Dead on Mars

Tang Yue pulled his left foot out of the sand and attempted to take a step forward to confirm that there was solid ground beneath the sand. As he secured his footing, the drifting sand immediately drowned his calf. Without being able to see anything, he had no idea if it was flat ground beneath the sand or a hole. Therefore, every step was taken with great caution.

“Are we in the correct direction?” Tang Yue stopped to take a break as he panted.

“It will be fine as long as we maintain a straight line.” Tomcat moved around on his back.

“Why do you keep moving?” Tang Yue turned his head. “You’re heavy, you know that? As a cat, you weigh as much as a pig.”

“I’m trying to generate heat by rubbing. Didn’t you tell me to do it?” Tomcat was rubbing its limbs. “I’m not sure if you are walking straight. I’ve told you that humans will find it difficult to ensure a fixed direction in the dark. You might be deviating left without realizing it. I can’t see a thing and cannot determine your direction either.”

“Deviate left… Alright, I’ll take note.” Tang Yue redistributed Tomcat’s weight on his back as he lifted it up. Carrying it whilst wearing the Radiant Armor was very inconvenient. This was because the life support system was in the way and Tang Yue’s hands weren’t long enough. “My every step is also about 0.4 meters. From the moment I started carrying you, I’ve walked 1,123 steps… 1,124 steps. We’ve walked a total of 1,450 meters.”

“Can you continue?”

“Yes.” Tang Yue nodded. He bowed his head as he proceeded forward. Without Tomcat to guide him, Tang Yue could only do it himself. “Back on Earth, I could easily run five kilometers without even panting… There are only a mere two kilometers left. It’s nothing. It’s nothing.”

Before he could finish his sentence, Tang Yue’s body suddenly slanted to the side. He had stepped onto something, causing him to lose his balance. He staggered for a moment and nearly fell.

“Tang Yue?”

“I’m fine. I’m fine.” He took another step to adjust his center of mass. He subconsciously grabbed Tomcat with his hands and took a deep breath. “Let’s continue.”

He tried his best to ensure that he kept his direction straight, but Tang Yue knew that he had no way of guaranteeing it. He kept stumbling along the way, even tumbling several times. If it wasn’t for Tomcat, Tang Yue would have already lost his bearings.

“2,128 steps.”

“2,129 steps.”

“2… 130 steps.”

Tang Yue took a look at the time: 11:33 a.m. The distance of just over a thousand meters had taken him two and a half hours. To conserve power, Tang Yue had reduced the Radiant Armor’s heating output to its lowest. His limbs were numb from the cold and he felt as though his toes were breaking off.

The temperature indicator indicated that it was –79°C. Furthermore, it was still rapidly falling. Realizing that it was about to drop below –80°C and that the sandstorm had completely screened out the sunlight, the temperatures would drop to something terrifyingly low.

“Are you cold?” Tang Yue asked. “That crappy IVA suit of yours doesn’t provide any heat. In hindsight, we should have kept an EVA suit on Kunlun Station, just like the Z-9 suit on the space station.”

“I’m able to resist the cold better than the average person. I can still handle this temperature.” Tomcat was curled behind Tang Yue with its eyes closed. Since the wind was blowing right at them, Tang Yue’s body helped it block out most of the strong winds. “The Z EVA suit series is even bulkier than the Radiant Armor. It’s almost impossible to walk in that.”

Tang Yue nodded.

“The batteries might not be able to take such extreme temperatures.”

“I have a low-power radioisotope battery. Its main purpose is to ensure that the main batteries work normally,” Tomcat said. “It can also be said that I have a heat-generating heart.”

…

12:40 p.m.

“3,507 steps.”

Tang Yue took a step forward as he drew a deep breath.

He placed Tomcat on the ground and sat there. He was exhausted.

“I’ve never felt so tired running two five-kilometer rounds… F*ck.” Tang Yue stretched his fingers which were no longer responding. The Radiant Armor’s batteries were at 50%. “2,000 meters. We’re halfway there. There’s only the last kilometer… Tomcat, can you determine the direction?”

Tomcat sat by his side, curled into a ball. At such low temperatures, it had to think of a way to maintain its internal temperature.

The temperature indicator’s value was fixed at –89°C. This temperature had already exceeded the lowest temperature on Earth. If not for the Radiant Armor, Tang Yue wouldn’t survive a minute if exposed to the outside world.

“Walk straight,” Tomcat said. “Keep walking straight.”

“I can’t even feel my toes.” Tang Yue reach out to pinch his feet. “They are like rocks. I believe I can even pluck my toes out.”

“Is the Radiant Armor still functioning normally?” Tomcat asked.

“Yes.”

“What about the battery and oxygen?” Tomcat asked again.

“There’s still enough.” Tang Yue coughed as he bit down on a straw to suck up the last bit of water in the water pouch. Following that, he got up. “Get up. It’s time to go. Let’s continue advancing.”

“You aren’t resting any further?”

“We don’t have the time. There’s still another kilometer to go. Every second wasted is a second gone.” Tang Yue mustered his strength to lift Tomcat. “Furthermore, the more I rest, the more exhausted I become. If I sit down again, I might not be able to move again… You know about mountain climbers, right? They can’t stop when climbing up or going down the mountain. Stopping will just freeze them to death.”

..

2:00 p.m.

Tang Yue staggered across the sand, each step he took almost to the point of falling down. However, he soon found his footing. The sand had now reached his knees, and Tang Yue could no longer remember how many steps he had taken. It might be 4,500 steps or 4,600 steps. He no longer counted the distance. As long as his direction was right, it was only a matter of time before he saw his destination.

“Tang Yue, can you still take it?”

“Yes.” Tang Yue nodded. “How far have we gone?”

“2,700 meters,” Tomcat replied. “There’s less than a thousand meters left.”

“Good… Good… Less than a thousand meters.” Tang Yue’s voice was hoarse as his dry throat was burning. Every word he said took a lot from him.

Tang Yue could no longer feel his limbs. The Radiant Armor’s interior was as cold as an ice cavern, but even so, it was still higher than the temperature outside. The temperature had been dropping over the past two hours and had already dropped to –90°C.

Tang Yue’s brain couldn’t seem to contact his limbs. The extreme cold and the fatigue had frozen everything, including Tang Yue’s brain. He felt like a robot without any thoughts or memories. He only had one program drilled into his head—walk, walk straight, keep walking straight.

His brain was unable to issue any commands to his body or limbs, but his legs continued walking forward robotically. He had no idea where he got the strength to do it. It was like a reflex.

“Tang Yue, you aren’t doing great. Why don’t you take a rest?”

“No… There’s no need to. There’s not much time left.”

Tang Yue broke out into a coughing fit. He had shortness of breath and his chest felt heavy. His lungs burned with pain and his throat was blocked by sticky mucus. He couldn’t cough it out or swallow it down. The Radiant Armor’s life monitoring system kept issuing warnings as Tang Yue’s heart rate raced. It had already exceeded a hundred beats per minute and was still rising.

Tomcat raised the tiny emergency light high, illuminating the sand and dust in the winds.

“Tang Yue.”

“Yes?”

“Look, it’s snowing.”

“Snowing?” Tang Yue looked up. Indeed, he saw white snowflakes dancing amidst the light. At some unknown point in time, there were snowflakes mixed in the sand. They landed on his visor and shoulders without immediately melting. Soon, they accumulated a thin layer.

“These snowflakes are made of dry ice. The atmospheric temperature has already reached the freezing point of carbon dioxide.” Tomcat looked up and whispered. “It’s why they are crystallizing.”

This was the first snow on the Isidis Planitia of 2053. It happened one long night at the cusp of spring and summer.

“It’s snowing… That’s nice. We can make a snowman… and have snowball fights…”

Tang Yue muttered without thought as he crossed the sand dune’s peak. Just as he was about to head down, his legs went limp. This time, he failed to maintain his balance because his brain and limbs were extremely sluggish. Tang Yue planted down to the ground, his cheeks hitting the Radiant Armor’s visor. It left him seeing stars while flinging Tomcat away. The man and cat tumbled down the sand dune until they reached its bottom.

“Tang Yue! Tang Yue! Where are you? Can you copy me?”

Tomcat was left stunned by the throw. It shook away the sand on its body and raised the emergency light. It got up shouting. It had lost Tang Yue. They might be a few meters apart, but they couldn’t see each other.

“Yes… Yes…” Tang Yue’s voice was very weak.

“Can you see the light in my paw?” Tomcat asked.

“Yes.” Tang Yue switched on the Radiant Armor’s internal lights. The white light lit up a few meters away from Tomcat.

“Tang Yue, how are you?” Tomcat groped its way over to him. The latter was motionless on the ground. “How are you?”

“I’m not too well.” Tang Yue gasped for air as he muttered,” Tomcat… I… I don’t feel so good…”

Tomcat helped him up. “What’s wrong with you?”

Tang Yue was gasping heavily for air as the color in his face drained. It was as though he had contracted an acute disease. He widened his mouth and eyes with a grimacing expression. “I can’t breathe. I… I…”

Tomcat was astonished.

Tang Yue raised his hands to grab at his throat, but his visor was blocking him. All Tang Yue could do was reach out to grab Tomcat’s shoulder. The other hand kept tugging at the Radiant Armor as though he was trying to rip it apart. There was horror and helplessness in the young man’s eyes as his muscles began convulsing in pain.

“Tom… Tomcat… Help me. I can’t breathe. Help me…”

Tears streamed out of Tang Yue’s eyes as he tried his best to pull Tomcat, his fingers lodging deep into the creases of the IVA suit.

“Tang Yue! Tang Yue?”

“I… I…”

Tang Yue didn’t make another sound as the strength in his hands gradually receded. The expression on his face froze as his pupils dilated.

The Radiant Armor’s life monitoring system beeped.

Tang Yue’s hand limply fell to the ground as he stopped breathing.