The old cat successfully reached Kunlun Station, it groped along the wall, found the hatch of the airlock chamber, opened the hatch, and the two of them got into it one after the other, and then collapsed on the floor of the airlock chamber gasping for breath.

The distance from the Eagle spacecraft to Kunlun Station was only about 100 meters, but the short distance of 100 meters was as difficult as a death march.

The old cat got up and turned on the decontamination system and began to blow the mud and sand off the two of them.

Coming back from the sandstorm, even the old cat has turned into a mud cat.

"When?" Tang Yue asked breathlessly.

"Six and twelve in the afternoon." The old cat replied, dragging Tang Yue, who had collapsed to the ground, through the airlock chamber and opening the hatch of the main station hall.

The Kunlun station is warm and bright, the solid bulkhead isolates Tang Yue's old cat from the wind and sandstorm in the outside world, like the only small pure land in hell, Tang Yue is really frightened, he and the old cat are considered to have come back in a circle in the ghost gate, he underestimated the severity of the weather on Mars, Tang Yue has never seen such a storm that swallows the sky and the earth, it is as if the sky has collapsed, and the whole world has been completely engulfed, and it is pitch black.

Tang Yue sat up against the wall and pushed the outer layer of filter mask up, and the entire Kunlun station trembled in the storm.

"Kunlun Station will be fine, right?"

"No, it won't." The old cat wiped his face and shook his beard, "Don't worry about Kunlun Station, no matter how much the wind speed is doubled, it can't shake Kunlun Station." ”

The remaining five supply boxes were still piled on the floor of the hall, these things together weighed almost more than three hundred kilograms, it took Tang Yue a whole day to move ten boxes of supplies, and before the remaining five boxes could be moved, his movement was interrupted by a sandstorm.

Tang Yue rested for a few minutes, stepped forward and tried to hold the box, "I can't waste any more time, I have to continue to transport the supplies over......"

"Don't you want to die?" The old cat stopped him, "There is such a big sandstorm outside, if something happens to the Mingguang armor on your body, you won't survive for three minutes at all—and you can't save it." ”

"What about these supplies?"

The old cat pushed Tang Yue back, "Listen to Tang Yue, if you don't want to die, you can stay here for me!" ”

Tang Yue was stunned.

The old cat's forehead was close to his mask, and a person and a cat looked straight at each other through a layer of plexiglass, and the pair of blazing cat eyes made Tang Yue's heart sink.

"If you go out, it will definitely be a dead end, and no one can survive a sandstorm with winds of more than forty meters per second." The old cat's voice came out of the earphones, and it spoke quickly, with a determination that could not be refuted, "I will carry these boxes, I am a robot, the sandstorm has no effect on me, I can successfully come back." ”

"Then let's go together."

"No, you're a burden." The old cat shook his head, "I can't be distracted to take care of you." ”

Tang Yue opened his mouth, he wanted to say something, but he couldn't say anything, what the old cat said was good, they could successfully return to Kunlun Station and save their lives, and it would be absolutely crazy to run out in such bad weather.

In the past ten years of the Mars landing plan, the Martian sandstorm has always been the biggest obstacle faced by the expedition team, once encountering the sandstorm, the team members must immediately abandon all tasks and return to the space station for refuge.

A sandstorm can nullify a costly Mars landing mission, but it's also a helpless thing, no matter how big the mission is, the astronauts' lives.

"Do you understand?" The old cat asked.

Tang Yue nodded silently.

The old cat fished out a bundle of cables from the cabinet, slung it over his shoulder, and opened the hatch in the main station hall leading to the airlock room.

Tang Yue wore Mingguang armor and helped it carry the box to the airlock room.

The two closed the inner hatch of the airlock chamber, and the old cat tied one end of the rope around his waist and stuffed the other end of the rope into Tang Yue's hand.

The old cat covered his paws on Tang Yue's hand, "Once something happens, I will notify you immediately, remember to pull the rope when the time comes, and when I don't notice, stay here in place." ”

Tang Yue nodded, he wrapped the rope around his waist, tied a knot firmly, and then grabbed the rope tightly with both hands.

This safety rope is the umbilical cord connecting the old cat to Kunlun Station, and it is the lifeline of the old cat, although the old cat claims that the sandstorm poses no threat to the robot, but think about it and know that this is the old cat's statement in order to comfort Tang Yue, even if the robot does not need a bulky extravehicular suit, nor does it need a life support system, but no one knows what will happen in the storm, and nothing can ensure survival in this situation.

If this rope is broken, then the old cat may never come back.

The old cat leaned his forehead against Tang Yue's mask, patted him on the shoulder, and smiled.

“Good Luck.”

Tang Yue was stunned.

The old cat dragged the box with one hand, opened the outdoor hatch of the airlock behind him, and the air pressure in the cabin almost dropped to zero within a second, and then the air flow rushed in with sand and dust, Tang Yue took a step back, he was almost unstable, Tang Yue stabilized his body, raised his head, and the old cat had disappeared into the darkness outside the cabin door.

"Old cat? Old cat, can you hear me? ”

Tang Yue anxiously contacted the old cat.

"Listen...... Can't hear ......"

The headphones were full of noisy electrical noise, and the old cat's voice was intermittent.

"Old cat? Old cat! Old cat, can you hear me? Tang Yue yelled, "Old cat! Hear it, please answer! Do I need to pull the rope? ”

"No...... Don't pull the rope ......"

The old cat's voice disappeared into a loud noise, and contact was cut off, and there was no response.

The sand and dust in the Martian storm will carry a large amount of static electricity due to friction against each other, which will cause serious interference to the radio contact, so the Kunlun station will lose contact with the joint space station.

Tang Yue stood in the airlock room in a daze, surrounded by the sound of howling wind, and the airlock room hunted in the storm.

He held the safety rope tightly in his hand, and the other end of the safety rope extended forward into the dark sandstorm, trembling and shaking in the wind, although there was still tension on the cable, Tang Yue didn't know if the end of the rope was still buckled on the old cat's body.

Tang Yue and the old cat have lost almost all contact, although they may only be separated by a few tens of meters, under normal circumstances it is only a few steps of trot, but at this moment it may be the distance between life and death, this fragile rope is the only connection between the two, the only proof that the old cat is still alive.

For a moment, Tang Yue's heart swelled with unprecedented horror, he felt that he might have lost this chatty fool assistant, in this dark night when the wind swept the world, Tang Yue felt that he had become the only human living in this crazy universe.