by Ben Hammott
The pain she expected to follow her impact with the ice never came. Neither did the end of her fall. Ice slid past her face and then nothing except blackness. She looked down. The dark continued all around her. Momentarily confused, she glanced up. Her rope disappeared through a ring of light; she'd fallen through the ice into an ice cavern. The block of ice that had fallen past her must have crashed through the cavern's roof. It was doubtful she'd survive the fall now. It would be more than her legs that would break when whatever lay below halted her fall.
Henry's worried voice cracked from the walkie-talkie in her pocket. “Jane, are you okay? Over.”
Suddenly, Jane's plummet into darkness came to an abrupt end.
When Max informed him Jane's tether had failed, and Theo had been injured, Henry tried to reach Jane on the walkie-talkie while Max and Eli attended to Theo. There was a chance she and Lucy had anchored themselves while they waited for the tremor to settle.
Theo wasn't seriously injured. The spike had caught him a glancing blow without breaking the skin. Max and Eli helped him to his feet. The worried men crowded around Henry when he released his finger from the talk button and waited. He received no reply.
He tried again. “Jane, Lucy, please report your situation. Over”
Lucy had been forced to a halt when she ran out of rope; the bottom of the rift had not been as deep when they'd started their climb and it still couldn't be seen. Lucy fished the spare rope from her backpack and connected it to her current safety line. After transferring the descender to the new length of rope, she continued her descent. That she'd heard no screams worried her. It was an indication Jane was unconscious or had been killed on impact.
About one hundred feet deeper into the rift, Lucy cleared an overhang of ice and saw the bottom. There was no sign of Jane, but the spike with Jane's rope still attached was jammed across a hole in the ice. She was about to rappel down when Henry's voice crackled from her pocket.
The men stared anxiously at the communication device when Henry again tried to make contact. A few moments later, Lucy's voice broke the agonizing silence.
“I'm okay, but Jane's fallen through the ice at the bottom of the rift, which is about a hundred or more feet deeper now. I'm going to check on her situation. I'll update you shortly. Over.”
“Be careful, Lucy. Over.” Henry glanced at the worried faces around him. “Max, Theo, you're going down. Take a first aid kit and spare rope. If Lucy hasn't made contact by the time you arrive, apprise me of the situation immediately.”
As soon as Lucy's feet touched solid ice, she rushed over to the hole and attached her rope to Jane's. Only then did she peer through the hole smashed through the two foot thickness of ice. It would be a miracle if Jane hadn't been injured or killed. The rope trailing from the spike disappeared into the darkness, hiding Jane from her view. She grabbed the swaying rope and felt weight on the end. It gave her hope. If Jane had hit the ground it would be slack, but that wasn't to say she hadn't been injured or killed on the way down.
Though Henry's insistence on safety sometimes seemed unnecessary, his vast experience in exploring frozen wastes like Antarctica sometimes, like now, proved invaluable. Lucy pulled the LED head lamp torch―part of the kit Henry insisted they all carry with them when venturing out on the ice―from her pocket, switched it to its brightest setting and shone it into the black depths below the hole. She saw Jane's head turn to survey her surroundings when she swung into its beam. She was alive. “Are you okay?” Lucy called out.
Jane swung through the darkness, aware she was lucky to be alive. Though the climbing rope was designed to stretch a certain amount in the situation she'd just experienced, she doubted it had been designed for such a long fall. The sudden halt had dug the harness straps painfully into her skin, but a little pain and soreness she could endure― death, not so much. When she lifted her goggles to find out where she was, a light swept over her. Lucy called out. She looked up. Lucy was framed in the entrance eighty feet above her. The light from the torch aimed at her momentarily blinded her when she swung in and out of its beam. “I'm a bit sore and probably bruised where the straps bit, but otherwise okay and glad to be alive. What happened?”
Lucy glanced at the spike spanning the hole before replying. “Your spike came loose,” she called out. “I've secured you to my rope so you won't fall again, but I need to rig up another line to help you out. I'll inform the others what's happened and get them to come down and help.”
“Okay,” Jane shouted back.
Lucy retrieved the walkie-talkie from a pocket. “Henry, are you there? Over.”
Henry answered immediately. “Yes, Lucy. Is Jane okay?”
“Jane's okay. Repeat, Jane's okay. Over.”
“That's fantastic news. Over.”
“I think she's discovered part of NASA's anomaly. She's fallen through the ice into a large chamber. I've secured her rope, but I need help fixing a second line so she can be pulled out. Over.”
“Max and Theo are already on their way down. Over.”
“Okay. I'll keep you updated. Over.” She slipped the walkie-talkie back in her pocket and peered into the chamber. “You hear all that, Jane?”
Jane glanced up. “I did, thanks.”
Lucy moved her light through the darkness. “What is this place?”
“It must be the anomaly we were sent to check out, though I've no idea why it would affect NASA's scan.”
“I've heard of caverns like this being discovered, but never thought I'd see one for myself. There could be all kinds of things down here.” Lucy excitement was hard to miss. Frustratingly, the weak light of her torch did little to penetrate the far reaches of darkness away from the entrance. “I hope Henry lets us explore.”
“I'm sure he will,” said Jane. “I'll see if I can see more with my light.” She fished the headlamp from her pocket, switched it on and shone it below. The smashed block of ice on the ground only a few yards away made her realize what a lucky escape she'd had. The floor and walls sparkled as if encrusted with glitter when she swept the torch around. Her eyes took in the expanse of the chamber she'd stumbled upon. Water dripped from some place her weak torch failed to illuminate. The irregular ice walls were streaked with dirty lines. Though it was impossible for the inadequate light to penetrate very far into the thick blackness around her, Jane sensed deep voids concealed by the shadows.
She glanced up at Lucy. “I'm going to climb down. Is the rope secure?”
Though Lucy knew it would be wiser to await the arrival of Max and Theo to assist them, Jane was so near to the ground even if she fell she'd be okay. She was also as eager as Jane to find out what lay hidden in the darkness below. “It's secure.”
Jane rappelled down the short distance to the cavern floor and groaned when the harness chaffed her sore skin. Her lamp roamed through the darkness, reflecting off the walls of solid ice. Its surface was covered in large scallops, as if someone had used a giant ice-cream scoop to dig out the ice, giving it an unreal glossy appearance.
“Hello!” she called out. Her voice echoed back at her through the large space. It must be as big as a cathedral.
A drip of water caused her to look toward the sound. Bright blue light erupted out of the darkness. It reflected off the thousands of faceted edges of the sculptured ice and briefly lit up areas of the cavern. Jane stared in fascination when the blue light rippled across an expanse of water a short distance away. She tilted her head up to Lucy. “What was that? It was beautiful.”
Lucy, whose view was limited by the size of the hole and the thickness of the ice, had witnessed the effect of the eruption of blue light. She was unable to see its source, though she had a good idea as to its cause. “Unhitch yourself from the rope and move away. I'm coming down.”
Doubting anything she said would deter the excited microbiologist from joining her, Jane did as instructed and also removed the chaffing harness. “Okay, it's all yours.”
Lucy grabbed the spike fr
om across the hole, moved a few yards away and screwed it into the ice. After detaching the two ropes from her harness, she tied Jane's rope to the spike. A hard tug on the rope satisfied her it was secure. While she attached the rope to her harness, small pieces of ice trickled down the side of the crevasse. She looked up. She glimpsed the shadowy figures of Max and Theo through the drifting snow, patches of colour in the whiteness. They were about halfway down. She used her walkie-talkie to apprise everyone of the situation. “You're not going to believe this, but Jane found a subterranean cavern complete with a body of water. I'm going down to join her so we can explore. Over.”
It came as no surprise to Lucy when Henry tried to prevent her from doing so. “It sounds like a momentous discovery, however, do not enter until we've assessed the safety aspects of doing so. The cavern could be unstable. Also, you might contaminate a sealed ecosystem. Over.”
“Henry, the cavern has probably been there for thousands of years. The likelihood of it collapsing the moment we decide to explore it is very remote. Also, it was contaminated when Jane fell into it. I'm not willing to miss this opportunity and I'm going in. Over.”
“I strongly advise against it, but as I'm too far away to prevent you, please be careful and don't touch anything. Just observe. Over.”
Lucy had already dropped the radio in her pocket and slipped the head lamp over her head. She sat at the edge of the ice hole, climbed through and swiftly slid down to the cavern floor. Jane waited nearby. Lucy untethered herself from the rope and joined her.
“Wow! This place is freaking amazing.” Lucy's light joined Jane's sweeping the area. She knelt and examined a patch of green slime covering some of the rocks dotted amongst the ice on the ground. “I think this is algae, perhaps even a new type.”
Jane smiled at Lucy's excited enthusiasm. “As exciting as you make that sound, I'm more interested in the water and the blue light.”
Lucy stood up. “Let's go check it out.”
They paused at the edge of the lake where the rocky ground sloped gently into the slightly murky pool, and shone their lights onto the water. The beams refracted off into its depths. A faint mist rose from the lake, evidence its temperature was slightly warmer than its surroundings.
“What caused that blue light?” Jane asked.
“I think it must be some type of planktonic dinoflagellate, probably Noctiluca scintillans.”
A mystified expression accompanied Jane's glance at the young woman beside her. “That meant absolutely nothing to me.”
Lucy laughed. “In very simple layman's terms, it's a type of marine creature called plankton, which displays bioluminescence when disturbed. Let me demonstrate.” Lucy picked up a small piece of ice from the ground and threw it into the lake. As before, the blue fluorescent light appeared and rippled across the water out from the point of the splash.
“So bugs are making this spectacular display?” said Jane.
“Well, plankton, yes. But it's unusual to find them in a sealed environment like this, but then again, this is the first one I know of so deep beneath the ice that has been explored. It might even be a new species.”
After staring at the water for a few moments, Jane said, “Henry wasn't too keen for you to come down here.”
Lucy smiled. “He'll get over it. He worries about us, that's all. Two people died on one of his previous expeditions. Though he blames himself, it wasn't his fault.”
“Really? What happened?”
“Henry was leading a group across the ice when a blizzard appeared out of nowhere to envelope them. The two men at the back, who had previously voiced concerns at being dragged into a crevasse if those in front fell into one, untethered themselves from the safety line and got cut off from the others. Though Henry searched, neither they nor their bodies were ever found.”
Jane's thoughts flicked back to when she had lost Kyle. “That's horrible,” said Jane. “It explains why Henry's so over protective of us all.”
They both shone their torches over the lake. The weak beams failed to reach its far side. “We need more powerful torches to explore this cavern properly,” said Jane.
“You'll have to ask Henry to get someone bring them from base. We'll also need sample jars, a rock hammer and anything else he can think of we might need. I have a camera with me, but another would be handy, plus the digital film camera to record all of this.”
“Okay, I'll ask.” Jane used the walkie-talkie to contact Henry.
Henry paced. Though he knew it was reckless of Lucy to enter the ice cavern, he couldn't blame her youthful exuberance; he had been the same at her age. But she failed to understand the dangers Antarctica constantly threw at its visitors, especially when rash decisions were made. He'd learned from hard experience that death was never far away in remote, inhospitable places like this.
“Henry, are you there? Over.”
Though the reception was weak with a background of static, Henry was able to understand what was said and recognized the voice. “Jane, it's great to hear your voice. Are you okay? Over.”
“Yes, dad, I'm fine. Over.”
Henry smiled. “Glad to hear it. We were all so worried. What's this cavern like? Over.”
“It's fantastic, what little we can see. There's a lake full of luminous plankton that has Lucy excited, but I've seen nothing that would cause NASA's scan anomaly. The cavern alone wouldn't do it, but we can't tell how big it is or see everything that's down here until we have more powerful lights. We also need some other equipment to take samples. Over.”
“First things first, Jane. Is the cavern stable? Over.”
“From what I've seen so far, I believe it's stable. The roof is arched like a train tunnel, but seems thinner at the top, which forms the bottom of the rift. A block of ice shaken loose by the tremors smashed a hole through the roof, which I fell through. It probably saved my life. Over.”
“You were very lucky. Though I was hesitant to let Lucy enter, I can see the benefit of an exploration of such a unique place to the scientific community and perhaps our understanding of the glacier. With the unstable condition of the ice shelf, we can't afford to do everything by the book, and I'm eager to see it for myself. Let me know what you need. I'll send Eli back to base for the equipment and then come and join you. I'm not the best climber, so tell Max and Theo to wait for me at the top so they can help me down.”
Jane reeled off her list of items and ended contact.
Eli had been listening to Jane and Henry's conversation. “It sounds like an amazing discovery.”
Henry nodded. “It does, and a unique opportunity to study an ecosystem cut off from the rest of the world for God knows how long.” Henry stared at the far side of the rift. “What worries me is the unpredictability of the shifting ice. It could break away at any moment.”
“Maybe it's a risk worth taking,” said Eli.
“No scientific discovery is worth the sacrifice of human life. However, this is the third tremor we've felt since arriving here to set up our base camp. The first and second were fourteen days apart. This latest one occurred twelve days later. If this time frame continues, I predict we have a safe window of eight to ten days before we experience another. To be safe, we need to be out of the rift within five days.”
“That doesn't give us much time to explore something so unique.”
“I'm well aware of that and I wish we had longer, but we have to play the cards we're dealt. I don't intend to play bluff with the hand of fate. We'll go in, try to determine the cause of the anomaly, take samples, document and record as much as we can in five days and then leave.”
“Okay, Henry. I trust your judgment. I heard what Jane wanted, so I'll nip back to base and collect, but is there anything you need me to add to the list?”
After Henry had told Eli what he needed, Eli drove back to base in one of the Sno-Cats. Henry had added food and drinks to the list. He had a feeling once they were inside they wouldn't be too eager to abandon the cavern until t
he ice forced them to.
Unexpected Visitors
JANE AND LUCY FOUND it difficult to drag their gaze away from the large expanse of water; both were imagining what life-forms it might contain.
“I just realized something,” said Lucy. “We're making history. We're the first people ever to set eyes on an ancient lake beneath the Antarctic ice.”
Jane smiled. “Cool, isn't it?”
“It sure is.” Lucy let her eyes wander around the cavern. “How old do you suppose this place is?”
“At a guess, I'd say many thousands. As you probably know, satellite imagery has discovered many lakes entombed beneath the ice. The most famous being Lake Vostok, where the Russians drilled down into the ice to collect a sample of the water. However, that was located slightly over two miles beneath the ice and thought to have been sealed off for fifteen million years.” Jane glanced at the pool. “This is only about four hundred feet from the surface and a lot younger, about five to seven thousand years.”
“Still sounds old to me.”
“The age of the ice is similar to counting the rings on a tree to determine its age. The depth of ice is governed by the amount of snow that has fallen in any particular year. Some years there may have been very little snow fall, and other years, much more. This turns to ice and is gradually compressed when more snow fall's freeze and are in turn compressed by the following cycles, and on and on it goes. The deeper you look in the ice the more compressed it is, making it extremely difficult to count the individual layers.” Jane pointed her torch at the nearest wall. “You can see bands in the ice here. Each of them marks a particular year of snowfall that collected on top of the glacier and compressed into ice over time to increase the thickness of the glacier.” Her beam moved to highlight another detail in the ice. “Dirty grey bands in the ice like those seen here contain ash from volcanic eruptions. Probably from Mount Erebus on Ross Island, the second highest volcano in Antarctica after Mount Sidley, or perhaps Mount Terror, Mount Bird or Mount Terra Nova, but all three are now inactive.”
