Chapter 3: Briefing
Edvard had gathered everyone in the chart room to put the visitors in the picture. The chart room was the base's main operations centre, and a quick look around showed how much effort went into their research and the running of the base. Every wall and table in the room was covered with maps and charts and photos of the team at work.
Jonas, who was the station's unofficial documentarian, inserted a tape in the machine and hit play. The monitor displayed footage of them collecting core samples. This being of little interest to the visitors, he pressed fast forward.
Jonas hadn't come to Antarctica to play cameraman. But everyone at Thule had to do multiple jobs to keep the station running. Now, he was pleased to be in the position. He was determined to return home with evidence the world's governments couldn't cover up. This could not be the only alien visitor in the space of 100,000 years. Stuff like this must fall to Earth all the time. He knew of a base at the North Pole which had reported contact with an alien species 30 years beforehand, but had been dismissed as a hoax due to lack of evidence. Jonas did not want the pattern repeating here.
As Jonas searched for the right place in the film, Edvard began recounting how they had come across the spaceship. From the interferences with their equipment, to the misadventure in the snowcat, to the next day's survey.
"We cleared the top snow so that we could gain an estimate of its size and shape. It was at this point that we found the body." He said, as he pointed to the monitor. Jonas had found the right place and muted the film. The screen now showed footage of the team standing over the ship's silhouette in the ice. As the film continued, they began to fan out until they were stood in a circle with their arms outstretched. "Here, you see us laying flags to gain an estimate of its size. Our initial plan was to cut down from the top. That was before we found the tunnel." He paused the film "Henrik, show them the scan."
Henrik, who was responsible for surveying, pointed to a series of overlapping prints on the wall, formed from numerous ultrasound scans around the crash site. A huge black zone indicated the presence of the ice, through which an unsteady column of white worked its way down to a larger clear space.
"As you can see from this," Said the Norwegian. "The ship crashed into the glacier here. It then carved a 200 metre tunnel into the ice, and came to rest in this chamber here. The occupant, we presume, must have crawled up the tunnel and on to the plateau.
"So, let me get this straight." Said Adam. "You crash into a glacier, and with no knowledge at all, you leave the safety of your ship and go out into the cold?"
"Maybe it was hurt and went to find help?" Henrik offered.
"Guess it didn't find it." Said Adam. It filled him with dread to imagine surviving that crash, only to find yourself marooned, light years from home, in the most inhospitable environment on Earth.
Karl stepped forward. "I have my own theory." Said the German "We've analysed the metal at the back and found more traces of corrosion than the metal at the front."
"Meaning what exactly?" Said Adam
"The ship's probably had some kind of an auto-repair system running for 100,000 years. Its intact now but it probably was not then."
"So anyway," said Edvard, resuming the video, "we simply had to lay a couple of thermite charges to uncover the entrance and we could get down to it." The film showed the team laying the charges before cutting to a shot from the plateau as the thermite ignited in a brilliant display of light.
The film ended here, as it was too dark to film underground, so Edvard described the team's underground exploration purely verbally.
As the commander finished his lecture, Sander located the radio operator.
"Colin," he said "I want you to make sure everyone stays off the radio. We don't want anything being leaked."
"Shouldn't be a problem." Said Colin. "Storm's brewing. I don't think anyone on this bloody continent's talked to each other in a week."
Edvard, meanwhile, had finished the talk. "So this is where you three come in. Any thoughts on extracting the creature, Kate?"
Kate had been studying a collection of surveys and notes which the team had laid out on a table for her. Sadly, the notes had proved of little use as most of them were in Norwegian.
"Er, the ice." Said the palaeontologist. "I should probably ask. What condition is it in?"
"It's not into the fracture zone, so there's very little risk of fissuring. " Said Jonas, who was an expert on Polar ice. "It's quite dense so, we think, we can get it out in one piece. We have an idea about how to do it if you would like to look." He pointed to a diagram on the table. "We drill four holes at the corners and cut out the spaces between with chainsaws. We then pour boiling water in to create a soft bottom and the whole thing will lift out."
"Well, it sounds like you've got everything covered, I'm not sure what you need me for." Kate laughed. She peered at the diagram for a moment and said. "Based on this scan you made, you might want to make those holes a couple of inches deeper or you might boil a bit of the... thing." She winced at how unprofessional that had sounded. "Also, do you have a crane suitable for this sort of load."
"Yes." Said Peder, as he stubbed out a cigarete. "Lars has been setting it up." He indicated to the heavily set mechanic who was sitting by a wall, playing with his dog.
"What's its maximum load?" Kate said to Lars, who looked at her blankly.
"Oh, he doesn't speak English." Said Peder. "He'll work like a bear though." He turned to Lars "She wants to know how much the crane can lift."
"One. Five. Zero, zero Kilograms." Lars said with a lot of effort.
Kate scribbled down some calculations. "That should be enough."
Lars, meanwhile, had turned his attention back to his dog, Jeb. It did it no good to be in the kennel all day but he couldn't take it out across the snow in the darkness so he would bring it to run around inside. The others didn't mind as long as he kept it away from the kitchen and the labs.
Canines and machinery were two great passions he'd discovered while in the army. He just wished the army could have given him a bit more to do then patrolling the same stretch of border once a week and giving the Soviets a friendly wave as they passed by. After leaving, he'd joined an Antarctic search and rescue team, which had proved much more exciting. Lars had grown up in the far north so, unlike some of the others, he was used to the cold.
"I must say," said Kate, "the rest of you all speak surprisingly good English."
"We're taught from an early age in Norway." Said Peder, as he lit another cigarette. It amazed Kate that a man could smoke so much.
"You mind not doing that in here?" Said Colin, as the first puff of smoke drifted past his face. "Creates a bad smell."
"Covers the smells you produce." Said Peder and smiled.
The team liked Peder. He always had some joke to keep them entertained. But he was also practical and keen to help whenever anyone required a second pair of hands.
Kate slept little that night. Not just from the cold and the unimaginable silence but from the implications of what she had seen. Quietly, she got up, strolled to the window and looked out onto the freezing wastes. Between her and the outside were three panes of glass, with a layer of warm air between each, and Kate could still feel the heat seeping from the room. Outside, the moon lit up the snow and the view was breathtaking.
Kate turned her eyes to the stars. Since she was young, she'd seen them as tiny points of light in a sea of blackness. Now, each one could represent another race, infinitely variable from our own. The universe was a hive of activity, with spaceships zipping between stars in search of adventure, or just popping down their equivalent of the shops. Somewhere out there, a bug eyed creature was probably looking at another sky and wondering if it was alone in the universe. Kate would never look at the stars in the same way.
"First night is hard." Said Juliette, from the top bunk. "I thought the Alps were cold when I worked there. But nothing prepares you for this." The Frenchwoman had taken strongly to Kate. Not least because she was the first woman she'd met in several months.
Many still said that Antarctica was no place for women and Juliette was determined to prove them wrong. She was glad no one at Thule had any such objections. She was as strong and capable as any of the men and they respected that.
In the next room, Colin was watching an old recording of "The Seeds Of Doom" with Karl. The only member of the team he really got on with.
"Do you suppose there'll be some sort of bonus for bringing home an alien instead of core samples?" Said the radio man.
"There'd better be." Said the German
While some of the other scientists had come to Antarctica out of scientific curiosity, Karl had been attracted by one thing only. Money. Antarctic scientists were well paid for their research. Upon coming to the place, Karl had realised why. They were being forced to conduct their research in a world which was trying its best to kill them, and it would be another six months before he could get anywhere warmer.
Their latest find, however, had finally picked up his interest. While his part in the discovery was small, it was incredible to think that he was one of the first to encounter the single biggest scientific breakthrough since man first started rubbing sticks together. Tomorrow, the world would be changed forever.
Author's notes: There are a lot of lines I've shifted around here in order to work better in text form.
I thought that the video footage would make a nice continuity reference, as well as providing answers to some a couple of the questions fans often ask.