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

Song Xingye glanced at the instrument panel; the second liquid oxygen tank was almost empty. They hadn't reserved any fuel reserves for detours, and if they couldn't immediately turn around and fly north, they would definitely not be able to complete the journey across the polar regions.

He switched the pipeline to the third and last liquid oxygen tank, drained the last bit of liquid remaining in the second tank, and then jettisoned it. Getting rid of this burden made the "Butterfly" easier to maneuver.

Found it! In the distance, on the pale horizon, a vast canyon split open between two polar storms, where the air was crystal clear.

"Hold on tight," he shouted into the walkie-talkie, "the rest of the flight is going to be very bumpy."

He tilted the fuselage to the right, cutting right up to the northern edge of the storm system.

The magnificent polar ice cap finally came into view. It looked like layers of ice cliffs stacked up, rising in steps, with the dark blue ice shimmering in the sunlight.

Despite being surrounded by extremely cold ice, the entire polar ice cap seems to be "smoking," as the surface ice and snow are undergoing intense sublimation under the direct sunlight of the Martian summer sun.

Suddenly, the continuous ice field beneath his feet came to an abrupt halt, and a massive, abyss-like glacial canyon burst open before him. Hurricane-like gales roared down from the depths of the canyon, relentlessly pushing the plane westward like a giant hand.

The massive airflow released by the melting of the entire polar ice cap is being gathered by the natural wind channel formed by this canyon, and is frantically eroding the ice walls on both sides.

This is the vast Arctic Rift Valley. Over hundreds of millions of years, fierce winds, carrying glacial debris, have cleaved through the kilometer-thick ice, creating a massive channel for the release and sublimation of the atmosphere.

Dark rock fragments were scattered at the bottom of the canyon, which were glacial moraines left by ancient glaciers. Song Xingye braved the strong crosswinds and continued to move forward tenaciously. On the left side of the fuselage, a dark blue ice wall rose from the pile of rubble at the bottom of the valley and shot straight up to a thousand meters into the sky, standing majestically.

Just as they passed the top of the cliff, the violent air currents suddenly subsided.

Above the cliff is a snow-covered ice field that undulates in a wave-like pattern, stretching all the way to the horizon. The inertial navigation system indicates that it is still 300 kilometers away from the North Pole.

But those 300 kilometers were like an insurmountable barrier for them.

Because the Butterfly had completely run out of fuel.

Taking advantage of the last bit of thrust before the rocket completely shut down, Song Xingye pushed forward another fifty kilometers. After losing power, in such a thin atmosphere, the gliding performance of the "Butterfly" was like that of a piece of raw iron.

He pushed the plane's glide ratio to its limit with all his might, managing to scrape together a few more precious kilometers before finally touching down with an extremely gentle motion.

The plane skidded wildly across the snow like an out-of-control sled. Song Xingye gripped the control stick tightly to keep the wings level, while the fuselage twisted violently and spun around incessantly.

After gliding and bumping along the uneven ice field for a long time, Song Xingye even began to doubt whether the plane could ever stop.

Suddenly, a huge rock appeared right in front of the ice field.

At this point, the aircraft had completely lost aerodynamic control. Song Xingye slammed on the wheel brakes, but due to the decrease in speed causing the control surfaces to malfunction, he was powerless to avoid the boulder.

Hard rocks scraped heavily against the fuselage, tearing a terrible gash. He desperately tried to stabilize the aircraft, but it suddenly tilted to one side, and the right wing ruthlessly plowed into the ice.

Amidst a billowing cloud of snow, the main wing spars snapped and lost pressure with a sickening crack, the entire wing snapped backward, and finally tore off completely. The aircraft instantly lost its balance and began to roll violently on the ice, eventually breaking into pieces.

……

Han Jing and his chair were upside down on the ice. The seat had completely separated from the fuselage, but he was miraculously unharmed. He unbuckled his seatbelt and kicked away the wreckage.

Debris from the plane was scattered all over the ice, stretching for hundreds of meters. Mira was thrown out of the cockpit and lay face down in a snowdrift a few meters away, while Song Xingye, along with the front half of the fuselage, was half buried in the snow not far away.

Han Jing saw Mira move and then struggle to get up. Smoke was coming from her body, which startled Han Jing. He breathed a sigh of relief when she waved her hand to disperse the smoke. It was just dry ice in the snow coming into contact with the residual heat of her spacesuit and rapidly vaporizing.

In the blink of an eye, Song Xingye also broke free of his seatbelt and stepped onto the ice, his feet sinking deep into the ice.

They all survived.

Song Xingye turned to look at Han Jing, his expression unusually calm. Clearly, the thick layer of snow had cushioned the fatal impact for them.

Han Jing switched the communicator to the public channel: "Song Xingye, Mira, are you alright? Are you injured?"

Han Jing switched the communicator to the public channel: "Song Xingye, Mira, are you alright? Are you injured?"

"I feel alright," Song Xingye replied. "At least my bones aren't broken."

"Except for having a mouthful of snow!" Mira coughed. "Yeah, I'm fine. Probably."

Han Jing gave a wry smile, thinking that even if they were seriously injured, what could he do? After all, the nearest emergency room was hundreds of millions of kilometers away on Earth.

He stared at the wreckage on the ice: empty liquid oxygen tanks, first-aid kits, twisted aluminum-lithium alloy fragments, charred rocket engines, and broken wing debris, scattered along the long trail the Butterfly had taken in its final flight.

The plane was completely totaled. This was definitely the most thrilling moment he had ever experienced in his life. He even found it hard to believe that Song Xingye could hold on for so long in such a desperate situation.

"So what's next?" Han Jing asked.

The question remained unanswered for a while in the cold air, until Song Xingye finally spoke up, asking, "Do you think we have any other options?"

Before the words were finished, a sudden and violent tremor caused the ice surface to shake, followed by a huge shriek that shattered the surrounding tranquility.

"What the hell is that thing...?"

Han Jing didn't speak, but silently raised his finger and pointed.

Several hundred meters to their east, a jet of water suddenly erupted from the flat snowfield. A striking white column of air shot into the sky like a sharp sword, and ice shards sprayed and fell in all directions like a blizzard.

The ice beneath the spring cracked little by little like a spider web, and shimmering white air gushed out along the edges of the cracks, then accelerated and began to spread to both sides, eventually turning into a crystal-clear mist that swept in all directions.

Song Xingye squatted down and tentatively touched the ground beneath his feet. The dust and ice crystals covering the surface of the polar ice cap formed a rough, hard shell. He tapped it hard, and the texture was almost as hard as stone.

"It's an ice shell," he confirmed, looking up at the two of them. "The surface is just ordinary water ice, but underneath there's definitely a lot of carbon dioxide and dry ice. When the ice underneath is heated, the dry ice will slowly sublimate. When the gas is trapped under the ice shell with nowhere to go, once the pressure reaches a critical point, bang! The entire surface will explode like a pressure cooker."

The spring that had suddenly spouted water in the distance had begun to recede, and in just a few minutes, only a messy snowdrift remained.

"We absolutely can't stay in this godforsaken place any longer." Song Xingye stood up. "Let's head north."

"Walk over there?" Han Jing asked incredulously.

No one answered; the answer was self-evident.

How much further?

"About two hundred and fifty kilometers," Song Xingye said calmly.

"You must be fucking kidding me."

It took Han Jing ten minutes to locate the inertial navigation system. The laser gyroscope has no moving parts inside. The original design of this technology was to locate the horrific crash sites on Earth.

He inspected it carefully and said, "It's still running. We really should contact the manufacturer."

After all, this thing was designed to be indestructible.

On the other side, Song Xingye was tearing off a few pieces of leather from the "Butterfly" to test its flexibility. He seemed unsatisfied, so he took out a few metal support rods from the wreckage of the seats, which he found more suitable.

He looked up and asked, "Do you know how to ski?"

"Are you kidding me?" Han Jing said.

Song Xingye picked up a support rod made of aluminum-lithium alloy, which was lightweight and sturdy. He flattened it and bent one end into a rough arc. After examining it carefully, he began to make the next one.

"Do you have a better idea?"

Han Jing shook his head helplessly.

"Then let's head north," Song Xingye said.

……

The sun was surrounded by a bright double halo, with a phantom sun on each side. It never set, but tirelessly circled around them, seemingly about to fall off the horizon before quietly rising again behind them.

The ground was a mess, with pressure ridges and ice fragments half-buried in the snow, making it difficult to distinguish. In some places, there was an extremely dense layer of ice, with white mist mixed with snow particles constantly gushing out from the crisscrossing cracks. In other places, there was a fresh layer of snow, smooth as a mirror, full of allure.

Song Xingye excitedly slid into a new patch of snow. However, the moment his makeshift skis touched the ground, the surrounding snow hissed and foamed, and the friction instantly disappeared. He could only helplessly slip on the foamy carbon dioxide air cushion.

It took him a full hour to carefully wade out of the trap and finally step onto solid ground. Learning from his mistake, they all learned to deliberately avoid these areas covered in fresh snow afterward.

After skiing for six hours, Song Xingye called a stop, and the two took off their skis and inflated the emergency shelter.

This emergency refuge capsule is cylindrical, two meters long and one and a half meters in diameter. The transparent polyimide walls are inlaid with tear-resistant microfiber mesh, and the pinkish-orange sunlight shines evenly through the walls, making the interior look like a burning furnace.

However, this was just a visual illusion. The cabin was actually as cold as an icebox. The only heat source was the radiator of the isotope power unit on their spacesuits. The cabin was extremely crowded, and even taking off the spacesuit was very difficult.

After all, the original design purpose of this refuge pod was simply to maintain the basic survival of a single person while waiting for rescue.

However, no rescue team would arrive, so the two could only silently take off their heavy spacesuits, leaving only their inner linings, and huddle together in the center of the capsule for warmth.

Sleep was a luxury for them. They huddled together, too exhausted to move a finger, let alone waste energy complaining. Under the constant sunlight, time seemed to stand still.

Six hours later, without saying a word, they put their spacesuits back on in perfect unison.

When they crawled out of the cabin, they discovered that the faint residual heat emanating from the refuge had caused the ice below to sublimate, and the entire cabin had sunk half a meter deep.

They had no choice but to continue their trek north.

For the first three days, gas geysers would occasionally erupt from the snow all around them, making them walk with great anxiety, fearing that the ice beneath their feet might crack open at any moment.

As they continued northward, these fountains gradually decreased in size and became more sparsely distributed, eventually ceasing to pose a substantial threat.

In some areas, the ice layer is actually just a thin shell suspended on the surface of the gas layer below. Once someone steps on it, it will immediately cause a large-scale collapse, accompanied by a tooth-grinding "crunch" sound. The ice surface the size of a football field will be covered with cracks in an instant and sink two or three centimeters.

They hiked on the ice and glided across the snowfield, repeating this process until Song Xingye called for a stop again. He inflated the refuge pod, and everyone laboriously crawled into the cold and stuffy space.

Even just taking off this heavy outfit for a short time is enough to make people feel relieved. After wearing it close to their skin for nearly a month, every wrinkle and bulge in the lining of the spacesuit made their skin ache.

However, under the endless intense sunlight of the polar day, no one could truly sleep soundly. They could only barely close their eyes and rest for three hours, curling up in a ball, falling into a semi-comatose state between wakefulness and sleep.

It wasn't until Song Xingye spoke up again, reminding everyone to put on their gear and continue on their way, that things continued.

Later, they were blocked by a towering ice cliff and had to painstakingly carve out steps on the ice to climb it.

The ice steps seemed endless, stretching upwards towards the sky. Along the way, they encountered twice enormous ice fissures, hundreds of meters wide, blocking their path.

The unfathomable abyss was filled with wisps of white mist that disappeared into the distance, beyond the reach of sight. Faced with these insurmountable barriers, they had no choice but to take a detour, and could only curse and grumble all the way, regretting the time they had wasted.

They continued northward.

Mira had experienced snowfall before, but she had never seen anything like this. In the years she lived in the north, the winters were mild and snow was an extremely rare commodity. It would often snow only once or twice a winter, and the snow would melt away in a day or two at most.

The elderly people in the city often reminisce about the last century, saying that the winters were bitterly cold and the snow could be more than a meter deep, but no one can accurately recall the specifics anymore.

At that moment, she was completely swallowed up by the vast snow.