The previous generation of Mars bases did not have the concept of access control. Simply put, none of the devices at "Peace Station" had keys, so thieves could come and play with them at will.
But where would a thief come from on Mars?
As a base jointly designed and built by Milo, setting any key would be inappropriate. Although it was a honeymoon period for Milo, many things remained unclear between the two sides, and both were wary of each other. Therefore, the "Peace Station" simply set no restrictions, which laid a good foundation for the later participation of small and medium-sized countries.
After closing the hatch, Zhang Fan turned on the arm monitor to check the air quality inside the cabin.
Test results showed that, apart from a slightly higher level of inhalable particulate matter (PM2.5), the air quality here was not fundamentally different from that at the "Bird's Nest" base.
The only surprising thing was that nuclear radiation was also detected here, but fortunately the radiation levels were within the safe range.
However, the fact that there are no natural substances on Mars that could release nuclear radiation is very concerning, which means that the nuclear radiation was generated by humans.
In other words, something that "can release nuclear radiation" was once brought here.
Zhang Fan took off his spacesuit helmet and took a deep breath. Apart from a faint smell of dust, it was not much different from the "Bird's Nest" base.
"Is anyone there? Zhang Fan, an unofficial astronaut on the 203rd Mars mission, requests to speak! Repeat! Zhang Fan, an unofficial astronaut on the 203rd Mars mission, requests to speak!"
Zhang Fan shouted a few times and then switched the communicator in his helmet to the public channel to make repeated calls, but received no response.
Zhang Fan ran his finger along the hatch, and his spacesuit fingertip immediately became covered in a layer of dust, indicating that it hadn't been used for a long time.
But this still seemed strange. Based on his experience at the "Bird's Nest," Zhang Fan knew that if the air purification system wasn't turned on for a year, the dust would be about this thick. Ten years of neglect shouldn't have resulted in this much dust.
In any case, let's go to the main control room of the "Peace Station" base first; there, all the mysteries can be solved.
For safety's sake, Zhang Fan put his helmet back on. After all, he wasn't sure if the other compartments were filled with carbon monoxide and toxic gases as reported in the news. It was safer to wear a spacesuit for the first exploration.
Before Zhang Fan arrived, he had downloaded the information about "Peace Station" from "Phoenix," so finding the way to the main control room was not difficult.
Zhang Fan kept the detector on the whole way, and the detector showed green lights all the way, indicating that it was safe.
A base that has been abandoned for 10 years should not be functioning so well; it looks more like a Martian base that was once regularly maintained.
Moreover, as he traveled along, Zhang Fan became increasingly puzzled. He had not seen any signs of fire in any of the cabins, not even a blackened area.
The main control room of "Peace Station" is located in the center of the base. The first floor of the building is the machine room. Due to the limited technology at the time, the equipment that maintains the operation of the base is relatively large, so it is built as a single-story machine room. Many pipes extend from the machine room to the surrounding compartments.
Looking from the main control room on the second floor, the entire base looks like a crouching octopus, or perhaps more like a modern petrochemical plant.
The main control room was brightly lit, but empty.
Zhang Fan flipped the switch, and the protective panel in front of the glass curtain wall slowly retracted upwards, allowing more light to shine out.
This must be the light that Yui saw in space.
Zhang Fan turned on the computer at "Peace Station" and searched the base's log records.
The log files are numbered by date, making them easy to search.
However, to Zhang Fan's surprise, the log records could only be traced back to six months ago, which was one week before the "New Era". All the records before that had been completely deleted by human intervention and could not be recovered.
Zhang Fan pulled up the earliest log records and browsed through them one by one, but found nothing; there wasn't a single record of the astronauts' activities.
In other words, in the six months from one week before Earth was hit by the asteroid to now, Zhang Fan is the first human to appear at the "Peace Station" Mars base.
Zhang Fan was both disappointed and surprised to find no trace of human activity at the "Peace Station" base.
All indications suggest that the Peace Station base was still active at least six months ago, rather than being abandoned 10 years ago as some believe.
There must be a secret hidden here.
First of all, the sources of the news about the serious accident at the so-called "Peace Station" Mars base were the two countries of Milos and Romania, and it was also the first countries to report on it. The photos and videos of the accident scene also came from these two countries.
In retrospect, the veracity of this news story is highly questionable.
Considering the nuclear radiation found near the base, Zhang Fan had a bold guess in his mind:
The accident at "Peace Station" did not occur; it was merely a cover for secret nuclear tests conducted by the two countries of Milwaukee and Romania at "Peace Station."
This is not unfounded.
Although both Milo and the United States are signatories to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Tests in Outer Space, the so-called prohibitive treaties signed between major powers have always been those that prohibit others but not themselves.
For example, countries that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty are nuclear powers, signatories to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty possess the largest number of ballistic missiles, and countries that claim to ban the use of biological and chemical weapons possess the world's largest biological and chemical laboratories and biological and chemical weapons arsenals.
This is nothing more than a word game between major powers.
Zhang Fan attempted to contact Yui on the Soyuz space station via the "Peace Station," but the system displayed a communication failure.
Zhang Fan looked outside through the glass curtain wall. The base's signal tower was lying on the ground, and he wondered if it had been blown down by a Martian storm.
Zhang Fan, wearing a spacesuit, went to the signal tower to see if it could be repaired. Upon closer inspection, he discovered the tower was broken in two, with clean, straight cuts, indicating it had been deliberately cut.
The upper half of the signal tower fell right onto the only Mars rover at the "Mercy Station" base.
Someone did it on purpose.
Some people don't want "Peace Station" to contact the outside world.
What exactly happened at this base six months ago?
Zhang Fan felt overwhelmed and decided to ignore everything else for now. He was both hungry and thirsty, having not eaten anything for two days and only drinking a few sips of emergency drinking water.
Zhang Fan returned to the "Peace Station" base to see if there was anything to eat.
The dining hall and food storage compartments at "Peace Station" were inspected and found to be empty. The production compartment's usage records also stopped six months ago, and it was completely empty.
The only good news is that the base's water tanks are still full.
Is love enough to sustain you even with just water?
Zhang Fan was somewhat disappointed; he couldn't survive on just water.
I wonder how Yui is doing on the Soyuz space station? She only had a week's worth of food left before she set off, and she should have finished it by now under normal circumstances.
However, if Yui reduces her food intake and drinks more hot water every day, she should be able to last longer.
Unable to contact Yui, and with no food at "Peace Station," Zhang Fan looked up at the sky and plopped down on the ground.
I'm still a virgin, I can't die!
Think carefully, what else can we eat?
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