In fact, the Xiaguang arrived 79 hours earlier than Lu Zhou had estimated.

After 41 days and 2 hours of flight, the fiery red planet has risen over the porthole of the cockpit of the Glow.

Squinting his eyes and looking out of the porthole, watching the bright sunlight slowly rise from the edge of the fiery red outline, and watching the rolling and tumbling sand waves surging like a sea of fire, Liu Biao, who was sitting in the passenger seat, smashed his tongue.

"It's a mess...... But the scenery is still quite beautiful. ”

"Yes." Xu Zhenghong nodded, not talking much, stretched out his hand and pressed on the helmet, and reported calmly, "This is Xiaguang, we have entered the Martian gravitational system and successfully entered the orbit of A-11." ”

Waited quietly for about five minutes.

Accompanied by the noisy sound of electricity, the sound of unstable communication came from tens of millions of kilometers away from Earth.

"This is the ground command center, congratulations on your successful mission...... Now activate the active braking procedure and prepare to approach Mars. Orbit change navigation will be done by the on-board computer, good luck to you. ”

"Roger!"

With a distance of tens of millions of kilometers, it is obviously impossible to direct a spacecraft to change orbit through real-time communication.

The plan for changing the track has been written into the pre-programmed program, and the pilot will complete the track switch according to his own judgment with the assistance of the on-board computer.

Of course, as complicated as it sounds, it's not that cumbersome to do.

The degree of automation of the Glowing is still very high, and unless there are special circumstances, the pilot only needs to keep an eye on the speed and distance dials to make sure that the spacecraft is not off orbit.

Liu Biao: "Are we going straight down?" Or wait for them to come up? ”

Xu Zhenghong: "The new Virginia life support unit has a return capsule, and they return to the BFS spacecraft in Mars orbit through the return capsule, and we recover the target, and then change orbit and return home. ”

And throwing down the "detector".

Of course, this part is a top-secret mission, which was personally assigned to him by Lu Zhou, the chief designer of the Lunar Orbit Construction Committee. He can only rot in his stomach for this task, even if Liu Biao is his deputy, he can't reveal a little news......

Liu Biao: "OK...... What if they don't come back? ”

Xu Zhenghong pulled the corners of his mouth: "Then mourn for them for half a minute...... Remember to take photos for evidence, and don't let the Americans throw the pot on our heads. ”

"No problem, the body camera is activated!"

Liu Biao smiled and reached out to open the buttons on the console.

"What's the hurry, it's still early."

Xu Zhenghong scolded with a smile.

But at this moment, the expression on his face suddenly froze.

Looking at the silver-white dot outside the porthole, Xu Zhenghong's pupils contracted slightly, and he reached out and pressed it on his helmet.

"This is the Xiaguang...... The Americans' spaceship, it seems, is a little bit of a problem. ”

Another five minutes of waiting.

The voice of the ground command center was heard in the communication channel.

"What's the situation?"

Xu Zhenghong squinted his eyes and stared at the silver-white bright spot in the distance.

I don't know if it's his delusion, he always feels that something is wrong.

Sensing the direction of his gaze, Liu Biao cooperated to turn on the active ranging lidar and aimed at the airspace where the target aircraft was located.

Although this thing is used to measure the relative distance of meteorites, it can also be used as a spacecraft.

Looking at the distance parameters on the screen that are stretched in kilometers per second, Xu Zhenghong took a deep breath and said loudly.

"The BFS spacecraft is falling...... Repeat...... The BFS spaceship is falling! ”

……

It's been more than a month since the distress signal was issued.

Or 41 days and 2 hours to be exact.

The crops in the growing areas have completely withered, there is not enough light, there is not enough energy, these things are just a burden.

In order to save energy, as early as two weeks ago, they limited the range of activities to less than 10 square meters of experimental area, cutting off the power supply to other functional areas. The reason why we chose to wait here for rescue is because there is the only control terminal that can receive signals from BFS spacecraft, obtain weather information, and use this as a signal repeater to get in touch with the earth.

However, even then, the remaining energy is stretched.

In 42 hours at most, they will die from lack of oxygen......

At this time, a weak female voice with a hint of trembling broke the silence in the experimental cabin.

"Are they coming back to save us?" Glancing helplessly at the sand and dust outside the porthole, Jones's pupils filled with a bit of despair.

It is basically impossible to expect the sandstorms to stop.

At its current scale, the storm will last at least six months.

Johnson, who was sitting on the edge of the porthole and holding a photo tightly in his hand, replied subconsciously in a voice that did not have much strength.

"Definitely."

Although at this moment, there is no optimistic expression on the handsome face that is always optimistic.

"Not necessarily," snorted a dark-skinned Tyvi cowering in the other corner, "maybe they'll think it's better for us to die." ”

The blue eyes widened, and Jones looked over in disbelief: "Why?" ”

Tavi: "You think, if we die, we're heroes, and all it takes is a flag and a funeral to send us away." But if we're still alive, they'll have to spend a whole bunch of Franklin to build another rocket, bring us more supplies, or take us home...... Either way, it's a loss—"

"Enough!"

Johnson, who had a gloomy face, suddenly roared.

There was an eerie silence in the cabin for a moment.

He was stunned by the captain's momentum for two or three seconds, but soon Tai Wei frowned and stood up in an unkind tone.

"Hey, what's wrong with what I'm talking about?"

Also standing up from the floor, Johnson looked at him with a gloomy expression.

"I just want you to keep your mouth shut and consume two milliliters less oxygen, maybe we'll live a few more seconds."

"Heh, what's the point? It's all death anyway, oh, I see, you want to fight with me, do you? Come on, I've been unhappy with your stinky face for a long time. Tywi rubbed his fists together and took a boxing stance.

Seeing that the two were about to fight, Jones used all his strength to stand up from the ground and try to stop the two men.

"Enough! Calm down, y'all! ”

However, at this moment, outside the life support unit, there was a sudden muffled sound.

The two who were about to break out into conflict were suddenly stunned and looked out of the porthole.

Although the smoke was billowing out, the fire that cut through the dust was still clearly visible. At the same time, the green dot marking the spacecraft's communication signal on the control terminal not far away finally lit up after a series of intermittent flashes.

At the same time, the screen in standby state turned on, and a line of harsh characters flashed in the upper right corner-

【Lost Connection】

The moment he saw the words, Johnson swallowed, and a hint of horror gradually appeared on his face.

"Shet, our ship!"

Tevi muttered to himself as well.

“…… Oh, God. ”

The silence sank for a long time.

Until the flickering fire depleted the liquid oxygen in the engine, and was finally swallowed up by the tumbling dust, falling somewhere else......

Staring out the porthole at the dead dust, Jones asked in a trembling voice.

"Are we going to die?"

No one answered her.

The fuel for the BFS spacecraft was more than enough to float in orbit for twenty years, but at this time there was a "malfunction......

Raising his trembling index finger, Johnson reached out and drew a cross on his chest.

God forbid.

Although he also knew that this was Ares' territory, even if it was God's old man's house, there was nothing he could do......

However, at this moment, a voice like a heavenly sound sounded.

At first, he thought it was an electric sound, but he didn't care.

Until the cacophony of voices became clear......

Looking at the [connection request] that appeared on the screen and the green dot lit up on the terminal, as if grasping the last straw, Johnson rushed to the control terminal like crazy and pressed the button to connect to communication.

Whether it's God or aliens......

He only hoped it wasn't his hallucination.

As it turned out, it was really not an illusion.

When the communication was connected, a clear and smooth voice poured into his ears like a sweet spring......

“…… This is Colonel Xu Zhenghong of the Astronaut Brigade of the People's Liberation Army of China, friends on Mars, are you okay? ”