Reborn in 2011, I am the chief designer of aerospace.

His plan was subject to too many variables, so Song Xingye took out a piece of paper and began to list the problems one by one.

First, he wrote, we do not know if the "Corsair 3" is still available.

Secondly, only three crew members can be rescued.

The return capsule wasn't designed to carry five crew members. Song Xingye had calculated that, without carrying Martian rock and ice samples, the spacecraft could barely fit three people. But no matter how meticulously it was planned, it was impossible to fit five.

He pondered for a moment, then crossed out the second option with a sharp stroke. The others might not be forced to face this cruel reality yet, but Song Xingye knew perfectly well that if they stayed here, everyone would die. Saving three people was already a great victory, not a defeat.

He glanced up to make sure no one was watching, then used thick black lines to completely black out the words: "Pirate No. 3" was their only hope. Even if they could only rescue three people, he had to remain silent until they reached that landmark. That is, if they could actually get there.

Second, he rewrote it, Mariner Valley.

The vast Mariner Valley lies across their only route, like an insurmountable natural barrier. To reach the Northern Hemisphere, they must cross this insurmountable chasm.

The key to the success or failure of this expedition lies in the Mars rover, the six-wheel drive high-pressure rover. How can this "rock jumper" safely travel between vertical cliffs up to three kilometers high?

They must come up with a solution.

Third, he wrote, "Can we carry enough consumables?"

Oxygen can be supplied by the zirconium batteries in the spacesuit and the large zirconium electrolyzer built into the "Rock Jumper". As long as the power is continuous, carbon dioxide can be decomposed to produce the oxygen needed for breathing.

But what if something goes wrong along the way? Do they have enough spare parts? Do they have enough food?

Fourthly, he wrote, malfunction.

The "Rock Jumper" was bound to break down sooner or later; its designed trouble-free range was only a mere 1,000 kilometers. Once it broke down...

Fifth, he wrote, the voyage was insufficient.

This is the most fatal flaw: distance.

Song Xingye marked the route on the map, but the data didn't match up. Their journey was far from complete. He replanned the route, but even with the most optimistic assumptions, they still wouldn't reach the North Pole.

The range is too far; it's simply a fantasy.

He leaned back in his chair, rubbed his dry eyes, and fell into deep thought. The only other place on Mars that humans had ever set foot in was the Asidaria Plain.

That was the landing site of the Mars exploration mission in the last century.

Song Xingye took a deep breath and began painstakingly planning his route to Ashidaria.

……

This idea was utterly absurd, and Sheng Tianhong had always scoffed at such wild ideas. Did they really want to take a desperate gamble and travel to the Arctic to hope for the fate of the "Pirate No. 3"?

Song Xingye is a dangerous person. He is too young and acts on impulse without considering the consequences.

The safest course of action is to stay put and wait for further instructions.

But staying would certainly mean certain death.

However, if they were to go to the polar regions, they would also have a very high probability of dying.

This was an unsolvable deadlock. Sheng Tianhong hated dilemmas more than anything in his life. He always firmly believed that every problem has one and only one correct solution.

However, it seems that there is no correct answer to the problem at hand.

Sheng Tianhong still doubted whether Sasha's death was due to Song Xingye's mistake. He had to restrain Song Xingye, but this was by no means easy. Song Xingye was a genius, but he was extremely lacking in common sense.

Sheng Tianhong subconsciously placed his right hand on the back of his left hand. Whenever he felt hesitant or anxious, he would habitually do this. Touching the rough scar tissue brought him a kind of tactile psychological comfort: telling himself that no matter what kind of desperate situation he encountered, he could get through it.

The crew members were all waiting for him to make a decision, but he himself was at a loss. He knew that as a commander, his most fatal weakness was indecisiveness.

Rather than missing opportunities in the search for the perfect solution, it's better to make decisive decisions, even if they're wrong.

But this does not mean that we can act blindly.

"Go and look up the maps and orbital photos, and give me a briefing within two days." That's what he told Song Xingye at the time.

But now that the two-day deadline has passed, he is still just as clueless as he was two days ago about what to do next.

If we stay, we will only face death.

They had no choice; although the plan was desperate and foolish, it was their only chance of survival, and they had to get out of there.

When he convened a meeting of all the crew members, his face remained calm and composed.

"Engineer Song Xingye has already explained his plan to you," he began. "I won't lie to you and say that this journey will be easy. On the contrary, it is an extremely difficult trek, and even its feasibility is still unknown."

"You've already discussed it privately, and Song Xingye has made some modifications to the plan, but before we move forward, I'd like to hear your opinions first. I only need one word: Do we accept his plan? Yes or no."

"Song Xingye, we already know your stance. Han Jing?"

Han Jing nodded.

"Say it," Sheng Tianhong commanded.

"This is our only chance, yes."

"I take that as agreement. Mira?"

Her eyes dimmed: "Staying here is just waiting to die. I don't like this choice, but..."

"Your vote?"

"I choose to live, yes."

"Sergei?"

"I haven't heard of a better idea, what about you? Who cares, let's do it. Yeah."

Sheng Tianhong nodded.

The decision was made, and they all accepted it; he didn't even need to cast his vote himself.

Given the current dire situation, this is the best possible outcome.

"Then it's settled," he said. "Everyone, get ready. We'll set off at daybreak tomorrow."

……

"Hello Earth! Fellow 'stomping tribes' and 'bubble tribes', and all our fellow humans on this blue planet, hello! I am Sergei, bringing you an exclusive report from pink Mars."

"This audio was recorded on tape, but Commander Sheng Tianhong assured me he would transmit it back to Earth tonight via a low-gain antenna, so you should be able to hear it tomorrow. By the way, 'tomorrow' is according to our Martian time!"

"I'm sure everyone's been closely following our epic journey across the red desert. Even though Mars, that wretched place, keeps trying to kill us, we're still alive and kicking. Now, here's a report on the first day of this epic adventure: we'll be traversing approximately 240 kilometers of rugged terrain, and we're ready to go!"

"Well, I guess Commander Sheng Tianhong has already informed you that once the convoy sets off, we won't be able to receive Earth's broadcast signals, so I won't be doing an email Q&A session this time. Apparently, this is related to the high-gain antenna on the 'Xihe,' but I don't really understand the specifics. The Commander probably read you all those dry technical parameters, right? To be honest, I reckon I was sound asleep during those technical lectures about communication links and bandwidth. Anyway, the signal is down now, but please continue to leave your questions in the comments. Once Earth communications are restored, they will definitely pass the questions on to me."

"Well, so far this trip has been absolutely amazing. I bet once we're officially on the road, the Martian landscapes we'll see will surpass any previous human exploration. I mean, it's going to break some kind of record. Mars is ridiculously huge, with vast uncharted territories waiting to be explored, and they told me... wait, the next scenes are going to be even more breathtaking."

"So please continue to follow us, okay? Don't forget we're on faraway Mars."

"Sergei, your chief liaison on Mars, is now officially offline."

"See you on Earth!"

The tape recorder clicked, and Sergei's voice suddenly became rapid and panicked.

"Alright, recording complete. Earth? Mission Control? Is anyone listening? Don't broadcast this, listen carefully! The situation outside is terrible. Although I'm not 100% sure, we're definitely in deep trouble! We must send rescue ships immediately, understand? The commander is lying and saying it's impossible, saying there's no time. Don't listen to his nonsense, send rescue ships immediately! We desperately need rescue, and he actually said you can't do it! I can't believe it. If you don't take action now, we'll all die here. This will absolutely trigger an unprecedented public relations disaster. Just you wait, it'll be a disaster! So send reinforcements immediately!"

"Send someone to rescue us!"

"Help!"

Please...

Mira never confides in the other crew members, but nightmares haunt her relentlessly.

In the dead of night, she would always curl up alone in the darkness, fear tightening around her chest like a noose, making it hard to breathe, move, or even make a sound.

The purple afterimages left by the hail of bullets gradually faded before my eyes, and my nostrils were filled with the uncontrollable stench of urine caused by fear. All of this was far more real and tangible than the stench in the cabin, the snoring of my companions, and the hum of the ventilation fan.

She strained her ears in the darkness, her nerves taut, searching for sounds she prayed she would never hear again for the rest of her life.

She couldn't understand why she was still alive.

Yuri was the only one who could dispel her nightmares, but now he's dead. She can only cling to the memories of him, the only truth she's certain of now, and she fights back her tears.

They're all doomed.

……

The journey began before dawn.

Mira and Song Xingye took the lead, driving two off-road vehicles in a north-northeast direction to scout the terrain ahead.

The off-road vehicle was fully loaded with supplies, including spare zirconium oxide batteries, bubble tents, fuel cells, solar arrays, maintenance tools and spare parts. It was also equipped with a spare isotope thermoelectric generator, microfiber cables, winches, rock bolts, drinking water, and enough highly concentrated, almost tasteless "Purina rations" to last for fifty days, which astronauts jokingly call rations.

Although the bulk of supplies were transported by the "Rock Jumper" rover, the off-road vehicles had been pushed to their limits in order to deliver support equipment to as many places as possible in the north. Everyone knew that the success or failure of this mission depended entirely on whether they had prepared the supplies in advance.

Heading north, then slightly east.

The ground was flat and smooth, allowing even heavily overloaded small off-road vehicles to move freely. The dust kicked up by the wheels lingered in the still air, turning into a pale yellow mist.

They were traveling through a gentle valley, with continuous mountain ridges on both sides stretching forward like parallel lines.

The pre-dawn light shone with an orange-red hue. Song Xingye had originally planned to lead the way and let Mira bring up the rear, but she quickly lost patience with the slow speed and jerked the steering wheel to take the lead.

"Don't go too far," he instructed over the radio.

"Relax," she replied, "it's okay."

After traveling several kilometers along the predetermined route, Song Xingye parked the off-road vehicle on the top of a small sand dune and got out of the car.

He thought he would never turn back, but five minutes later he couldn't help but look back.

The "Xihe" stood alone beside the sand dunes, with deflated air bladders scattered around it. The ship tilted like a drunkard, teetering on the verge of capsizing.

Further away, the Darwin stood behind it, and from this distance, everything seemed perfectly fine.

The scene was filled with an indescribable desolation, and he knew he would never see them again.

He suddenly felt an urge to turn back, as if there was still a chance to salvage the situation, but reason told him that it was absolutely impossible.

Song Xingye got back into the off-road vehicle, started the engine, and when he looked back again, he had already driven ten kilometers, and the "Xihe" had long since disappeared below the horizon.

As far as the eye can see, there are only endless sand dunes, gently undulating and boundless.

Mira's car had disappeared from sight, but he could still determine her location by the dust floating in the air. He followed the clear tire tracks she left on the sand.

Her voice would occasionally ring out on the radio, alerting them to potential obstacles or quaint landmarks ahead, but most of the time, the two simply made their way in silence.

Scattered across the flat ground were meteorite craters. At first, he planned to take a detour, but soon discovered that Mira's tire tracks ran straight through them, so he decided to follow her route.

He drove his off-road vehicle up the edge of the pit, swayed and steadied the vehicle on the ridge, then plunged rapidly to the flat bottom of the pit like a roller coaster, before climbing up the slope on the other side again.

During the drive, he repeatedly considered his current situation in his mind, and gradually, he began to convince himself that the situation might not be as bad as he imagined.

When designing the return spacecraft, the people of Country A must have reserved a safety margin. Engineers are always used to planning for the worst-case scenario. If they could completely eliminate all unnecessary weight and squeeze the safety margin to the limit, the "Viking 3" might actually be able to carry five people back to Earth.

Whenever he had free time, he would recalculate those data. He secretly comforted himself, thinking that it was a wise move not to reveal the crisis of the return quota to others. After all, making the crew worry about who would survive would only backfire.

While it may seem unlucky to imagine such a possibility, no one can guarantee that no one will die unexpectedly on the journey. That would certainly be a tragedy, but if there are any casualties, "Pirate 3" would be more than capable of carrying four people back. In fact, the weight of four people might not even be a problem at all.

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