Dead on Mars

Chapter 60 - Sol Five, Five Seconds That Can Give Birth to Ten Thousand Stars
Badump…

Badump…

Badump…

Badump!

Mai Dong could clearly hear her heartbeat as her heart hit again and again inside her chest, tenacious and forceful.

Logically speaking, sound couldn’t be transmitted into the surrounding vacuum. The Universe was supposed to be a dead silence, but Mai Dong could actually hear a lot of sounds—her heartbeat, the sloshing of water in her in-suit drink bag, the rustling of her hair against the inner lining of the helmet, the static in her earpiece, and the humming sound from the EVA suit’s life support system, as well as the vibrational noises from the arm’s operations.

These minute movements were inaudible under ordinary conditions, but the silent background accentuated them. Together, they sounded like a symphonic medley.

Speaking of which, the Universe wasn’t silent. The vacuum wasn’t completely devoid of matter. It was actually filled with radiation, energy, and particles that were naked to the human eye.

From neutrinos to microwave background radiation, there was energy everywhere. Gravity was also producing ripples in space. If humans were able to sense these things, the Universe would appear like a boiling pot. The background radiation would be like the bottom of a red-hot pot, while the quantum energy fluctuations were bubbles that rose up and burst on the water surface.

The Universe was a radio station in which no one spoke. It was constantly filled with random white noise.

This was actually a noisy world.

Mai Dong stood at the end of the arm, as she held the shackle of the safety tether. The white Eagle was rapidly burgeoning in her sights as though it was a train approaching her.

At this moment, the Eagle only had its ascent portion. The command module and the rocket engine added up to about five meters. Mai Dong could see the small circular emergency hatch on the command module which was used by astronauts to escape in an emergency. There was another one behind the Eagle.

Under normal circumstances, the passengers would exit from the passageway at the bottom of the command module, entering and exiting from the space station’s APAS. The emergency hatch was typically not used unless there was a fire in the module. These two hatches were connected to the spacecraft’s body via pyrotechnic fasteners. If an accident happened, the passengers would be issued with an emergency command for evacuation. The hatch would be sent flying far away, which was to say that the hatches couldn’t be closed once they were opened.

In an inoperative state, the emergency hatch was bolted down to the spacecraft and extremely secure as it didn’t have any complicated hinges or locking mechanisms. It simply used an explosive method to open it—simple and brutal.

What Tomcat wanted was simple and brutal. The lander had already proven that the more complicated something was, the easier it was for a problem to occur at critical stages with its buggy computer.

Reality had proven that the simpler things were, the more reliable they were in emergencies.

There was a handle by the emergency hatch. After Tomcat thought through the matter, it felt that there were only two spots where the safety tether could latch onto the Eagle. The boundary of the APAS actually allowed for the safety rope to latch on, but Tomcat suspected that the APAS was unable to withstand the immense tension.

After the safety tether latched onto the Eagle, Tomcat would immediately reel in the rope and pull the lander back, reducing its relative speed to zero. This was like using a rope to stop an eight-wheeler that was sliding forward. The process would result in immense tension. For safety purposes, Tomcat naturally decided to latch onto a capstan or the bumper instead of the car plate.

Tomcat finally used the APAS as a backup choice. If Mai Dong failed to catch the emergency hatch, the next choice would be the APAS.

“Ten seconds.” Tomcat’s voice sounded in Mai Dong’s earpiece.

Mai Dong slowly held her breath.

“Five seconds.”

The Eagle was just inches away.

Seeing the massive machine silently fly over was counterintuitive. Mai Dong subconsciously felt that something was pushing at it.

Tomcat stared intently at the screen.

It had opened the arm’s camera, allowing it to see the figure in the EVA suit. It could also see the approaching Eagle.

The lander was already very close.

But it wasn’t the time.