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

With almost no shadows around and extremely low visual contrast, when Mira finally saw the edge in front of her, she thought it was just a crevice that was steeper than usual, but it was actually a cliff nearly five meters high.

In an instant, the ground beneath the front wheels vanished, leaving nothing in front of her. She slammed on the brakes, but the hard rock surface offered no traction, and the SUV just spun around in the swirling sand.

Before she could steady the vehicle, it plunged off the edge of the cliff, and a strong feeling of weightlessness washed over her instantly.

She kicked open the car door and leaped out of the crashed SUV. The heavy machine tumbled violently as soon as it touched the ground. She thought to herself that she would rather crash and die than go down with the tons of scrap metal.

In the low gravity environment of Mars, everything happened more slowly than expected. She even had enough time to watch the left side of the off-road vehicle crash heavily to the ground and bounce up before she herself landed in a standard parachute roll.

However, the bottom of the cliff was full of loose rocks. When she fell heavily, she was unable to roll over. Instead, she slid forward on the rough surface and could only instinctively swing her arms to support her body.

A sharp pain struck her instantly, but she remained conscious.

"Watch out for the cliff, kid!" she shouted into the communicator.

"Where did you go?" Sergei's anxious voice came through the radio. "You were right in front of me, how could you suddenly disappear!"

"There's a cliff ahead," she gasped. "You'd better slow down."

"Damn it! Are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine, child, I'm alright." She clenched her teeth tightly, trying her best to suppress the trembling all over her body caused by the excruciating pain.

Although there were no obvious signs of bone piercing the skin, her left shoulder felt so heavy that it seemed numb; that was the part that had borne her entire weight when she stretched out her arm to maintain her balance.

At this moment, the entire shoulder joint felt as if it were nailed in place by a red-hot iron nail, completely twisted and dislocated.

"If only I could get some sleep now," she thought groggily. "I could at least take a nap before Sergei gets here."

"Hey, kid," she said weakly, "you'd better call a doctor to take a look at me. Maybe he can actually find something wrong. Just think of it as having some fun, you know what I mean."

Lying among the rubble and debris at the bottom of the cliff, she unexpectedly felt a strange comfort. She even had the leisure to notice that the rock formation was entirely composed of igneous rock, without schist, slate, or limestone, and there were also some fine sand particles scattered around that could not be immediately identified.

Sergei's SUV was parked on the edge of the ridge above. From below, the vehicle looked incredibly small and out of reach.

She decided to take a nap. Since Sergei had already arrived, it shouldn't be a problem to take a short nap. However, when she tried to close her eyes, she found that even her eyelids were throbbing with pain. In the end, she could only fall into a drowsy state with her eyes half-open, exhausted.

"Are you alright? Talk to me, can you still hold on?"

"Yes, I'm fine..." she replied, forcing herself to endure the pain.

When he clenched his teeth, even uttering a single word was extremely difficult.

The "Rock Jumper" landing vehicle was nowhere to be seen, and the wait felt like centuries. Sergei's anxious calls echoed in her ears, but her consciousness was fading, and she paid little attention to his words.

The "Rock Jumper" finally arrived, but its giant mechanical arm was not long enough to reach down the cliff and catch her. A rope was lowered down, and Song Xingye and Han Jing tried to secure her with the rope.

"Don't put it on my arm!" she screamed in pain. "Ouch! You bunch of bastards, don't touch my arm!"

After much effort, the two finally managed to pull her onto the "Rock Jumper" using slings. At this point, Commander Sheng Tianhong had already begun pressurizing the inflatable living quarters.

"Forget about the living quarters!" Han Jing, the doctor, interrupted sharply. "Immediately transfer her to the 'Rock Jumper's' pressurized chamber!"

The pressurization chamber was cramped, barely enough for two people to turn around. The process of restoring pressure inside was excruciatingly long. Only when the pressure finally reached the target level did Han Jing rip off his helmet and say urgently:

"Look at me, stay awake, and whatever you do, don't fall asleep."

"Where can I go?" Mira murmured to herself, or perhaps it was just a weak thought that flashed through her mind.

Han Jing was about to unbutton the spacesuit that was clinging to her arm when his hand suddenly stopped moving.

Her arms were swollen to twice the size of her spacesuit. Even though the piezoelectric fabric was completely loose, the fabric still clung tightly to her flesh like a high-intensity sports bandage.

The piezoelectric fibers made the entire spacesuit as tough as armor. Han Jing had no choice but to slide a medical scalpel under the fabric and painstakingly cut it open.

As soon as the fabric was cut, the arm, which had lost its sense of pressure, was instantly wracked with excruciating pain. Mira bit her lip hard to suppress her groans, while Han Jing, covered in sweat, painstakingly sawed through the high-strength protective fabric.

As soon as the fabric was cut, the arm, which had lost its sense of pressure, was instantly wracked with excruciating pain. Mira bit her lip hard to suppress her groans, while Han Jing, covered in sweat, painstakingly sawed through the high-strength protective fabric.

Han Jing looked up, his face full of apology: "I'm afraid you'll have to tough it out. Hopefully, we have enough spare materials to patch this up. I'm so sorry for ruining your clothes."

"It's nothing," Mira uttered weakly before her head lolled to the side and she passed out completely.

"Damn it," Han Jing cursed under his breath.

……

The surface area of ​​this red planet is as vast as 1.44 million square kilometers. The total area of ​​its land that can be explored is almost equal to the total area of ​​all continents and islands on Earth. What is even more awe-inspiring is that the complexity and variety of Martian landforms are beyond human imagination.

The afterglow of the sunset here lingers for a long time. Even after the sun has completely disappeared below the horizon, the sky is still dyed a brick red. That blush gradually fades over time until it disappears completely.

Two lone stars lit up the western night sky, one shining with a dazzling blue-white light, and the other a slightly dimmer silver-white—those were Earth and its moon.

Then, night fell completely.

For some reason, the hazy night reminded Sheng Tianhong of his last night in Baikonur. Sunsets on Earth are always fleeting, unlike the long ones on Mars. He remembered that Venus was shining brightly on the western horizon that night.

That night, his comrades in the flight squadron held a farewell party for him. The gathering was ostensibly to send him off, but everyone knew that it was also to commemorate the brothers who did not survive the last disastrous mission.

They lit torches, the flickering flames shimmering in the sultry night like candlelight, swaying with a faint glimmer of hope. Two musicians, guitars in hand, plugged in amplifiers and began strumming with an almost frenzied, venting intensity, trying to mask their poor technique with deafening volume.

The crowd was reveling wildly, but he wandered through the noisy party like a walking corpse, silent and unresponsive.

He felt a wave of numbness, only his injured hand still ached faintly. He had long since separated himself from this group of people, and in their eyes, he was already someone who had embarked on a path of no return.

The party went on and on until dawn. When he finally left, he collapsed onto his bunk and passed out. He was so drunk that he was completely drained of energy, even the energy to think wildly had been completely drained by the alcohol.

The nights on Mars are completely different; there is no noise, only endless darkness and utter loneliness.

"I'm a hundred million kilometers away from all that mess now," he thought with a wry smile. "Everything is far behind me now."

But Sheng Tianhong knew better than anyone that she could never truly sever ties with the past.

Whether or not anyone is injured, they must move forward tomorrow.

……

The SUV that Mira was driving wasn't actually seriously damaged. If it were on Earth, any repair shop could straighten the bent frame and replace the wheel bearings in a few hours, and the car would be reborn.

However, Song Xingye helplessly stated that there was neither a machine shop nor a shortage of replacement parts here, so the vehicle had to be scrapped on the spot.

They removed all usable parts and installed them in the "Rock Jumper" as spares to ensure that the only remaining off-road vehicle could continue to operate.

Spacesuits are designed to be very tight-fitting. As soon as Han Jinggang cut open Mila's clothes, her arms and ankles, no longer compressed, immediately swelled up. At that moment, her ankles looked like inflated balls.

After examination, Mila's injuries were finally diagnosed as a fracture of the left radius, a dislocation of the left shoulder joint, and a mild ankle sprain.

Han Jing speculated that there might also be a ligament tear, but it was difficult to make a definitive statement without X-ray equipment. Fortunately, the injury did not show any signs of further deterioration.

Faced with the unexpected situation, Han Jing demonstrated a high level of professionalism. He calmly and quickly treated the wound, focusing intently on the rescue work at hand, which is his forte. He first used an inflatable splint to fix Mila's fractured arm. While the airbag maintained the position of the bone, he quickly prepared a liquid polymer to apply a more durable and high-tech "plaster" to her.

After fixing the fracture, he skillfully repositioned the dislocated shoulder joint and tightly strapped it to Mila's side to prevent further strain. After treating her ankle, he sternly instructed Mila never to put weight on it.

He only breathed a sigh of relief after ensuring that all acute symptoms had been properly relieved, and then gave her a full physical examination.

The luggage contained piezoelectric fabric repair materials. During a break while the team was setting up camp, Song Xingye carefully pieced together a patch using these materials to repair the spacesuit that Han Jing had roughly cut.

This is an extremely time-consuming and meticulous task that requires exceptional eyesight. Ten micro-electrode interfaces need to be precisely connected to each square centimeter of fabric to ensure that the fibers are properly connected to the microcomputer that controls the tension of the spacesuit.

Song Xingye buried himself in work for several hours.

"I think everything should be fine now." He finally breathed a long sigh of relief.

He picked up Mira's spacesuit and shook it gently, scrutinizing the seams with an extremely critical eye. He then turned to Han Jing and complained:

"If you had been a little more careful when you cut, I could have saved myself a lot of trouble. You have no idea how outrageous the cost per square centimeter of this piece of junk is."

Han Jing coldly replied, "Anyway, she won't be able to wear a spacesuit anytime soon."

"It's always good to be prepared. She'll need a decent outfit when she needs it," Song Xingye retorted. "But next time, could you please be more lenient and not use a knife to cut it? Just rip it off, okay?"

Despite their bickering, Song Xingye was actually very glad that Han Jing had decisively insisted on transferring Mila to the vehicle for treatment, instead of taking the easy way out and stuffing her into the living quarters.

If Han Jing cut open her spacesuit inside the living quarters, the entire team would be forced to stay put until she recovered and could put her spacesuit back on, since it's impossible to leave the living quarters once the spacesuit is removed.

Fortunately, she was in the pressurized cabin of the off-road vehicle, so the team could continue on its original plan at any time.

Song Xingye originally planned to set up a zipline system early the next morning so that the massive "Rock Jumper" could be safely lowered down the cliff, but after on-site survey, he found that it was not necessary at all.

It wasn't a steep cliff at all; it was at most a fault line on the ground that rose up. It was more like a step on the ground than an obstacle.

Commander Sheng Tianhong personally surveyed the site and then calmly directed the "Rock Jumper" to travel laterally along the edge of the fault for a distance, finding a gap with a suitable drop. At this height, the "Rock Jumper" only needed to extend its flexible articulated legs to steadily push the wheels to the bottom one by one.

Once the "rock jumper" had safely landed at the bottom of the cliff, Sheng Tianhong operated the mechanical arm to steadily lower the remaining off-road vehicle from above.

Sheng Tianhong ordered Song Xingye to drive an off-road vehicle ahead to scout ahead, but strictly commanded him to keep the vehicle within the "rock jumper's" line of sight at all times.

At this moment, Han Jing had already climbed onto the observation position on the roof of the vehicle, while Sergei held up a high-powered telescope and was ordered to continuously scan the treacherous terrain ahead, where dangers lurked. If he found anything unusual, he had to immediately send an alarm to Song Xingye via radio.

Along the way, they encountered several small cliffs, all of which ran east-west and were perpendicular to their route.

Fortunately, Sergei was always able to find gaps in the walls, like broken city walls, or natural slopes formed by collapsed rocks, whenever he encountered obstacles, thus guiding vehicles to pass smoothly. These obstacles were not worth mentioning at all.

However, they soon discovered that the next obstacle in front of them was far more than a small cliff; it was a deep, unfathomable canyon.

……

Song Xingye braked at a safe distance of about ten meters from the edge of the canyon, jumped out of the car to explore carefully, and Sergei also jumped off the roof of the "Rock Jumper" and ran around to his side, leaning half his body out to look down.

"My God!" Sergei gasped, "This is absolutely unbelievable!"

"Step back a bit." Song Xingye grabbed him. "We don't know yet whether the edge of this cliff is sturdy or not."