Die on Mars - Chapter 227

c226 Day 332 (1) Airlock

There was dead silence in the hall.

This time Tang Yue heard it clearly. There was indeed something knocking on the door outside, and it was also knocking on the inner door of the airlock… He originally thought it was the sound of sand and rocks blown up by strong wind hitting the Kunlun Station. It is said that This kind of thing often happens in plateau radar stations on the earth. The sudden strong wind blows away sand and rocks, and the rocks hit the walls and doors with a loud bang.

But Tang Yue quickly eliminated this reason. The air density on Mars is not that high, and no matter how fast the wind speed is, it cannot blow up the rocks.

He was stunned for a few seconds, his brain racing but he couldn’t find any instructions to give to his limbs. Tang Yue had gone through so much training, but no training had ever told him what to do when someone knocked on the door outside Kunlun Station.

Neil Armstrong’s mission manual for the moon landing certainly didn’t include an entry on “What to do when you open the lunar module door and see not the barren lunar surface but a ceremonial greeting team.”

The old cat reacted faster than him.

It picked up a steel pipe, held it tightly in its paws, and then shouted at Tang Yue: “Mingguang Armor! Tang Yue! Put on the Mingguang Armor!”

Tang Yue jumped up and ran out to put on the Mingguang Armor. The old cat rushed forward to protect Tang Yue, holding the steel pipe in one paw and the can in the other. It looked like it was facing a formidable enemy. Looking at its posture, if the hatch door opened next moment Once pushed away, it will smash the can out.

It’s a pity that it is not a combat type, otherwise it should have taken out an AKM automatic rifle.

Tang Yue hurriedly put on the Mingguang Armor, connected the life support system, and connected the oxygen supply. Protecting himself in an emergency is always the first priority. Even if the Kunlun Station loses pressure at the next moment, Tang Yue will not suffocate immediately. The protection of Mingguang Armor will leave enough buffer time.

“Old cat?”

“Back off.” Old Mao pointed behind Tang Yue and said softly.

There was no more sound outside the door, and the old cat stared closely at the airlock door. It didn’t know what the thing was that knocked on the door, or whether it was still outside the door.

“Back off again.” Old Mao signaled Tang Yue to back off again.

Tang Yue retreated to the wall.

Old Mao gently took off the cabin suit hanging on the wall, got in with all four legs and put on the mask, turned to look at Tang Yue, “I’ll take a look, stay there and don’t move.”

Tang Yue nodded.

The old cat gently placed the can in his hand on the table, changed the steel pipe to another paw, and then stepped closer to the airlock door. The barometer next to the door showed that the air pressure in the airlock was far lower than the standard atmospheric pressure. To one hundredth of the standard pressure, this is the atmospheric pressure data on the surface of Mars. This means that the airlock has just communicated with the outside world, and it also means that something has indeed opened the outer hatch-that thing came from the outside world.

The circulation system began to inject air into the airlock chamber, and the air pressure gradually increased to the same level as the air pressure in the hall. At the same time, the old cat tightly grasped the turntable in the center of the hatch and exerted force calmly, slowly and slowly. Turn.

It does not use electronic unlocking. The advantage of opening the hatch manually is that if something unexpected happens, the action can be stopped at any time.

With a “click”, the heavy lock cylinder slowly retreated.

The old cat’s face was as dark as water.

It used a steel pipe to push the hatch, slowly pushing the latter open.

Tang Yue tried his best to look around curiously.

For mankind, this is likely to be a historic moment – its significance is no less than that of Gagarin flying into space, Armstrong landing on the moon, Kunlun Station being completed on Mars, Tang Yue may become the first person in the history of the earth The first human being to come into contact with alien civilization, and of course the last one.

The old cat frowned.

It thinks more than Tang Yue, and of course it is more panicked than Tang Yue. Its calmness is faked.

The moment the inner hatch of the airlock was knocked, the inherent worldview in the old cat’s mind collapsed – this was the concept instilled in it by the engineers who built it, and behind it was all mankind’s view of the universe. The results of observation and cognition are rigorous, reliable, indestructible, and based on unshakable physical and mathematical logic.

But in the past second, the narrow cognitive view that human civilization had spent thousands of years building up and centered on the earth and humanity itself was completely destroyed. Although human beings have looked up at the starry sky for thousands of years and thought about alien civilizations for hundreds of years, this kind of thinking is not essentially different from the pantheism of primitive people who worship the heaven, earth and nature – they are all derived from themselves as a template and centered on themselves. product.

This is an inherent centralization.

But now human thought is inevitably decentralized.

The world is wider than ever before.

The old cat originally thought that his existing knowledge was unbreakable, because it was essentially mathematics, reasoning, and logic. One plus one equals two. As long as one plus one equals two and does not make mistakes, then it cannot make mistakes. . If you want it to prove why no extraterrestrial civilization can be observed, Old Cat can give you hundreds or thousands of evidences from various aspects, each of which is blameless. But if you want to prove that extraterrestrial civilization is around you, everything will be fine. Needless to say, just let it knock on the door outside Kunlun Station.

In the words of the old cat, this gentle “thud” sound is as scary to it as the Big Bang.

The universe is far more complex than anyone imagined.

The hatch is open.

Tang Yue took a deep breath, widened his eyes, and prepared to welcome this historic moment.

He had already prepared his lines, which were quite formal and diplomatic.

“Our country solemnly condemns your falsehood against us…”

Got the wrong manuscript.

“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”

The first thing that catches the eye is the white bulkhead. There are rings of reinforcing ribs on the inner wall of the cylindrical airlock. LED lights are on at the top of the airlock. There are fine grains of sand on the floor. Old Mao and Tang Directly opposite the jump is a circular outer hatch. There is also a manual unlocking dial in the center of the hatch, just like the door of a safe. The outer hatch is closed, and the indicator light is red, indicating that the hatch is locked. .

The eyes of Lao Mao and Tang Yue walked back and forth, scanning every corner of the airlock room, and then they were stunned at the same time.

The airlock was empty.

Nothing at all.

Tang Yue stepped forward and stood side by side with Lao Mao at the door, frowning.

“empty?”

Lao Mao put down the steel pipe and nodded, “It’s empty.”

It secretly breathed a sigh of relief. There was nothing in the airlock. Then the sound just now could be eliminated directly with Occam’s razor. Maybe it was not a knock on the door at all, but the structural vibration of Kunlun Station or something else. The sound is a normal natural phenomenon, not an alien knocking on the door.

There is no need for Lao Mao’s worldview to collapse.

“What was that sound just now?” Tang Yue raised his head and looked around.

“It may be that the hinge of the hatch is unstable and a collision occurred.” Old Cat replied, “It may also be the sound of parts falling off.”

Tang Yue was not satisfied with this explanation. He still remembered the sound just now. Tang Yue was sure that it was definitely not a part falling off, but the sound of someone bending his knuckles and knocking on the hatch.

But Lao Mao’s explanation is the most realistic.

How can there be so many unexplainable strange things in real life?

After a false alarm, the old cat turned around and wanted to put the steel pipe back. At this time, Tang Yue suddenly pulled its arm, “Old cat…”

“What’s wrong?” The old cat turned around.

“Old Cat… you… you… you, you, you, look…” Tang Yue pointed to the floor under his feet, “Look on the floor!”