Chapter 222 - Sol Three Hundred and Thirty-Three, Unverifiable (1/2)

Chapter 222: Sol Three Hundred and Thirty-Three, Unverifiable

The first thing that needed handling was food and water.

After being resupplied by Tianzhou 37, Kunlun Station’s food reserves were rather plentiful. However, the Mars Wanderer had limited capacity. Tomcat and Tang Yue were unable to take all of it along. In the morning, just as the Sun rose, Tang Yue and Tomcat got up and began preparing.

“Tang Yue, how much food do you need?” In front of Tomcat was a mountain of soft-packaging canned food and reconstituted food. It was at a loss, having the desire to take everything but being limited by the capacity. It was a worry worth being happy about. Compared to the earlier days when Kunlun Station only had compressed biscuits for survival, there wasn’t any choice.

“Fifteen days of food will do.”

Tang Yue was outside the garage. The geolab had been removed from Mars Wanderer. He was clearing out all the apparatus in the lab.

The lab was Kunlun Station’s only mobile airtight module. It came with four wheels and could move by being attached to the Wanderer. Based on the coordinates, they needed at least nine days. Most of the time, Tang Yue would be wearing the Radiant Armor, but he also needed to eat, drink, and defecate.

“Only fifteen days?”

“There’s only enough oxygen for nine days.” Tang Yue threw the heavy spectrophotometer as it slammed into the sand. “Fifteen days of food is enough. The dead can’t eat. Since I’m not returning, having plenty of food is meaningless. It will only add to the weight and slow down the Wanderer.”

“What about flavors?”

“Anything will do except salted squid.”

Tang Yue turned around and entered the geolab. Soon, there were clunking and knocking sounds. Finally, he took out a computer monitor and threw it outside.

Tomcat took stock of each item while Tang Yue perspired heavily inside the garage. The latter had once again regained his strength and drive. He did things swiftly, completely unlike the three sols after the space station crashed. Tang Yue had lived those sols like a walking zombie. He had sat there in a daze with a blank expression, neither eating or drinking. In a sense, this letter of unknown origins had extended Tang Yue’s life, giving him a purpose to keep living.

“One… Two… Three… One sol, two sols, three sols… No salted squid. No salted squid…”

Tomcat counted, trying its best to select tiny, light, and high-calorie foods. For water, it took bottles. Each bottle contained 600 milliliters of water. Under normal circumstances, two bottles of water were enough for a day’s consumption. Just like food, fifteen days of water was prepared. That meant thirty bottles. The water in Kunlun Station’s water tank was precious, but at this stage, all of that was to be abandoned.

Tomcat separately packed the food and water, rather carefully arranging Tang Yue’s daily menu before labeling them.

“Tang Yue.”

“Yes?”

“If you’re willing to wait, I can make the trip first. It will take at most a month and I’ll be back. After I confirm that it’s safe, I can return to take you over…”

“I’m not willing to wait.” Tang Yue was squatting, dismantling the screws from the table’s legs.

“Got it.”

Tomcat didn’t make another mention of it again.

Having cleared the geolab outside the garage, Tang Yue began moving the solar panels.

The solar panels were the main source of power for the Mars Wanderer and Tomcat. The last time Tomcat headed out to find the Chelomey, it had taken thirty solar panels with it. It spent nearly ten hours a day recharging. This time, they planned on taking all the solar panels to shorten the amount of recharging every day. However, these things were bulky and heavy. They could only be bundled together and placed on the trailer.