The icy wind of the Northern European Ice whistled coldly over the snow. It blew out over the ocean and caused the waves' caps to mist and sputter, then howled its way through every crag of the cliff that loomed over the shore nearby. A pod of Gannetwhales lazed along the shore; unfazed by the gusts of freezing temperatures, while some Shagrats tromped through the snow on the high plateau above them.
Up in the clouds, just far enough to be hidden, the time portal opened up, and out came a whir of blue. The Time Flyer rocketed out over this scene and made its rough landing in a soft snow-drift. After a few moments, the ramp lowered onto the ground with a muffled thud, and then the crew stepped out into what was now their new mission.
"Alright," said C.G. as she shouldered her pack that carried the equipment they needed for the mission. "Where do we begin, Luis?"
Luis pulled out the Graph-map and gave it a look. "Due west, about a mile." He pointed to the blip on the screen that marked the location, which was a small cove along the shoreline. "It appears to be pretty much snow, so it shouldn't take long to get there."
"Good," Emily replied. She was putting Squibbon back on the ship after he'd run out after them. "Because Squibby's going to be lonely while we're gone." She placed her hand atop the terasquid's head. "Don't worry. We won't be long. Just try not to break anything, okay, Sweetie?"
As C.G. activated the ramp to close, Squibby gave an unhappy chatter, then disappeared behind the ramp. Emily sighed and adjusted her earmuffs. "We won't be gone for long, will we Cege?"
"It is a matter of placing the device in the ocean. If we execute this correctly, then we should be back by noon." C.G. then turned and headed out into the open snow, the rising sun against their backs as the other three followed. They immediately trudged into a deep drift, and C.G. had to readjust her pack so it wouldn't drag.
"You know," Ethan began cheerily, seeing as all he had to do was carry a pack and follow the others' paths as they pushed on, "the Great Plateau isn't so bad, as long as you keep long underwear handy."
"Yeah, except when it comes to washing it," Luis muttered darkly.
"Have you ever smelled your clothes once you've worn them?" Emily added with a glance over her shoulder. "Yuck."
Ethan rolled his eyes. "Anyways, it's the best place for a snowball fight. I bet Luis and I would make the best fort."
C.G. was quick to retort. "We do not have time for primitive games. I admit, I have failed nearly every time to complete a mission on time. It would be quite pleasing to my father we managed to do so this mission." No one seemed to want to argue, so they continued on toward the ocean.
About twenty minutes later, the Time Flyer crew were nearly upon the shore, and just in time too.
"I can't feel my face," Ethan said through his gloved hands, trying to warm up his face. The wind had picked up and shifted east; they'd walked against it most of the way, and were glad to have finally reached their destination.
"Now all I have to do is place the device in the…" but C.G. trailed off as she came to a halt. Her friends came up behind her. They too stopped.
"Whoa," Ethan said.
"That… could be a problem," Luis remarked as he gazed down nearly three-hundred feet of sheer cliff. He quickly looked at the map again, this time seeing the shadowed area of shoreline, indicating its drop from where they stood.
"No, no, no! Nothing is supposed to go wrong! I must get back on time." C.G. was determined to get down there the quickest way possible. She pulled Ethan's pack right off of his shoulders and pulled out a wad of ropes and hooks.
"Hiking gear?" Emily noted, a bit confused. "You mean we're climbing down the cliff?"
"You can't be serious, Cege!" Luis contributed with a throw of his arms. "C.G., given the height, terrain, and… height, this is absolutely crazy!"
She continued to put together the hiking apparatus. "I will not let your fear of heights faze me, Luis. I believe we can do it. Trust me." Luis wanted to object, especially to the 'fear of heights' part, but he figured it would do no good. C.G. hooked one last lead and was finished. She handed one end to Ethan, then the other set went to Luis and Emily. "We must distribute our weight as equally as we can." She finished the task off by securing their lines to an outcrop of rock.
"But I've never been rock-climbing. Let alone scaling a three-hundred foot cliff." It wasn't the fall Emily was afraid of, it was the fact that C.G. was so willing to put them in the situation. "Don't you think we should just find a pass or something? Maybe there's a snowstalker path we could use to get down." She sighed when C.G. walked to the edge of the cliff. She and the boys came to stand beside her and gazed down, but Emily felt her vision blur for a moment. Luis tightened his rope beside her. She could tell he was nervous, scared even, and she couldn't decide which one she was feeling herself.
"Well, let's go!" Ethan lowered himself down and C.G. went soon after. Luis and Emily were still hesitant, but they weren't far behind the others.
C.G. dug her feet into the cliff-face and sprang down a few feet. This wasn't as hard as she'd expected, and soon, she felt right at ease as she and Ethan climbed down their rope. Emily and Luis were still a ways up, and she couldn't help but be amused at the sight of them clumsily getting the hang of it. Once one figured out which muscles to use and where to distribute his weight, it wasn't so daunting.
Placing her foot in an indentation in the rock, C.G. lowered her other to a slight ridge that measured perfect size. An almost proud feeling bubbled up inside, landing a bit more confidence in each step she took. Suddenly, the rock crumbled beneath one of her feet, and C.G. gasped as she felt herself plummet. She heard Ethan yell out, and then the clasp that connected her to Ethan caught a jutting piece of rock, snapping it.
Ethan grabbed his rope with one hand, and then C.G.'s with the other just before it fell away. Strength powered by the fear of them both falling enabled him to hold them there, but he could feel their commander's chance slipping with the rope. "Guys! Help me!"
Emily was the first to have register what happened. She was nearly upon their lead when Ethan shouted for help. With the coordination with Luis, he and Emily managed to swing back and forth until Luis could grab onto C.G.'s rope as well, while Emily grasped Ethan's: now, C.G.'s lifeline.
"Hang in there, Cege! We'll get you back up."
At Ethan's words, C.G. looked down to see that she'd fallen half-way. The drop didn't seem so dire anymore, and she was beginning to have an idea. She took the broken clasp and hooked it back onto the rope, holding it together with both hands. "Ethan, Luis," she called up, "tie my end to your belts."
"What?" Ethan began, but Luis seemed to get the idea.
"Ethan, she knows we can't pull her back up. So let's all three of us carry her down with us."
"Spread out the pull between the three of you!" C.G. yelled up to them, unknowingly adding to Luis' statement. Ethan and Emily then got the idea, and soon the three of them were side-by-side, scaling the cliff once more. C.G. was hanging below them, holding her clasp as tightly as possible.
Emily, who was watching her leader carefully as they made their descent, was inwardly gloating about her hunch. She knew this was a bad idea, and that C.G. hadn't considered the risks completely. Ethan had been in immediate danger, and she and Luis could have easily fallen in trying to help.
But that wasn't the point, she supposed. Working together to keep each other safe was what mattered most, even if one of them made the mistake that got them into the mess.
At last, C.G. set foot on firm ground and waited as Ethan, Luis, and Emily touched down and began to remove their equipment.
"Are you alright, C.G.?" Emily was the first to ask even before she'd detached her rope and belt.
"Yes… I am unharmed. But…" she looked down at her feet, abashed, "… I am deeply sorry for my… mistake."
Emily placed her hand on her shoulder. "It's alright C.G. We all knew the risks, and we made it, despite what happened. Don't be too hard on yourself."
C.G. looked from her face to the others', then raised her communicator and pressed a button. It projected the time so they could all see. "It seems my fall has set us back a few minutes. We had better continue." Without another word, she helped put their gear back in the pack, then the group headed for the water.
The surface had frozen for several paces out, so they stopped at the shoreline. C.G. took her own back-pack and pulled out a small device by a handle.
"That's the…" Luis trailed off in uncertainty.
"Salinity measurer."
"Oh."
C.G. took a few steps toward the edge of the ice sheet, causing it to crackle beneath her feet. She halted in her tracks and listened to it echo off of the cliffs behind.
"Cege, come back! It's not thick enough to hold you!" Emily tried reasoning. She just couldn't ignore the dread at the pit of her stomach anymore, or the fact that C.G. was too caught up in pleasing her father to realize her own safety. "We can find another spot further down where the ice is thicker," she shouted.
"There is no need for caution, Emily," C.G. tried reassuring. All she had to do was place it in the water, so there was no cause for alarm. "I will be back in a moment."
The three stood there and watched, knowing that if they attempted to go out after her, the ice would surely break.
"Why does she have to get like this?" asked Ethan. "It's her dad we're talking about, it's not like he won't give her a break."
Luis frowned though, "He's her dad, but he's also the leading scientist of Mission Control. You wouldn't want any flaws on a math test, would you, Ethan?"
"Uh…" he scratched the back of his head sheepishly, "no. But what does that have to do with anything?"
Emily answered, "What Luis is trying to say is that C.G.'s dad can't afford for anything to go wrong, or else it'll affect his status. At least, I think that's what you mean…" she looked to Luis for support.
"Yeah…" he finished, eyes trailing out over the ice.
Ethan looked out too, "Well at least she's done now. Looks like we'll get there on time after all."
C.G. closed up the kit just after placing her device in the water. She wiped her hands free of imaginary dust; pleased with the task now finally done. On time, at that. She zipped up her pack and slung it over her shoulder, and then turned to face her friends up on the shoreline. Emily waved happily, which added to her swell of successful feeling. She walked a bit straighter as she headed back towards them to start for the Time Flyer again. She hardly noticed the puddle she'd stepped into, or what it ominously meant.
Luis watched in relief as C.G. was nearly upon them. She did look a bit more… confident in herself, which perhaps wasn't so necessary… but, whatever made her happy. Ethan gave a stretch beside him.
"Mission complete, stomach empty, time to get back to the…" he'd trailed off in hearing the loud crack from the ice. The trio all went pale in seeing the giant faults that zigzagged out in several directions from C.G., who stood there completely motionless. Before anyone reacted, there was an even louder split in the ice sheet, and C.G. was suddenly not standing there anymore. Rather, she was struggling among the shattered remains in the water.
"C.G.!" Emily shouted with a quick look to Ethan and Luis. "We have to do something!"
Ethan immediately set foot on the ice with his pack in hand. But he didn't make it two feet before it crackled beneath his weight. He quickly jumped back, eyes wide. "I can't go out there."
"What?" Luis sounded exasperated. "Not exactly the time to chicken out, Ethan!"
Ethan jutted his hands out at the frozen water. "I can't! I'm too heavy!"
"Guys, she needs us!" Emily almost shrieked, clearly scared for C.G.
"I'm sorry! I wouldn't make it a yard before falling in myself! One of you has to go." Ethan pointed from Luis to Emily.
"I don't think I can-" but Emily stopped mid-sentence in seeing Luis grab Ethan's pack and pull out a rope.
"I will. Help me get this tied. Alright. Whatever you do, Ethan, don't let me fall."
"We've got your back." Emily said as she and Ethan grabbed Luis' line. Then he set off.
His feet immediately shot out in different directions, probably from the slickness of melted ice on top of the frozen substance itself. He held tight to his rope as if it were his life, which, wasn't far from the truth. Luis could see C.G. struggling to pull herself out, but to no avail, and kept sliding back into the water. His movements were slow and deliberate; he was scared to death that the ice would break and he'd suffer the same fate. No, don't think about that. Just focus… "Hang in there, Cege! Almost there!"
Through burning, watery eyes, C.G. saw Luis making his way out toward her. Why was he alone? He couldn't possibly get her out by himself! She felt another jolt of dread pulse through her body, which was beginning to numb fast beneath her snow-suit. "Hurry!" she gurgled before slipping back under for a brief second.
Luis was finally there. He chanced a quick glance over his shoulder to make sure he was still secured. Ethan and Emily watched anxiously, still holding the rope. He turned back around and looked at C.G. She was still nearly ten feet out, but every sense in him screamed to stay back, to stay away if he didn't want to end up like her. But he did his best to push that back and threw out the end of his line. "C.G., grab the rope." he shouted.
She threw her arms forward and nearly caught it, but it slipped out from her hand and she sank lower still, apparently tiring, and fast.
Luis tried again, and this time she managed to grab a hold of it. He dug his heels into the ice and pulled back, only resulting in falling back and nearly losing the line. He hollered over his shoulder, "Pull us in!" but his mistake had cost them already.
The ice broke open and swallowed him up.