O-Negative: Extinction (3 page)

“Joe if you’d have been there 60 minutes or so ago you would have seen it yourself.  It really was quite something. I don’t think I’ve seen such a big calving since I’ve been here”.

He replied thoughtfully. “A pity I missed it, those really big break offs are pretty rare, did you say it occurred an hour or so before I picked you up?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well I think it might be linked to the quake readings my little portable unit picked up.  There was a modest but deep earthquake around that time right near the centre of the continent.  I’d imagine that’s what caused your breakoff”.

Wendy nodded her head. “Right, that sounds like it could be the cause.  It’ll be interesting to see if the other glaciers on the shelf were affected.  I’ll check out the webcams when I get back.”

As he and Wendy drove back into the station vehicle park Michael Chapman drew up in one of the snow mobiles.  Michael was the station’s microbiologist as well as being the somewhat older husband of Professor Chapman - as evidenced by his receding hairline.

Wendy got down and greeted Michael.  “Hi Michael how’s things?”

“Not so bad Wendy, nice to get a longer break in the weather.  Are you just back from the Stancomb?”

“Yeah in fact I wanted to tell you there’s been a big iceberg calving this morning.  I’m pretty sure there’ll be plenty of exposed ice for you to check for microorganisms if you’re interested”.

Michael’s face lit up. “Ok great, thanks for letting me know Wendy, that’s good news - I could do with some new specimens”.  He smiled at her and Joe. “I’ll be out there first thing tomorrow morning.”  As he hung up the keys for the snow mobile he continued. “Anyway better dash I need to check my homebrew for Greg’s birthday party tonight.  Are you guys coming?”

Wendy answered straight away. “Absolutely wouldn’t miss it for the world….and also there’s nothing else to do” she said laughing.

With just a hint of a pause Joe followed up with.  “Definitely.  Looking forward to trying your homebrew Michael”.

The three of them went their separate ways. Michael to the biology lab, Wendy to the living quarters and Joe towards the equipment shed which was located out past the transport hanger. 

When he reached the shed, which was really more of a long low building storing the bulkier equipment used by the different scientific teams, Professor Chapman was already inside making herself look busy with a clipboard and pen.  However as soon as he closed the door behind him she discarded these and greeted him with a passionate kiss.  Having just come from talking with her husband he was slightly more hesitant but returned it in kind.

Their affair had been going on for a couple of months now but he still felt self-conscious about it.  As well as carrying on under the nose of her husband, he wasn’t sure of the ethics of sleeping with his supposed boss.  Nevertheless his initial reluctance to Professor Chapman’s immediate attentions only lasted as long as it took her to drag him down to the far end of the shed and start taking off his snowsuit.

“My god Florence you’re keen”.

Florence slid her hand down into his trousers.  “Oh if you’re not interested Joe…”.  She tugged at him playfully.

His resolve was fading rapidly but he felt honour bound to offer some sort of resistance.  “It’s not that….I just find it a bit strange knowing that your husband’s only a couple of hundred metres away.”

Florence continued to move her hand back and forth while she pressed herself against him.  “Oh I’m sorry Joe I didn’t realise you were so afraid of my microbiologist husband.  It must be terrifying for you knowing that at any moment he could pick up his 5 foot 9 inch frame and decide to roam the base seeking out his wife to ask her to sign a requisition form”  She paused for a moment in the rhythm she’d established.  “But you’re right maybe we should stop this.  It’s probably gone on far too long…..oh but before we do I thought you might like to see what’s underneath my snow suit?”

Florence unzipped her snow suit allowing it to fall from her shoulders.  She wasn’t wearing anything underneath.  His eyes were drawn to her pert breasts.  Florence pulled him close. “Now what was it you were saying about how we should stop this?”  He sighed, he knew when he was beaten.

After they’d got their breath back Florence propped herself up on one arm and said “Right equipment audit time”.

Lying on their discarded snow suits he turned to look at her in amazement.  “I knew it.  You got me here under false pretences!”

Florence put on an innocent face. “Well Joe it does need doing and I’m sure I’ve read somewhere it’s good to mix work with pleasure – you didn’t seem to mind the pleasure bit”.

He gave a wry smile. “Well you certainly know how to motivate your workforce”.

By the time he got back to the station living quarters after undertaking the equipment audit the dining room was already starting to thin out.  He spotted Wendy and Ben sitting at their normal table and Wendy waved him over.

“Joe tell Ben about the seismic activity you witnessed this morning and how you think it could be related to the break off at my glacier”.

He was only too happy to keep the conversation to a work related topic and while he was eating his meal he went over his theory about the unusual activity at the centre of the continent.  He finished up by saying. “So I should really check in with the geologists in the other research stations to see what they think about this”.

Wendy glanced at him inquiringly. “Oh I thought you were going to do that this afternoon?”

He winced inwardly.  “Yes yes I was going to but then the equipment audit took longer than I expected”.

Wendy smiled. “Oh right with Professor Chapman, I hope that wasn’t too tiring for you?”  She and Ben looked at him expectantly.

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.  He had a feeling he knew where this was going so decided to make a swift exit. “No no not too tiring, but anyway speaking of getting in touch with my guys I’d better get  on that before they all log off for the evening”. 

He sat down at his computer in the earth science lab and shifted the mouse back and forth to bring the screen back to life.  5 emails were waiting for him.  All work colleagues.  This was somewhat of a relief as he’d half expected another caustic email from his ex-wife Jessica.  When he’d returned from Antarctica the year before he’d hoped to surprise her with his presence, which admittedly he had, but unfortunately he’d also managed to surprise Dave Bassett her Pilates teacher at the same time.  He’d been pretty cut up to start with, especially since he’d been entirely faithful to her while he’d been away.  In a way he didn’t blame her that much.  What had he expected her to do during the six months he’d been away?  He guessed he’d expected her to wait for him but obviously that hadn’t been on the cards.  In the end it was probably best they’d split up when they did.  There were no children and the only shared asset was the London flat.  After she’d moved in with ‘Dave’ he’d agreed to put the flat on the market but, as was his wont, he’d put it off and off and then suddenly found himself back in Antarctica again.  Jessica had gone ballistic when he’d told her where he was and that he was going to “sort the whole flat thing out when he got back”.  She’d gone on and on about how this was “Absolutely typical” and just why she’d left him in the first place. As he was always “putting himself first and not considering others”.  He hadn’t heard from her since and wondered whether any of his stuff would still be there when he returned home.

His attention turned back to the unread emails in his inbox.  Two were from researchers back in the UK asking him for core sample data, one was from an old colleague wanting to work with him on a research paper and another from a PhD student hoping to get him to supervise their thesis.  He replied non-committedly to all of these, his mind wasn’t really focused on academic matters at the moment.  He shook his head sharply to clear his mind and took a swig of cold coffee from the cup he’d left on his desk the day before. The fifth email was from Gerry Dyer a fellow geologist over at the main British Antarctic base Rothera.  Gerry was asking him if he’d heard anything from his friends at Amundsen-Scott or Concordia.  Both of these stations, the first run by the Americans and the second by a French/Italian team, were located much further inland.  He had a quick check to see if any of them were online and then replied that he hadn’t and that they didn’t appear to be on Skype either.  Gerry messaged him shortly afterwards.

“Joe thanks for the email.  I haven’t been able to get hold of them all afternoon”.

He typed back.  “Really?  That is a bit unusual.  They’re almost always on at some point.  Have you tried giving them a satellite call?”

Gerry came back straight away.  “Yep nothing going through”. 

He wasn’t overly concerned.  “It’s probably just another of those storms over the transantarctic mountains screwing up our multi-million pound communication systems.” 

Greg seemed fairly relaxed as well.  “You’re probably right.  I was just trying to get in touch with them to ask about the activity we noticed this morning.  Did you catch that?” 

He confirmed that he had.  “Yeah strange isn’t it.  I was going to ask you about it but got caught up doing an equipment audit this afternoon”. 

There was a slight pause in the conversation as another email flashed up on his screen.  This one was from a German geologist called Hans who was based at Kohnen station.  It appeared to be a round robin asking whether anyone had been in touch with the American and French/Italian bases.  Hans had also attached a satellite picture of the central region taken that afternoon.  Joe opened it up to have a look and noticed straight away that instead of a white wilderness with three specks of black on the edge of the image, marking the bases of Vostock, Amundsen-Scott and Concordia, there were now four.  In addition to the expected three black dots a large circular spot had appeared right in the centre of the image.  He was sure there hadn’t been anything there a day or so ago as he’d used the last image of that area in part of a study he’d been doing on ice depth.  He Skyped back to Gerry. 

“Gerry have you seen this image from the Germans?”

Gerry acknowledged his Skype.  “Yeah.  What the hell is that?”

“It looks like some sort of structure – have the Russians set up a base without telling us?” 

Gerry came back to him.  “I don’t think so but I’m going to go and have a word with Bobby Jacobson now. He’s got some units stationed here doing cold weather training on the Peninsula.”

Joe started tapping his fingers against his teeth.  He wondered what the circular spot on the image could be. As he went through the possible causes he heard someone come in behind him.  It was Wendy.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

He smiled.  “Just a bit perplexed.  Have you had chance to catch up with your hydrologist friends and take a look at the glacier webcams?”

Wendy nodded her head.  “I have, at least those I’ve been able to get in touch with.  Nobody seems to be able to raise the central stations and all their associated webcams are out as well.  What about you?”

He frowned. “Mmmmhhh same here”.

Wendy went on to say.  “I’ve spoken with my contacts in the coastal bases but can’t raise anyone at all at Dome Fuji, which is who I really want to talk to given they’re the ones studying the Stancomb Wills at the other end.  Is there a problem with the comms satellite?”

He waved her over to show her the image Hans had sent him. “I don’t think it’s the satellite that’s causing the comms problems Wendy I think it might have something to do with this – do you think it could be the Russians messing about again?”

Wendy shrugged.  “Could be, they’re always doing something without telling anyone.  You army types are always trying to increase your presence here.”  Wendy was one of the few people who knew he'd previously been in the forces.  He'd left that part of his life behind 10 years or so ago but Wendy had been the daughter of an Army Colonel and she'd picked something up in him that she recognised in her own father. She'd asked him the first week they'd met if he'd been in the service and he hadn't wanted to lie so had told her that yes he'd been in the army some time ago.  He hadn't said anything more than that but had asked her not to mention it to anyone else and after looking at him for a moment of two she’d left it at that.