Chapter 52 - Sol Five, Eternal Increase in Entropy (1/2)

The dark red warning windows disappeared one after another as Tomcat temporarily stabilized the situation in the United Space Station. Only then did it heave a sigh of relief… It had shut down a few hatches between the modules and stopped any airflow between them. This was a safety mechanism on the original designs of the Mars United Space Station. It allowed for remote emergency shut down of hatches, and it was finally put to use, thus, saving the entire space station.

Tomcat had found the module that had lost pressure. Without a doubt, it was the Dawn module. It was the module that had suffered the brunt of the Eagle’s direct impact. The Dawn experiment module’s APAS had been completely destroyed and the tremendous impact had caused the walls to crack. The air within the module was leaking, and the Dawn was basically in a vacuum state. Its temperature had fallen below freezing point.

Sealing shut the hatches saved the other modules. Next to the Dawn module was the core module which presently maintained standard atmospheric pressure and a temperature of 20°C. At the very least, Tomcat no longer needed to worry about Mai Dong suffocating to death.

The smoke alarms had come to a stop as well. The smoking Dawn was already in a vacuum state, so without oxygen, it was impossible for a fire to break out.

The United Space Station was temporarily preserved.

However, Mai Dong remained uncontactable.

No one knew what had happened to Mai Dong during the collision. Anything was possible in such a serious accident. She could still be alive, or she might have died in the accident.

“Miss Mai Dong! This is Kunlun Station. Miss Mai Dong, answer if you copy!

“Miss Mai Dong! This is Kunlun Station. Answer if you copy!

“Miss Mai Dong! Answer if you copy!”

Tomcat was worried as it cried out again and again.

There was no response over the frequency. There was only dead silence.

“Damn it!” Tomcat smacked its paw on the table. The Eagle’s rear-ending of the United Space Station had resulted in disastrous repercussions. Both spacecraft had lost control and had exited their original trajectories. The space station’s situation was slightly better. Tomcat was able to initialize the attitude control rockets on the space station to stop it from spinning.

However, there was nothing that could be done for the Eagle. It had insufficient propellant, and the rendezvous was a complete failure. The collision had changed the direction of the lander, as it lost control of itself and tumbled through space, far into the distance.

Tomcat took a look at the distance.

Sixty kilometers.

The gap was still opening up.

While Tomcat was desperately trying to save the United Space Station, the Eagle’s trajectory kept decreasing in height. It was accelerating as it tumbled along a trajectory at high speeds, and would ultimately plunge into the Martian atmosphere. No one could stop it.

“Tang Yue, I have some good news and some bad news. Which do you want first?” Tomcat pushed the keyboard as it sighed.

“… Let’s start with the bad news.”

“The bad news will take a year to spell out,” Tomcat said. “Are you sure you want to hear the bad news?”

“Good news.”

“The good news is that the United Space Station is temporarily secured, and the losses aren’t too great. The Dawn module is pretty much decommissioned, but it helped the space station absorb a large part of the impact… This might have to do with the Russians preferring to use flexible material to construct their modules,” Tomcat said. “There aren’t many problems with the other modules, and they are presently in an operational state.”

Tang Yue recalled which part the Dawn module was… It was connected to the core module, which was situated between the core module and APAS. This module had provided a buffer for the core module.

“Anything else?”

“None.” Tomcat shook its head. “This is the only piece of good news, but the bad news is a laundry list… Miss Mai Dong is still uncontactable, and her situation is unknown. The Eagle is dashing down a route of no return. The rear-ending seriously increased its speed as it’s beginning to plummet towards Mars. It will take about six rounds before the Eagle enters the atmosphere.

“Six rounds?”

“Six rounds.”

“Is… Mai Dong still alive?”

“I’ve no idea.”

Tang Yue fell into a prolonged silence.