Chapter 19

Wearing an outfit that looked a lot like a space suite, Ed walked around trying to get used to the feel of the strange outfit. Removing the control from a pocket, he turned down the temperature a couple of degrees. Replacing the control to the pocket, he stood there for a minute waiting for the suit to cool down. He looked over at the man standing next to him and said, “This is pretty nice.”

The man answered, “It uses a fusion well to generate heat for the suit. With the built in radio and camera, you never need to be alone out here.”

“Very smart. I almost didn’t come down here because I didn’t want to be cold,” replied Ed.

“There are other features to the suit that you need to know about before we let you loose in the mountains,” said the man with a knowing smile.

“Explain away,” replied Ed bouncing on his toes amazed at the light weight of the suit.

“The suit has a number of built in pockets. The one on your right knee contains an emergency tent while the one on your left knee contains a space blanket.”

Feeling the pocket on his right knee, Ed said, “There’s nothing in this pocket.”

“Yes, there is. Open the pocket and remove the tent.”

Following the instructions, Ed opened the pocket and pulled out a small folded piece of vinyl. Examining it, he couldn’t see how this would be a tent. The man said, “Set the folded tent on the ground and then unfold it twice.”

Ed did as he was instructed. He noticed that there were six slots in the nylon with cotton strings sticking out. Looking up, he asked, “What are the slots for?”

The man said, “You’ll fill those with water and let the water freeze. You’ll have instant tent pegs.”

“Where will I get water out here?”

“Fill the pocket on your chest with snow. It will melt in about three minutes and use the tube to pour the water into the slots.”

Ed did as instructed. Sure enough, it was only three minutes later that he had about three gallons of water in the belly pouch. Waddling from side to side like a pregnant woman, he knelt down and filled the slots with water. In the cold Antarctic temperatures, the water froze very quickly. He looked at the pockets realizing that they had formed extremely fat ice tent stakes with a cotton thread through the center. Shaking his head, he said, “That’s amazing.”

The man said, “Someone really worked on that design. Even though it’s ice, it’s much stronger than you would think. The cotton thread gives it strength. Now, take out two of the tent pegs and push them into the snow just outside the width of the tent.”

Ed did as he was told. The pegs went into the snow with ease. There was no way they would hold the tent in place. He voiced his doubts, “That’ll never hold.”

“Don’t worry about that, tie the tent to the stakes with the cotton.”

Ed did as he was told. Even though there was a considerable wind, the tent was still flat. Unrolling the tent, he put in the stakes at the other end. Looking at the result, he didn’t see how it would stay up in a hard wind. “Okay, now I’m done with that.”

“Melt some more water and fill the ribs. They’ll act as support for the tent.”

As Ed worked, he asked, “Who came up with the idea for this tent anyway?”

The man watched Ed work on the tent making sure that he did everything properly. He answered, “A woman in Colorado by the name of Catherine Sullivan invented it. She owns some kind of store in a little town.”

Shaking his head, Ed realized that he was talking about the Catherine that owned the Sporting Goods Store. Another Druid invention to help the world. As the water in the ribs froze, the man said, “Put some more snow in your pouch. You’re going to melt it and then pour the water over the tent stakes. It will form a nice solid plug that won’t pull out in the wind.”

Ed did as he was told. So far, he had spent about ten minutes setting up the tent. It seemed a bit long to him, but he wasn’t going to comment. After just a few minutes, the man said, “Put the stakes in front and back of the tent and pull it tight.”

Doing as he was told, he ended up with a very simple tent that was just big enough for him to lie down. Looking at the tent, Ed asked, “What keeps the ribs from breaking?”

“Oh, they can break, but the entire rib area is honeycombed with cotton fibers. They’ll hold it up even if you smash it with a hammer.”

Ed said, “I’ll have to tell Catherine that she did a nice job on the design next time I see her.”

“Oh, you know Catherine?”

“Yes, I do. I’ve visited her shop many times in the past. I would have bought all this stuff there if I had known about it,” replied Ed. This tent was one of the most amazing things he had ever seen.

The man nodded and said, “Well, remember that tent is to be used only in an emergency. If you are in an area without snow, you can dig a hole, pull the cotton from the slots, and then pour the water into the hole. Your suit will keep you safe in just about any condition you encounter out there.”

“Sure, I understand that,” replied Ed. He looked around at the horizon, realizing this was a desert of a different kind.

“You’ve been checked out on the helicopter?”

“Yes.”

The man reached into his pocket and handed Ed another tent as he said, “Here’s a replacement for your tent. Your pack contains enough MREs for fifteen days. I’ll see you in ten.”

After putting another tent in his pocket, Ed looked up in time to see the man take down the tent he’d erected. He asked, “Anything else I need to know?”

The man shook his head and answered, “The only thing you really need to remember is that if you get into trouble, press the red button on the control. Someone will be there to rescue you. Now get going, you’ve got ten days to hunt rocks out there.”

Smiling, Ed went over to the helicopter and started it up. Fusion technology had changed the entire face of exploration. With portable power, it was possible to go into the most remote regions in relative comfort. Even Antarctica was not nearly as dangerous as before. Getting in the helicopter, he checked the GPS and then headed towards the mountains.

Flying south from McMurdo camp, Ed looked over at the mountains. They weren’t that far from the camp. The most surprising thing that Ed discovered was that he was flying over bare ground. He had not realized that parts of the interior of Antarctica were not covered with snow. Turning to fly towards the mountain that he wanted to explore, Ed watched the land crawl underneath him. He had a four-hour flight to the base of the mountain, and took a simple pleasure in piloting the helicopter.

Landing at the base of the mountain, Ed looked around at his surroundings. It was strange to think that he could be the very first person to walk on this part of the planet. The lack of recent water erosion made the landscape looked odd to the eye. He picked the first few places to look and headed over to them.

After working for several hours, Ed realized that he was suddenly tired. Looking up at the sky, he realized the sun was not going to set. For a moment, he was disoriented by the lack of visual reference as to the passage of time. He checked his watch and realized that he had been working for six hours straight without a break and that it was well after midnight.

Sitting down, he pulled an MRE from his backpack and heated the meal. Opening the helmet was a shock to his system, as he hadn’t realized just how cold it was outside. Alone, with no one within two hundred miles, he enjoyed the view as he ate. After eating, he closed the helmet and got out his camera. Kelly had begged him to take lots of pictures and he knew that if he returned without some great pictures, that she would be upset.

After taking a couple pictures of the view he had enjoyed while eating, he set the camera on the ground and stepped back a dozen paces down the slope of the mountain. Lifting an arm like he was waving to someone, he waited until the timer made the beep that let him know the picture had been taken. Returning to the camera, he cleaned up the site.

He lay down on the ground and went to sleep under the light of the sun. Inside his suit, it was as if he were sleeping on the couch back at the house. The cold air didn’t penetrate his suit.

When he woke, he went to work on a likely looking region of the mountain. After several hours of poking around, he found a nice outcropping of Titanite. He was only able to get three nice looking specimens from where he was digging. Carefully, he packed the samples in his sample boxes. Using a pencil, he wrote the GPS co-ordinates on the sample boxes.

After looking around to see if he could find larger specimens, he decided it was time to move on to another part of the mountain. Before leaving, he did take a couple of pictures of his dig site, just to record where he had worked. Walking slowly and examining the rock face, he spotted a place that looked promising.

Kneeling down, he started to break away a little of the surface layer of rock. Inside, there was a rock with lots of very small quartz crystals embedded within it. He removed three little samples and packed them away. Looking over the area, he decided that he was going to have to move a good distance from there to find samples of significant difference. Again, he took pictures of the location he had worked.

For the next six days, he would work in an area for a while and then move on to another area after collecting a few samples. On the sixth day, he hit a site with a very interesting collection of minerals in near proximity, including Olivine, Teanite, and Ilmenite. Looking over the minerals collected to date, Ed was disappointed not to have identified anything new.

He looked around the area and found a site with some minerals that he couldn’t identify. Taking three samples, he carefully packed them in sample cases. Geologically, this part of the mountain had several major strata of rocks. He took photographs of the entire area recognizing that there was a lot to learn.

As he worked, he was surprised to hear a voice in his head. Looking around, he didn’t see anyone. It took him a minute to answer, “Hello?”

The woman’s voice returned, “Is this Ed Biggers?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Did you know that you are expected back today?”

Surprised, Ed looked around trying to figure out if ten days had passed. He was sure that he had only been out for six days. He answered, “No, I didn’t. I’m supposed to be out here for ten days.”

The voice laughed and said, “You’ve been out for ten days.”

Confused, Ed asked, “How did that happen?”

“A lot of people have that problem when the sun is up all of the time. It distorts the sense of time,” replied the woman.

Shrugging, Ed answered, “Okay, I’ll pack up and head back. I’ll be there in about five hours.”

“We’ll be waiting for you.”

Ed packed up his equipment and headed back towards the helicopter. As he shuffled along, he wondered how he had let the time pass like it had. He spotted an interesting rock formation and headed over to it. There was an interesting blue crystal visible within the rock. He extracted it with some of the matrix and put it an in sample case, wishing he had time to collect a couple of more samples, but there weren’t any immediately available.

The flight back to camp was just as exhilarating as the flight out had been. He found it hard to believe that Ed, the cowboy, had actually made it to Antarctica. He was going to look up Nevada and tell him about it. While making a couple of tight banking turns in the helicopter, he shouted out, “Yee Haw!”

The voice returned, “Ah, Dr. Biggers, you can turn off your microphone.”

“Oh, sorry about that.” Embarrassed at having been overheard; Ed straightened up and flew back to the camp without any additional aerobatics.

Landing at the camp, Ed got out and went into the building they called Hotel California. It was a dorm for visitors and wasn’t really a hotel. According to the literature, the place was typically deserted for the summer even though the traffic into the station was at the highest. With the invention of the suit, most people went to the area where they were doing their work, and stayed there for days at a time. The rest of the base was full of people working in different buildings. After closing the door behind him, the man that had briefed him met him at the door. Removing his helmet, Ed said, “Hello.”

Grinning at Ed, the man said, “So that’s what you look like.”

Ed asked, “By the way, what is your name?”

“Oh, I’m Evan Hever. I’m the handyman around here. Since the invention of the suit you’re wearing, my wife and I are the only ones that spend the whole summer here,” replied the man.

“I guess I owe your wife an apology. I didn’t mean to scream in her ear,” said Ed.

Laughing, Evan said, “Oh, we both heard you. Tierra had you on the speaker.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Ed said, “I guess I’m still a cowboy at heart.”

“The first thing you need to do is get out of that suit and take a shower. You’ve been living in that for ten days and it’s probably pretty ripe by now.”

Following the other man to a room, Ed went in and stripped out of the suit. Getting into the shower, he took a long hot shower taking the opportunity to shave while in the shower. Now that he was indoors, he felt very tired. He dried off and dressed in his normal clothes. Stepping out, he found that Evan was still waiting for him. He followed the man to a dining hall where a hot meal was waiting.

An attractive woman was seated at the table and looked up when he entered. He assumed this was the woman with whom he had talked on the radio. With an amused smile on her face, she said, “You scared the hell out of us with that ‘yee haw’, Dr. Biggers.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize my radio was on; and, please, call me Ed.”

“That’s okay,” she replied before shoveling a spoonful of stew into her mouth. There were several stacks of papers on the table in front of her. She looked at one of the papers and said, “Your plane will be here in about six hours. Do you need to take a nap before it gets here?”