“This is Colonel Vacendak. Why have you stopped?”
“We were just echolocated by a biologic, a Miocene sperm whale.”
“Wait… that fossil we saw?”
“Easy, Ben. So far it’s staying deep.”
“But we’re not. The moment we hit the surface, the river’s current will carry us east again.”
“Dr. Wallace, the biologic is circling between you and the entrance to the bay.”
“Thank you, Colonel, we know.”
“We suggest you wait until you get closer and then accelerate past it into the bay. We can guide you into the shallows where you’ll be safe.”
I turned and looked at Ben and Ming. “It’s worth a shot.”
The Barracuda continued to rise. As it drew closer to the surface the current swept us up and carried us east at seven knots.
Another tingling zzzzzzzzzzt rattled the sub.
I listened intently on sonar. “Damn. It’s either feeding along the bottom or waiting in ambush. I can’t tell which. Twelve hundred feet until we pass over it. Hang tight, Ben.”
“Captain Hintzmann, once you’re in the bay, relinquish command and we’ll remotely guide you to your destination. No worries; we’ll see you past this little speed bump.”
“Obviously you didn’t see the size of the little speed bump’s teeth. Zach?”
“Stand by. Eight hundred feet.”
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzt.
I heard Ming cry out in the darkness.
“Three hundred feet. It’s gotta know we’re here. Ben, restart the engine but don’t hit the gas until I say.”
“Just keep in mind this monster probably has another gear, too.”
“Two hundred feet. It’s getting agitated… It just went vertical. Shit, it’s fast. Gun it!”
I clenched my teeth and cursed myself as the propeller struggled to catch water a second before the back of my head hit the seat and we shot ahead—
— the surface behind us erupting.
I turned to see a white lower jaw and abdomen rise majestically from the depths.
Livyatan melvillei… This is insane.
For a spellbound moment the hundred-ton bull whale seemed to defy gravity. Then it collapsed belly-first in the water, its tidal-wave splash crashing over our acrylic cockpit. By the time the creature attempted to echolocate us again, we had entered the tributary doing thirty knots.
Ben continued on a northerly course for another three miles before he was convinced we were sufficiently safe enough to warrant turning the sub over to Vostok Command.
“It’s all yours, Colonel.”
I grabbed for the handrail as the Barracuda rolled into a steep dive, avoiding islands of ice. We accelerated through the depths, our sonar now thankfully biologic-free.
The sub surfaced thirteen minutes later. Our night-vision glasses confirmed we were now in a bay. Ahead was a peninsula, or perhaps it was a small island; it was hard to tell, as the coastline was partially obscured by mist. A snow-covered mountain towered seven stories above sea level, its peak reaching half the distance to the ice sheet ceiling.
Two hundred yards from shore our vessel suddenly accelerated through the ice-riddled surface, heading straight for land without any signs of slowing.
“Easy, Colonel, slow down!” I tightened my harness seconds before the Barracuda skidded out of the shallows and slid into a snow drift with a teeth-rattling thud, our impact chasing off a quartet of beefy female elephant seals.
“What the hell, Vacendak!”
“Sorry, kids, but we needed to get up a head of steam to beach your craft. Dr. Wallace, this island is the source of the magnetic interference that has equalized the pressure of the ice sheet and has enabled life to flourish in this section of Vostok. Before we pilot the Barracuda to your extraction point, we need the three of you to establish a sensory array around the base of the mountain.”
I shook my head in disbelief. “Colonel, you don’t seriously expect us to go outside, do you?”
“The pressure’s normal in this area of Vostok; there’s no danger.”
“Apparently, you didn’t see the size of the creatures you just scared off.”
“The Barracuda’s exterior lights will keep them a safe distance away. I assure you, Dr. Wallace, it’s perfectly safe.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Let me rephrase that: setting up a sensory array on this island will be far safer than what you’ve already experienced. Dr. Liao, inside the storage compartment behind your seat you’ll find a duffle bag containing Extreme Weather Gear, climbing axes, boots, and backpacks for each of you. Inside each pack is eighty feet of nylon rope, night-vision goggles, a night-vision monocular lens, bottled water, a first aid kit, and a lead case the size of a small poster tube. Do not open these tubes until you arrive at each of your designated coordinates, as they contain the sensory instruments. Inside you’ll find a telescopic aluminum antenna capped by a small metal octagonal unit the size of a golf ball that will feel warm to the touch. But do not touch it; the reason it’s warm is because the exterior casing is composed of plutonium.”
“You exposed the three of us to plutonium?”
“The plutonium keeps the unit heated against the elements. I can assure you, Captain, the lead casing more than contained any harmful radiation.”
“How are these sensory units powered?” I asked.
“A radioisotope thermoelectric generator provides electricity to five sensors designed to monitor everything from atmospheric pressure changes and energy fluctuations to magnetic variations. A computer vision system will create 3-D thermal images while another instrument uses x-ray diffraction to determine the mineral composites within the asteroid impact zone.”
Ben winked as he passed me one of the neon-orange nylon backpacks, along with extreme weather pants, gloves, a hat, spiked climbing boots, and a jacket. There was also a combination magnetometer, GPS unit, and Geiger counter — all contained in a unit the size of my cell phone.
I tested the latter, just to make sure the plutonium canisters were doing their job.
We dressed quickly while the Colonel downloaded coordinates to each of our GPS units. “The first site must be established three-point-seven kilometers to the north at an elevation of seventy meters above sea level. Dr. Liao will remain at the first site while Dr. Wallace makes his way to the northwest coordinates, and Captain Hintzmann heads to the northeast. Once all three devices are powered up and the array triangulates, we’ll send a signal through your GPS units to regroup with Dr. Liao. Return to the sub, and we’ll have you at the extraction site in just under an hour. Are we ready?”
“Hell, no.” Reaching above his head, Ben unlocked the hatch and popped open the acrylic dome.
A blast of subzero air forced me to quickly zip my jacket and mask my face. Ming passed her backpack to Ben, who then helped her out of her cockpit.
Adjusting the straps on my climbing boots, I exited the sub, purposely spiking Ben’s leather seat with my steel cleats just for good measure before securing the hatch.
17
“I have seen so many extraordinary things, nothing seems extraordinary anymore”
I stood between Ben and Ming in our frigid surroundings, the three of us sharing the same sense of awe the Apollo 11 astronauts must have felt when they first set foot on the Moon, the same emotional rush a mountain climber experiences upon reaching the summit at Everest. For several minutes, we simply allowed our senses to partake of our Miocene world as we stretched away thirty-plus hours of cramped muscles. We inhaled Vostok’s air, smelling its high oxygen content, registering a trace of dizziness in its purity. We listened to the ice sheet as it crackled and groaned and rumbled high overhead, its pitted foundation trickling droplets of water, each liquid discharge congealing during its twenty-second descent into golfball-sized meteors of slush. These semi-frozen projectiles delivered a painful wallop when they found their mark and were impossible to dodge, forcing us to cover our heads with our backpacks.