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John Carpenter's
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The Early Winter - Chapter 4
It wasn't really part of the job description, but under the
circumstances it couldn't be helped. Bergstrom recruited all the staff
of the team for this job, and the scientists were glad to have the
help. It made sense to bring Dr. Hoiland along, since they were
dealing with potentially hazardous materials and harsh conditions, and
it was obvious that the driver and mechanic should come along as well…
But Forsell was a spindly radio man and Staalset was just a cook, and
they didn't much like the idea of going outside and screwing around
with glacial ice… fame and glory be damned.
Their objections had fallen on deaf ears with Bergstrom, and they
supposed it was no surprise. "We're going to need every last man for
this work, and you're no exception," he had told them both, and not
with a little contempt.
Those warm and fuzzy memories didn't make it any more pleasant in the
extremely cramped tractor. It was noisy with the motor running and the
constant chatter of men, and would've been uncomfortably hot were it
not below freezing outside the thin walls. Most of the supplies they
needed were on the flatbed trailer or in the external storage boxes on
the massive vehicle. Space was at a premium in the cabin, and moods
were mixed. The scientists were abuzz, and even Bergstrom had loosened
up now that he'd resigned himself to what they were doing. Dr. Hoiland
was in good spirits, and Bolen and Enger seemed not to mind the
excursion.
Forsell and Staalset merely exchanged a perturbed glance after a
particularly enthused burst of laughter from the scientists.
"Hey, how far did you say we had to go to get to this thing?" Forsell
spoke up.
Enger called back over his shoulder from the driver's seat. "We're
about halfway there, only about 4 more kilometers to go. We'll be
there before you know it,"
"Not likely," Staalset muttered below his breath, drowned out by the
rumbling of the tractor as it lumbered across the icy flats.
Enger brought the tractor to a halt about 10 meters from the edge
of the gray area in the ice. It was only at the urging of his
companions that he parked this close. He wasn't a superstitious man,
but he had no good feelings about the proceedings for the day.
A grey sky greeted the men as they exited the tractor, each pulling
goggles over their eyes to protect themselves from the ever-present
glare of the ice and pulling up the hoods on their dark blue parkas.
The deathly cold that greeted the men when they opened the cabin of
the tractor was a shocking return to the reality of the task at hand.
There was little wind, and once Enger switched off the engine of the
tractor, hardly a sound could be heard. The men all subconsciously
hushed their voices, as though afraid of offending the oppressive
silence.
Most of the men stood staring, transfixed by the gray expanse of ice
splayed out before them. The urging of Krieger and Erling prompted
them into action, mittened hands undoing clasps and straps in an
effort to free the loads of the tractor, passing heavy boxes and other
items down to the ground. The videocamera was present, of course, and
Forsell practically insisted on operating it. Nobody objected… he was
one of the least capable men when it came to physical labor, and it
was a way he could make himself useful. Lundestad stayed with the
tractor. He had insisted on coming along, but Dr. Hoiland had in turn
insisted that he not strain himself. Lundestad didn't appreciate being
regarded as being so frail (though frail he was), but neither could he
affect the argument.
"Well, it's your show," Bergstrom said to Krieger with a nod. Krieger
nodded back and took charge. "We need to establish the size of the
object," he called out. "Spread out and encircle it so we can get it
on tape," he ordered, leading the way as Forsell deftly handled the
videocamera. Bergstrom, responding to the long look Krieger cast back
over his shoulder, also wandered out onto the ice.
The men began working their way around the perimeter, each carrying a
flag to mark his position. By the time they were done and spaced
evenly, they were so sparse that the videocamera couldn't view them
all with any decent perspective. At Krieger's order, they closed in
around the furthest side of the object, until they were about 5 meters
away from the next man. This, thought Krieger, was at least a better
perspective of scale even if they weren't able to encircle it in its
entirety. The men themselves were surprised at the scale of the thing.
"You got it?" Krieger called out to Forsell.
"Yes," the radioman shouted back to him, shutting off the camera. He
was taken aback by the size of the object… It hadn't looked that big
on the television screen back at the camp.
Realizing that the others were still standing encircled about the
object in the ice, Krieger waved them back in to assist the next step.
Being the seismologist, he was in charge of "extracting" the object
from the ice via explosives. The truth was that nobody, to his
knowledge, had ever tried to extract anything on this scale, and he
was nervous. Thermite was very dangerous stuff, and could well burn
right through whatever was down there. They might not even have enough
to finish the job, and that would be a hassle of a different sort.
Going over his sheet of estimations, he sent the men back out with the
flags to mark where the thermite would be planted for optimal
effectiveness. Forsell dutifully caught the action on camera. The
auger, picks, everything on hand was used to dig the holes, and
everyone set to work to maximize time with a minimum of bickering
against the inevitably waning morning. Krieger, very familiar with the
thermite canisters, personally handled them and placed them carefully
into the ice. He needed the personal touch to ensure that nothing was
sloppily rushed.
The process had taken hours by the time Krieger was setting the last
of the charges, and nobody was happy about still being out in the
elements. The interior of the tractor served as a means of thawing the
men out when there was a moment to do so, but caution had to be taken
to not expend too much fuel, so Enger would periodically shut the
motor off.
Finally, by early afternoon, the last of the thermite was planted.
Enger moved the tractor 200 meters back with most of the men piled
into the cabin to save their fatigued bodies the walk.
Krieger and Erling were the only ones who stood outside the tractor,
whose motor was now shut off for safety. Krieger held the remote
detonator. Erling handled the camera. Both men vainly tried to hide
their nervousness, but there was no helping it. Krieger looked down at
the remote, his fingers brushing over the buttons, and then glanced
over his shoulder to the tractor. He nodded to Bergstrom, who was
inside the cabin, and Bergstrom, unheard, addressed those who were
with him to guard their eyes. A tentative glance between Erling and
Krieger, and Krieger abruptly pressed the ignition button on the
remote.
A pause.
A blinding shower of sparks began shooting out of the ice… first at
one dig site, then a few moments later the next, then the next after
that in rapid succession, multiple fires alight at any given time.
Even with their goggles, the men had to shield their eyes against the
incandescence of the fires. The ice turned translucent, exposing the
silhouette of the hulk beneath.
The two men resisted the dangerous compulsion to go rushing forward to
get a closer look, and in their reverie, the shockwave from the
explosions nearly knocked them off their feet with its hot breath.
Minutes passed while the thermite burned down, the two scientists
rendered powerless by the anticipation. Finally, nothing but steam
arose from the crater. Both men started when Enger cranked up the
motor of the tractor, and getting the idea, both leapt upon the
running boards and held tight as the driver made his way to the pit.
10 meters was close enough for Enger. He stopped, and shut the motor
off again just for good measure. Erling and Krieger jumped off, while
the other men hurriedly piled out of the cabin. Enger stayed in the
driver's seat.
When Krieger got to the edge of the precipice, his heart both leapt
and sank.
Laying in a shallow pool of steaming, rapidly re-freezing water was,
for lack of a better term, a giant metal saucer. Neither flat nor
featureless, there were protrusions, would-be openings, a central
dome, and an overall sense of symmetry and design that made the mind
swim with it's intent. Beginning to hyperventilate, Krieger turned a
glassy gaze to Erling, who by all appearances shared his shock. They
had not uncovered a meteorite nor any other naturally occurring
object… They had uncovered a foreign object. Foreign to the
scientists, foreign to Antarctica, foreign to the planet, and in all
likelihood, foreign to the galaxy.
The thermite had superheated the ice all around, so that, as the ice
melted, the object had actually sunk further down than it was
estimated to have been. That was not all the thermite had done.
Whatever it was that was in the crater, it was hopelessly scarred,
burned and corroded by the action of the explosive.
Krieger swooned, and collapsed onto the ice at his feet. Erling stood,
still transfixed by the foreign body.
Dr. Hoiland practically fell on his face to get to Krieger, not even
bothering to look into the crater.
"Need some help here!" he called out. Bolen and Staalset hurried over
and helped Hoiland pick up Krieger's limp body and put it in the warm
tractor cabin. Most of the other men hurried up to the edge of the pit
and stared down.
"Oh god, oh god," Erling finally muttered to himself, turning away
from the edge and walking shakily away in no specific direction.
Bergstrom, Lundestad and the physicist Egeland stood looking down onto
the expanse of metal freezing in the bluish ice pit below. Bergstrom
turned and walked a few paces, hesitated and turned back.
"That can't possibly be what I think it is," he said finally.
Egeland looked over his shoulder. "What the fuck do you think
it is?" he snapped.
Lundestad quickly turned and placed himself between them as Bergstrom
started to close the short distance between himself and Egeland.
"I don't think we'll know for sure until we take some tests… correct,
gentlemen?" Lundestad commented softly, looking back and forth between
them. Sensing the trouble abating, he turned back to the pit and
continued, "But, I'd be willing to hazard an uneducated guess."
"Shit," grumbled Bergstrom, walking over to the tractor.
Erling, still in shock, had wandered over to join Forsell, who was
staring down at the ice at his feet some ways back from the edge of
the crater, about 30 meters to the east of the other men.
Erling's voice was little more than an inaudible squeak at first, but
momentarily it became a trembling yell that immediately called the
other men to attention.
"There is more! There is more in the ice! There is something else
in the ice!"
Chapter 5
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