|
|
John Carpenter's
 |
|
|
The Early Winter - Chapter 3
"Why the hell didn't you radio in when you got there?"
Bergstrom thundered into the radio mic.
A crackle, and Erling's voice came through the speakers.
"I'm sorry, but we were so excited that we… well, we forgot. You
should've been there, seen it…" More static.
"Well, how much longer until you're done?" Bergstrom asked, this time
slightly more subdued than the first. Slightly.
"We're packing up now," Erling's voice buzzed. "Probably 20 minutes…
you think, Enger? 20 minutes out?" Another voice, unintelligible,
could barely be out through the static.
"Goddamn it, Forsell, clean up this static, will you?!" Bergstrom cast
his fire at the hapless radioman, who subsequently leapt into action
dialing knobs. The interference didn't improve. Forsell cast an
apologetic glance to the glowering Swede. Bergstrom's yelling was
drawing an audience… Lundestad, Egeland, and Dr. Hoiland were standing
in the hallway of the men's quarters.
A snap. A crackle. "…will be there soon, just wait until you see the
footage. Over and out," Static.
Bergstrom grit his teeth, and those who'd assembled around the hall
door of the radio room beat a hasty and silent retreat.
As the other eavesdroppers headed their separate ways, Lundestad
slowly made his way on stiff legs from the radio room back to the rec
room. Whatever they found, they certainly seemed excited about it, he
thought. Good for them. Smiling to himself, he entered the rec room
and sat himself carefully down on one of the couches with a groan, and
reached for his book. Bolen and Staalset were watching him from their
card table. "Hey, what was all the yelling about?" Staalset asked.
"Oh," the old man sighed, "Bergstrom was giving poor Erling the 3rd
degree for not radioing in when they got to the site. Sounds like they
found something pretty exciting though," he smiled, chuckling, turning
his attention to his book. The other two men shared a look, and
returned to their game.
Dr. Hoiland and Egeland wandered into the rec room, in the middle of
what appeared to be an animated discussion.
"The initial investigation is a crucial moment! I should've been
included!" Egeland protested.
Dr. Hoiland, clearly tired of the direction of the conversation,
simply nodded sympathetically and said, "Well, that's Bergstrom's
call. Sorry," and turned to join his friend Lundestad and find
something else to talk about.
Egeland became acutely aware that his outburst had attracted the
attention of the other men in the rec room. Casting a surreptitious
glance about him, he turned and left the room to retire to his bunk.
When Enger set the helicopter down back at the camp, there wasn't a
man there who wasn't excited. They were all desperately curious as to
what it was that Erling and Krieger had found. Even Bergstrom forgot
his previous agitation in the rush to get the men and gear back inside
so they could find out more.
Picking the rec room as the best place to make their demonstration,
Erling hurriedly connected the portable video unit with the resident
television. Krieger attended him, though it was slow going because
both men were a bundle of excited nerves. Some of the others were
quizzing Enger on what it was that was out there, but he wouldn't
say-- both because he honestly didn't know, and because he didn't want
to spoil the obvious excitement of his scientist companions.
In a few minutes, everyone had settled into chairs, and awaited the
discovery. Krieger and Erling stood at the front of the room, next to
the TV and PVU. Krieger, all smiles, gestured for Erling to go right
ahead and proceed.
Clearing his throat, Erling began.
"Well, I know you're all anxious to hear what has us so excited, so
we'll get right down to it. From the air, it looked like a very large,
circular stain on the ice, about 50 meters in diameter," he activated
the PVU and the TV screen flickered to life, showing a left-to-right
pan of the darkened surface of the ice. He scanned further along the
video, until he came to another section of footage. It now appeared to
be shot right on top of the stain. The camera panned down, with
Erling's hand in the foreground brushing snow away from the surface.
It was darker beneath. "Upon closer investigation, we discovered that
it was larger than we originally suspected, and was not some sort of
unusual surface treatment, like we thought may have been the case."
Cutting in, Krieger took the initiative. "There is actually something
under the ice."
A murmur circulated the room. The video footage now showed Krieger and
Egeland taking ice core samples, and Krieger setting up sounding
instruments.
Krieger continued, "Initial soundings indicated a very, very large
solid object, approximately 5-7 meters below the surface of the ice,
with a thickness of at least another 5-7 meters. I have yet to analyze
the ice samples we took and many of the other readings. We can't get
too hasty until we find out more about it… Could be radioactive or
pose other threats we don't know about."
"What Krieger means to say," added Erling, "is that we'd like to dig
it up."
Another murmur circulated the room. Bergstrom leaned back in his seat,
crossed his arms and cast a look at them. "So we're supposed to simply
disregard the Preservation of Fauna and Flora Act of 1964, then?" His
question was met with dumbfounded silence from the two scientists.
"We can't just go around blowing holes in the surface of protected
land. You're going to have to give me better cause than that before I
even consider authorizing any such thing," he continued, looking at
them flatly.
Finally finding his voice, Krieger stammered, "I, I can't believe you
don't see the potential significance of this finding! It is our
duty to investigate further!" His voice was starting to rise in
both pitch and volume. Erling sidled up to the man to calm him down.
"Why, there is no telling what could be-"
"That is exactly my point," Bergstrom interrupted. "There is no
telling what could be down there, and until you can give me better
reason than wild speculation, we're not doing a damn thing to that
ice."
Krieger started towards Bergstrom, yelling. The big man rose from his
seat. Erling flung himself between them, trying to hold Krieger back.
"Calm down, Krieger! This isn't going to help us!"
The others were on their feet now, confused but ready to intervene in
the escalating situation.
"You have no fucking clue, do you?!?" Krieger shouted, pointing his
finger at Bergstrom. "We're onto a discovery of vital importance, and
you're talking about old treaties!"
Stoic but intense, Bergstrom volleyed. "Those 'old treaties' are the
very things that enable us to continue to come here and freely explore
a frontier that is mostly still wild! We go blowing holes in it, and
we're out of jobs, and we screw it all up for the others yet to come!"
"Now gentlemen, this is not the way to go about this discussion,"
Lundestad interjected gently. He stepped between the two men, who made
room for the frail old biologist.
Looking from one man to the other, he offered, "Isn't there some kind
of compromise? I agree with Krieger that there could be something
monumentally significant down there, but I agree with Bergstrom that
we can't go off half-cocked and blow it out of the ice without better
cause."
Both men listened.
"Now, the weather is going to make outside operations unfeasible
before too long. Why not give Krieger and Erling a deadline to prove
their case by? If they can't give you something suitably substantial
before the weather turns, it won't make a difference anyway. If they
do, then the course is obvious. In the interests of science, we'll be
obligated to investigate further. Hmm?" Lundestad looked between the
two men for their approval of his proposition.
Bergstrom looked hard at Krieger. "Five days,"
"Here is what we've ruled out," offered Lundestad thoughtfully. The
other scientists had decided to use Lundestad's placating demeanor to
their advantage in their meeting with Bergstrom, and given the man's
mood today as they seated themselves in the lab's stiff chairs, they'd
need it. Against a backdrop of impressive lab instruments, charts, and
his companions, Lundestad, clipboard in hand, began.
"We've concluded that the ice has been undisturbed for far, far too
long for it to be a man-made object deliberately planted under the
ice. There are also no traces of any recent human activity anywhere
near it. This rules out possible subterfuge or international
violations that the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research would
have to know about. It also rules out the possibility of the find
being notable to archaeology, since it's position in the ice, and it's
very location here in Antarctica, pre-dates what we think of as human
intelligence. It's possible that it may be of paleontological
interest, however."
"Go on," muttered Bergstrom.
"Here is what we have been able to ascertain with a fair amount of
certainty. As noted before, the object in the ice is very ancient. It
may have been buried in the ice for 100,000 years, considering it's
depth in the glacial ice.
"It is also unquestionably responsible for the secondary magnetic pull
that got our attention in the first place. The strength of the pull is
simply ridiculous in proportion to the size of the object itself.
We've estimated it at only 100 meters across, yet it's strong enough
to compete with our own planet's magnetic field, at least on a local
level. Other than a magnetic field, it's not radiating any other
energy that we can detect.
"Now, Krieger's ice samples have revealed some strange things. In
particular, trace microscopic fragments of what we believe to be from
the main object. They are a form of metal uncannily similar to
magnesium, but not quite the same. Since we only have traces of this
material, we can't elaborate on that notion further, other than
accounting for it's magnetic strength. The overall situation is unlike
anything ever reported before, so we should consider it unique.
Because of that, we have to consider non-Earthly origins."
"Back to the meteorite theory, then?" asked Bergstrom. He sounded
bored.
"In a manner of speaking, but let me continue. If we were to assume
that the entire object, or at least a significant percentage, is
composed of this magnesium-like material, then we have to wonder how
it got through the friction of the Earth's atmosphere and impacted
without completely burning up."
Bergstrom shifted his weight in his chair. "So, what's the answer to
that?"
"That's just it, we don't know. We can't account for that part of it.
Additionally, the seismic evidence of its impact isn't consistent with
those typical of meteorites- especially exceptionally large ones, as
this one would appear to be."
"So what?" asked Bergstrom impatiently.
"So," offered Lundestad softly, glancing back at his companions, "I
think you would have to agree that there are enough unanswerable
questions of scientific merit here to justify further investigation."
He looked at Bergstrom expectantly. Egeland, Krieger and Erling
watched in silent anticipation.
Bergstrom looked away and snorted. Rising from his chair, he glowered
at them and said in a low voice, "Alright, we'll do it your way. This
had better be the landmark event you're saying it is, because this is
a risk," He turned and left the room briskly.
Lundestad looked towards his companions and shared a relieved smile.
Chapter 4
Return to the Fan Fiction
Index
|
|
