Dead on Mars

“Tang Yue? Tang Yue—!”

Tomcat yelled.

It lifted Tang Yue’s torso and leaned him onto its legs. Tang Yue was inside the Radiant Armor with his eyes wide open. Blood vessels pumped with blood covered his eyes as his mouth was slightly open. His facial muscles were frozen, wearing a look of horror and incredulity. He looked like a drowned victim.

“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it… Tang Yue, wait for me. I’ll save you now. I’ll save you right now…”

Tomcat removed its helmet and reached out to the life support system behind the Radiant Armor. It opened the lid and pulled out the EOG before grabbing the oxygen-transmitting pipe and took a deep breath. Following that, it pulled Tang Yue’s wrist over and tapped the control terminal on Radiant Armor.

“Open the visor!”

The Radiant Armor refused the order, sending a warning message: Warning! Hazardous environment detected!

“Open the visor!”

The Radiant Armor continued refusing the order.

“F*ck, what’s all this bullsh*t… Enter emergency control mode! Don’t you understand cat speak? Override safety protocols! Open the visor!”

Tomcat tapped on the terminal frantically.

“Warning! You are attempting to open the visor. It might lead to a loss of pressure. Proceed?”

“Proceed!”

The latch on the Radiant Armor opened and Tomcat immediately pushed the visor up. In those short few seconds, all the air inside was sucked out. Tomcat reached its paw into the Radiant Armor and pressed down on Tang Yue’s chest—the Radiant Armor was a semi-hard structure; thus, the torso was a hard shell. Tomcat lifted up the back of Tang Yue’s head with its other paw. Pinching his nose, it bent down and covered his mouth.

Breathe!

Breathe! Tang Yue, breathe!

Breathe hard!

Tomcat blew the oxygen into Tang Yue’s respiratory tract as it pressed down on his chest. As a robot cat, the ventilator fan in its body that was used to dissipate heat and circulate air was much stronger than a human’s lungs. It quickly injected the oxygen it had sucked into its body into Tang Yue’s lungs.

Tomcat sensed Tang Yue’s heartbeat. It was still beating weakly. As it tried to restore the lungs to working condition, it worked hard to stimulate the heart’s beating. Every time it pumped hard, it would send blood back to the heart ventricle.

Breathe hard!

Breathe as hard as you can!

Breathe!

Breathe!

Tomcat sucked another huge mouthful of air and lowered its head again. The strength it used to press on the chest grew for it didn’t rest for a moment. Tomcat could sense the young man’s vitals weakening. His life was slipping away from his paws.

The Radiant Armor had lost pressure. Temperatures of –90°C was beginning to sap away the EVA suit’s warmth, along with Tang Yue’s temperature and life.

The low temperature was as lethal as the lack of oxygen.

“Breathe! Tang Yue, breathe… Breathe, god damn it!”

“Breathe! Please, breathe!”

Tang Yue lay motionless inside the Radiant Armor. The water vapor in it had frozen into a layer of white ice seconds after the loss of pressure. Tiny icicles began forming on Tang Yue’s hair and beard, making it seem as if he had aged forty years in an instant. The snowflakes formed from carbon dioxide landed on his face and Tomcat’s shoulders and quickly produced a white swath.

Tang Yue’s body temperature was dropping, and Tomcat couldn’t keep doing CPR on him. Tang Yue would freeze to death if this continued.

Tomcat gritted its teeth. It had pumped 120 times within a minute, averaging twice a second.

Yet, there was no reaction from Tang Yue.

Tomcat looked at Tang Yue’s lifeless eyes and suddenly realized that he was subconsciously unwilling to wake up. Waking up only meant that he had to face the harsh reality of coldness and despair. He would have to put up with the torment of being the last human while continuing his trudging through the darkness. Compared to suffering such inhuman pain, he might enjoy his eternal peace.

To him, living was the source of pain.

Tomcat gradually slowed down the rate at which it pumped. It hesitated, unsure if it should pull Tang Yue back to this hell on Mars.

He was already exhausted enough.

He had been in enough pain.

Why not let him have a good sleep.

“If anyone’s to blame, blame Asimov. He told me that I can’t sit idle when human life is under threat.”

Tomcat muttered. It took another deep mouthful of oxygen and injected it into Tang Yue’s lungs. Then, using immense force, it pumped his chest to circulate it. Finally, he raised his paw and slapped Tang Yue heavily in the face.

“Earth is restored! Old Wang and Mai Dong are back! Bastard, come back to life—!”

Tang Yue’s limbs twitched as his facial muscles moved. His pupils suddenly constricted as he snapped awake from his deep coma. Then, he began coughing violently.

Tomcat hurriedly stuffed the EOG’s tube into Tang Yue’s mouth and pressed down on him. “Don’t move! Don’t move! Listen to me. Take a deep breath! Take a deep breath!”

Tang Yue hugged the oxygen candle and sucked at it with all his might. As he took deep breaths, he shivered from the cold.

Tomcat got him to hold his breath and stuffed the EOG back into the Radiant Armor. Then, it closed the visor and raised the Radiant Armor’s air circulation and temperature control to its highest output.

Tang Yue lay slump on the ground, drained. He rested for quite a long while before he had the strength to speak. He had just gone to hell and back, surviving a life-threatening disaster.

Tomcat heaved a sigh of relief.

“Carbon dioxide poisoning,” Tomcat said. “The Radiant Armor’s carbon dioxide collection canister was used up, causing the EVA suit’s interior to be full of accumulated carbon dioxide. When ordinary people are exposed to such concentrations of carbon dioxide, they will suffer a hypovolemic shock and stop breathing within thirty seconds.”

Tang Yue silently sat on the ground.

“Without the carbon dioxide collection canister, we have to ventilate your suit every now and then to release the thick carbon dioxide out,” Tomcat said. “When the carbon dioxide concentration reaches 5%, you have to take note. Anything above this will lead to poisoning.”

“How… far… do we have left?” Tang Yue asked softly.

“Not much further,” Tomcat replied. “Less than a kilometer.”

“Good… Good… Let’s continue…” Tang Yue pressed his hands to the ground in a bid to stand up. However, his knees buckled and he sat back down. He wasn’t able to muster any strength from his body.

“I’ll help you.” Tomcat crawled over and placed Tang Yue’s arm around its shoulder. The latter leaned against Tomcat as he slowly straightened his body. He slipped several times on the sand but eventually managed to find his footing.

“Is… the direction… correct?” Tang Yue had his head bowed, his voice weak.

“It’s correct.”

Tomcat held onto Tang Yue as they proceeded forward with tottering steps.

“We’re almost there. Tang Yue… Just a little bit more. This is the final leg! At such a close distance, we can reach it even by crawling.”