Die on Mars - Chapter 231

c230 Day 333 (1) Unfalsifiable

The first thing to sort out is food and fresh water.

After receiving supplies from the Tianzhou 37 cargo spacecraft, the food reserves in Kunlun Station were quite sufficient. However, the transportation capacity of Mars stray dogs was limited. Lao Mao and Tang Yue were unable to carry them all into the car. Early in the morning, the sun had just risen. , Tang Yue and Lao Mao got up and started to prepare.

“Tang Yue, how much food do you need to bring on the road?” Facing the mountain of soft-packed cans and rehydrated food, the old cat didn’t know where to start. He wanted to take this and that, but his pocket was too small to fit it. It is a happy trouble. Think about the time when Kunlun Station was in short supply and had to rely on compressed biscuits to survive. It was true that we died of drought when there was a drought, and we died of waterlogging when there was a flood.

“Fifteen days’ worth of food is enough.”

Tang Yue was outside the garage. The Martian Stray Dog’s geological experiment cabin had been unloaded, and he was clearing out all the instruments in the experimental cabin.

The experimental cabin is the only movable airtight cabin in Kunlun Station. It has two pairs of wheels. It can be hung on the front of the Mars rover and it can run along. It will take at least nine days to get to the designated location. During these nine days, Tang Yue spent most of his time Time is armored by bright light, but he still has to eat, drink, and defecate.

“Only fifteen days?”

“The oxygen is only enough for nine days.” Tang Yue threw out the heavy spectrophotometer and smashed it on the sand. “Fifteen days of food is enough. Dead people don’t eat. I can’t come back anyway. There is no point in eating too much dry food, it will only add weight and slow down the movement of stray dogs.”

“Where’s the taste?”

“Anything except pickled cuttlefish.”

Tang Yue turned around and got into the experimental cabin and knocked on it for a while. After a while, he took out a computer monitor and threw it on the ground outside the cabin door.

The old cat picked and counted items one by one. Tang Yue was sweating profusely outside the garage. The latter regained his energy and motivation and worked very quickly, unlike the three days after the space station crashed. After the space station crashed, Tang Yue was almost a walking zombie. , sitting still, looking numb, not eating or drinking. In a sense, this letter of unknown origin extended Tang Yue’s life and gave him a reason to persist in living.

“One…two…three…one day, two days, three days…don’t pickle the cuttlefish, don’t pickle the cuttlefish…”

The old cat counted silently. It tried to choose food that was small in size, light in weight and high in energy. For fresh water, all bottled water was carried. Each bottle of water has a capacity of 600 ml. Under normal circumstances, two bottles of water are enough for a day, which is equivalent to food. Fresh water We also need to prepare enough for fifteen days, which equals thirty bottles. The fresh water in the water tank at Kunlun Station is very precious, but we can only give up at this juncture.

It packed food and fresh water separately, carefully arranged Tang Yue’s daily recipes, and labeled them one by one.

“Tang Yue.”

“Um?”

“If you are willing to wait, I can go there first. I will be back in a month at most. After I confirm that it is safe, I will come back to pick you up…”

“I don’t want to wait.” Tang Yue squatted on the floor and removed the screws from the cabinet legs.

“Understood.”

Lao Mao didn’t mention this again.

Tang Yue outside the garage emptied the experimental cabin and began to carry solar panels.

Solar panels are the main source of electricity for stray dogs and old cats on Mars. Last time the old cat went out to find Chelome, he took away thirty solar panels. It took nearly ten hours a day to charge them. This time they have to We took all the battery panels away and tried to shorten the daily charging time as much as possible, but these things were large and heavy, so they could only be bundled and put on a pallet truck for hauling.

The final Mars stray dog ​​will be a Thomas the Tank Engine, with the front of the train dragging the experimental cabin, and behind the experimental cabin pulling a cart. Food and fresh water are stored in the experimental cabin, and the solar panels are strapped to the cart. This is a perfect match for Mars. For a stray dog, it is actually overloaded, but this is the last mission in its life, so it can only be forced to be squeezed.

The old cat finished sorting the supplies and stepped out of the garage. Not far away, he saw Tang Yue sitting on the ground leaning on the stray dog’s wheel. He raised his head and didn’t know what he was looking at. He put his hands on his knees.

“Is there any cigarette?” Tang Yue asked casually without moving, knowing that it was the old cat coming.

“You smoke?”

“No, none of us smoke. Orion crew members are not allowed to smoke.” Tang Yue replied.

“Smoking is bad for your health.” Old Mao sat down against him and looked in the direction of Tang Yue’s eyes. He could only see the gray sky.

“I know it’s bad for my health. My dad never let me smoke. He once said that if he caught me smoking, he would break my legs, but he smoked harder than anyone else.” Tang Yue said, “Now I Then I realized that probably no one in this world really likes to smoke, but sometimes what can I do if I don’t smoke? I can only see myself as incompetent and confused.”

“Cigarettes don’t matter, I recommend you a stronger one.”

“Um?”

“Have you seen the hydrogen and oxygen machine of the Tianzhou spacecraft? The diameter of the nozzle is one meter thick, with a thrust of hundreds of tons. That one is powerful enough. Brother, you can use that one.”

Tang Yue smiled silently.

He took out the envelope from his pocket again and looked at it blankly.

He had read this letter over and over a hundred times, and he could even memorize the contents, but Tang Yue still didn’t know whether it was true or false.

It claims to come from an incredibly advanced civilization.

But there are no characteristics on it to prove this. If it can shine and speak by itself or fly around in the sky, then Tang Yue will recognize it – but it is just a completely ordinary piece of letter paper. It cannot It proves that it comes from extraterrestrial civilization, but it cannot prove that it comes from earth creatures.

In the words of the old cat, if there is such a high intelligence in the universe, then it should be a simple matter for them to make wood pulp stationery and learn to use human language – now someone has photographed such a piece of paper for you In front of you, saying that it comes from the other side of the galaxy, even though it sounds like nonsense, you can’t prove it.

Of course, this may also be an illusion created by Lao Mao.

The old cat does not always tell the truth to Tang Yue. It concealed the truth when the space station crashed before. In order to protect Tang Yue, it may do anything… such as forging a letter from an extraterrestrial civilization and making up nonsense. The coordinates of the earth, claiming that the earth can be restored to its original state, cheered up Tang Yue, who was heartbroken.

If this was really what the old cat did, then there is no doubt that it succeeded. It succeeded in extending Tang Yue’s life for at least nine days.

“Old Cat, tell me… do you really believe everything in this letter? Do you really believe in the existence of any advanced civilization? Do you really believe that the earth can be restored to its original state?”

The old cat took the envelope from his hand.

There was silence for several minutes.

Then it shook its head.

“I do not believe.”