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

The fierce winds sculpted the snow in some places into layers of icy ridges, while in others, the surface snow was swept away by the wind, exposing the underlying solid ice, which reflected an almost eerie blue light under the bleak sunlight.

Looking out, all she could see was an endless expanse of ice. Mira was finally forced to confront the secret she had kept buried deep in her heart and never revealed to any of her companions: the vastness of Mars filled her with dread.

The group moved in silence. Mira felt as if she were trekking on the surface of a dead planet, or crawling through a deep cave. Beneath her feet was an endless expanse of blue and white ice, and above her was a gloomy, yellowish-brown sky.

Between heaven and earth, it seemed as if only a narrow, knife-like slit of the horizon remained. In this vast expanse, she was as insignificant as a speck of dust wriggling on an ice surface, utterly devoid of presence.

However, to her own disbelief, the fear miraculously vanished the next day. Ice was ice, and the sky was the sky; this world didn't care who she was or what she had done.

She didn't need to explain anything to them, nor did she need to wear a mask to disguise herself. In the face of that absolute indifference and vastness, she could even forget everyone, including Yuri, as if she herself had never existed.

Mira walked mechanically as if hypnotized. The extreme cold had made half of her body numb, and not having slept all night had made her limbs stiff. She was oblivious to everything around her, just curled up alone in her heavy protective suit.

Alone in this desolate, snowy landscape, Mira surprisingly felt that completely letting herself sink into obscurity was also a kind of liberation.

……

They trekked for eight days before finally reaching that point.

As we crested the last ice ridge, the South Pole finally came into view, or more precisely, the exposed upper part of the spaceship was clearly visible.

"Pirate 3" is already deeply embedded in the ice.

Mira stopped abruptly, as if she had been jolted awake from a long dream.

"Pirate No. 3..." she murmured absentmindedly, her tone filled with confusion, as if she was desperately trying to process the reality before her.

Then, her voice suddenly became incredibly firm: "Pirate No. 3!"

Before she could finish speaking, she let out a piercing scream and charged frantically toward the spaceship.

"Yuri! Yuri!"

The snow around the spaceship was pristine and smooth, without any trace of disturbance. Even the spot where it crashed had long been smoothed over by the wind and snow, leaving no trace of ripples.

Just as Song Xingye was about to chase after her, Han Jing stopped him. Han Jing switched to a private communication channel and whispered, "Don't disturb her. Let her be alone for a while. Let's go check the spaceship first."

Their supplies have run out. The last ration brick was eaten two days ago. Now each person can only barely survive on one liter of recycled water a day. This amount of water is far from enough, and severe dehydration is relentlessly tormenting everyone.

The bottom of the "Pirate No. 3" base is equipped with a living pod module. Song Xingye knew its exact location. Before setting off, he watched the videotape of that expedition hundreds of times and was very familiar with every structural detail of the base.

However, he couldn't see anything at all; the entire lower level was completely buried by thick snow.

In the distance, Mira was still desperately looking around, crying out in despair, "Yuri!"

In the end, Han Jing went against his earlier suggestion and walked straight toward Mira.

"Mira?" he called softly. "Are you alright?"

Song Xingye turned his attention to the rocket in front of them. They had to get into the living quarters as soon as possible, as time was running out.

The technical team of Country A adopted a more streamlined approach in the rocket design. At this moment, the part of the rocket that emerged from the snow resembled the spire of a cathedral with an onion-shaped dome. On each side of the spire was a smaller dome, which was actually the top of the two first-stage boosters.

Inside the dome of the main tower of "Pirate 3" is the Earth return capsule, which is also the top structure of Country A's rocket. Song Xingye climbed up the external ladder, trying to reach the hatch.

However, the hatch was suspended at an extremely awkward angle above his head, and he could only barely reach out and pull hard on the hatch latch.

The latch remained firmly in place.

"Is the door locked?" The thought flashed through Song Xingye's mind, but then he felt it was utterly absurd. Who would be so bored as to lock the outer hatch of a spaceship? The door was obviously stuck. He took a deep breath and pulled the latch with all his might, but there was still no response.

He stopped what he was doing, calmed down and thought of a solution. The wind was biting cold here, and the spaceship had been frozen in this extremely cold and dry environment for eight years. The seals between the hatch and the edges had probably hardened and been welded shut long ago.

He climbed back down the ladder into the snow, removed one of his skis, picked up a loose metal plate, and climbed back to the hatch. Using the end of his ski as a hammer, he placed the metal plate under his arm and began to smash along the edge of the hatch, inch by inch.

He ignored the fact that the metal plate was being smashed and twisted, and just kept smashing it clockwise around the sealing ring, again and again.

He then used his skis to pry open the hatch handle as a lever, but to no avail. He braced himself against the lever with both hands and strained with all his might to pry it outwards, only to feel a slight loosening.

Undeterred, he pulled again, then gritted his teeth and began to pull with a specific rhythm. Suddenly, with a dull thud, the bottom of the hatch was finally forced open, and the top was immediately released from its latch.

The moment the hatch popped open, a tremendous inertia nearly threw him backward.

Inside the return capsule, two cushioned seats and a control panel were placed side by side. The entire space was lifeless and pitch black.

If even the emergency battery were completely destroyed, they would truly be doomed. However, when he pressed the emergency power switch, a dim indicator light appeared in the cockpit, and with this light, he could barely make out the control panel.

Fortunately, he looked around and, according to the briefing provided by the ground control center, the spacecraft should be equipped with an extravehicular activity (EVA) motor gun, a small attitude control rocket with an integrated pistol grip, specifically designed for astronauts to use during emergency extravehicular movement.

Initially, the ground team included it in the "disposable items" list to reduce the launch payload, but in Song Xingye's eyes, this thing is very useful now.

Beneath the thick layer of snow lay the spaceship's lowest survival compartment, which contained ample supplies of food, drinking water, and generators. These life-saving supplies were originally intended to support Country A's astronauts on Earth for 350 days.

Song Xingye planned to use the heat to melt the solid ice and gradually carve out a path to the base.

……

"He's at peace now, Mira," Han Jing said. He tried to soften his voice as he comforted her, "He's at peace now."

Overwhelmed with grief, Mira was speechless. She could only let out desperate sobs. She knelt on the ice and remained there for a full hour.

The ice surface is now completely empty. In the eight years since the spaceship crashed, many fragments have gradually sunk deep into the ice, and new snow has been constantly covering them. Now, only the extremely faint shadow beneath the ice has become the only trace in the world that can mark the final resting place of the wreckage.

Mira's sobs never stopped. In Han Jing's memory, he had never seen this woman shed a tear. In his eyes, Mira had always been a cold, aloof, sexy, and somewhat indifferent woman. She almost never showed any emotion. Han Jing couldn't help but feel a little dazed, trying hard to search his memory for the feeling of falling in love with such a person.

On the other side, Song Xingye used the high temperature sprayed by the motor gun to carve out a passage to the living pod. To be precise, it was a tunnel formed by sublimation. In the extremely low atmospheric pressure environment of the Martian poles, solid ice vaporized directly after being heated, rather than melting into water.

At this moment, he is busy cleaning the solar array, preparing to reactivate the living pod's systems.

"Song Xingye is truly a genius inventor," Han Jing thought to himself as he watched from the side. "As long as it's technically feasible, this guy can always come up with a solution."

The heat emanating from Mila's protective suit evaporated the six-centimeter-thick layer of ice around her. Although the suit's built-in heater was highly effective, the heat loss from prolonged contact with the snow, at temperatures below -60 degrees Celsius, still overwhelmed the heater.

Han Jing knew very well that she was probably about to freeze to death.

He decisively reached out, grabbed Mira's arm, and forcefully pulled her up.

"Hurry! Aren't you cold? I need to get you into the cabin right away."

Mira twisted her arms to break free from his grasp and pushed Han Jing away forcefully. Without a word, she turned around, walked back to the small indentation melted by her body heat, and knelt down again.

At this moment, Song Xingye walked over quickly.

"I've activated the living quarters." He glanced down at Mira. "Has she been here the whole time? Is she alright?"

Han Jing shook his head gravely: "The situation is bad. I think she may be in a state of hypothermia."

Without further hesitation, the two men lifted her up. Mira struggled for a while, but soon gave up resisting due to exhaustion and obediently let them help her walk towards the spaceship.

After enduring eight days in that cramped emergency shelter, being in the small fiberglass living quarters of "Pirate 3" now gives one a sense of spaciousness, as if stepping into a magnificent cathedral.

Han Jing painstakingly peeled Mira out of her heavy spacesuit, and then took off his own coat.

"Good heavens!" he exclaimed, shivering. "My God, it's freezing in there!"

"Just bear with it," Song Xingye said. "The power system is still unstable, but it should be back to normal soon. There are jumpsuits in the lockers over there."

Han Jing shivered from the cold and quickly walked towards the changing area. Song Xingye had already quickly put on his work clothes. The air inside the dome cabin was still bone-chillingly cold. The white breath they exhaled even quickly condensed into frost on the cabin walls, and the surrounding walls were gradually covered with a layer of exhaled moisture.

At this moment, Mira was only wearing a tight-fitting undershirt. She sat slumped like a statue, completely still. This stillness was absolute; even in such severe cold, she didn't feel a single shiver.

Tears froze into tiny ice crystals on her pale cheeks and chin. Han Jing reached out and touched her neck; her skin felt as cold as ice. He couldn't help but mutter a few curses under his breath.

"Her body temperature is low, there's no doubt about that," he said, lifting his head sharply. "But the worst part is that she's not shivering at all, which is a red flag, a very dangerous one."

He looked around: "We need to warm her up. Could you boil some water?"

"The water supply system is still frozen." Song Xingye shook his head. "It will take another hour to restore power, and even when the power comes back on, it won't be able to heat up hot water for a while."

"That's too long," Han Jing said. "Just wrapping her in a blanket won't help. She's severely hypothermic and can't retain heat at all. Her skin is as cold as ice."

The air inside the living quarters was bone-chillingly cold, the chill seeming to freeze his skin. He stretched out his arms and hugged Mira tightly, trying his best to press her close to himself and warm her with his body heat. However, holding her in his arms felt like holding a block of ice.

"Could you find me a blanket?" Han Jing asked.

Song Xingye walked over to their spacesuits, removed the radioisotope thermoelectric generators, and placed them around Han Jing and Mira. The residual heat emanating from the heat sinks offered some comfort, but it was only a drop in the ocean.

"Take off your clothes, you should too," Han Jing said.

Song Xingye grabbed a blanket, quickly took off his coat, hesitated for a moment while holding it, then turned around and took it off as well. He quickly moved behind Mira, hugged her tightly, and then wrapped the three of them together tightly with the blanket.

……

After a busy day, the temperature inside the living quarters finally rose a bit, but they could still clearly see each other's breath. Han Jing stayed inside the cabin all day to take care of Mira, while Song Xingye was outside cleaning up the ice around the rocket.

At this moment, "Pirate No. 3" stands quietly in the center of a vertical shaft deep within the ice.

"I've inspected this rocket inside and out," he said. "For something that's been exposed to the Martian surface for so long, its condition is remarkably good. If there were any problems, it would be beyond my ability to troubleshoot."

"Don't mention rockets to me," Mira interrupted him.

She has mostly recovered from hypothermia, but her face is still pale and she looks extremely tired.

"I don't want to hear about the Rockets, I want to know what happened to Yuri, what exactly happened to Yuri?"

Song Xingye shrugged: "Does that even matter?"

"That's important, of course!" she shouted excitedly, her voice then cracking into a hoarse, piercing gasp. "Tell me how Yuri died!"