling problems in an emergency. Tang Yue even took out the "System Maintenance Manual" which was as thick as a dictionary and compared it word by word.

"The fact that you can't contact the Earth obviously has nothing to do with the delay. The workstation's computer has self-checked ten thousand times. There is no problem with the contact system. The problem can only be on the Earth side." Lao Mao explained, "It's probably a signal relay. The satellites collectively went offline."

"What problem will cause the satellite to drop offline?" Tang Yue asked.

"The earth exploded."

"If you keep talking nonsense, I will strangle you to death."

"Okay, let me be serious. The probability of signal relay satellites going offline collectively is very small, because relay satellites are public resources. If the American ones go offline, there are also Chinese ones. If the Chinese ones go offline, there are also Russian ones. , the one in Russia is offline, and the one in Japan is offline, and the one in Japan is offline, and the one in Europe..." The old cat chattered, it has always been so talkative.

"So?" Tang Yue interrupted.

"So it would be more reasonable for the earth to explode, right?"

Tang Yue rushed over and pinched it.

He sprained his finger because he couldn't find where the thing's neck was.

"Don't worry, problems on the other side of the earth are much easier to solve than problems here. We lost contact for seven hours, and the people in Jiuquan are more anxious than you are now." Old Mao comforted him, "Maybe their greetings will be there in the next second. Has it been sent over? You can wait peacefully. If you don’t want to wait, then go ahead and finish your work."

Tang Yue was silent for a few minutes.

The inability to contact Earth is probably a problem with the other party. It won't work if he rushes on Mars. It's better to finish the work if he has this time.

As the last payload expert to return in this Mars exploration mission, Tang Yue is responsible for the last scientific research finishing task, so he has to stay for a while to complete all the work, then check and close the Kunlun Station, and prepare for the next batch of front-end missions. The astronauts coming to Kunlun Station are ready.

The work of organizing and counting supplies is very simple. Kunlun Station is the earliest scientific research station established on Mars. It is very small, with a living area of ​​only 100 square meters. It is okay for one person to live in, but it is very crowded for six people. In Wang’s words, “Seventy-five billion people spent US$75 billion to build a 75-square-meter house in a desert 75 million kilometers away. This is definitely the most insane real estate in history. project."

The astronauts in the same batch as him have already returned first, and the work is going very smoothly. Tang Yue estimates that he will complete the mission soon, and then return to the space station and return to Earth on the last Orion spacecraft.

The next group of people to go to Mars will have to wait at least until the Falcon Heavy launch next June, and they will be on the road for another half a year.

So when someone steps through the door of Kunlun Station again, it will be at least two years later.

The floors and corridors were already piled with large and small boxes, which Tang Yue had packed away for daily necessities, including food, medicine and drinking water.

Everything is organized into categories on the shelves, and lists are taped to the boxes—the station has enough supplies left for a team of six to survive for more than six months.

Of course, these things alone are not enough. The unmanned cargo spacecraft to provide supplies for the next scientific expedition plan has been launched, taking the Hohmann transfer orbit, and is expected to arrive in a year.

The cargo spacecraft was launched a year earlier than the manned spacecraft, and was fully loaded with enough supplies for an entire scientific expedition team to survive for six months.

Tang Yue counted the boxes on the ground. Some of the supplies on the wall were what he planned to take away to the spaceship. After all, it would take several months to return to Earth.

The sun is almost setting, and a small fireball hangs on the edge of the desert. Today is another windless and sandless day. The sun on Mars looks slightly smaller than on the earth, and the sky has darkened, like a piece of ink. Blue velvet.

Tang Yue was suddenly startled, took two steps forward, and slowly opened his eyes.

"Old cat."

"Um?"

"Is the earth in the western sky at this time?" Tang Yue asked.

"Yes, it is in the western sky at this time, and it is very bright. It is the brightest star you can see, just like you see Venus from the earth." The old cat replied, "If the weather is good enough, you can The eyesight is good enough that you can even see the moon."

"Then...then come and take a look."

The old cat turned around and came squeaking over. Looking in the direction of Tang Yue's finger, its two cat eyes suddenly shrank.

"Oh shit, where did the earth go?"

August 11, 2052 AD.

Beijing time 15:22:13.

07:22:13 UTC.

A high-speed particle stream with a diameter of 600,000 kilometers passed through the solar system at the speed of light at an angle of 3 degrees, 12 minutes and 22 seconds with the ecliptic plane. Within 0.0009 seconds, the third terrestrial planet in the solar system evaporated. .