Die on Mars

Maidong hit the outer wall of the Eagle spacecraft, and the lander sliding along the inertia was hit sideways. Although the force was not strong, it still caused the Eagle spacecraft to deviate from its original trajectory.

The girl subconsciously grabbed the handle of the cabin door.

She had just taken a risk and lowered the air pressure in her spacesuit. Facts have proved that this decision was prescient. After the air pressure was reduced, the spacesuit was not as bulky as before, allowing her to move her hands and feet more easily. Maidong held one hand tightly on the hatch handle, and the lander flew away from the joint space station with her, getting farther and farther away from the super arm.

The girl wasn't able to hook the rope directly onto the truck, but she jumped right in.

The girl was panting and weak.

The jump just now consumed almost all her strength, and now Maidong didn't even have the strength to raise her hands - any movement outside the cabin required several times the amount of effort under normal circumstances.

She was really exhausted. She had been hungry for several days in a row, and she continued to be in a state of anxiety and insomnia. She was exhausted physically and mentally. She had hardly rested in the past twelve hours and had been cooperating with Lao Mao's work. God knows what happened. How did the girl survive? She was just a weak scientific researcher and had never done any physical work.

The only connection between Ophiopogon japonicus and the Joint Space Station is the safety cable. This thin nylon cable is 500 meters long. The Eagle spacecraft flies at about five meters per second. It takes less than one to cross these 500 meters. One hundred seconds, which is one and a half minutes.

Maidong squeezed the last bit of strength in her body and pressed the handle in the cabin. Her fingers were sore and stiff, but she still didn't dare to relax. Her helmet stuck tightly to the bulkhead of the Eagle spacecraft.

Ophiopogon failed to grab the other lock of the safety rope, and it accidentally let go and flew out. The lock was floating not far away, and the dark red rope looked like a slender and twisted snake.

The girl stretched out her hand hard to reach the lock.

But the safety rope was as slippery as a loach, and Ophiopogon japonicus's gloves flew away as soon as they touched it, making it impossible to reach it.

She tried three times but failed. Instead, the safety rope slowly drifted away... Maidong turned his head and glanced at the United Space Station. The super arm was already fifty meters away behind him.

The safety rope on her body is 500 meters long. Once the lander flies out of this distance, Maidong will be pulled down by the rope. She must buckle the second safety rope to the Eagle spacecraft within a minute and a half. .

There was silence in the earphones. It must be that Lao Mao and Tang Yue both knew that the critical moment was coming and did not dare to disturb them. They could only wait for news in fear.

Maidong put his head against the inside of his helmet, breathed heavily and rested for a few seconds, then turned to stare at the red safety rope.

The stress situation of a soft and slender thing like a rope is very complicated. It floats in a vacuum, and the force it receives propagates along the internal structure. A slight disturbance will cause a big impact, and the trajectory is extremely difficult to predict. Ophiopogon japonicus After failing several times in a row, I didn't dare to waste any more energy, so I could only rest and wait for the opportunity.

"Attention, Miss Maidong, you are now one hundred and fifty meters away from the United Space Station." Old Cat reminded.

Maidong nodded.

Float a little closer...Float a little closer...

Maidong tried her best to straighten her hand, and the lock was floating a meter away from her, twisting and turning, but refused to get closer.

"Attention, Miss Maidong, you are now two hundred meters away from the United Space Station."

Damn it...you should float closer!

Maidong was very anxious. She could feel that her body was getting weaker and weaker, and her limbs were gradually becoming weak and weak.

The last bit of strength was being drained from her body bit by bit.

"Attention, Miss Maidong, you are now three hundred meters away from the United Space Station." The old cat said solemnly, "Miss Maidong, can you hear me?"

"Can...can hear..."

Maidong tried again, but the lock of the safety rope drifted past her index finger and she failed to catch it.

The safety cable connecting the extravehicular suit and the joint space station was gradually straightened, and the 500-meter-long rope slowly unfolded in the vacuum.

"Miss Maidong, you are now four hundred meters away from the United Space Station." The old cat was very anxious, "You still have twenty seconds at most, haven't you buckled it yet?"

The girl was sweating profusely.

Maidong stared at the floating lock. The lock floated two meters away, was pulled by the safety rope, and then slowly floated back. The lock continued in a cycle back and forth. It takes more than 20 seconds to move back and forth. At the farthest point, it is more than two meters away from Ophiopogon japonicus, and at the closest point, it is half a meter away.

"Miss Maidong, you still have ten seconds!"

Maidong counted the seconds silently in her mind, and the lock was moving back.

"Miss Maidong, you still have eight seconds!"

The girl stared intently at the gadget. It was just a metal buckle with a long rope connected to the back.

"Miss Maidong, you still have six seconds!"

Maidong took a deep breath.

At that moment everything was silent, and the old cat's voice suddenly faded away.

The lock floated to the position closest to Ophiopogon japonicus, and he was about to turn around and float back again.

The girl relaxed her grip on the hatch slightly, which extended her reach by two centimeters. Then Maidong stretched out her hand with all her strength and grasped the lock firmly in her hand!

Maidong grasped the lock, turned around and put it firmly on the hatch of the Eagle spacecraft, clicked and locked it!

The safety rope suddenly tightened!

"Mr. Cat——!" Maidong yelled with all her strength. She was so hoarse that she was hysterical.

"Copy that! Damn it! Eagle spaceship, come back to me——!!"

The old cat jumped up and slapped the buttons fiercely.

The girl finally exhausted all her strength and could no longer hold on to the lander. The latter's flight distance had reached the limit of the safety rope, and the straight rope dragged her down from the Eagle spacecraft.

Maidong watched the lander slowly move away, lying quietly in her spacesuit, floating in the boundless vacuum. She was too tired, all the sounds were fading away, and her body seemed to be melting into the surrounding void. , only consciousness remains.

The inexplicable silence and warmth slowly came up and engulfed her, as if she had returned to the beginning of life, turning into a fetus and returning to the amniotic fluid of her mother's womb.

To the universe, humans may be like unopened fetuses in amniotic fluid.

Through the glass mask, Maidong saw the bright stars in the sky.

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Kunlun Station.

There was dead silence in the hall.

The old cat sat motionless in front of the workbench, with his heart in his throat. He ordered the safety rope to be recovered, but whether the safety rope could hold the Eagle spacecraft was still a question. Theoretically, this rope could withstand more than a dozen With a huge pulling force of tons, it is fully capable of lifting a large truck with eight rear wheels. But theories are just theories after all. No one can make a conclusion before the results come out. Theoretically, the probability of a BUG in the Eagle spacecraft system computer is still 10,000 One percent.

The motor on the joint space station was rotating, retracting the safety rope in an orderly manner. The moment Maidong hung the rope on the Eagle spacecraft, a huge pulling force acted on the thin rope, and the elasticity and toughness of the rope were suddenly squeezed to the end. The two centimeter wide safety rope was stretched to only a few millimeters thick.

The lander slowed down under the pull of the rope. Since the rope was buckled on the handle of the escape hatch, the direction of the pull was not in the axial direction.

The Eagle spacecraft became unstable under the sudden pull and began to roll.

This is the last hurdle... As long as the safety cable can survive this hurdle and wait until the lander slows down to zero, it can bring the Eagle spacecraft back.

Time passed by minute by minute.

There was silence on the communications channel.

The old cat prayed in his heart, praying that this rope would not fail like the broken computer of the Eagle spacecraft, and that the Eagle spacecraft and Ophiopogon japonicus would come back safely.

The screen showed that the motor was working normally, but the motor could not sense the status of the safety rope. It might have retracted Ophiopogon japonicus and the Eagle spacecraft together, or it might have retracted a broken rope.

I do not know how long it has been.

A "rustling" sound came from the headphones, and the old cat woke up suddenly, realizing that he had just been in a daze.

Next came the faint voice of Ophiopogon japonicus.

"Cat...Mr. Cat?"

"Yes, I'm listening." The old cat's face became more and more solemn.

"I...we..." Maidong smiled. Her face was pale, but she was very happy. Tears welled up from her eyes. Maidong shook his head, and the crystal tears floated in the helmet, reflecting the bright sunshine.

"We caught it."