Dead on Mars

“What did you say… Repeat it again?”

“Once the comet hits Mars, the one in greatest danger is the United Space Station,” Tomcat said. “You can dig a hole in the ground to hide, but the space station has nowhere to hide.”

Tomcat took out a pen and paper.

“According to the survey telescope’s observations, we can predict the size of Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai I’s nucleus. Its diameter is roughly between twenty-eight to thirty kilometers.” Tomcat drew a circle on a piece of paper. “It’s mainly made of water, carbon dioxide, and methane. We can roughly estimate its mass by multiplying the volume by density, and the answer is 1.02 × 10¹⁴ tonnes.

“In other words, 102,000,000,000,000 tonnes.”

Tomcat wrote a long string of zeros on the piece of paper.

Tang Yue took quite a while to count all the zeros.

“One… hundred and two trillion tonnes?”

Tomcat nodded.

This was Tang Yue’s first time encountering such a large mass. He couldn’t even imagine it.

From Tang Yue’s point of view, the impact of a comet on Earth was like the drop of an oil tanker weighing tens of thousands of tonnes. This was because there was nothing bigger to him than that. Anything bigger was impossible for him, as a normal human, to imagine. Oil tankers were the biggest things humanity had created, something even heavier than aircraft carriers.

However, Tomcat had smashed his thoughts with a hundred trillion tonnes.

This was nothing like the dropping of an oil tanker.

It was practically having Mt. Everest collapse.

This also meant that Tang Yue had completely underestimated the impact of the comet. He had never seen a comet hit a planet, so the disaster that would result from Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai I far exceeded his expectations.

“Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai I will exceed 75 km/s when it approaches Mars. The kinetic energy it has would exceed 2.9 × 10²⁶ Joules.” Tomcat sensed that Tang Yue was unable to estimate how massive the energy was, so it began using its usual way of analogy. “The atomic bomb that flattened Hiroshima contained about 5.5 × 10¹³ Joules. If Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai I hits Mars, the energy it releases will be equivalent to 5.2 × 10¹² Little Boy atomic bombs. Or in other words, exploding 5,200,000,000,000 atomic bombs at the same time.”

Tang Yue felt faint.

5.2 trillion atomic bombs.

A deep sense of helplessness crept up his spine. He staggered and plopped down into the chair.

5.2… trillion atomic bombs?

Tang Yue gave Tomcat a pleading look. The latter nodded in regret, indicating that there wasn’t any mistake in the results.

“Can… Can you confirm that Kunlun Station can escape this disaster?”

“Kunlun Station has a sound structure. The Martian atmosphere is exceedingly thin, and in a way, it’s what’s saving Kunlun Station. If a comet of the same mass were to hit Earth, the immense shockwave would undoubtedly sweep across the entire globe. It would result in an unprecedented hurricane that left nothing but destruction in its wake,” Tomcat explained. “But it’s very different on Mars. The atmospheric pressure here is less than 1% of Earth’s, so the shockwave’s might will be greatly reduced.”

“What about earthquakes? Wouldn’t this create earthquakes?”

“Of course it will. And it will be a powerful earthquake that affects the entire globe.” Tomcat nodded. “However, soil is able to absorb energy better than air. As long as you are far enough… You have to believe that Kunlun Station’s structure is sound; it wouldn’t be destroyed that easily.”

As a dead planet, Mars didn’t have any natural disasters that stood out. If Mars were Earth, to get Earth to suffer such a strike, the repercussions would be a lot worse. The shockwave would result in tsunamis that were enough to sweep across all land on Earth. It might even trigger some super volcanoes into erupting, causing the sinking of certain continental plates.

But the volcanoes on Mars had been extinct for millions of years.

“Before the comet hits, you might be able to survive by digging a pit to hide,” Tomcat said. “However, the United Space Station likely won’t have such luck… Once Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai I enters the Roche limit, it will rapidly disintegrate, producing large amounts of debris. Any one of them will pose a lethal risk to the space station.”

“Can it be dodged?” Tang Yue asked. “Orion II still has an engine.”

“You plan on driving the space station like a fighter jet?” Tomcat threw up its paws. “There’s no way to predict the fragments and they are exceedingly fast. They would tear you apart before you even had the chance to react.”

Tang Yue facepalmed as he took a deep breath.

“It’s over… It’s over,” Tang Yue said. “The space station won’t be able to dodge it, and we might not be able to dodge it either. No one knows where that comet will land. Perhaps it will hit right on our faces. I wonder if dying by a comet strike would hurt.”

“We can imagine the scene at the point of impact. Once Comet Tomcat-Tang-Mai I hits the Roche limit, it will begin disintegrating, producing debris before plunging into Mars.” Tomcat painted the scenario during the disaster. “At the instant of the impact, a crater a thousand kilometers across will be formed. The high temperatures and pressures will melt the desert into glass spanning an area of a few hundred square kilometers.

“A minute after the impact, the massive force will run through the surface and air, creating a global earthquake and hurricane. The hot air will be accelerated to supersonic speeds, and the waves from the impact will circle Mars a few times in a short period of time, shaking the entire atmosphere.

“Five minutes after the impact, massive amounts of matter will be thrown into the air and into orbit, covering all of Mars with the hurling winds. For a very long period of time, the entire globe will not see the light of day. And the debris in orbit will form a ring that won’t stably exist. It will slowly fall back into the Martian atmosphere over the next hundred years.

“The intensity of the impact will be so huge that Mars’s rotation will speed up. It might even have its axis tilted a little.”

Tomcat’s voice was heavy as it spoke very slowly. It was painting an apocalyptic scene, and compared to this, the divine punishment meted by God in the Bible was nothing.

A scene that even a disaster film didn’t have would be happening in reality.

Indeed, drama struggled to match the absurdness of reality.

“You are telling me that Mars will be covered in dust?” Tang Yue asked.

“Yes,” Tomcat replied. “A conservative estimate would be a trillion tonnes of dust will be swept up by a storm in a way far more terrifying than the sandstorms. It will make it impossible to see the Sun across Mars.”

“Then wouldn’t we be dead?” Tang Yue sighed. “There’s no point in hiding. Even if we can avoid the impact, Kunlun Station would be out of power without sunlight.”

Tang Yue had come to realize the power of the Universe. Compared to this, human strength was just too negligible. Apart from watching this happen helplessly, there was nothing he could do.

At this moment, Tang Yue realized how good Superman was. Although this alien with a curl wasn’t great at handling things and was rather wishy-washy and indecisive, he had the powers to resist nature—he could fly into space to push the comet away. While everyone stood helplessly in the face of imminent doom, he was someone they could pin their hopes on.

Unfortunately, Superman only lived in the DC Universe.

In a world without superheroes, how were humans to save themselves?

“Mr. Cat, Tang Yue, this is the last part of the history of philosophy…” Mai Dong appeared on the video comms. “What’s wrong? Did something happen?”