Beneath the Ice (6 page)

“A noble effort, Mr.
Sachs,” Griffin said. “But what of the structure
itself? Was it decontaminated before it was
erected?”

“
It was, Dr. James,” Perry said. Griffin’s attitude had
settled into forced civility. Perry was thankful for that. “There
are two domes overhead. One, as you saw from the outside, is made
of translucent paneling. It will allow sunlight to pass through,
warming the inner, second dome. External mechanical equipment keeps
the air tem
perature a few degrees below
freezing.”

“So the ice doesn’t melt,” Sarah said.

“Exactly,” Perry said. “We
don’t want to be sloshing around in here, but we want it warm
enough that we don’t have to wear thick,
heavy clothing. Your suits come equipped with small electric
heaters
. You won’t roast, but you will be
able to maintain an in-suit temperature above fifty. Warm clothing
should handle the rest.”

“What are those doors?” Griffin asked,
pointing a silver-gloved hand toward the far west wall.

“Equipment air locks,”
Perry said. “The air lock system you came
through connects the Dome with the Chamber, but it’s too
small to
admit larger supplies. Those
doors lead to a larger area, where equipment
can be assembled or disassembled as needed.”

“How high is the ceiling?” Griffin
asked.

Perry knew where he was going. “Twenty-five
feet. You’re wondering how we’re going to drill with a low ceiling
overhead.”

“You have over two miles of ice to drill
through,” Griffin said. “Unless you have some engineering magic up
your sleeve . . .”

“I don’t, but Sarah does.”

All eyes turned to Sarah Hardy. Perry saw
her smile through the large faceplate.

This was Sarah’s big moment, and she was flooded with
apprehension and excitement. A quiet woman, she preferred solitude
to gatherings. Now she was the center of attention, not of a
party’s guests, but of several brilliant men and women. She blinked
in disbelief. To think that she, a fifty-hours-a-week lab rat, was
standing on an ice sheet at the bottom of the world, garbed in a
clean suit was almost too much for her to take in.

She saw Perry through the plastic face
shield; he was smiling. Her heart skipped, and she felt a sudden
wave of embarrassment. She forced herself to focus.

“Well, as you know,” she began, “my
specialty is robotics. Over the last few years, I’ve served as
chief engineer on an ambitious NASA mission. One of NASA’s
directives is to learn if there is life on other planets. Not
little green men, but microbial life. Earth is the only planet that
has life, so far as we know. However, there are some interesting
possibilities fairly nearby.”

“I assume you’re talking about Europa,” Gwen
said.

“Exactly. Europa is a moon of Jupiter and is
roughly the size of our own moon. It’s one of the ten largest
satellites in the solar system. What makes it interesting is that
its surface is covered in ice—water ice. We think that three miles
beneath the surface is slushy ocean, maybe sixty miles deep.”

“Sixty miles!” Larimore exclaimed. “Our
ocean is . . . what?”

“About three miles deep on average,” Griffin
said. “There are areas a mile or so deeper, but nothing like sixty
miles.”

“Exobiologists think Europa is a likely
place to find microscopic life,” Sarah added.

“Isn’t Europa too far from the sun?” Gleason
asked. “Doesn’t life have to have some heat?”

“Yes, it does,” Sarah
said, “but as Gwen can tell you, some micro
scopic life can thrive in unimaginable conditions. They’re
called
extremophiles and have been found
in everything from boiling water
to
ice.”

“Including the ice beneath our feet,” Gwen
added.

“Europa is warmed from the inside—thanks to
Jupiter, whose gravity pulls at it constantly. Europa orbits
Jupiter every three and a half days. It is bathed in radiation from
the planet and subject to extreme tidal forces. The end result is
that the moon has a warm core that heats the water under its
surface. My job was to help design a device that could travel
through space, land on Europa, and bore through three miles of ice,
while all the time sending back data. It’s called a cryobot.”

“I didn’t think that program would be
available for years,” Gwen said.

“We have an advantage,”
Sarah explained. “We don’t have to travel 380 million miles to do
our job. We can control everything
from
right here.”

“You plan to send a robot down through the
ice?” Griffin said, his disgust apparent. “I don’t know how to make
this any plainer. The waters of Lake Vostok have not seen the light
of day for millennia. It has been sealed off from external contact.
It is unspoiled, but you want to change all of that by dropping a
mechanical device into the waters. That is the height of
stupidity.”

“Griffin—” Perry began.

“
Listen, you pompous pig,” Sarah countered. “You’re not the
only
one concerned with such things. At
NASA our greatest fear was introducing an organism into the
environment of Europa. We want to know what’s there, not deliver
something. Hairy is cleaner than an operating room.”

“But there is always the chance of leaving
behind oil or some other substance,” Griffin said. “We are talking
about a machine.”

“It’s been thought through,” Sarah said. “My
life is invested in this thing. I haven’t overlooked a single
detail.”

“
Wait a minute,” Jack interjected. “Did you call the
thing
Hairy?”

“Yes,” Sarah said. Her embarrassment was
detectable even over the speakers in Perry’s suit. “It’s a nickname
. . . sort of.”

“Doesn’t sound too sterile to me,” Griffin
chided.

Sarah exhaled loudly then
said, “A short article in the April 1995 issue of
Discover
magazine
described hairless ice moles that could melt ice with their heads.
The article said they were discovered by researcher Aprile Pazzo.
Her name is Italian for April Fools’. It was a joke, but it caught
on and appeared in other publications. Some called them ‘naked
hotheaded ice borers.’ The hotheaded part stuck in my
mind.”

“So you call your cryobot Hairy,” Gleason
said. “Well, it does roll off the tongue a little easier.”

“When do we get to see this hairless
ice-boring mole of yours?” Griffin asked.

“No time like the present,” Perry said.
“Give me a hand, Jack.”

It took only ten minutes to cross the
Chamber and open a plastic box that had been set near the equipment
door. Perry and Jack pulled tools from a sealed plastic pouch and
removed the metal bolts that locked down the lid of the container.
Once the top was removed, the sides folded down like a flower
opening to the sun. Perry pulled back plastic sheets to reveal a
torpedolike device resting on a curved stand.

Hairy was six feet long and wide enough to
hold a man. The front of the cylinder sported a shining copper cap.
The rest of the device was bright orange.

“You were going to send that to Europa?”
Larimore asked.

Sarah laughed. “No. The
space-traveling version is much small
er. I
was told that we needed a big hole, so I brought this
pup.”

“Why a big hole?” Griffin asked.

“I’ll hold that answer until later, Dr.
James,” Perry said. “Just know that I’m the one who asked for
it.”

“Figures. More secrets,” Griffin
snapped.

“You don’t get it, do you?” Larimore said to
Griffin. “This is going to happen whether you like it or not.”

“I may not be in the U.S., but I still have
the right to express myself.” Griffin turned to Perry. “How are we
supposed to contribute when you keep so many secrets?”

“Trust,” Perry said, knowing that it would
do nothing to alleviate Griffin’s suspicion. “Soon you’ll know
everything, but not now.” He paused and looked at his team. They
were an odd mix, and he was asking them to trust someone they’d
never met to do something that had never been done. Perry couldn’t
blame the man. The truth was, he was having trouble trusting
Griffin.

“How does it move?” Gwen asked, filling the
sudden silence.

“Gravity,” Sarah answered. “There is no
motorized drive for the descent. It is, however, equipped with
various sensors and water jets for maneuverability.”

“Camera?” Gleason asked.

“Several,” Sarah replied. “Real-time video
and digital stills. We control everything by cable and
joysticks.”

“Do you have any experience doing that?”
Griffin pressed.

“Yes. I’ve controlled this unit and others
like it in a pool and in open sea. I also practice with a computer
program that throws variables into the formula. It keeps me on my
toes. It’s very much like a video game.”

“I’ve never played a video game,” Griffin
said. “Waste of time if you ask me.”

“That explains a lot,” Larimore said.

“Enough bickering, gentlemen,” Perry
ordered. He started to speak again when a rumble vibrated the
Chamber’s dome. Powerful propellers thrummed the air, shaking the
arched structure. Perry grinned. “Last plane in and out, folks.
Let’s go see what Santa has brought.”

Chapter
4

Perry pulled on his
parka,
slipped on his shaded goggles,
cinched his hood around his head, and stepped out of the protective
dome onto the dim, cold, eerie ice. He rounded the Chamber in time
to see the same C-5 aircraft that had chauffeured them to the
barren ice taxi to a stop.

“The limo’s here,” Jack said. “Do you
suppose anyone thought to bring pizza?”

“More gear and supplies,” Perry replied.
“Oh, and one other important addition.”

Larimore’s Seabees and Perry’s work crew
trotted out to the mammoth plane as its tail ramp descended. They
disappeared up the ramp in a line. They waited for no orders. They
knew the task before them. Perry marveled at the crew’s
dedication.

As the propellers slowed, a stepped ramp
lowered, and a man emerged. He wore a bright blue parka and the
same cold-weather garb that hung from Perry’s frame, but unlike
Perry, this man was short and round. He waddled down the stairs,
awkwardly creating a drama with each step.

“That kinda looks like . . .” Jack began.
“You’re kidding.”

“No humor here, buddy,” Perry said. “And I
don’t think Dr. Curtis will find any joy in this.” Dr. Kenneth
Curtis packed 250 pounds in a five-foot-nine-inch body. He moved
slowly but always with purpose. While his rotund shape and balding
head might have kept him from appearing on the cover of a fitness
magazine, his mind had earned him several mentions in scientific
literature.

Perry walked toward his friend, a wide smile
on his face. Jack and Gleason followed. Dr. Curtis wore no smile.
“Welcome, Professor,” Perry said. “Glad you could make it.”

Curtis huffed. “There is now a standing
order at my house. ‘If a man named Perry Sachs calls, I’m not
in.’ ”

“But then your life would be dull,” Perry
said. “You’d spend all your time in a safe Boston classroom
teaching fresh-faced students who don’t appreciate your true
genius.”

“Smack-dab in the middle of nowhere and he’s
still trying to play me like a violin,” Dr. Curtis grumbled. “You
may have killed me this time, Perry. I can’t breathe, my head
hurts, and I’m losing all sensation in my extremities.”

“Just like the rest of us,” Jack
interjected. “It’s not that bad, Doc. It’s just like Boston.”

Perry watched Curtis raise his head and
narrow his eyes. “Boston has a symphony. Does this place have a
symphony . . . or a library . . . or a decent restaurant?”

“How about a transistor radio, Gleason’s
comics collection, and a can of sardines?” Jack laughed at his own
wit.

“It’s a good thing I like you boys,” Curtis
said, “or there would be real trouble.” He winked at Perry.

Despite his bluster, Perry knew Curtis to be
kind, thoughtful, and deeply spiritual. But he did love to
complain. “I assume it’s warmer inside than outside.” He nodded at
the Dome.

“A little,” Perry said. “The dome on your
right is called, well, the Dome. The square buildings are
dormitories, storage, and the like. The larger dome on the left has
been dubbed the Chamber. That’s where the work goes on.”

“Let me guess,” Curtis said. “Jack named the
buildings.”

“It’s a hobby,” Jack said.

Curtis shook his head.
“For a big man, you have a tiny imagi
nation. Let’s go.” Curtis took several quick
steps.

Perry looked at Jack.
“Same old Professor Curtis. You gotta love
him.”

“I can’t wait until he and Dr. James butt
heads. That’ll be worth the price of popcorn.”

Perry jogged a few steps until he caught up
to Curtis. “I appreciate your coming down.”

“An archeologist in the heart of
Antarctica!” Curtis said. “Makes no sense—it makes no sense at
all!”

“Then you why did you come?” Perry
prodded.

“Because, Perry, in your hands, the absurd
somehow becomes real. I don’t want to miss that.”

Enkian strode into the conference
room, pushing aside custom-made teak doors. Tia was a single step
behind. His entrance caused the three men and one woman sitting at
the conference table to bolt to their feet. Enkian ignored them,
marching to the glass wall that looked over the cityscape of Mexico
City. The sun was setting, blazing bright orange as its light
struggled through some of the worst
smog
seen on the planet. It was foul air made fouler by the
repeat
ed belching of the volcano
Popocatepetl just a few miles away. It was rumbling more these
days, spewing gas on a daily basis and occasionally ejecting ash
into the already polluted air. To some, it was a
seventeen-thousand-foot eyesore with a two-thousand-foot wide
crater at its peak. To Enkian, it was the power of the earth. The
sky grew darker and the air thicker. Seventeen million people lived
in the city, most so poor they were incapable of dreaming of the
kind of wealth and power Enkian wielded.