Die on Mars - Chapter 257

c254 Day 342 (4) Follow the cat to the end of the world

Tang Yue unbuckled his seat belt, put the photo frame on the center console into his pocket, and then jumped out of the Martian Stray Dog’s cab. The old cat held his hand in the dark. Under the current weather conditions, they They must not lose each other, but this time Lao Mao and Tang Yue no longer have a safety rope. Without a rope to tie them together, Lao Mao can only hold on to Tang Yue tightly.

The old cat held a small emergency light in its paws and waved it in front of Tang Yue’s eyes, “Follow me! Tang Yue, can you hear me clearly?”

Despite the close proximity of one person and one cat, the quality of radio calls was extremely poor, with large amounts of charged dust suspended in the air seriously interfering with radio signals.

“I can hear it.” Tang Yue nodded, “It’s very clear!”

“We still have the last 3.5 kilometers from our destination. In that direction… we need to go straight for 3,500 meters in that direction.” The old cat stretched out his paws and pointed forward, “How is your situation? How is the situation of Mingguang Armor? ?How much more oxygen and electricity are there?”

“I’m okay. I had a full breakfast and have plenty of energy.” Tang Yue brushed away the sand and dust on the Mingguang Armor control terminal display. The terminal screen emitted a faint blue light. “The air pressure in the Mingguang Armor is normal. Emergency oxygen production. The system can still work for at least ten hours, and the EVA battery can last for six hours.”

“Okay.” The old cat nodded, “I’ll walk in front, you follow me and put your hands on my shoulders.”

Tang Yue put his hand on the old cat’s shoulder. If the old cat took a step, he would follow suit. If the old cat stepped with his left foot, he would step with his left foot. If the old cat stepped with his right foot, he would step with his right foot. It’s like the Qing Dynasty. Old zombie.

Walking 3,500 meters in six hours was a piece of cake for Tang Yue under normal circumstances. He could complete the distance in six hours while hopping on one foot.

But in the Dust Bowl things were more complicated.

For them, the distance is secondary. The biggest trouble is identifying the direction. If they accidentally get lost, the time spent in the dust storm will be greatly extended.

“Human walking cannot guarantee a strict straight line, so you must use vision to correct the direction. In the dark night when you can’t see the reference object, you will go around in circles.” Old Cat said, “Many times, you think you are walking in a straight line. In fact, we veered off the right path without even realizing it.”

“Coriolis shift?” Tang Yue lowered his head and moved forward step by step with his eyes closed. These small staggering steps looked like an emperor penguin. Since he couldn’t see anything, Tang Yue simply closed his eyes and looked in the direction. Completely guided by the old cat, like a blind man and his guide dog.

“The deflection of the earth’s rotation is one of the reasons. The main reason is that you cannot ensure that the strides of the left and right legs are exactly the same.” The old cat put on the cabin suit and walked equally cautiously. There was no lighting and night vision goggles. However, Lao Mao can only move forward gropingly, “Most people’s right legs are slightly stronger than their left legs, so the stride length of their right foot is larger than that of their left foot. This gap is very small, and you can’t even tell it at ordinary times.” , but when you are trekking for a long time in the desert, this small gap will cause you to veer left without knowing it, and finally make a big circle back to the original place.”

“That means your left and right steps are equal in length?” Tang Yue asked.

“Yes.” Old Cat replied, “They are all strictly and constant 0.4 meters.”

“The legs are so short.”

The old cat led Tang Yue forward, one foot deep and one foot shallow. There was a thick layer of floating sand on the ground, which could probably submerge Tang Yue’s ankles. When Tang Yue turned around, he could no longer see the Martian stray dog. The old cat The dog disappeared into the darkness, and Tang Yue knew that he might never see it again in this life.

Tang Yue squeezed the old cat’s shoulder hard. He couldn’t see the old cat’s back, but he could see the light in the old cat’s hand. The latter raised the small emergency light above his head. It was the only light in the storm.

The old cat suddenly stopped walking.

Tang Yue also stopped, “What’s wrong?”

“I have to make sure that I haven’t deviated from the right direction.” Old Cat stood on the spot, “I am blind like you now. If I just keep my head down and wander around, I will end up in the Antarctic.”

“But you have a map in your head.”

“The map must have a reference object before it can be used.” The old cat slowly leaned down and grabbed a handful of sand, “Tang Yue, have you noticed? The quicksand under our feet is getting thicker and thicker.”

Tang Yue squatted down, and the sand that originally only covered his ankles had reached his calves.

“what does that mean?”

“It means we are leaving the Ixi Plain.” The old cat replied, “The landscape has changed significantly.”

“Does this mean we are going in the right direction?”

“No, no matter which direction we go, we are leaving the Yixi Plain… Okay, you can continue going down, I have figured out my position.” The old cat straightened up and reported a series of numbers. , “130.8, 158.4.”

“130.8? 158.4? What the hell is this?”

“Our position on the coordinate system, I use the parking position of the Mars Stray Dog as the origin to construct the polar coordinates and Cartesian coordinate system. I just told you that my stride is strictly 0.4 meters, so every step I take They are all 0.4 meters.” Lao Mao explained, “I have taken 512 steps from the beginning to now, and have advanced a total of 204 meters.”

“So where is our target?”

“Its location is approximately (2498.2, 2506.6).”

“Is it accurate?”

“It can only be as accurate as possible.” Lao Mao shrugged, “Inertial navigation will always accumulate errors.”

Every five minutes, the old cat will stop to determine its direction. The equal strides of both feet can theoretically ensure that it walks in a straight line, but in reality the situation is more complicated than the theory. The uneven terrain and obstacles sometimes make the old cat have to Roundabouts.

Tang Yue also learned to count steps silently. He closed his eyes and followed the old cat closely. Every time he took a step, he counted silently in his heart. However, every time he counted to a certain number of steps, he would be interrupted, maybe because of a collision. A piece of stone, or maybe he encountered a ravine. At this time, the old cat would turn around to remind him, and then find a way to cross the obstacle. But when Tang Yue finished all this and wanted to continue counting, he could no longer remember where he was going. How many steps.

In a dark and lightless world, he couldn’t feel that he was moving forward. He couldn’t count how many steps he had taken, which would make Tang Yue lose his sense of distance.

“Are you tired?”

“Not bad.” Tang Yue took a breath, “How far have we walked?”

“Six hundred meters.”

“Only six hundred meters?” Tang Yue was a little surprised.

“Yes.”

“I feel like I have walked six kilometers.” Tang Yue said, “It’s strange… Why do I feel so tired even though I haven’t walked very far?”

“Psychological pressure.” Old Mao said, “Normal people will suffer considerable psychological pressure when they move around with complete loss of vision. After all, you are not blind, and you cannot adapt to this state in a short period of time.”

The sand under their feet became thicker and thicker. Both Lao Mao and Tang Yue were slipping when going uphill. They were climbing a tall sand dune, and the slope became steeper as they went up. In the end, the man and the cat had to use all four legs. Tang Yue Leap grabbed the old cat’s two hind legs and crawled on the sand dune, his limbs sinking deeply into the sand.

It was extremely inconvenient to move in the quicksand, and he couldn’t find a point of strength. Tang Yue struggled to pull but still stayed in place. The sand flowed away from him, just like a beginner swimming in water. The old cat’s situation was no better than him. Wherever it went, it struggled hard in front of Tang Yue, and finally took three steps forward. Suddenly, its feet slipped and returned to the starting point, rolling into Tang Yue’s arms.

Tang Yue hugged it and lay on the sand panting.

“How are you?” Tang Yue’s mask was close to Lao Mao’s helmet. He turned on the light inside the Mingguang Armor mask, illuminating his face. “Did you get hurt?”

“I didn’t fall, it was just down.” Old Cat said, “Just now, my left arm stopped working and I couldn’t use my strength… This arm is almost useless.”

“How is the situation now?” Tang Yue knew that Lao Mao’s left arm had an old injury. There had been problems more than once along the way, and the symptoms were getting more and more serious.

The old cat tried to move his limbs, pondered for a few seconds, and shook his head, “I’m afraid it’s not too optimistic, the joints of the limbs are very stiff, we stayed in the storm for too long, and the old cold legs got sick when the temperature dropped. ”

“Then let’s take a break?”

“No, the longer it takes, the worse the situation will be. I may need to heat it up to bring the internal temperature of my body back up.” The old cat said, “But we obviously don’t have this condition.”

It is impossible to heat it up. The most lacking thing now is energy and electricity. Tang Yue’s Mingguang Armor has a heat preservation and heating function, but the cabin suit on the old cat does not. The old cat only wears the cabin suit to prevent wind and sand, and it does not even have a battery. .

Old Mao was silent for a moment, “Listen Tang Yue, if you have to be alone…”

“Shut up.” Tang Yue interrupted, “I will teach you how to raise the temperature. Will friction generate heat? Mechanical energy is converted into internal energy. Yes, it is rubbing hands. In winter, we rub our hands outdoors to keep warm. Lao Wang Among the gays like Lao Tang, the gay ones are so angry that they rub their arms against each other to keep warm… You start rubbing your hands now, rub them! Rub them hard!”

The old cat was stunned.

“As for the rush, I’ll figure it out. Don’t let me leave you here…” Tang Yue squatted down and pulled up the old cat’s forelimbs, pulled it around its shoulders and neck, and carried it on his back with a low growl. Finally, he straightened up hard, staggered and stood still, “Don’t want me to leave you here! Don’t even think about it… If you can’t walk anymore, I’ll carry you!”