Colder Than Ice (17 page)

The
shaking of the tent interrupted her thoughts and Rob’s concerned tones filtered
through the canvas. “Sarah, are you awake in there?”

Michela
awoke from an exceptionally erotic dream and found herself mere inches away
from Allison. Still half-asleep, Michela reached out to Allison but her hands
were trapped in her sleeping bag.

“Sarah,
get your sorry ass out here. We’ve got an emergency!”

Michela
unzipped her bag, sat up, and quietly cursed as she pulled her ice-cold boots
on. “What’s the matter?”

“It’s
Michael. When I woke up this morning he was complaining of pains in the
chest.”

Sarah
pulled the remainder of her body out of the bag and headed for the door.

Michela
put a hand on her arm. “We can’t afford two patients. Please put your
boots on before you head out.”

Cursing,
Sarah grabbed her boots. “Did he say how long he’d been suffering the
pains?” She drew the laces tight and stuffed them in the top of her snow
socks instead of tying them.

“He
said he thought he had indigestion for a while, but figured it had something to
do with the meal last night. Rick cooked and I swear he takes cooking lessons
from you,” Rob replied.

Sarah
pulled on her beanie and sunglasses and left the tent with Michela. “Rob,
under the front passenger seat of your vehicle is my medical kit. Can you get
it? I’ll meet you at your tent.”

Sarah
crawled into the tent and found Rick and Ewan sitting in their sleeping bags.
Michael, in obvious pain, was on the other side of the tent.

“It
wasn’t my fault,” Rick declared. “How was I to know that red stuff
wasn’t tomato but chili sauce.”

“I
don’t think this has anything to do with your cooking. Now if I could please
have a little quiet.” Sarah barely acknowledged Michela as she passed the
medical bag to her. “Can you tell me how you feel?”

Michael
grimaced. “My chest hurts like all buggery.”

Sarah
reassuringly rubbed his arm. “Can you describe the pain?”

“I
feel as if someone’s put a huge concrete block on my chest and I’ve got a hell
of a pain down my left arm. Damn it, if I could just get comfortable, this
bloody feeling might go away.”

Sarah
quickly took Michael’s pulse and temperature and checked his breathing. She
retrieved a small bottle of pills from her bag and spilled one into her palm.
“There’re a couple of things this might be, so I’m going to try and rule
out these as I go. This,” she motioned at the pill in her hand, “is glycerol
trinitrate and is commonly given to angina patients. If it’s going to work,
then it will do so in a very short period of time. Now, I’m going to place it
under your tongue.”

“What
if it doesn’t work?” he asked before Sarah put the pill under his tongue.

“If
it’s not successful then you may be having a heart attack. Either way, we’re
going to have to get you back to Wills Station where they’ve much better
medical facilities to deal with this. Ewan, can you keep an eye on Michael? If
there’s any change in his condition, can you let me know? Michela, could I have
a word with you outside?”

They
crawled out of the tent and went to the shelter of the cold, but windproof
sno-trak. Sarah closed the door of the vehicle and faced Michela. “Mate, I
don’t think the angina tablet’s going to do any good whatsoever, but it can’t
do any harm at this stage. In fact it may calm him a bit.” Sarah removed
her beanie and vigorously scratched her head. “My guess is he’s having a
heart attack, how serious I’m not sure. But we need to get him back to the
station and fast. If he crashes here I’ve got no hope of saving him.”

Michela
nodded. “I’ll contact Maddi. She mentioned the long range helos they have
at the Wills. Let’s hope our comms are working.”

Sarah
snapped the lock of her medicine bag shut. “There’re two helos at every
station and they always fly in pairs because of the conditions down here.
They’ll be able to cover the distance. It’ll be more an issue of how soon they
can get here. I better go and see how Michael’s doing.”

Michela
pulled the satellite phone from where it had been secured for the journey.
“While you do that, I’ll contact Maddi and let her know what’s going on.
Can you get Rob to give me a GPS reference so I can relay our location?”

“Sure.”
Sarah closed the door.

As
Michela fiddled with the phone, she felt a blast of air.

Allison
climbed in and struggled to close the door. “Rob says Michael’s had a
heart attack. What are we going to do?”

“Yes,
he has, but Sarah’s got it under control. In the meantime I’m going to call back
to station and get him evacuated to Wills.”

Allison
nodded as she rubbed her cold hands together. “Is there anything I can
do?”

“No.
Hang on, yes. You can keep everyone busy by getting the camp ready for travel.
Pack everything except the tent Michael’s in. In the off chance we can’t
establish communications we’re going to have to return to Wills Station.”

“But
if he’s suffering a heart attack, won’t that be too long? Won’t he die?”
Allison’s unease was evident.

Michela
looked into Allison’s eyes and covered her hand with her own. “He’s going
to be fine, but I need you to keep everyone else busy. Can you do that for me
please?” Allison nodded. “Good. Now I’ve really got to see if I can
get this phone to work.”

Alone
in the sno-trak, Michela pressed all the necessary buttons and flicked all the
required switches and then attempted to place a call, only to get static. She
silently cursed.
What had Maddi said about solar flares?
Michela
searched her memory. The flares had the capacity to knock out communications
for hours or possibly days.
Great. We’re in the twenty-first century and our
technology is still thwarted by something completely beyond our control.
She
tried the phone again and got the same result. Forcing herself not to scream in
frustration, she tried one final time. This time the connection dropped through
and Maddi’s disjointed tones echoed down the line. Michela wasted no time in
explaining the situation.

“So
Sarah thinks it’s a heart attack?” Maddi asked.

“Yes,”
Michela said.

“If
that’s the case we’ll send the long range helos out to you. They should be
there in just over an hour. Do you have a GPS reference for me?”

“Yes,
Rob’s passing it to me now.”

“Got
it. Hang on a minute.” Maddi shouted a series of instructions to someone.
“Right. They’ve got the info and they’ll be there as soon as possible.
There’s no sign of bad weather so it should be smooth sailing. I’ll send the
station’s doctor so he and Sarah can do a quick medical assessment before
Michael’s transported back here.”

“What’s
the plan once you get him back there?” Michela asked.

“The
Yank Chinook we’ve been using to ferry some of the stores from the ship to the
station’s still here. There’s a medical facility at Kennedy Station with a
surgical capability and it is better equipped to handle such cases. I’ll speak
to the pilots about the possibility of flying him there for treatment.
Depending on how he responds will determine what happens next. Suffice to say,
I strongly doubt he’ll return to the expedition.”

“I
sort of expected that. We’ll have to reallocate tasks and share the cooking. My
main interest is his health.”

Heavy
static echoed down the line. “I’m losing you so I’ll sign off. The helos
will be there shortly. Have the guys mark out a landing zone for them. Both Rob
and Sarah know how to mark out a LZ. I’ll keep…ou…osted on
Mi…aels…dition.”

Before
Michela could reply, the line went dead. She returned the hand-piece to its
cradle and went to make preparations for the helo’s arrival.

In
little over an hour the helicopters landed on the makeshift LZ created by Rob
and Ewan. While Michael’s condition hadn’t deteriorated, it hadn’t improved.
After Sarah’s quick briefing with the Wills Station doctor, Michael was put on
a stretcher and loaded onto the first helicopter for the return journey to
Wills Station.

When
the helicopters were no more than specks on the horizon, Michela marshaled the
team and refocused them for the journey ahead.

Over
the ensuing days Michela received regular updates from Maddi about Michael’s
condition. Some days she managed barely thirty seconds of discussion with Maddi
before the communication link went dead. But it was enough for Michela to relay
to the rest of the members that Michael had stabilized and was going to be
okay.

Michela
was relieved at further good news—that the U.S. Army had volunteered to fly him
out in about a fortnight on one of their re-supply flights to Christchurch.
From there he’d be repatriated to Australia.

WELL
INTO THEIR ninth day Rick shook Allison awake.

“What?”

Rick
pointed out the window. On the horizon, they could just make out the orange
rectangle that would be their mess and work area over the ensuing weeks.

Allison
smiled. “After so many damned months, we’re finally here.”

My
Darling Charlotte,

It
seems so much has happened since my last entry. After five days of continual
unloading, we managed to have all our stores on solid ground. There was time
for one final festive dinner on the craft that had so bravely ferried us here.
The following morning we watched as it slowly made its way through the pack ice
and onwards toward Tasmania. The captain has agreed to rendezvous with us in
four months time, before the colder weather closes in and makes movement by
water impossible. This should give us sufficient time to make our observations
of this great white land.

Our
movement to the camp was slow and not helped by the prevailing winds that
seemed to blow from the continent’s inner regions. The dogs that survived the
sea journey proved a blessing, speeding up what would have been a long traverse
if made by men alone. The establishment of our base has been my first priority,
however this hasn’t always been the focus of the rest of my crew. I can hardly
blame them and their eagerness to explore, however we must finish our
accommodations before we can even consider exploration. All my love,

ERF

Antarctica—2009

DIANNE,
RICK, AND Allison scrambled out of their sno-trak before it had barely come to
a halt and scanned the landscape in an attempt to see the remains of the building.
Ewan joined in the excitement, kicking the ground, as if trying to unearth
hidden treasure.

Michela
and Sarah waited until Rob shut down their vehicle before joining the rest of
the team.

“Where
is it? Is this the right spot?” Dianne asked.

Sarah
nodded. “We’re in the right location but the hut’s completely buried by
over one hundred years of snow and ice.”

Rick
headed back to the BOB-trak and the team’s stores. “Let’s break out the
blades and start digging.”

Michela
lightly grabbed his arm. “Not so fast. There’s a list of things that have
to be done before you even start digging, not the least of which is setting up
our camp. There’s no point in starting to dig if you’ve got nowhere to sleep
and eat.” She looked at the disappointed faces of the group. “I know
how you feel but trust me. Finlayson’s hut’s going nowhere.”

Rob
rubbed his hands together. “Okay, boss. What needs to be done? The sooner
we finish, the sooner we can start on this digging stuff.”

Michela
nodded her thanks to Rob. “First, we have to off-load the stores from the
two vehicles returning to Wills Station. Once that’s done there’s
accommodations, electricity connection, toilet construction, establishment of
the mess and work area…”

“God,
we’ll barely be finished and it’ll be time to leave,” Dianne said.

Michela
held up her hand. “If we all pitch in it should only take a few days to
get the base camp completely established. Then there’ll be plenty of time for
you to start your excavation.”

Sarah
stamped her feet; her gloved hands firmly wedged in her armpits. “So who’s
doing what? I’m getting cold standing around here doing nothing.”

“We’ll
all unload the two vehicles returning to base and then the tasks will be as
follows. Rob, I’d like you to be responsible for rigging electricity to the
mess hut and the accommodations huts.” Michela made a map in the light
covering of snow. “This is how I’d like the camp laid out. You can all see
the mess hut and the solar panels behind it.” The group nodded. “I
want you to think of the mess hut being at twelve o’clock. At nine and three
o’clock, I’d like each of the apples to be set up. Alli and Rick will be in one
and Di and I will be in the other. At six o’clock will go the googie and that’s
where Ewan, Rob and Sarah will bed down. Ideally I’d like to see the distance
between the buildings to be no more than thirty yards. I know this sounds
close, but once the weather sets in it will make safe movement around the site
a lot easier.”