Early the next morning, Tang Yue rolled to his feet. The first thing he said to Tomcat was, "Is the Earth back?"
Tomcat shook its head.
"What about Orion I?"
Tomcat shook its head in response.
"There's nothing?"
Tomcat nodded.
After Tang Yue had fallen asleep, Tomcat had entered a hibernation state and also charged itself. There was a tiny charging dock in the Hab, and Tomcat was a robot that could dock itself for recharging. Twelves hours of charging was enough to run it for an entire day.
In its hibernation state, Tomcat still maintained a portion of its operations. It made follow-up observations in the direction of Earth, but the Earth had failed to appear.
"What about communications?"
Tomcat shook its head again.
