The Nexus Colony (26 page)

Assuming the message was already on its way to be delivered, realistically that left about two hours before any plane would arrive, presumably from McMurdo, where Abbott was certain a LC-130 was on stand-by to get them out if the need arose. Three hours, maybe, if they had to bring in a plane from somewhere else, although he couldn’t imagine where else they’d come from. They’d all be long gone into the cosmos by then if
The Visitors
reacted with any hostility towards them.

Abbott sat down for a few moments to catch a breather. Then he stepped outside to await a response, turning up the volume full so he could hear any incoming message tone, if indeed one was going to come back. The faint trace of ozone still lingered in the extreme cold air.

Abbott inhaled deeply, trying to calm his nerves. This was an adversary more formidable than mankind had ever faced. The combined armies of the world could never cope with these entities. He looked off into the distance, first up the glacial slope where he could vaguely make out the figures of the two men, then down across the glacial field. It had become very calm again. And as usual, when the wind didn’t blow, it was deathly quiet.

From the mission objective, the strategy was now to get the evidence out, which would be accomplished once the LC-130 arrived to take custody of the frozen body. Assuming, of course, that it would be allowed to depart the glacier. Another frightening scenario in the back of his mind. The other objective was to get the team out safely before any hostile action was demonstrated against them, although for all intent and purpose, the apparent abduction of Lightfoot was about as hostile as it could get. Of course, it was all contingent upon the incoming orders. Whether their mission was fulfilled at this point wouldn’t be clear until he got a response. The waiting game.

For a moment, Abbott felt genuine compassion for these people from the National Science Foundation who were victims of circumstance by their presence here. Grimes and Bryson—they had no more business being here than the man in the moon. But they had become implicated nonetheless by the politicizing of powerful men. A factor truly uniquely human. Abbott knew they were
all
expendable. He felt sorry for them. But that’s the way things are. You accept it and slough off any emotional connection to it. The mission. Abbott would do what he was ordered to do.
Humanity comes first. Not just a handful of humans. The needs of the many…
.

The tone startled him. A message had come back quickly. The window had apparently still been opened. Abbott scurried back inside the tent. The message on the computer screen was short and to the point. It read:

What it meant was that the plane would be on its way to pick up the artifact—they didn’t even know what it was—but that a back-up team had not yet been deployed to McMurdo. Abbott cursed. What in the hell had they been waiting for? Now that the discovery had been made, somebody was finally getting off his ass to take some action. This wasn’t Bill Korbett’s way of doing business. It made Abbott all the more suspect of what in the hell was
really
going on out here. Something just didn’t sit well.

But at the moment, there wasn’t anything he was going to do about it. They were stranded out on this god-forsaken glacier having verified an alien contact. There was no defense against
them
. The team had found what appears to be a building structure or something. For the next two hours they were going to be in limbo. And vulnerable. Totally, completely vulnerable. There was only one thing left to focus on. That was the mission. And hope they were going to be left alive to tell about it.

* * * * *

As the winch reeled the cable back in, Abbott hoped he had made the right decision in bringing Dr. Bryson back to the surface. Not that she wasn’t contributing anything to their progress down below, but rather that there was the chance she would panic once she put two and two together and figured out that John Lightfoot had disappeared. Worse yet, that somebody—or
something
—had done the taking. Monroe had his specific instructions. Don’t tell her anything more other than Lightfoot had gone back down to the tent, having taken sick.

“No,” Abbott reprimanded her. “You many
not
go back down and help him.”

“If the man is sick,
somebody
should be helping him,” she protested as Monroe continued helping her out of the harness which had gotten all twisted during the ascent up the crevasse wall.

“The man will be fine,” Abbott replied, trying to divert her attention to the task on the ridge. He was adamant. “I do
not
want this rig left with only one person attending to it.” Abbott turned. “Donnie? Make certain Dr. Bryson knows how to operate both the rig and the radio.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You know what, Colonel Abbott?” Allison responded scornfully. “You’re a very heartless man. You wouldn’t care if the man was dying down there, would you?”

“Frankly, no,” Abbott responded. “But he
isn’t
. Right now I’m more concerned about seeing that these people down here don’t get left abandoned.”

“Ready,” Prall announced, having hooked himself up to the harness along with his weapon and a large gear bag that he had retrieved from the snowmobile.

“Lower him down, Donnie,” Abbott said, giving the hand signal. “Now please…Allison,” he implored, softening his approach, a psychological ploy she missed. “Watch what he’s doing. I need
you
up here to help Donnie, and I need Colonel Prall down there to help us bust into the place.”

“You don’t need
anybody
to bust into the place,” Allison said sarcastically.

Abbott looked at her. “Why not?”

She hesitated for an instant. Then decided,
what the hell? It doesn’t make a difference anyway,
and said, “Because they’ve already found an opening.”

They must have just found it,
Abbott guessed. He replied, “Look, Allison. I’d appreciate a little cooperation. I want to get us
all
out of this place, and the sooner the better. I’ve got a job to do, and I intend to do it. But we’re going to do things
my
way and that’s it! Now please…” he gestured. “Help Donnie.”

The cable was reeled back in, and within five minutes Abbott was back down at the bottom of the crevasse. The other five men were congregating in the alcove. Their movement cast an eerie shadow across the cavern ceiling. They were silent. When Abbott approached behind them, he could see where, in his absence, they had cleared away a significant portion of the wall to reveal more of the panels. And there, to the left just as Lisk had suspected, the structure had been extensively damaged, the ice having somehow gotten inside breaking apart the outer covering. They had found the base of the severed structural beam, and it was twisted and broken like a tree branch, having given way to the most powerful force in nature. Ice.

There was still a solid wall in front of them, but as Abbott moved closer to inspect what Lisk and Ruger were pointing out to him, he found where they had punched a hole. Lisk passed a pry bar through the opening, wiggling the handled end around to show that the thickness of the wall was minimal and the bar was suspended in air on the other side of the wall.

“It’s hollow,” Ruger said, breaking the silence of the group.

“Just found it about fifteen minutes ago,” Lisk said. “Figured we’d wait until you got back down. Needed a breather anyway.”

Abbott nodded. “Any rush of air when you punched through?”

Lisk indicated negative. “No apparent change in air pressure, either.”

Prall, who had been fumbling in the gear bag, handed him a small, odd-looking tubular device attached to a lanyard. Abbott stuffed it through the hole.

Watching intently, they could see when the device had reached the other side, as it dropped toward the floor under gravity. Abbott fed the lanyard through the hole until it reached the bottom.

“About ten, twelve inches thick,” Abbott said.

“What
is
that thing?” Ruger asked.

“Detects the presence of certain toxic gases,” Abbott replied.

“Certain?”

“Not all. Most of the bad ones, though.”

Prall was holding up another device. This one was equipped with a meter. Ruger could see the red LED numbers blinking.

Abbott said, “Same type of device. Little more sophisticated.”

After a minute or so, a green light came on. “All clear out here,” Prall said.

“Keep it handy,” Abbott said. “I want it kept on when we go inside.”

Abbott pulled on the lanyard. The device made it to the top of the hole on the other side, but apparently got caught, not able to negotiate the angle to be brought back in through the hole. “Bust it open a little more,” Abbott said.

Lisk took the geologist’s hammer and made the hole bigger.

“Ugh-h-h,” Grimes suddenly gagged. “What in God’s name is that smell?”

They all began to turn their heads away from the ghastly odor that was apparently emanating from the widened opening.

Prall was already holding up the meter near to the opening.

“My guess is that it’s just stale air escaping,” Almshouse said.

“Sure is awful,” Ruger said, moving away from the hole.

“It’s got to be,” Abbott responded. “It’s air that’s been pent up inside for who knows
how
long.”

“Kind of like the air they released when Carter opened up the Great Pyramid,” Grimes commented.

“That’s real encouraging, Hilly,” Almshouse responded. “I guess that means we’re all going to die from Carter’s
Curse of the Pharaohs
.”

“Wasn’t any curse that killed them,” Grimes replied. “It was the lethal bacteria.”

“What’s the difference?”

“How many masks are in the bag?” Abbott asked.

“Three,” Prall replied.

Abbott gestured, and Prall gave one each to Abbott and Lisk. Ruger looked slighted, and Abbott said to him, “We’ll handle the next phase alone, Mike.”

Ruger responded, “Come on, Marsh. You’re not going to bring us all the way to this point and leave us hanging!”

“I just want to make sure it’s safe first. That’s all.”

Ruger was silent.

Abbott made a quick check of the time. In about another hour—if the estimated time of arrival was accurate—the LC-130 would arrive at the glacier to pick up the frozen body. It would be a lot easier if everybody was still down here in the crevasse. Less complication. Even if Abbott had to stay down. He could still pass any new info. They could have the body out before anybody was the wiser, especially Ruger. Donnie could handle Dr. Bryson.

Abbott paused to take a breather. The foul odor seemed to be dissipating, but the smell still lingered in the confine of the cavern.

Ruger, sensing the break in the action, said, “Everybody’s exhausted, Marsh.” Ruger sat down next to him. “You might want to consider going in tomorrow. Might give the place more time to air out.”

Abbott didn’t respond.

“We could bust open the hole wider,” Ruger offered.

Abbott was unmoved. “I didn’t come this far to take any break now.”

“Everybody’s tired and hungry,” Ruger implored. “Body resistance goes down. Then we’re all a candidates for frostbite or hypothermia.”

“We’re out of the elements down here,” Abbott responded. “You know that as well as I do. Those portable heaters are sufficient. You cold, Mike? Anybody cold, Mike?”

“That’s not the point,” Grimes replied.

“It
is
the point, Dr. Grimes,” Abbott snapped. “Nobody’s suffering. At least that I can see. You’re all every bit as excited as I am to see what’s back there. Don't give me that shit!”

“You’re right,” Ruger responded. “But it can wait a few more hours until morning, can’t it?”

Abbott looked at Ruger. “No. It can’t.”

“You worried about the weather up there?” Grimes asked.

“Yeah,” Abbott responded. “The weather.”

Abbott stood up, gesturing to Prall to get ready to bust through the wall. “I want to know what’s behind that wall. And I want to know
now
!”

* * * * *

Allison Bryson sat huddled in the back seat of the snowmobile. Exhausted, cold, hungry and bored, she remained at odds with Major Monroe over her disallowance to take a short trip down to the camp. “Female thing,” she voiced as a last resort.

“Too bad,” he responded. “You’re staying here.” She noticed the change in his demeanor since yesterday. More callous, angry. Like the man’s whole personality had changed. Not that she ever really knew it in the first place. Must be
The Ice.
They say it changes people out here.

And aside from her apparent detainment on the ridge, off to her side the frozen body sat precariously next to the sled on the down slope side. It hadn’t been taken to the camp, which was what Abbott had told the others as the reason he was coming topside. She shuddered looking at it. Up here on the surface, it was different. More foreboding. More mysterious, even though it was now exposed to natural light. Maybe because she was looking at it alone. Maybe because it symbolized what could happen to
every
living thing that stayed out here too long.

The wind to this point in the day had remained relatively calm, and Allison watched the distant sun roll with uncertainty around the Antarctic skyline just above the horizon. What had been a tapestry of pastel colors was once again starting to darken, as another passing storm system seemed to be rising far off in the distant mountains. The charcoal blot slowly encroached on the blue sky that had been there for hours. The glistening crystals that were omnipresent far down on the glacial field had disappeared, either the angle of the sun’s rays or the growing haze blotting out the refraction from the crystals. The panoramic landscape was metamorphosing yet again, heralding another episode of the ever-changing face of Antarctica.