Ice Mine Number One
It’s called Ice Mine Number One, even though there’s only one mine. There was talk of opening up a second mine, but they realized they didn’t need to. All they had to do was let a few tunnels flood with water and soon it’d be ice again and they could keep mining in the same place.
They mine the planet’s kilometer thick crust of ice, for ice. Under the ice is nothing but ocean, with currents running a few meters down. The ice crust is constantly creaking, groaning and popping. Sometimes cracks open in the ice, large enough for a human to fall through. Depending on where the cracks happen they can fill up with water fast and then freeze again. Falling through such cracks is one of the more common causes of death in the mine. Because of these cracks forming and freezing again it’s often difficult to keep maps of the mine up to date and reliable.
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