The group of people from Starlight moved to the Moon Palace and stayed for 24 hours.
After the replenishment loading, they would take the Magpie Bridge, which had a stronger acceleration capability and was more suitable for carrying a large number of passengers and supplies, to Mars. They would land on the surface of Mars through Xu Fu, which floated on Mars orbit as a temporary space station.
Fifteen days had passed since the departure from the Moon Palace.
Since Mars and Earth were moving away from each other, it would take two to three days longer for them to go to Mars than the first colonists.
However, even then, their current location was getting quite close to Mars.
If the angle was correct, someone could even see the bright red spot hidden in the vast sea of stars through the windows…
“Two pairs, I win.”
After throwing out the two cards on the poker table, Lu Zhou leaned back on the chair happily. Across from him was Joel Aubrey, a professor of astrophysics from Stanford University, as well as Kubo Lomonov, an aerospace engineer from Moscow State University.
The two people stared at their cards with sad faces.
Wang Peng, who served as Lu Zhou’s bodyguard, as well as Professor Schultz and Vernal, were standing behind the three of them, watching the game with interest.
Professor Aubrey and Professor Lomonov looked at each other and gave up.
“Sorry, guys…”
Lu Zhou smiled and reached out for the chips.
“Looks like I win.”
A half-month-long journey was quite boring.
They could only use poker, chess, and board games to kill time. In the beginning, the nine people (including the two main and co-pilots) spent their time playing chess. Lu Zhou was bored and used algebraic geometry to model the chessboard. He found a solution that made him win almost 100% of the time. After that, no one was interested in playing chess anymore.
In contrast, poker, which had a greater element of luck, gave them a bigger chance at beating Lu Zhou.
However, this was only if all of them were playing game theory optimally.
In reality, apart from Schultz’s occasional wins against Lu Zhou, the archaeologist Vernal, who was standing behind Lu Zhou watching and studying, lost buy-in after buy-in.
“Damn… I shouldn’t have gotten it in with you.”
Joel Aubrey threw the cards in his hand on the table while cursing. He unwillingly tore off a piece of paper and carefully glued it to his forehead.
In fact, this was the punishment for losing in poker. The most annoying was not that it blocked their line of sight, but in a gravity-free environment, if the strip of paper accidentally fell and flew away, the person would have to chase after the piece of paper.
Joel Aubrey already did this once, he didn’t want to do it again.
After Vernal patted Aubrey on the shoulder, he comforted, “Just give up, my friend, why play a probability game against a mathematician?”
Aubrey said unwillingly, “I know… I just want to win.”
Professor Vernal spoke with a smile.
“I see people like you all the time in Las Vegas. It’s best to stay away from the casino.
“I go there once a year… and, occasionally, I can win some money.”
Lu Zhou shook his head and put away the poker set on the table.
“There is no space to stick more paper on your face. Unless you want to stuff it in your nostrils, let’s stop for now.”
Lomonov, who was rather taciturn, breathed a sigh of relief. He pulled the chair away and stood up, but Aubrey spoke with dissatisfaction.
“Hey, how long do I need to keep these on my face?”
“Ten hours.”
Aubrey suddenly frowned.
“Can’t you be more lenient?”
Lu Zhou smiled slightly and said, “Of course I can, but only if you give up the opportunity to go underground and stay in the base station on the day of the expedition.”
“Sorry, bro, there’s no way I’ll agree to that.” Aubrey pushed his chair away and stood up. He said, “These papers don’t scare me!”
Lu Zhou looked at Professor Aubrey and shrugged.
“I was just kidding.
“But remember, you lost fair and square, so you have to live up to your punishment.”
In fact, Lu Zhou wasn’t kidding at all.
Makes sense, of course he wouldn’t agree.
I guess I’ll just have to find a way to get rid of those people underground.
Lu Zhou touched the wrist-mounted computer on his right arm and began to think.
…
The eighteenth day of departure from the Moon Palace.
The fiery red planet finally appeared in front of everyone.
“We’re here!”
“Wooo!”
Excited sounds of cheers resounded throughout the cabin. They stood next to the porthole looking at the fiery red giant. Even though the planet had been observed through satellites and telescopes countless times, when they were finally in orbit and captured by the gravity of Mars, a wave of excitement was ignited in their hearts.
It was like discovering a new land.
“… Call the ground command center. This is ‘Humming Bird’. We have been successfully captured by the Mars gravitational system and we are switching to Mars geosynchronous orbit…
“The orbit has been switched, lowering altitude…
“This is ‘Humming Bird’, calling headquarters, we have reached the edge of the Mars atmosphere! The distance from Xu Fu is 1.27 km, we are currently approaching!”
The metal alloy door of the cockpit opened. The co-pilot wearing a spacesuit in the cabin walked in front of Lu Zhou and gave them a military salute.
“We have arrived at the station. You will follow me on Xu Fu. I will tell you what to do.”
“Wait a minute, why do we go on Xu Fu?” Vernal raised his hand and asked nervously, “Also, how do we get off?”
After hearing this idiotic question, Lu Zhou smiled and spoke.
“Do you really need to ask? Of course we bungee jump down.”
Vernal’s face turned green. Schultz and Aubrey’s faces were also a little pale. Only Lomonov, who was an aerospace engineer himself, smirked at Lu Zhou’s joke.
Bungee jump?
Think about it, does that sound realistic?
After twelve minutes of careful merging, the Magpie Bridge model codenamed “Humming Bird” finally connected a silver-white corridor between it and Xu Fu and completed docking.
Although Vernal had the thought of retreating at the last moment, he decided to clench his jaw and bravely followed the group of people through the silver-white corridor.
Inside the spacious compartment, the pilot stopped and looked back at the group of people who were about to head to the ground.
“Okay, friends, we have arrived… Under your feet is the outpost of the new world, where the dream of the relic begins. You will land in the landing pod with living supplies and new functional modules, and someone will pick you up there.
“You should have learned how to use the landing pod when you received training. It’s time for me to go now.
“So now, first connect the interface on the spacesuit in your cabin with the life support system of the landing module, then check whether each button and each seat belt is connected. Think about whether you want me to bring any words back to Earth.
“If everything is ok, then raise your hand and let me know.”
The pilot nodded with satisfaction as he looked at the raised hands.
“Good.
“Let’s go!”
