The sun was low on the horizon which was white in every direction. Kathryn glanced at the second tent and could see an orange-blue glow from the small flickering flame inside. She pulled the large door flap open and stepped out, quickly re-zipping it from the outside. Even without the wind, the early morning air felt like it penetrated through her clothes immediately. She ran across the twenty feet of frozen ground and flung open the tent flap as fast as she could. Without a second’s delay, she jumped inside.
Andrew looked up from his aluminum coffee mug. “Morning,” he said in a low voice.
“Good morning.” She zipped the door closed and turned to sit down on one of the small lightweight collapsing chairs on the other side of the burner. She leaned in close to the flame which was keeping the coffee hot and the tent warm. She picked up a mug, scraped some ice out, and poured herself a cup.
Kathryn really did not care for coffee but decided three days ago that she was not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Taking a sip, she frowned at the bitterness and wrapped her hands around the warm metal cup. She looked absently around the tent. Most of their geological gear lined the far wall, including two laptops and a satellite phone.
“Things are going well, eh?” asked Andrew, in this thick New Zealand accent.
“Touch wood,” she said with a grin which was the Kiwi equivalent of the same American phrase. She looked around for a piece of wood to tap. Both looked around the tent and laughed quietly when they realized that everything around them was made with lightweight metals and fabrics.
Andrew finished his coffee and reached down for the small Teflon coated frying pan. “So,” he said, “I know the official reason for you all being here. But it doesn’t seem to wash out.” He lit a match off the burner and used it to ignite a second. “If you already knew the extent of the Shelf slide, why come back with so many in such a mad rush?”
Kathryn looked at him and then quietly glanced down at the flame in front of her. “Pride.” She kept gazing and then shrugged and looked back at him. “And a little arrogance, I guess.”
He put the pan on the flame and dug into the food chest to retrieve some eggs and a strip of bacon. “Your pride or theirs?” he asked with a knowing grin.
“Mine.”
“Ah,” Andrew nodded. “So your pride and their arrogance, eh?”
She smiled behind her cup. “How’d you know?”
“Politics aren’t limited by country. We’ve got our own share of dramas down here.” He cracked open two eggs into the pan. “In fact, I got a mate working in one of our government branches. The things he tells me leave me in no hurry to get back.”
“How did you wind up out here? I can’t tell if you’re a researcher or a soldier.”
Andrew laughed. “Ah, I’m a soldier, but I do a little research too. Have to. Not to mention that conditions out here are rough enough that you tend to want to help out a bit just to get things wrapped up quicker.” The eggs started to bubble and he reached for the plastic spatula. “You want these over easy again?”
“Please.” Kathryn watched him flip the eggs. He was not a bad cook, in fact, after factoring in the environment she decided he was an excellent cook. “Do you lead people out here a lot?”
“Ah yeah,” he said dragging his words. “Few years ago, a team from China was out and they got lost in a snow storm. Only two of the five made it back and the ones that did were in pretty bad shape. We had offered to go out with them until they acclimated and all, but they refused. After that we started going out with everyone, no exceptions.”
“Better safe than sorry,” She nodded. “I’m afraid to think of how we might fare if the weather turned bad on us.”
“Nah,” he smiled again. “You’d be alright with us.” He flipped the eggs onto the small metal plate and slid the bacon on top. He handed it to Kathryn and reached back into the chest. “If we leave early, I’ll be able to make us all a big farewell breakfast.”
Like Kathryn and her four person team, the rest of the teams also landed without incident, except for one failed snowmobile on the last drop. Thankfully, it was the three man team, and they were still able to manage with one machine. The rest of the project had so far gone fairly smoothly and with over half of their work done, they were expected to leave a full two days early. Something everyone was happy about.
The teams had already placed most of the seismographs along the fault line. The new models were solar powered and connected via a direct satellite link. About the size of a large shoe box, they would be able to measure any changes on the Shelf up to fractions of an inch in any direction. The majority of work in the next two days would be primarily measurements and sample gathering.
Kathryn turned around when she heard the unzipping of the tent door behind her. In stepped Tadri, who seemed to zip it back up even faster than she did. “Did I hear someone talking about breakfast?”
“Yeah you sure did,” Andrew replied, “have a seat and I’ll fix ya right up.”
“Bless you.” Tadri sat down next to Lokke and drained some coffee from the percolator. She let out a gentle groan with her first sip. “Coffee has never tasted so good in all my life.”
Andrew smiled. “Yeah, the Antarctic will do that. Everything hot tastes better, and everything cold tastes a little worse.”
“Must be why we all started crying over your stew last night,” Kathryn said and they all laughed.
Tadri looked at Kathryn. “How many more of the SatQuake units do we have to place?”
“Just three more. The rest of the trip should be mostly data collection.”
“Any problems with the other teams?” Tadri had turned in early the night before, before Kathryn had made her rounds checking in with the other teams over satellite phone.
Kathryn shook her head. “Not really. A few hardware units that don’t seem to want to work, couple of small injuries from tripping, and a lot of complaints about the food.” She smiled at Andrew waiting for a reaction.
“Heeey,” he said, as he handed a plate of eggs to Tadri. “Can I help it if the other gents can’t cook like me?”
“All in all, it’s been pretty smooth.” Kathryn continued. “We really lucked out with this weather and everyone is eager to leave early.”
“You know,” Tadri said to Kathryn. “There were a lot of unhappy people when you told us what we were going to be doing. A lot of people complaining that this was just a political axe to grind for you. But I think this has been good for everyone. Most of us had not just gotten soft, but I think some of our skills had gotten a little rusty too. I know a lot of people are probably still pissing and moaning on the outside, but I think everyone will be better for this.”
“Thank you.” Kathryn gave a gentle raise of her eyebrows. “To be honest, I thought I was going to get a wave of resignations over this.”
Tadri winked. “Well, you might still get a few.”
“Just hope they are the right ones,” Andrew grinned.
Kathryn and Tadri looked at each other as if Andrew somehow knew who the problem members of the department were. They both burst out laughing.
Kathryn’s four person group was out on the ridgeline by 7:00 a.m. Two hours later, Pierre was positioning one of the seismographs while Kathryn and Tadri measured the width, depth, and horizontal shift of the fissure caused by the quake. Andrew walked ahead examining the ground for signs of cracks or weakness in the ice. A few falls from the other teams had resulted in only minor injuries, but a collapse under foot could easily result in something much worse, ranging from a broken ankle or compound fracture to a cave in from which it would take too long to get someone out, if at all. Ironically the vast majority of deaths in the remote regions of the Antarctic were caused by smaller injuries that prevented the victims from getting out of the elements in time. This was a lesson that all of the guides explained to Kathryn’s people on the first day and repeated frequently.