<h4>Chapter 59: Sol Five, Seventy-Meter-Long Surgical Knife</h4>


    Trantor: CKtalon Editor: CKtalon


    Mai Dong stumbled through the narrow passageway as she entered the Orion’s airlock. She then hurriedly donned the heavy EVA suit.


    “Quick! Quick! Quick! Quiiicck! Lady, be quicker! A little bit quicker!” Tomcat stared at the time on the screen as it controlled the arm to open.


    The Eagle was approaching the United Space Station, and time waited for no man. Mai Dong only had one chance, and if she missed it, they had no other means of grappling thender.


    Mai Dongtched the safety tether to her body. This was the longest nylon safety tether in the space station, with a length of 500 meters that could withstand fifteen tonnes of tension. She then twisted open the airlock’s outer hatch as she shouted, panting, “Mr. Cat! Mr. Cat... I’m out!”


    “OK!”


    The arm was already waiting for her outside the airlock. Mai Dong gently nudged the airlock’s wall as she clumsily floated out. Her feet touched the end of the robotic arm’s repair tform as she locked herself in.


    “Stand tight,dy!” Tomcat said in the tone of an excavator who graduated from Lanxiang 1 “I’m going to send you over!”


    The arm began moving and its folds began to open segment at a time. It carried Mai Dong to a spot where the Eagle was predicted to pass. Together with the United Space Station, it adjusted its attitude as it slowly tumbled. From afar, it did look like the space station had extended a strange, long arm to intercept the passing Eagle.


    Although the im was that they were going to grapple the Eagle, the arm wasn’t a crab’s w. It wasn’t able to directly catch thender that was hurtling past at high speeds. On the contrary, as the arm was, in fact, a rather weak structure, there was no way it could withstand the force from the impact. Therefore, not only was it unable to stop the Eagle, it had to maintain a distance. It couldn’t make any physical contact with thender to prevent any idents.


    Therefore, the one who was truly burdened with the grappling mission was Mai Dong.


    She carried with her a handheldser range finder and by her chest was a nylon safety tether.


    Mai Dong stood on the arm and through her transparent visor, she could see the brownish-red Martian surface beneath her feet. The water vapor from her breathing condensed on the ss as her eyes reflected a resplendent light.


    This wasn’t her first time doing a spacewalk. When Commander Old Wang went out into space to do maintenance, Mai Dong had requested to be taken along. She was often excited and nervous when floating in space. She had always said that living in space for her entire life would be a wonderful thing.


    Old Wang was left rather exasperated about that. He was a man with a wife and children. How could he spend his entire life in space?


    People who lived their lives in space also had another great title... Martyrs .


    “Miss Mai Dong!” Tomcat’s voice sounded in the earpiece. “Repeat the gist of the procedure again!”


    “Alright... The procedure’s gist... 5 seconds!”


    “Yes, 5 seconds!” Tomcat nodded.


    Five seconds was the amount of time Tomcat had won for Mai Dong. The arm’s maximum length was 70 meters, and thender’s trajectory when flying past the space station had a straight-line distance of 60 meters.


    Based on a simple calction, with 70 meters as the radius of a circle, a 60-meter-long line segment from the center of the circle made it possible to make contact with the Eagle. This line segment’s length was 60 meters, and thender’s rtive speed was 6 m/s. Therefore, the Eagle would pass by the arm’s grappling range for about 10 seconds.


    However, the arm wasn’t a straight line, and its speed whilst moving would be unable to keep up with the flying Eagle. Therefore, Mai Dong only had 5 seconds to make contact with thender.


    In these 5 seconds, Tomcat would remotely control the arm to move in the same direction as the Eagle, doing its best to reduce the rtive speed between the two, to create the conditions needed for Mai Dong’s operations.


    Mai Dong had to grapple the Eagle in 5 seconds.


    “Safety tether!”


    “Yes, safety tether.” Tomcat nodded. Mai Dong needed to buckle the safety tether to the Eagle. The safety tether with high tensile strength could withstand more than ten tonnes of tension, so it had the ability to make the Eagle stop.


    However, thender’s surface was smooth, so there were few ces where the safety tether couldtch on to it. Themand module’s emergency escape hatch had a handle, and there were two such hatches on both sides of the spacecraft. As long as Mai Dongtched the safety tether to any one of the handles, they would be able to stop the Eagle. The high-tensile safety tether was 500 meters long, so once the connection was confirmed, Tomcat would gradually pull in the rope, giving the Eagle 500 meters to decelerate until it reached zero speed.


    “Listen up, Miss Mai Dong. I’ll be under yourmand,” Tomcat said. “Theser range finder is with you, right?”


    “Yes.” The girl pulled out theser range finder from the tool bag in front of her chest. The handheldser range finder was shaped like a digital video camera. It was small in size, but extremely urate. In previous rendezvous missions, astronauts would often use this gizmo to aid them with the docking.


    Mai Dong could already see the Eagle from afar. It was a tiny point that reflected white light, appearing very striking in the pitch-ck background.


    She raised theser range finder.


    “A distance of 1202.44 meters... Mr. Cat, move left 0.52 meters.”


    “Roger that.”


    Tomcat controlled the arm and slowly moved it.


    “There’s another 6.2° difference... Mr. Cat.”


    “Roger that.”


    The Eagle could no longer be controlled, so Tomcat and Mai Dong could only adjust their own attitude to align with thender’s state. Without a doubt, it was highly risky doing so. Mai Dong had to approach the Eagle from inches away. She wasn’t able to grapple onto it if it was too far, but being too close made a collision possible.


    This was akin to Mai Dong holding a rope by the roadside with a huge eight-wheeler, weighing more than ten tonnes, zooming by. She had totch the rope onto the vehicle’s side mirror at the instant it passed by. If there was any problem with her positioning, the rope would either nottch on, or she wouldtch on together with the rope.


    This was a precise operation that resembled surgery. Tomcat, who was 300 kilometers away had to remotely control a 70-meter-long robotic arm doing precise adjustments of just centimeters. But no surgeon in this world could use a 70-meter-long scalpel for surgery.


    “Distance of 1031.74 meters. Mr. Cat, move right 0.30 meters.” The girl’s voice was light as she noticed that the Eagle was gradually bing bigger. Now, she could see the paint and logos on thender.


    “Roger that!”


    “Adjust the elevation angle by 3°.”


    “Roger that.”


    Tomcat’s response was sinct and forceful.


    “Lock up.” Mai Dong put away theser range finder and stuffed it into the tool bag by her chest.


    “Locked up!” Tomcat pressed a button as the arm’s internal motors and bearings locked up!


    Mai Dong held the nylon safety tether in her hand as she took a deep breath.


    “Miss Mai Dong! Miss Mai Dong! I notice that your EVA suit’s pressure is dropping!” Tomcat warned.


    “Yes.” The girl nodded. “I’m lowering the pressure; otherwise, I’ll be too bulky and won’t be able to bend my limbs. It would affect my mobility.”


    Mai Dong stood alone in deep space as she looked at the distantnder. She suddenly calmed down as the Eagle approached silently. The painted eagle on its body wasrge and striking.