A beam of light shone from within a cavern several kilometers underground.
Dragging a hibernation pod with a rope, a figure trudged forward step by heavy step.
This hibernation pod, originally installed aboard the spacecraft, had an escape function and an independent power module, requiring no external electricity. That was at least one small blessing amid the misfortune. Although General Reinhardt had not stocked any food or supplies aboard the ship, he had at least not dismantled the equipment that originally belonged to it.
Otherwise, there would truly have been no way out.
"This should be far enough... Let's stop here."
Muttering to himself, Lu Zhou removed the locator from his spacesuit and attached it beneath the hibernation pod.
A person could survive only thirty seconds in a vacuum.
From the tenth second onward, the skin and subcutaneous tissue would undergo mild, reversible, painless swelling, and by the fifteenth second, consciousness would be lost. Considering that Mars was not a vacuum in the absolute sense and that a certain concentration of carbon dioxide remained underground, he should have been able to endure somewhat longer.
Still, to be safe, it was best to complete every step within ten seconds...
To make it easier to enter the required state quickly, Lu Zhou injected himself with a reserve dose of X-0172 bacterial culture fluid before taking off his spacesuit.
Every astronaut was equipped with one of these. Under extreme conditions, it could induce a state of suspended animation, reducing oxygen and energy consumption to buy time for rescue.
Quietly waiting for the medicine to take effect, Lu Zhou grinned, supported himself against the opened hibernation pod, and sat down beside it.
"Actually, there's something I've always wanted to ask you."
"Go ahead."
"Then I'll ask directly. What exactly are you now?"
The communications