老周正琢磨着中午吃啥，维修台上的指示灯突然一阵闪烁，刺得他眼睛直辣。他皱着眉走过去，屏幕上跳出几个大字：“紧急维修请求，火星，‘先头堡’基地。”后面跟着一串问号和火星那片死寂的沙海。

“又出事了？”老周嘀咕着，把工具箱往旁边一踢。这鬼火星，刚给他修完水源系统，现在又扯上运输舰。他嘟囔了句“倒霉催的”，抓起扳手就往外走。

outside the hangar, the wind whistled around the metal buildings, kicking up dust devils. several technicians were already standing by the loading bay, staring intently at a large holographic map projected into the air. the map showed the red planet in all its desolate beauty, but the two dots representing the supply ships had vanished from the designated route near jupiter's orbit.

"look, they should have passed through here by now," one tech, liz, a gregarious woman with a sunburnt face, said, tapping the map.

老周挤进人群，一眼就瞅见两个缺了角的补给舰图标。他眯起眼睛：“这位置不对啊，按航线来，‘丰饶号’和‘希望号’应该在木星拉格朗日点附近。怎么，遇上木星风暴了？”

“不可能，”老马，基地的机械大师，正在给一台探测器调试信号，“木星外层风暴虽然厉害，但那两艘船都是最新款的改装型，抗风暴能力不输给咱们的勘探机。除非……”

老马没说完，但意思很明显。老周拍了拍他的肩膀：“去控制室看看短波通讯，也许有求救信号。