Dead on Mars

Tang Yue nudged the water trough on the rack as he held a pipette to drip water onto the green tomato leaves.

Taking care of the plants on Kunlun Station was part of Tang Yue’s daily chores. Ever since the temperature control system had resumed operation, the tomatoes were able to grow healthily. Tang Yue used nearly every vessel he could find to plant a total of fifteen tomato and carrot plants. Now, these luxuriant plants were hanging on a rack while exhibiting vibrant vitality.

The farmed tomatoes and carrots became Tang Yue’s staples. Matched with compressed biscuits, these vegetables provided him with sufficient Vitamin C and beta carotene; the latter effectively improved his night vision. At its worst, Tang Yue’s night vision made it impossible for him to find his bed when inside the living quarters.

“Hmm… Thirteenth, you’re growing pretty well,” Tang Yue whispered to the tomato. “You’ve grown taller than Twelfth.”

He named the tomatoes and carrots according to common practice but decided not to give them human names. Tang Yue suspected that the names he gave were unlucky due to the deaths of the first batch of tomato sprouts… None of the characters that they were named after had a good end, so he decided on giving them numbers as a name.

Tomato First, Tomato Second, Tomato Third, Tomato Fourth, all the way to Tomato Fifteenth.

Carrot First, Carrot Second, all the way to Carrot Fifteenth.

In fact, Tang Yue had planned on naming them after long-lived historical figures but gave up when he realized that few people in human history lived past the threshold he wanted.

As for the pioneers who had unfortunately died early due to the low temperatures, Tang Yue erected tombstones for them on the Martian desert with great pain. They were to be the first batch of Earthlings that were buried on Mars. After engraving their names on the alien planet’s rock, he buried their corpses in the water trough to be used as fertilizer.

“Sigh… Twelfth’s leaves are a little yellow.” Tang Yue pinched the tomato leaf.

“It’s lacking in potassium? The fertility of the soil is dropping. It’s time to add a little more fertilizer…” Tang Yue sat in front of a desk as it slammed at it furiously. “Darn it HP! Why are you hanging on me again? I’m going to rip you up today! Tang Yue, I’m warning you, don’t try to stop me!”

“Oh, I won’t.” Tang Yue shot a glance at Tomcat as it stamped its feet before he continued watering the plants.

Tomcat’s love-hate relationship with the workstation played out every day.

Even though the tomatoes and carrots effectively increased the number of carbon lifeforms in Kunlun Station, rearing them wasn’t without cost.

The greatest expenditure was water.

Tang Yue and Tomcat did the math that for every one kilogram of tomatoes and carrots they harvested, they would expend twelve liters of water. This was despite them meticulously rationing the water. Tang Yue’s heart ached when he saw the precious water swish away.

The fuel in the Eagle’s Descent Vehicle had been used up. Tang Yue obtained 440 kilograms of water, and it was used solely to provide for the growth of the plants.

“This batch of tomatoes have already borne fruit once,” Tomcat said. “The next harvest will be some time away.”

“Will they really be able to bear fruit again?” Tang Yue asked. “Don’t tomatoes only bear fruit once a year?”

“Miss Mai Dong said that these tomatoes have the ability to bear fruit a second time. Type 11 tomatoes are especially good to cultivate. All they need is warmth and light with suitable cultivation methods. They can be harvested twice a year in an Earth year,” Tomcat said. “They will have a natural death in the second year.”

Tang Yue clipped the tomatoes’ stems, peeling off the withered leaves and burying them into the soil to be used as fertilizer.

“I hope that they can still bear fruit.”

“If you don’t think it will work, you can just bury them and let them ferment before planting new seeds.”

“It’s fine.” Tang Yue took a step back and smacked his hands, smiling at the plants on the rack. “It’s good to have them here. It’s not easy for all of us… Both of us, and them as well.”

Tomcat grunted as it shook its head. “I noticed that you are beginning to adhere to bio-communism now that Earth disappeared.”

“Bio-communism?

“What’s that?”

“The central belief can be roughly described as all life being equal.”

“Why haven’t I heard of it before?” Tang Yue asked. “Someone actually believes that all life is equal?”

“Aren’t you one of the believers?”

“Excluding me,” Tang Yue said. “I’m only an unknown carbon lifeform in this nameless, deserted planet.”

“Then the last person who said that is likely Siddhārtha Gautama.”

“Who?”

“Buddha,” Tomcat said. “I’ve always believed that bio-communism is the sublimation of communism. The advancement in technology might allow humans to asymptotically approach a communist society, but human civilization will forever not transcend to the view of bio-communism… This is because those at this level would be gods.

“Only a Creator would view all of His creation as equals. In the Tao Te Ching, there’s a saying that heaven and earth are impartial, treating all things as dogs. It means that the world shows no bias to anything in the world,” Tomcat said. “I believe that no such intelligent lifeform exists in this Universe because when you are impartial to all life in the Universe, your thoughts would be as huge as the Universe. At that point, you would be the Universe itself.”

Tang Yue was taken aback.

“However, you have given me inspiration,” Tomcat said. “To reach this sublime level of thought, perhaps there’s another path to take… When all that’s left in the world is you and a rat, you might be as equally important as the rat.”

“This is Tomcat’s philosophy?”

“Yes.” Tomcat nodded. “It’s very normal that you’ve never heard of bio-communism because I just invented it.”

In his state of enlightenment, Tang Yue pointed at the computer behind Tang Yue.

“Karl Meowx, your computer has hung again.”

…

“Mr. Cat, 001, 002, 023, and 044 are extinguished. 077 and 078 are blinking red. The MotorServo indicator light has been extinguished. The liquid pressure gauge is normal.”

“Roger that,” Tomcat replied. “I’ll be cutting a portion of the power connection next, Miss Mai Dong. Stay in the Silent module for the time being. Make sure the hatch is closed.”

The girl nodded.

The final thing that needed dismantling was the Eagle lander’s computer. Mai Dong first uninstalled the backup battery but didn’t throw it away. It could still be used by connecting it to the space station’s power system.

Tomcat cut off the connection between the Eagle and the space station before shutting down the various modules in the Eagle, turning the lander silent.

“Switch off the power.”

“Power switched off.

“Mr. Cat, do I need to remove the entire control panel?”

Mai Dong held a torchlight as she floated in the dark command module after the power was cut.

“Dismantle whatever can be dismantled. We need to reduce the weight as much as we can.”

Mai Dong held a screwdriver and wrench, and bit by bit, she dismantled the gigantic control panel. The control systems of the Eagle were originally as complicated as a commercial plane with a dense array of buttons and indicators. They were dead weight and a safety hazard during the descent.

“Make sure not to shatter the glass. The fragments won’t be easy to clean up. Remove them entirely… Prise it from the side, yes. That’s glue.”

Tomcat instructed Mai Dong over the video comms with the camera located on the girl’s EVA helmet.

“What do I do next after I dismantle the Eagle?”

“Once that’s done, we can deal with Orion. We’ll remove all the excess weight, which is mainly the truss. We need to remove a third of the truss.”

“Will it be difficult?”

“No, dismantling the truss doesn’t need you to use a wrench or screwdriver. The trusses are connected by a common berthing mechanism, just like train carriages. To break them apart, all you need to do is pull the hatch.

“Eh? Mr. Cat, there’s a switch here… It says “Don’t Touch Me.'”

“Follow what it says then. Don’t touch it,” Tomcat said. “Smash it.”