The helicopter was descending. Below, as far as the eye could see, ice fields spread. Countless blocks of ice, then white, dazzlingly shining, then bluish, then casting greenery under the low rays of the polar sun, or even pinkish, forming shapeless piles of hummocks, were taken far to the horizon. It seemed that some giant deliberately broke all the ice into pieces, poured them into the sea, and they somehow froze into a dense mass. Only in one place did a flat, surprisingly regular round field sparkle about five hundred meters across. In some places, hummocks grew along its edges...