The Elicon

by Rob Roth

  Jace woke up and saw it was still night in the igloo. The fire was glowing, but the flames had died out, and it was starting to cool down a bit. The others were fast asleep, but Jace was now wide awake. And fearful. He felt he was failing the woman in the fiery mirror, but he didn’t know what she meant by coming through the fire. The fiery portal? This was crazy. These must just be dreams. But still, he had tried just about everything he could think of these last few months, just in case. He took out the blue stone and held it, and when the dim image appeared in the tent he concentrated hard, wishing and willing the portal to grow more substantial. But nothing further happened. These attempts and other thoughts of concern and worry kept Jace awake for most of the night, until sheer emotional exhaustion finally claimed him back to sleep with the others.

  Jace slowly came awake to the sound of laughter outside the igloo. He could see some light coming in from the crawl hole and the smoke vent hole, so he knew it must be morning. But it wasn’t very bright, so he thought it was likely just after dawn. Also, he was alone, which meant he was the last one up. Getting out of the sleeping bag and putting on his parka, pants and boots, he went outside to join the others.

  “And he just slid into the water!?” laughed Dooley. “That is too funny!

  Allison and Aput were laughing together as well, all three of them standing around a fire Aput had built. He was in the process of cooking some of his frozen fish for all of them to eat for breakfast, including the dogs, when they noticed Jace crawling out of the igloo.

  “What did I miss?” asked Jace.

  “Well, sunrise for starters, laughed Dooley. "Aput is frying us some fish. He refuses to eat MRE’s, and Allie and I voted to do the same. It’s fish from now on. Man, you were out like a light Jace. We didn’t want to wake you until we needed to. So Aput was amusing us with a funny story about how Oomaaluq faced down a polar bear.”

  “Who is Oomaaluq, and do we need to worry about polar bears now?” asked Jace.

  Naw,” said Dooley. “Aput says this far north they are only found on the ice in the bays, or at worst close to shore. We are quite safe here. I hope. And Oomaaluq is his lead dog — the big white husky that heads the front sled. Hey, are you ok? You look kinda beat.”

  “I’ll tell you later,” replied Jace. “It had to do with a dream I had. It just caused me to lose some sleep, that’s all. I’m sorry I slept in this morning.”

  “No worries, Jace,” Allison said. “Aput thinks we should still make the edge of Hiawatha Crater where the crevice is supposed to be, by evening, if we get a start sometime in the next thirty minutes.”

  “Ok, no use wasting the day. The fish smells great, and I must admit that after the MRE’s I wouldn’t mind the change of pace,” Jace said.

  The fish finished cooking five minutes later and as the dogs wolfed down their portions, the travelers took a bit more time enjoying the succulent, warm meat. Allison translated another funny story from Aput while they were stowing their gear away. This time all of them joined in the laughter as they loaded back up onto the sleds and headed off into the low morning sun and onto the glacier.

  Because they were more comfortable from yesterday’s experience, they seemed to make even better time on the second day, as braking was a little less frequent, and no one got tossed off the sleds. As before, they went until the sun was shining right in their faces, and then broke for a quick lunch. Aput assured them they were making good time and they would hopefully set up camp at the edge of the crater tonight, so that tomorrow they would be ready to find the crevice.

  Allison and Dooley pulled Jace aside while Aput was feeding the dogs. “What’s the deal with the dream you had last night, Jace?” Dooley asked.

  “I’ve actually had a couple more dream visions recently — one before we left, and then last night. In each of them, the woman we saw in the fiery mirror seemed to be getting more restless. More desperate. As if time was running out. I believe something must be happening wherever she is, and she's pleading for my help. She was not in her tower in my dream last night. She was travelling with a sizable group of people, perhaps an army. I think she was their leader, as her tent seemed to be larger and fancier than the others. And in the last two visions I heard her voice in my head. She told me to come to her. In the last dream she said to come through the fire. I tried telling her I couldn’t figure out how to come through the portal, but I don’t know if she heard me, as I woke up right then. I feel like I’m failing this dream person, but I don’t know what to do,” he said with a despondency both Dooley and Allison heard.

  “Jace, you aren't thinking this whole dream thing is real, are you?” Dooley asked. “I mean, I get that you can make this image appear, but that’s a long way from having some real doorway to some other place. How could these dreams you are having be showing you something actually happening in some other place?”

  “I know, Dooley. It doesn’t make sense. None of it does. You think the world works a certain way, because it’s always been that way before, and then suddenly everything you thought you knew comes into question. I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

  “Jace,” Allison said, “Dooley and I will spend some time talking this over while travelling in the sled this arvo. We can give serious thought to it. Maybe he and I can come up with some brilliant ideas. You know, some things you could try. Or maybe we can make better sense of what your dream is telling you. Could your subconscious be warning you about something unrelated that you are worried about? Dooley told me about Kaylin. Maybe it has something to do with her death that your subconscious has not yet resolved.

  “Thanks, Allie. You don’t know how much that means to me. I don’t think it is related to Kaylin, but at this point anything either of you can come up with, I’d greatly appreciate. I can’t think of two people I would rather be sharing this burden with. But I’m also somewhat embarrassed I’m dragging you into my dream problems when we have real-world problems to deal with and not ones that may just be my overactive imagination.”

  “Hey, Jace, that’s what friends are for. Don’t worry about it. We just want to help you however we can,” replied Dooley, right as Aput wandered over after feeding the dogs and indicated to them that they should head back out.

  The afternoon passed uneventfully, and there was little change to the scenery until Aput pointed to the west showing them a dark rocky terrain in the distance that broke up the sameness of the white sheet visible in front and to the east.

  “Aput says the rocky area is Inglefield Land, and leads west to the bay. It’s the western boundary of the ice sheet, and where we need to go to find your rocky crevice,” said Allison.

  “The crater is estimated to be nineteen miles in diameter,” said Jace. “So, the center is almost straight ahead or maybe even to the east, but the coordinates Dr. Jansen gave me correspond to that rocky area to the west, so the blue dust must have been found at the edge of the crater.”

  The team continued travelling, and in another hour and a half, as the sun was nearing the horizon, they reached the black rocky terrain. The rocky edge was uneven and rose upward at an angle from the glacial ice. The glacier could flow no further because of this well-defined border. Aput unleashed the dogs and once again the team spent an hour or so building an igloo on the edge of the ice. After that chore was complete, Aput built a fire up in a flat section on the rocky area so they could have the fire inside a ring of rocks they arranged, using larger stones as places to sit on, while they cooked their fish.

  “Well, we finally made it here, after about a week of travels,” Jace said with a grin. “Frankly, I’m hoping we find nothing here, and we just have a nice little vacation. But if we do find the blue dust, I’ll be glad we got here before Jansen published his paper and the world heard of it. If we do find some tomorrow, I suggest we bag it all, tie rocks to the bags, and dump it in some deep part of the arctic ocean where hopefully it will never be found again.”

  “Jace, if this is your idea of a nic
e little vacation, I am gonna start worrying about you! After all this, I hope we do find some blue dust and dump it,” Dooley said.

  “I’m inclined to agree with you, mates,” said Allison. “I dumped the other stash in the Yarra river in a similar way. I don’t know if that stuff can be destroyed or not but putting the bloody dust out of everyone’s reach is just as good. I suppose we’ll need to continue checking with all your meteor chasing friends to see if any hears of blue dust, just to be safe. And if we get wind of any other meteorite impacts, I suggest we rush to the site as quickly as possible. Lucky for us those are pretty rare events.”

  “Yes, they are,” replied Jace. “And since I only heard back from Jansen in the three months after I sent the notes out, I’m hoping this is the only site that could possibly contain exotic matter.”

  “Well first things first,” said Dooley. “First we have to find the crevice. Then once we’ve found it, we have to go down into it. Once we get into it, who knows how far we have to go before we either find some or decide for ourselves that none exists.”

  “Ok, ok,” laughed Jace. “I get your point. Let’s focus on the tasks at hand. No use borrowing more trouble than what we already have facing us tomorrow. And even more immediately, I think the fish is smelling pretty fine right now.”

  Aput fed the dogs so they would quiet down, and once they were satisfied they settled down as a pack next to a snowbank. Meanwhile, the four travelers fixed their plates of food and remained sitting by the fire as they ate their dinner and continued in conversation.

  “Jace, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Allison said as she turned toward him. “Dooley said your wife passed away unexpectedly. The two of you were very close, and somehow you blame yourself for her death, because you weren’t there with her at the time of the accident. I’m thinking maybe your dream about going into battle with the woman in the fiery mirror, and her desperately needing your help, is simply a reflection of your past. You feel guilty that you weren’t there for Kaylin to fight that battle, even though you desperately wished you had been. Do you think that could be the meaning of the dream?”

  Jace sat there quietly for a minute or two, contemplating what Allison had said. “I suppose it could be Allie. Logically that would make perfect sense. What bothers me, though, is that what I experienced seemed more than a dream. I had the sense a real battle was about to be fought. The woman in the dream seemed more like a warrior. I could sense the purpose and the strength of a leader. Kaylin was a sweet, wonderful person. But she was anything but a warrior or a leader. She was not much like the woman in the vision, except being… well… beautiful. But maybe I was just picturing Kaylin as a warrior because I wanted her to win that battle…”

  “Let’s say it was your subconscious,” Allison said. “What do you think she meant by ‘come through the fire’? Do you think that refers to the fiery portal image you can project? Or could your subconscious mind be thinking of something else —some other fire?"

  “The portal is the only fire that makes sense. I've given a lot of thought to that phrase recently. The crash Kaylin was in did not involve any fire. I considered subjecting the blue stone itself to fire. But based on its internal structure I know it’s not impervious to damage like the outer shell. It would most likely crack or shatter. As you probably know heat energy will cause atoms and molecules to vibrate faster, which results in an increase in the space between them. That’s why heat cracks marble, for instance.”

  "Bugger… I’m sorry Jace. Those are the only thoughts I came up with. I wish I could offer more help," said Allison.

  "You have helped, Allison, and I appreciate it. You are probably right. I'm just grabbing at straws when the answer may be, as you say, about Kaylin’s death and how it affected me. I would guess the portal may be my need to move beyond my guilt. Maybe that's the fire. Well, I'm not going to worry about it tonight. I suggest we get some sleep, so we are prepared for the big day tomorrow."

  The travelers turned in early that night, and this time Jace slept peacefully without interruption from troublesome dreams.

  "According to my GPS we should be within twenty feet or so from the cave entrance," Jace said to the team as they were walking around the edge of the rocks, searching in the early morning light for some sign of a crevice. Jace wasn’t sure if the crevice was in the black rocks where they were, or if ice and snow had extended since Jansen had been here, and the crevice was now covered up by the white blanket below.

  “I’m going to check over here closer to the edge of the glacier,” Jace called out to the others. They turned to reply to Jace, when they saw the blanket of white beneath his feet give way, and Jace dropped from sight.

  “Jace!” Dooley yelled as he ran over to where Jace had been standing, seeing a rocky hole that snaked downward at an angle into the dark beneath the ice.

  “I’m ok, I think,” a voice echoed up from the dark hole. “I got banged up a bit from the tumble down the icy rocks, but the parka softened the fall. Can you go get some rope, and a flashlight, so I can see what the situation is, and maybe get myself out of here?”

  Dooley went back to the dogsled where the supplies were packed and got out the items Jace requested along with a pick and some metal pitons for securing rope. Shining the light from the flashlight down the hole, Dooley saw Jace’s head about twenty feet down a hole that descended at slightly more than a 45-degree angle. Jace had a red bloody cut on his forehead but the blood wasn’t flowing like a deep gash.

  “How are you doing down there, professor?” asked Dooley

  “Good enough. Rather than me climbing up, can you use the rope and make your way down here, Dooley? It looks like the hole widens a little beyond me. This must be Jansen’s crevice. I think there is some blue dust on my parka, but I need more light to be sure. And I want to go down a bit further if possible to see where this leads.”

  “Blimey mates! Don’t forget that I'm the one with the rock-climbing experience,” chimed in Allison as Dooley was pounding in a few pitons to secure the rope. “I’m not letting you have all the fun by yourselves and no doubt getting into trouble. I’m coming down with Dooley. Aput can keep watch up here if we need something from him.”

  “Well then,” said Dooley as he finished securing the rope, and handing it to Allison. “Ladies first.”

  Allison’s eyes immediately told Dooley she didn’t appreciate that kind of deference at all. “How about I go first because I'm more skilled?” she said. At that she grabbed the rope from him.

  Allison lowered herself backwards down through the rocky tunnel, half-crawling and half using her feet where she could. The hole was five feet across in most places, although a bit more constricted where Jace ended up. The angle was around fifty degrees, she estimated, and the going was a little slow, but she was just above Jace in about five minutes. With the flashlight she brought, she and Jace could see that in another five feet the hole widened quite a bit, and there was a little cavern more like ten feet in diameter where they could plant their feet.

  Using the rope, they both were able to move down into the cavern and stand, and so Allison called up to Dooley to begin his descent. In another five minutes the three were standing together in the cavern.

  Allison shined the flashlight around and they could see the cave continued downward at a less steep angle of perhaps twenty degrees, and with a ceiling about five feet high. The cave should be a little easier to navigate than the steeper, narrower section above them, she thought. They also noticed a little blue dust at the entrance of that lower cave. Dooley dutifully put it in a small plastic bag which he placed in his pocket.

  “I guess that means we need to explore a little further to find out the extent of the blue dust,” Jace said.

  They continued holding onto the rope, so they didn’t slip, but the less steep grade made the going much easier. They didn’t need to go far. In about fifteen feet they found a sizable deposit of blue dust.

  “Wow, that’s almost enough
to fill a drum! There must be thirty gallons of the stuff here,” Dooley said. “That’s way more than they would need to complete the Synchrotron gateway. We have to figure out how to pack this up and get rid of it.”

  Jace continued down the cave quite a bit further, but it appeared to him that the initial deposit was the motherlode. He found no further trace of blue dust beyond that main deposit.

  “Well, let’s get back up to the surface and figure out how we are going to extract all this. I think we can rig up some way for one person to load it down here with a shovel into the bags we brought, tie them one at a time to the rope, and then someone at the top can drag them up. It may take us several hours, but I think that should work.”

  The three of them backtracked through the lower cave to the cavern, and then one at a time used the rope to get up to the top. They climbed back onto the rocky terrain to avoid falling through any more crevices hidden by glacial ice and snow.

  Aput had moved the sleds over to a rocky area with large boulders to provide protection from the wind. The sleds were still on the ice but right at the edge.

  As the three were approaching the sleds, walking across the rocky terrain, they heard a faint hum in the air, and they looked up toward it.

  "Oh my God!" shouted Dooley, as a silvery looking egg-shaped spaceship literally popped into existence a couple thousand feet above them. Then, at a speed almost too fast to see, it dropped to two hundred feet right above the crevice and stopped.

  Captain Severs and Davis had settled in quite nicely at Thule air base, in spite of Colonel Steinmacher intending it to be a punishment for them. Sure, they were a million miles from anywhere, thought Severs to himself, and it was freezing cold all the time, and except for the last month or so they hadn’t even seen the sun. But Greenland had a quiet beauty about it. Thule was right on the edge of Baffin Bay. In the winter it had been too cold and frozen for the supply ship to come, but it would be arriving soon. The icebergs and ice flows were fun to watch now that the sun was out. And at night the northern lights were beautiful, and the sound of cracking and popping ice in the bay almost made him feel one with nature, albeit a harsh nature.