Chapter 42 - Sol Five, Lil’ Eagle’s Race

Tomcat stared at the computer screen. On it, the Eagle was a shapeless quantity. It followed the preset trajectory in its ascent as the two Raptor 3C rocket engines raised the Lander’s Ascent Vehicle to 3.5 km/s, placing it in a circular orbit around Mars. This speed was half of Earth’s first cosmic velocity; therefore, it was much easier launching a spacecraft on Mars than on Earth.

The surface wind speeds were maintained at around 30 m/s, allowing the Eagle and Kunlun Station to maintain a stable connection. Any higher and the wind speeds might be higher, but as the air was thinner at such heights, the conditions would only improve. The sandstorm’s influence on the lander would subsequently decrease.

Tomcat wore a heavy expression as it didn’t think it was too early to rejoice.

The Eagle had only made its first step into space. What followed were all kinds of obstacles that needed to be overcome.

Even if the launch was a success, they only had a 9.44% chance of a successful dock. This less than one in ten chance was Mai Dong’s chance of survival.

The tiny blip flashed every second as it moved across the screen. It represented the Eagle, and it contacted Kunlun Station every second. Kunlun Station would immediately send a response to confirm its progress. The lander remained in a vertical ascent.

The blip on the screen had a dotted line labeling its trajectory. It was a flight path that Tomcat had set ahead of time, and the dotted line was about to go from a vertical line to a curve. This meant that the Eagle wouldn’t take long before it changed attitude.

Be it on Earth or on Mars, spacecraft needed to be launched vertically. However, they would change direction shortly after launch—usually taking about sixty seconds. The goal was to allow the spacecraft to enter orbit as quickly as possible. Tomcat sat on a chair, spinning the pen in its paw.

The blip slowly moved, blinking every second. It looked like a turtle’s crawl.

But in reality, the Eagle’s speed had already reached Mach 3. The two powerful Raptor 3C engines could give the lander an acceleration of 17.5 m/s² before putting it into parking orbit two hundred seconds later.

All Tomcat could do for this phase was to watch from below while praying that nothing bad happened… Even God couldn’t save the chunk of metal weighing tens of tonnes if any mishap happened while it was moving thousands of meters every second. Tomcat only wished that the two engines were sufficiently obedient and that the Eagle’s computer didn’t go crazy.

As long as everything went according to the plan, there was still hope.

To Tomcat, a one in ten chance was enough.

At the bottom left corner of the screen was a timer that kept changing. Fifty seconds had passed since the lander’s launch. At that moment, the lander was more than twenty kilometers above their heads.

In another ten seconds, the Eagle would begin changing its pitch angle, going from vertical to diagonal.

Tomcat clasped the pen in its paw.

A speed of 18 m/s² wasn’t an untenable acceleration. It wasn’t even 2 Gs. Fighter jets lifted off from aircraft carriers with acceleration exceeding 3 Gs. This acceleration was child’s play compared to a spacecraft. However, Tomcat couldn’t help but be worried… After all, the spacecraft was just too important. Everything had to be perfect.

Tang Yue leaned against the window, but he couldn’t see the light from the lander’s engines. The Raptor 3C engines radiated blinding light at lift-off, but as the lander left the ground, the light from the engines was gradually screened by the pitch-black hurricane.

For some unknown reason, Tang Yue felt empty, as though he was bidding farewell to an old friend. Yet, he hadn’t even managed to see his old friend one last time… After the hurricane came to a stop if he went over to where the Eagle was, all he would be able to see would be the charred Descent Vehicle.

The only spacecraft he had on hand—one that had the ability to leave Mars—was gone. From that moment forth, Tang Yue was completely stranded on the planet.

Even though Tang Yue had never entertained the thought of leaving on the Eagle, the reality still left him horrified.

This was probably the feeling of having a bridge burned.

Tang Yue walked to Tomcat’s side and sat on a chair.

“Is the child alright?”

Tomcat slowly nodded. “At this moment in time, the little guy is having a pleasant journey… It has left the Martian atmosphere. The sandstorm can no longer affect it.”

Tomcat reached out its paw and tapped at the tiny green blip on the top-right side of the screen. It was blinking regularly.

“This is the Eagle reporting that all is well. It will automatically contact Kunlun Station every second, informing me of its speed, height, attitude, and other statuses. Then, Kunlun Station will provide any course corrections,” Tomcat said. “It’s now changing its attitude.”

Tang Yue’s gaze landed on the screen. The blip representing the Eagle was following the dotted line as it curved.

On another side of the screen, the pitch angle and angle of attack numbers were drastically changing.

“Very good… Very good… Keep it nice and slow. Steady, steady…” Tomcat muttered as its eyes were fixated on the screen. When it saw the Eagle’s axis gradually stack over the dotted line, it clapped its paws in excitement. “Nice!”

The Raptor 3C engines had completed a third of its lifespan. The lander’s speed had already been raised to 1,200 m/s. Tomcat didn’t know when it would lose connection with the Eagle, so it wished that the lander would stabilize as quickly as possible.

“Our delivery vehicle has succeeded in changing direction! What an obedient child!” Tomcat said. “Next up, it will head straight for parking orbit!”

The Eagle’s parking orbit was an elliptical orbit with a periapsis of 150 kilometers and apoapsis of 350 kilometers. It would first enter this orbit before seeking an opportunity to switch orbits to rendezvous with the space station.

The wind speed indicator suddenly produced a warning.

Tomcat and Tang Yue were alarmed.

The wind speeds had begun to rise again. It had risen to 35 m/s in seconds as the computer gave a prediction. A harrowing red line seemed to rapidly raise its head like a cobra. In ten minutes, it would once again break past the 40 m/s barrier.

From the looks of it, the interval in which the wind speed fell had only lasted minutes. The cyclone’s low-pressure zone had already passed and Kunlun Station had once again entered the hurricane’s wrecking zone.

“Darn it!” Tomcat glanced at the number on the wind speed indicator. It then glanced at the Eagle’s speed on the monitoring system. The two numbers were rapidly growing.

It didn’t expect the wind speeds to rise so quickly.

Tomcat stared at the wind speed indicator and the status of the Eagle. It was anxious, but it couldn’t do a thing. The weather was all-powerful, and the Eagle’s speed couldn’t be raised. If the wind speed continued developing according to the predicted trend, the Eagle’s signal would quickly suffer disruptions, cutting their connection. Tomcat had wished that this moment could be delayed as much as possible.

“Faster, kid… Faster…” Tomcat stared at the lander blip on the screen. “Go faster!”

Tang Yue gripped its shoulder tightly.

Tomcat and the Eagle were in a race against time. The wind speed indicator’s ferocious cobra was already chasing after them. Although the influence of the hurricane was on the surface by Kunlun Station, Tang Yue and Tomcat simultaneously urged the Eagle to go faster… It was as though the snake would devour it the moment it caught up.

The man and the cat jumped and screamed like mad people in Kunlun Station.

“Faster! Faster! Go faster!”

“Lil’ Eagle, run! Faster! Fast…”

Their screams suddenly came to a halt in the next second. A window had appeared on the screen. It was written in red harrowing words.

“WARNING: NO SIGNAL!”

The signal had been lost.