Red Demise

Chapter 1 Earth Exploded

Day 1

When Tang Yue opened the airlock door of Kunlun Station and stepped onto the Martian soil alone, he didn't even have a chance to smugly declare, "This is just a small step for me, but a giant leap for mankind."

His assistant told him.

Earth had exploded.

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Tang Yue's mood was shattered.

He later estimated that his mind went blank for what felt like several subjective hours, during which all the neurons in his brain ceased functioning. Electrical currents in the synapses stopped flowing, and every muscle, cell, tissue, and organ in his body turned to stone.

In other words, he probably experienced brain death for a moment.

Tang Yue dropped all his work and turned to check the computer systems in Kunlun Station.

A perfectly fine Earth.

Such a large Earth.

How could it just explode like that?

Tang Yue quickly figured out what had happened. The computer wasn't wrong; it had indeed lost all contact with Earth. The routine connection that occurred every half hour was suddenly interrupted, and no matter how the system called or waited, there was no response.

The computer decided to send an alert.

It instructed the assistant robot, Old Cat, to inform Tang Yue.

But the phrase "lost contact" turned into a terrifying "Tang Yue, your home planet exploded" in the mouth of a certain dumb robot.

Tang Yue really wanted to stomp this foolish assistant flat.

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"This is Kunlun Station, calling Jiuquan Center! This is Kunlun Station, calling Jiuquan Center! Can you hear me? Kunlun Station calling Jiuquan Center! Calling Jiuquan!"

No response.

"This is Kunlun Station, calling Xichang Center!"

No response.

"This is Kunlun Station, calling Baikonur!"

No response.

Calling Plesetsk!

Calling Houston!

Calling Kennedy!

Calling French Guiana!

Damn it, calling Kenya! Calling Pakistan! Calling Afghanistan!

Tang Yue was sweating profusely, filled with anxiety.

He had tried every possible means of communication.

But without exception, all had failed.

Being alone on an alien planet and losing contact with Earth is a lethal problem. Tang Yue didn't know how those early space pioneers solved this issue. Desperate, he had called everyone he could think of around the world.

If he couldn't establish contact soon, he'd be desperate enough to call upon Buddha or the Jade Emperor.

"You've been foolishly calling for six hours now. You never established a communication mechanism with French Guiana; what's the use of calling them?" his assistant robot, Old Cat, stood by his side. "Can't you see the huge words on the screen?"

The computer screen flashed the massive words "NO SIGNAL."

"How long is the communication delay between Mars and Earth right now?" Tang Yue asked.

"About fifteen minutes," Old Cat replied.

Tang Yue felt numb all over, and his airtight suit was stifling. The lining was already soaked with sweat.

Following emergency protocol, he meticulously checked every system of the workstation. Tang Yue even pulled out the "System Maintenance Manual," as thick as a dictionary, and went through it word by word to ensure he hadn't missed a step.

"The issue of not contacting Earth clearly has nothing to do with delay. The workstation's computer has self-checked ten thousand times, and there's no problem with the communication system. The problem must be on Earth's side," Old Cat explained. "It's probably a collective signal relay satellite outage."

"What issue could cause the satellites to go offline?" Tang Yue asked.

"Earth exploded."

"If you keep joking, I'll strangle you."

"Alright, I'll be serious. The probability of a collective relay satellite outage is very small because relay satellites are public resources. If the American ones go offline, there are still the Chinese ones; if the Chinese ones go offline, there are still the Russian ones; if the Russian ones go offline, there are still the Japanese ones; and if the Japanese ones go offline, there are still the European ones..." Old Cat rambled on, as it always did.

"So?" Tang Yue interrupted.

"So isn't it more reasonable to assume Earth exploded?"

Tang Yue lunged to strangle the assistant robot.

Unable to find where its neck was, he sprained his finger instead.

"Don't worry, if there's an issue on Earth's side, it's much easier to solve than if it were here. After losing contact for seven hours, the people at Jiuquan are probably more anxious than you are," Old Cat comforted him. "Maybe their greetings will come through any second now? Just wait patiently. If you don't want to just wait, then go finish your work."

Tang Yue was silent for a few minutes.

Losing contact with Earth was likely an issue on their side; fretting on Mars wouldn't help. He might as well finish his work with this time.

As the payload specialist for the final return trip of the Mars exploration mission, Tang Yue had the last scientific wrap-up task, so he had to stay longer, finish all the work, and then check and shut down Kunlun Station, preparing for the next batch of astronauts to arrive.

Organizing and inventorying supplies was simple work. Kunlun Station was the earliest scientific research station established on Mars, very small in scale, with a living area of only 100 square meters. It was okay for one person to live there, but cramped for six. As Captain Lao Wang put it, "Seven and a half billion people spent seventy-five billion dollars building a 75-square-meter house in a desert 75 million kilometers away; this is definitely the craziest real estate project in history."

The astronauts in his batch had already returned ahead. The work proceeded smoothly, and Tang Yue estimated he could complete his task soon, then return to the space station and take the last Orion spacecraft back to Earth.

The next batch of people coming to Mars would have to wait until the Falcon Heavy launch next June. They'd spend half a year on the journey.

So when someone next stepped through Kunlun Station's doors, at least two years would have passed.

Boxes big and small were already piled on the floor and in the corridor; these were the essentials Tang Yue had organized and stored, including food, medicine, and drinking water.

Everything was categorized and placed on shelves, with the inventory list attached to the boxes—enough supplies remained in the station to support a six-person team for over six months.

Of course, these items alone weren't enough. An unmanned cargo ship providing supplies for the next round of scientific research had already been launched, following a Hohmann transfer orbit, expected to arrive in a year.

The cargo ship was launched a year earlier than the manned spacecraft, loaded with enough supplies for a whole scientific team to survive for six months.

Tang Yue was inventorying the boxes on the floor. The supplies he planned to take were against the wall, as the journey back to Earth would also take months.

The sun was about to set, a small fireball hanging on the edge of the desert. It was another windless, dustless day. The sun on Mars looked slightly smaller than on Earth, and the sky had already darkened, resembling a piece of inky blue velvet.

Suddenly, Tang Yue froze, took a few steps forward, and slowly widened his eyes.

"Old Cat."

"Hmm?"

"Isn't Earth supposed to be in the western sky at this time?" Tang Yue asked.

"Yes, it's in the western sky right now, and it's very bright, the brightest star you can see, like Venus from Earth," Old Cat replied. "If the weather's good enough and your eyesight is good enough, you might even see the Moon."

"Then... then come and look."

Old Cat turned and clanked over, following Tang Yue's pointing direction. Its cat eyes suddenly contracted.

"Oh no, where's Earth?"

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August 11, 2052.

Beijing Time 15:22:13.

Coordinated Universal Time 07:22:13.

A high-speed particle stream with a diameter of 200,000 kilometers intersected the ecliptic plane at an angle of 5 degrees, 12 minutes, and 22 seconds, passing through the solar system at the speed of light. In 0.0009 seconds, the third terrestrial planet of the solar system was annihilated.