The Worst Plan

48 hours had passed since the collapse of The Gates of Hell. The sandstorm caused by the earthquake was still raging in the desert outside the base.

The dark sky affected not only the lighting in the planting areas but also the morale of all the astronauts in the entire Mars scientific research base. Over these two days, the atmosphere in the base station was quite depressing. No one had a smile on their face, not even the polite ones.

Lomonov seemed to have not yet recovered from the terrifying disaster. He shut himself in the room for days. Professor Aubrey had gotten closer to Schultz as the two discussed some questions about topology, functional analysis, and superstring theory.

As for Professor Vernal…

He was probably the most emotionally stable among all the people who had returned from The Gates of Hell.