Dead on Mars

Tomcat took a look at the time, packed up the tools, and turned to enter the driving compartment. “That’s it for today. We shall continue the rest of the work tomorrow. We need to return to move the solar panels.”

Tang Yue looked at the setting sun hanging above the red desert. It reminded him of a poem from the Tang dynasty poet Wang Wei—the solitary smoke over a desert is straight; the setting sun over rivers is round.

“I once had fertile soil placed before me, yet I didn’t cherish it,” Tang Yue said. “You don’t know what you have until it’s gone. Nothing else is more painful than this.

“If the heavens will give me a chance to redo things…”

Tomcat languidly cut him off.

“You still wish for Earth’s disappearance to repeat?”

Tomcat ignited the Mars Wanderer as the vehicle began to shake. It slowly turned around as Tang Yue sat in the vehicle, trembling along with it. He had fixed all the bottles on the work desk, as well as closed the spectrophotometer.

“Miss Mai Dong, what happens if we fail to find any suitable soil? We are only taking samples a few kilometers around us. Will there be any major differences in the soil in such a small area?”

Tomcat held the wheel as it looked forward.

The Mars Wanderer’s wheels rolled down the desert, its tires leaving two straight tracks in its wake.

“Hard to say,” Mai Dong said. “This is because Mars once had liquid water. Areas with water flowing through them will result in changes in the land features. It can still cause a rather huge difference in soil quality even in a small region. For example, the soil quality between a flood plain and a riverbed is different… We have to find soil with relatively good foundations, relatively balanced pH values, and relatively good water retention. Such soil is more suitable for the growth of plants.”

“Miss Mai Dong, did you find any suitable soil back when you were on Kunlun Station?”

“Unfortunately, no.” Mai Dong shook her head. “Old Zheng and I researched this. He’s an expert in the environment and geology. He told me that Mars is filled with extensive tracts of dry, saline-alkaline land.”

Tomcat was taken aback for a moment before it let out a long sigh.

“We need a Yuan Longping ¹ ”

…

When the Mars Wanderer traversed across a depression in the ground, Tomcat said that it was possibly an ancient river. Perhaps millions of years ago, liquid water once flowed through it.

“Mars was also once a planet rich with water resources.” Tang Yue looked out the window. The Mars Wanderer had just climbed over a small sand dune, and a distance away was what appeared to be a slowly-moving brown vertical sand column. On careful look, it was a tiny tornado. “Where did all that water go?”

“A portion of it evaporated away. Mars’s seismic activity stopped millions of years ago and has mostly lost its magnetic field. The atmosphere, together with its water, has mostly been stripped off by solar winds,” Tomcat answered. “A portion of it remains in the poles as ice where the sun can’t reach. The final portion might be underground, turning into ice or some other hydrated compound.”

“There’s water underground?” Tang Yue asked. “Then, wouldn’t that mean we can dig up water if we keep digging downwards?”

“With that shovel that you use as a soup spoon?” Tomcat scoffed. “I’ve never seen anyone use a spoon to dig a well. You will probably dig to the end of your days.”

The Mars Wanderer drove across the desert covered with gravel. Due to the lack of a suspension system, Tang Yue’s ass hurt from all the bumps.

“If water exists, would it be possible that Mars once had creatures?” Tang Yue looked out the window as he made conversation.

“Of course.” Tomcat nodded. “If you dig twenty meters down, perhaps you might find the fossils of some ancient Martian creature.”

“If creatures can exist, would it be possible for civilization to exist on Mars?” Mai Dong asked.

“Miss Mai Dong, that’s hard to say.” Tomcat shrugged. “Intelligence and civilization aren’t the goals of evolution. Biological evolution’s goal is to better adapt to the environment, and not grow to have developed brains. Why must you treat intelligence as a standard of higher life forms? From the angle of evolution and biology, the most successful creatures are always the ones who adapt to their environments the best, and not those with the greatest mental capacity. In the Mesozoic era on Earth, large reptiles didn’t have high intelligence, but it didn’t stop them from occupying the entire globe.”

“I just feel that if a civilization once existed on Mars, everything would become very romantic,” the girl said. “What we are facing isn’t a dead planet without any life, but the ruins of an ancient civilization.”

Tang Yue was taken aback as he looked down at his feet. He imagined huge and magnificent buildings like the ancient Roman halls buried under the surface that the rover had passed. They were passing through a particularly wide road, where tens of thousands of years ago, the residents of Mars civilization were worshiping their gods.

“Even if a civilization existed, it would be difficult for us to see their ruins,” Tomcat said indifferently. “Tang Yue, look to your left.”

Tang Yue followed the instruction as he stood up and looked to the left of the rover.

At the end of the desert plains, there were stacked layers of dark red hills. They were arranged in a criss-cross pattern as they spread across a ravine.

“What do you see?”

“Sand, desert, and linearly arranged hills.”

“That’s a yardang.” Tomcat asked, “Do you know what yardang is?”

“Some wind-erosion landform?” Mai Dong asked.

“Precisely. The rock structure you see that rises like a dragon’s back is the result of wind erosion. On this planet, no strength is stronger than sand drift. No matter how big and strong the building built by some civilization is, it will be eroded and destroyed by time like a slicing blade. Eventually, it will turn into sand,” Tomcat said softly. “The slowest and most silent force is often the strongest.

“Nothing in this world can defeat time. A civilization that develops itself for ten thousand years can have its traces wiped out in ten million years,” Tomcat added. “But in geological time, we typically use hundreds of millions of years as the time scale… Whatever accomplishments or civilization achievements will all turn to dust.”

Tang Yue and Mai Dong fell into silence.

They didn’t know what to say. Comparing insignificant humanity to the scale of time left one with fear and respect.

Tomcat paused as it began reciting loudly.

“I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—’Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, and wrinkled lip.”

Tang Yue was taken aback, lost as to what Tomcat was saying. Mai Dong softly reminded him through the earpiece that it was Shelley’s poem, from the famous work, “Ozymandias.”

Tomcat raised its voice.

“And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!”

The Mars Wanderer advanced across the silent and endless desert. Amidst the sand and gravel, Tomcat’s voice sounded vast and boundless. Tang Yue looked at the sand-carrying wind as his heart instantly turned cold.

However, Tomcat’s voice slowly lowered as though it was singing a sorrowful dirge.

“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay;

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare;

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”