Chapter 4

Holy Hell! Charles would rather have been that Plinko Chip or pinball Al had mentioned. Sasha decided to don her cold weather gear on the boat before leaving. She hadn’t been too uncomfortable so far and according to Al they were only about a half hour from landing.

“Damn It!” Charles shouted as another downdraft shook the plane. Sasha looked into the rear of the plane seeing Charles half leaning against a crate with one leg stuck in the trousers. He managed to finally get into the gear, seated and strapped into the folding seat in the cockpit.

Al confirmed they were in their restraints and began descending for landing.

Sasha peered at Al. “I don’t see a runway.”

Al was struggling with the controls but responded, “It’s a glacier. A little wind blown snow on top and years of compacted ice underneath.”

“Mallard Three to Nest, Mallard Three on final, light up the approach please,” Al spoke into the headset.

The trio watched as ice and snow illuminated with the tell-tale of runways traces. To the couple Al said, “Years ago, when I first started bringing stuff here, those lights were actually above ground.”

The landing was smooth, ice made a nice flat runway for the most part, except the part where the plane slid a bit from heavy wind gusts. Charles gripped his legs in nervousness but Al had been doing landings here for over a decade and soon had the plane straight again.

The Mallard had shed its flight speed quickly but continued to taxi straight ahead at a decent rate. Al slowed the plane as they approached a massive snow mound. A seam appeared in the mound and began to widen. As the opening grew it revealed, not a snow mound, but a covered hangar.

Two snowmobiles dragging something zipped out of the open hangar and began following the plane’s tire tracks, covering them up and blending them back into the landscape. Al taxied the plane into the hangar and shut down the engines.

Al told the couple, “We’re here. I like this part of the trip the best.”

Sasha peered at Al but Charles asked, “Why’s that?”

Al was chuckling and said, “Because I don’t have to unload the cargo,” as he pointed to an office or conference room to the side of the hangar. The room had perhaps a dozen people in cold weather gear.

Sasha asked, “Are we getting out?”

Al told her, “Once the snowmobiles come back and they close the doors we can get out, until then we should just stay here, it’s warmer than the hangar will be.”

After what seemed like thirty five minutes the snowmobiles had returned and the hangar closed. Al opened the door, lowered the steps and led the couple out. Several men passed by them as they made their way towards the office.

Stuart greeted them, “Welcome to Project South Basecamp.“

Sasha started, “Uncle Danny. I,” but was interrupted by Stuart.

Stuart spoke, “I go by Stuart now, but it’s good to see you again kiddo!” He introduced a man standing beside him. “This is Eric. He’s one of our recruiters and will be giving you a tour.”

Turning to Al, Eric the recruiter spoke. “Mr. Hurst you were offered an opportunity to join us when you first started flying for us.” Eric sat on the edge of the table. “If you’re {i]IN/i} then pull up a chair, otherwise you should remain with your plane. Food, lodging, entertainment, and a job will be provided. It won’t be flying, but it’ll be something to do.”

Al responded, “I decided years ago I was going to accept when this point came. A bit of warning would have been nice though, There’s some items I would have liked to bring. Pictures, heirlooms things like that.”

Eric told him, “We can make arrangements to send someone to your home to pick up such items. Anything else?” Al shook his head negatively.

Stuart clapped his gloved hands together, “Alright then. Everyone take a chair.” Stuart claimed the seat at the head of the table. Pulling out a walkie-talkie he spoke to it. “Hangar to control, lower the personnel platform.”

The three newcomers sat startled as the floor began sinking. The pseudo elevator descended to depth of roughly fifty feet and stopped.

Eric picked up the conversation, “Everyone follow me please and we can get out of our tauntaun’s.”

Stuart laughed, “Are you guys seriously still calling the cold weather gear that?”

Eric stopped, raised his left hand and said “tauntaun” then lowered his right and spoke, “cold weather gear.” He moved his hands a small amount, miming an improvised scale, “yeah Stu, no contests there.”

Charles asked, “What’s a tauntaun?” Sasha poked him in the ribs. “You have no appreciation for the classics! It’s a Star Wars thing.” and continued to explained the Luke Skywalker / tauntaun situation.

The group removed the cold weather gear. Eric and Stuart put their gear into a cabinet in the wall and motioned for the others to do the same. Once all the gear was loaded, Eric closed the door to the cabinet and pressed a button on the side.

Eric began the tour. “This is Receiving. The uppermost level of the base. Most of the base is kept between fifty and sixty degrees. You may want a jacket or light coat until you get accustomed to the temperatures.”

The three newcomers indicated they were fine with it.

Eric pressed an elevator call button on the wall and continued on, “Alright then, down to the observation level. It has a hell of a view!”

The group entered the elevator and Eric pressed the lowest button labeled OBS. The newcomers swayed slightly as they felt the floor drop out below them as they descended.

After what seemed like a minute Charles asked, “I didn’t know we were getting on the Hell Express.”

Eric replied, “We’ll stop well before then. Not much longer, but you’re right, this is an express. This elevator only travels between receiving, observation, and level one. There’s roughly six hundred fifty feet between receiving and observation the rest of the floors are stacked like a normal building but we use fifteen feet floor to floor for equipment and access.”

As the elevator began to decelerate the group grabbed the hand rails on the elevator walls. Ding! It seems elevators were elevators everywhere, even secret ones in Antarctica. Eric quickly walked from the elevator and approached a glass wall then turned to face the newcomers.

Stuart asked Eric, “You still like being the first one out?”

Eric replied, “What can I say? I like to see their faces.” Eric beckoned the group towards him watching them as the group approached the window wall.

They heard Al mumble, “What on Earth...” but Charles and Sasha simply stared astounded.

They overlooked a tunnel. A tunnel bored into the mile-deep ice of Antarctica, but that wasn’t the most interesting feature. No, the most interesting feature was the thriving ecosystem.