Dead on Mars

Tang Yue’s expression changed as well.

The computer was probably worried the two fools didn’t understand the result displayed on the monitor, so it had kindly made it more obvious by using bold and striking red text and an arrow to point at the trajectory and the impact point with Mars: WARNING IMPACT!

“You… You said that a collision was impossible…” Tang Yue muttered as he jumped up the next second. “You just said it’s impossible!”

“Th-th-this… is impossible!” Tomcat was stunned as well. It pulled the chair out and sat down, pulling the keyboard towards it. It also ignored the history of mathematics which it had written halfway. It quickly connected the Kunlun Station and United Space Station’s computer system as massive amounts of data appeared before its eyes.

“Impossible, impossible. How can this be happening? How can this comet be hitting Mars… Do you know how low the probability is?” As Tomcat shook its head, it typed on the keyboard, figures and numbers reflecting into its eyes. “This probability is lower than being hit by a meteorite when walking outside! You shouldn’t have encountered such a situation even if you lived on Mars for another hundred thousand years.”

“But the problem is that it’s coming right for us!” Tang Yue pulled a chair over and sat beside Tomcat. “And it’s not a meteorite!”

“Calm down. Calm down. Let me do a careful check what kind of malignant star this is.” Tomcat frowned as it focused. “Logically speaking, planets in the Solar System very rarely encounter harassment from outer space. It’s because there are the giant planets further out to guard against that happening… Jupiter is the greatest source of gravity after the Sun. When revolving around the sun, it would sweep up anything nearby, so if anything were to cause an impact, it would strike it first.”

Tomcat began studying the various numbers and calculations produced by the computer and the data from the survey telescope. The workstation had made a prediction of the comet’s trajectory based on these numbers. Therefore, Tomcat was doing a backward calculation to ensure that the computer’s results were right.

“Calm down. Calm down… It might be a problem with the computer. The interaction between celestial bodies in the Solar System is very complicated. It’s a chaotic system. Even a computer can’t give an accurate prediction for the famous three-body problem in astronomy. It can only give a result that’s as close to reality as possible,” Tomcat explained. “It’s just like how it’s impossible to perfectly predict the influence Earth’s disappearance has on the other planets…”

Tang Yue leaned in close. Even though he couldn’t understand the large amounts of data on the computer screen, he still tried his best to read the diagrams and equations. After all, he had a heart that was eager to learn.

“So are you implying that the computer might just be giving a messed up answer?”

“Possible. After all, this crappy computer likes to give me a fright for no good reason.” Tomcat slowly nodded, its eyes glued to the screen. “That’s why I’m doing a check… to see if there are any mistakes in its calculations or if it has missed out on any conditions. It’s very easy to make mistakes when predicting chaotic systems. In the past, weather reports were inaccurate because the observational means and the calculation capabilities were out of sync.”

Tang Yue didn’t dare disturb Tomcat. He quietly sat by the side, looking through the numbers. In the past, he had hated it when the computer bugged out, but now, he hoped that it was a computer bug.

“Should Jupiter’s gravity be considered here? At this distance, it still hasn’t fully escaped Jupiter’s gravitational influence. Strange… How did the angular momentum here change…

“The comet nucleus’ mass is evaporating too quickly. Carbon dioxide evaporates faster than water. The decrease ratio here should be about 0.03.

“Light pressure can be skipped. It’s negligible.

“This is a parabola? No, it’s a catenary.”

Tomcat kept muttering as its brown eyes widened.

No matter what it said, Tang Yue would nod.

With the passage of time, Tomcat finished looking through the workstation’s calculation as it increasingly furrowed its brow, its expression becoming heavier.

This was the first time Tang Yue had seen the cat look so profound since Earth’s disappearance.

Tomcat pulled the scrollbar to the end and exhaled slowly before reaching out its paw to close the calculation interface.

“How is it?” Tang Yue asked. “Was it a bug?”

If the computer wasn’t malfunctioning, it would be his turn to malfunction.

Tomcat shook its head. “I didn’t discover any flaws or mistakes. Its predictions are completely reasonable based on the present situation… Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai I will indeed hit Mars. It’s probably the first time in three million years that Mars will suffer a strike from a celestial body with such great mass. Damn it, this is really a malignant star. To think I gave it a name.”

“Sir, do you have any means to subdue this malignant star?”

“There are means, but you can’t make bricks without straw,” Tomcat said. “There’s the Primordial Chaos Zenith Heaven’s Homing Bomb, the Grand Supreme Astral Five Phases Fusion Punishment, and the Twenty-Eight Star Mansion Allheaven Array’s All-Encompassing Gilded Glow which can subdue this malignant star… But it’s not like we have them.”

Tang Yue’s facial muscles began to twitch.

After 65 million years, Tang Yue once again experienced the feelings the dinosaurs had back then… Speaking of which, dying this way was like dying with guns blazing. He had never expected to be killed by a comet strike. It was unknown if the Tunguska event had killed anyone, but if no one died, then Tang Yue might be the only person in human history to be unluckily finished off by a celestial visitor. It would prove to be quite a splendid sight.

The only regretful thing was that Tang Yue’s work wasn’t done. He hadn’t finished recording human history. To die just like that, was a letdown of his ancestors.

“Will it hit us? Is Kunlun Station doomed? The force of the impact will be much greater than a nuclear bomb, right?”

“Not necessarily. It’s still too early to determine if Kunlun Station is doomed. I can only confirm that the comet will hit the northern hemisphere. But the exact point of impact can’t be determined at the moment. Although the energy released from the impact will be many times stronger than a nuclear bomb, a number far greater than anything humans were capable of, as long as it’s far enough, Kunlun Station still has a chance of surviving.”

“How far must it be?”

“That’s hard to say. We don’t know enough about this comet. We need further observation and calculations. However, it will be the worst impact on the Solar System this century. It might even affect Mars’s revolution and rotation.”

Tomcat still looked very calm as it spoke in an unhurried manner.

It was unknown if it was fearless, or if it had given up on hope.

“Try out your heaven-defying luck again of being a target of a meteorite strike. And perhaps if we are lucky enough, Kunlun Station might be able to survive the disaster, but…”

“But what?”

Tomcat fell silent for a few seconds.

“No matter where the comet hits, as long as it hits Mars, the United Space Station will likely be destroyed.”