“That doesn’t matter.”
“Who do you expect me to get to fly the chopper if you get yourself stuck?” Matthew looked at Genevieve, who was smiling, wickedly. “You can fly? Where the hell did you learn?”
Genevieve nodded. “Don’t ask where I learned, but yes, I can fly that thing if it thaws in time.”
“All right then, Sam, go and come back as quick as you can. Good luck.”
“I’ll see you in less than three days.”
Sam closed the door, sealing himself and Alexis inside the hovercraft. He pressed the start button and the twin six foot fans which ran directly behind them started to turn. Within a minute they reached full speed and whined more like the blades of a helicopter as they produced the air current required to create lift. Confident enough air pressure had been developed, Sam adjusted the gear lever in order to split a fifty: fifty ratio of that air current through the ducting gearbox. The impeller below them suddenly roared into life with the flow of the powerful air current, which then became trapped in the hovercraft’s flexible skirt — causing the entire amphibious craft to raise five feet into the air on top of the trapped air cushion.
“Are you ready, Alexis?” he asked. His eyes fixed on the flat platform to the aft of the Maria Helena.
“Good to go.”
“You’d better hold on.” Sam waited until he saw her hands grip a holding point in front of her. “This might be a little rough.”
Sam then adjusted the gear lever, so that all remaining thrust was expelled through the rear propellers, and increased speed to full. The hovercraft leaped forward, running off the flat aft deck of the Maria Helena and into the ice cold water of the McMurdo Sound.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sam sped past Ross Island, across McMurdo Sound heading east towards Taylor Valley. The hovercraft skimmed across the surface of the cold and still waters at speeds above 70 miles per hour. If they were lucky, and the weather held, they would enter the dry Taylor Valley and from there they would cut across the Taylor Glacier and into East Antarctica where they raced time to reach the scientists from the Pegasus station.
Their speed would be drastically reduced once they entered the valleys. It was a twenty four hour run each direction if they were lucky, leaving a full day for the inevitable delays and complications. If Taylor Valley had become inaccessible, they would need to revert to the Wright and Victoria valleys, which were further away, to cross the Transantarctic Ranges.
Sam watched the majestic scenery through the windshield, which approached them with monotonous apathy no matter how fast he drove. He looked at Alexis, curled up in a ball in the passenger’s seat. She was hugging herself through her cold weather jacket and had already fallen into a light sleep.
He set the hovercraft on autopilot and pointed the nose to a waypoint just before the entrance to the Taylor Valley. It would still take a number of hours to reach, even at the speeds he was doing. Sam then picked up a heavy blanket and covered Alexis to her shoulders. It was just enough warmth to send her into a deep sleep. She smiled at the warmth, sending big dimples to her freckled cheeks; her thick brown curly hair nestled like a pillow as her head sank into the seat.
Sam figured she’d been on edge for a number of days after her ordeal aboard the Antarctic Solace. He envied the sound sleep that she was now having, but figured she probably needed it more than he did. It made her look more innocent as she slept.
Sam couldn’t help but notice that she was beautiful. Something about her current position made him want nothing more than to take her in his arms and just hold her tight; reassure her that everything was now going to be okay.
Alexis turned and leaned against him. Sam restrained his natural desire to embrace her. He caught the scent of her perfume. It was subtle, but intensely feminine. The more he looked at her the more he realized she was painstakingly beautiful. Not in the glamor magazine type of way and not in the overtly skinny or athletic kind of way, but instead in the homegrown natural beauty of a down to earth, stunning woman. He was also a sucker for beautiful eyes, and her green eyes took his breath away. If she was a physicist at CERN by the age of thirty-eight, it meant she was exceedingly intelligent. He stared at her as she buried her beautiful face into his shoulder. He tried to slide away, but she moved closer until she was close enough he could feel her warm breath on his neck. She was everything he desired — and exactly what he didn’t need right now.
He suddenly felt guilty for admiring her while she slept, and instead turned to work on the navigational routes through the McMurdo dry valleys.
Three hours later the still waters of the McMurdo Sound reached the rocky beach that led to the entrance of the Taylor Valley. He slowed the hovercraft and increased power to the impeller, creating more lift to mitigate the deep rifts and openings in the mountainside. He then shoved the hovercraft forwards and began the steep climb out of the water.
It took forty minutes to reach the peak before descending into the Taylor Valley. Sam had an immediate misgiving about his ability to maneuver the hovercraft if the wind gusted through the valley.
On the right side of the valley entrance the remnants of what was once a large glacier still made its exceedingly slow journey towards the sea. It was ancient ice, compressed by thousands upon thousands of years of snowfall which had squeezed all the air bubbles out, leaving an extremely dense mass of ice. Like any body of deep water, this ice absorbed the red, orange, yellow, and green wavelengths of light — leaving in its place the shorter wavelengths of the most splendid blue Sam had ever seen.
The hovercraft dropped off a ravine larger than Sam had realized — the engines whined as the cushion of trapped air in the skirt beneath them became free from the confines of earth, causing them to land with a soft jolt. More like landing on a semi-inflated jumping castle than the shock absorbers of a car. He continued to drive through the Taylor Valley. In front of him the mountains extended on each side of him like the jaws of a monster; rising so high that even the snow failed to reach their peaks.
Next to him, Alexis startled after the sudden movement. Not quite awake, she took his left arm in hers and held his hand; her delicate fingers interlocking with his. Sam knew he should let go of her hand and somehow find a way to send her back to her side of the hovercraft, but at the same time, didn’t want the experience to ever end.
She opened her eyes and looked up at him; they were dark green like jade with a multitude of sparkles. He felt her squeeze his hand in hers. Did she just mean to do that? She then let go of his hand and rolled back to her side of the hovercraft.
“Good morning,” he said.
“How long have I been out for?” she asked without making any mention of the fact she’d been lying in his arms.
“About three hours. We’re descending into the Taylor Valley now.”
After crossing a land filled with snow and ice, the hovercraft reached the floor of the Taylor Valley — a barren land, and driest, windiest desert on earth.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sam adjusted the first gear lever to his left, cutting power to the main propellers which generated forwards propulsion. The hovercraft immediately slowed along the barren valley floor. He then used his right hand to reduce the revolutions of the impeller which was the downward facing propeller used to generate lift. Thirty seconds later the hovercraft slowed to a complete stop and sank gently to the ground.
Alexis sat upright. Her eyes wide with sudden concentration. “What is it?”
Sam grinned as he reached for his orange exposure suit. “I thought it was time to get out and stretch my legs.”