I live in the Martian wilderness!

[Sol 7, 14:00 PM]

Location: Utopia Plain

[Distance from Oasis One Shelter: 86 km]

Red dust billowed up behind the tracks, then quickly fell back into the thin atmosphere.

The Tissot engineering vehicle, like a lone land cruiser, is cruising at a speed of 25 kilometers per hour, crushing through this monotonous and appalling red sand sea.

This is already the second day of the return journey.

After leaving behind the jagged Achilles rocky terrain, the road conditions finally improved considerably. Gone were the razor-sharp rocks and hidden pitfalls; instead, there were endless, gently undulating sand dunes.

"Xuan, report on the status of the Zhu Rong."

Gu Yu stared at the barren horizon ahead, habitually checking on the safety of the "senior" behind him.

"Reporting, Captain, the Zhurong is in stable condition."

On the holographic screen, the monitoring footage of the cargo platform at the rear of the vehicle was displayed.

The Zhurong was firmly secured to the large aft deck of the Tianshuo by four sets of electromagnetic locks.

A thick, black energy umbilical cable extends from the back of the Sky Shuttle and connects to the side interface of the Zhu Rong.

"The active thermal control system is operating continuously, keeping the core cabin temperature of the Zhurong at 20°C and the joint and wheel hub temperatures at 15°C. It is unaffected by the outside temperature of -55°C."

"Very good." Gu Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

Along the way, it was as if he were transporting an egg that he dared not even dare to crack.

Because the current Zhurong is essentially a fragile creature that has been forcibly awakened and must be kept warm by constant power.

If a power outage or severe shock causes the thermal control to fail, the sudden drop in temperature may cause its fragile metal frame to fracture brittlely.

Just as Gu Yu was carefully controlling the car's speed, trying to go around a small sand dune—

"Beep—beep—beep—!!!"

A sudden, sharp electronic alarm blared out in the cockpit without warning!

Gu Yu was startled: "What happened? Is there something wrong with the Zhurong?"

"It's not a malfunction, Captain! An abnormal hardware movement has been detected on the Zhurong! Its phased array antenna is forcibly unlocking! It's... it's trying to seize control!"

"What?!"

Gu Yu suddenly turned around and looked at the monitor screen.

On the aft deck, the Zhurong, which should have been in a dormant and locked state, now looked like a sentinel that had been suddenly awakened.

The box-shaped phased array antenna on its back was spinning wildly without any command, and the servo motors were emitting a piercing howl!

"It's tracking a signal! Captain! Its passive listening module has been triggered!"

Xuanjian's voice suddenly rose: "High-intensity X-band carrier signal detected! Right above us! Extremely strong signal! It's Tianwen-1! It's sweeping over us!"

There was no announcement, no countdown.

The satellite tumbling in space was like a flashlight waving wildly in the dark; its beam shone on them without warning at that very moment!

Gu Yu reacted instantly and shouted, "The window of opportunity has arrived!"

Gu Yu suddenly pulled the control lever all the way, but dared not slam on the brakes, fearing that the inertia would throw the "ancestor" behind him to pieces.

"Xuan, help Zhu Rong bite it! Don't let it get away!"

Without Gu Yu giving the order, the moment the situation stabilized, the antenna of the Zhu Rong stopped its frantic search and pointed intently at a point on the southeastern horizon.

[Handshake request response...]

[Synchronizing frequency hopping sequence...]

[Carrier lock! Phase lock!]

【drop! 】

A crisp, heavenly notification sound announced the establishment of the connection.

"Connected..."

On the screen, the previously steady data stream suddenly started flooding the screen like a waterfall!

[High-priority downlink data packet received!]

[Source: China BJ Aerospace Flight Control Center (BACC)]

[Relay: Tianwen-1 Orbiter]

[Data Type: Mixed Encoding (Text/Telemetry Data/Task Instructions)]

Size: 45kB

"Xuan, decode the text information first! I want to see what they're saying!"

"Understood, decryption in progress... Core text extracted."

The cockpit lights were dimmed slightly, and lines of dark blue Chinese characters appeared on the HUD glass in front of Gu Yu.

There were no pleasantries, no sentimentality; the meeting began with a red top-secret seal and a signature that commanded his utmost respect.

[To: Captain Gu Yu (CN-Mars-001)]

[Sender: Zhang Jianguo, Chief Commander of Project Spark]

[Information: From Supreme Command]

Captain Gu Yu:

Seeing this message is like seeing you in person. Your photo has been released to the world, and that military salute upheld the backbone of our nation! We are proud of you!

Regarding the rescue: We will spare no expense to burn one of the Kuafu nuclear-powered spaceships as a disposable vehicle and utilize an extreme acceleration orbit.

Three heavy supply probes, totaling 75 kilograms of food supplies, are expected to be delivered to you in 33 days.

Please have faith in our determination! And please hold on!

—Zhang Jianguo

......

Looking at this message, Gu Yu's initially excited eyes gradually cooled down when he saw the words "Kuafu", "one-time use", and "33 days".

"Burn up a nuclear-powered spaceship... just to deliver 75 kilograms of food to me?"

Gu Yu's voice echoed inside the helmet, trembling with disbelief.

He knew all too well what the Kuafu-class spaceship meant; it was a deep-space weapon crafted by the nation with ten years of effort and the hard work of several generations, and the flagship prototype of the future interstellar fleet.

Even without considering research and development costs, the cost of manufacturing a single ship, including fuel and launch costs, is at least several tens of billions!

Now, to save just one person, this sword must be broken in the Martian atmosphere.

Gu Yu shook his head violently, his eyes becoming more resolute than ever before!

"No. Absolutely not! I'm a soldier, an astronaut, not a hostage for the country to pay billions to ransom!"

"Xuan, calculate it immediately. If the Kuafu spacecraft switches to the conventional high-speed round-trip route, that is, if it can fully enter orbit and have the ability to return, how long will it take to arrive?"

"Captain, if we preserve the return fuel and structural integrity, the spacecraft's cruising speed will be significantly reduced. The estimated arrival time will be extended from 33 days to approximately 160 days."

"160 days..." Gu Yu calculated silently in his mind.

He only had enough food for 66 days. If he starved himself to the extreme, he might be able to last 100 days. But 160 days... that's a full two months' gap before he dies.

"Xuan, help me think of a way." Gu Yu's voice was frighteningly calm. "I need to conjure up 60 days' worth of food out of thin air on this desolate planet."

"Any means, whether biological or chemical, even eating dirt, is acceptable as long as it allows me to survive."

"Searching the survival database... Based on your existing resource seed bank, water cycle system, and Tissot Energy, the following solutions are generated for you."

A few seconds later, a green icon popped up on the HUD.

Survival Plan B-72: Rapid Microalgae Growth Program

[Core Crop]: Spirulina platensis.

[Growth Cycle]: Extremely fast. The first harvest can be completed in 7 days, and production continues daily thereafter.

[Culture medium]: Urine extract is used as the nitrogen source, Martian atmosphere is used as the carbon source, and LED full-spectrum light strips simulate tropical sunlight.

[Estimated output]: 300 grams of dry powder per day from a 10 square meter reactor.

[Nutritional Value]: Spirulina powder has a protein content of up to 65%, which is about three times the fresh weight of lean beef. It also contains all eight essential amino acids and is rich in dozens of minerals and trace elements such as iron and magnesium.

[Evaluation]: This species tastes very much like rotten sea mud, with a strong fishy smell. Depending on whether you can accept the taste of houttuynia cordata, its fishy smell is about 5-10 times stronger than that of houttuynia cordata.

However, its cell wall is composed of easily digestible peptidoglycan, which has an extremely high digestibility and can ensure nutrient absorption to the maximum extent.

"Captain, this is currently the only energy source that can be mass-produced before you starve to death."

"Very good, Xuan. I remember that according to the 'Manned Deep Space Mission Safety Regulations,' it is mandatory to carry a 'highly active biological seed bank' as a final survival redundancy."

"Shall we take this seed?"