Dead on Mars

Tomcat helped Tang Yue change the oxygen cylinder and batteries of the Radiant Armor’s life support system before helping him put on the EVA suit. As Tang Yue tried moving his limbs, he took a deep breath and picked up the antenna from the floor.

The antenna was very light. The tripod was made of hollow aluminum alloy, so Tang Yue could carry it with one hand. It was like a microphone stand.

“Just place it at Kunlun Station’s entrance.” Tomcat stood in front of Tang Yue and tiptoed to hold onto his visor, emphasizing, “Do not wander off. Wait there and listen to my instructions.”

Tang Yue nodded in acknowledgment.

“Good luck!”

Tomcat patted him on the shoulder as Tang Yue carried the antenna, dragged the black electric cable and plodded towards the airlock’s hatch. From the back, he looked like a bear holding up a wooden club.

Before the Eagle’s launch, they had to establish communications with the United Space Station to get Mai Dong ready. Even though the lander had the ability to automatically dock, it was impossible to guarantee that there wouldn’t be any mishaps during a launch in such terrible weather. Therefore, everyone had to be prepared to react accordingly.

Kunlun Station’s original Ku band communications antenna was located over at the garage. It was an antenna receiver that could automatically track the target’s signal, ensuring that the radio transmission’s direction would follow the space station or the relay satellites, but in this sudden sandstorm, all calibration had been lost. Without even needing to stop to think, Tomcat knew that the antenna had been toppled. However, they had been busy moving the supplies to the Eagle and didn’t have the time or effort to deal with it.

Repairing the antenna now was unrealistic. It was a miracle that Tang Yue hadn’t died outside. Heading out again meant death.

Therefore, Tomcat switched to using a replacement—a purely manual antique.

Tomcat sat back at its work desk, put in an earpiece, and pulled a keyboard and mouse over. As it checked the channel’s signal strength and change in wind speeds, its claw kept adjusting the signal band while the other claw pressed down on the earpiece, focused on picking up anything. Tomcat was like an underground worker eavesdropping on the radio under the light in the silence of the night.

Tomcat wished to find a meaningful signal through the endless static, but unfortunately, apart from the shrieking cries, there wasn’t anything else. It felt as though demons were dancing about in the hurricane outside, a symphony of wailing from a million female wraiths.

“Tomcat, I’m in position.” Tang Yue’s voice sounded in the earpiece.

“Roger that,” Tomcat quickly replied. “Listen up, Tang Yue. Set up the antenna in front of the airlock’s hatch. Then, pick up the antenna’s electric plug.”

“Plug? Where is it? Plug… Found it! Damn it, the wind at the entrance is crazy. The plug was flying everywhere. I had to grab it… Holy sh*t, I can’t bend my back. Wait a moment! I have to bend my back to grab it. It uses a USB interface.”

“Yes, it’s USB. That’s the antenna’s data line. Now look to your left… There’s a data socket on the left side of the airlock’s hatch. There’s a light above it.”

“I see the data socket. It’s right beside my hand, but there’s already a data line connected into it,” Tang Yue said. “I have no idea where this data line leads to…”

“It’s the data line of the original communications antenna. You can pull it out now and insert the one you have,” Tomcat instructed. “After plugging it in, see if the indicator light on the satellite lights up or not.”

Moments later, Tang Yue replied, “It’s lit up.”

Meanwhile, Tomcat saw a notification “new hardware connected” display on the screen. This meant that the antenna had been successfully connected to Kunlun Station’s mainframe.

“Now, turn and point the parabolic antenna in the southeast direction. Do it slowly.” Tomcat instructed as it carefully monitored the signal. “Currently, the United Space Station should be in that direction.”

Tang Yue leaned against the airlock’s hatch and secured himself to the hatch with a safety rope. He clasped the antenna’s tripod with both hands as he slowly turned it. Although Tomcat was unable to precisely determine the United Space Station’s location, the latter was a celestial object that was in periodic orbit. It followed a fixed trajectory around Mars, so as long as its trajectory parameters were known, Tomcat could easily calculate where the space station was at any time.

“Any signal?”

“No.” Tomcat stared at the screen. “Continue turning it.”

“Any signal?”

“No.”

Tang Yue looked up towards the southeastern sky. Tomcat had said that the United Space Station would be in that direction, but he could see nothing except pitch-black darkness.

“Raise the angle of the antenna a little bit, approximately five to ten degrees.”

“Five to ten degrees…” Tang Yue mumbled as he adjusted the antenna’s direction. “I suddenly feel like I’m a TV repairman.”

“TV repairman?” Tomcat frowned.

“When I was little, the television back in my hometown village was like this. In times without the Internet or digital television, televisions were connected to an antenna. Those antennas looked like clothes racks and were hoisted high with bamboo poles. We called them television racks,” Tang Yue said leisurely. “Those are really old gadgets. Even in a rural village like my hometown, television racks are nearly extinct.”

“Those are Yagi antennas,” Tomcat said.

“I’ve no idea what they’re called. Anyway, we all called them television racks. They were quite f*cked up, always giving signal problems, so our television programs were often a noisy blur,” Tang Yue continued. “When the broadcast isn’t clear, we typically had two solutions. The first was to smack it, just keep smacking the television until the picture was clear.

“The other solution was to head out and rotate the television rack. A person would stay in the room, watching the television, while the others would head out to adjust the television rack’s direction. Typical television racks were propped up with bamboo, so we would be rotating the bamboo from below while shouting into the house, “Is it clear?” If the person inside replied “No,” we would continue rotating it until the person inside said otherwise. Then, we would rush back to continue watching TV.”

Tomcat nodded.

“It does have its resemblances.”

Tang Yue didn’t know why he was recalling such things. The scenes had suddenly surfaced in his mind, making his already blurred memories suddenly turn clear. Amidst the Martian pitch-black sandstorm, he had somehow recalled summer afternoons from years ago. The cicadas on the trees would drone on noisily as he held an ice popsicle in hand. The television on the table would play reruns of My Fair Princess and Young Justice Bao.

As he recalled, Tang Yue even hummed the main themes of the two shows.

“Stop!” Tomcat suddenly yelled.

Tang Yue stopped.

The static in the earpiece reduced as the female wrath-like static vanished. There was a gentle throb as a weak voice with a sobbing tone surfaced from the dark silence.

“Kunlun Station, this is United Space Station. I say again for the 451st time, please answer if you copy… This is United Space Station. Mr. Tang Yue, Mr. Cat, do you copy… Mr. Tang Yue? Mr. Cat?”

Tomcat heaved a sigh of relief.

They had finally re-established communications.

It pressed down on the earpiece. “Mai Dong, this is Kunlun Station! I’m Tomcat! Do you copy?”