Page 12 of Escaping my Dragon

“It’s a wonder we survived.” A lighter riposte by the captain.

Greenfield ignored me to address the captain. “My expected cargo didn’t arrive on the last flight.”

“Likely because it didn’t get processed in time. I’m sure it will be included on the next one.”

“Hmph.” An unimpressed noise. “I need that shipment if I’m to properly do my job.”

“Don’t you have all the equipment you need to monitor the seismic activity?”

His gaze flickered to me. “The items I’m speaking of are custom-built and quite important for my research.”

“A seismologist and an inventor?” I gushed, not openly mocking, but close. “That’s impressive, doctor. I look forward to hearing more about it during our interview.”

“I’m a busy man and have no time to indulge in idle chatter.” Without another word, Greenfield strode off.

“Pleasant fellow.”

“Who won’t last, with that attitude. Shall we move on with our tour?” the captain suggested.

He led me away, but I couldn’t help but glance back at the doctor stalking into a building, leading the captain to remark, “Don’t let his rudeness get to you.”

“Oh, it doesn’t bother me. I just find it curious that he’s not interested in blabbing. Most science types don’t shut up once I grant them an interview. Even the shy ones.”

“Greenfield is a strange bloke. Oddly, despite his credentials, no one here’s ever heard of him, and he doesn’t seem interested in making friends.”

“So how did he end up at the station?”

“Our last seismologist left abruptly, claiming a family emergency, and Greenfield was sent as his replacement. Despite being unknown, his resume is impressive.”

“It should have mentioned his acerbic personality. I swear, he sounds as if he wants the volcanoes to blow. But there’s little chance of that, right?” It shamed me to admit the doctor’s words struck a chord.

“Can’t say for sure about Erebus, but I know the other three have been dead a long time. I wouldn’t worry about it. Like I said before⁠—”

“Plenty of time to evacuate.”

“Exactly.”

“There you are!” Joslyn crowed as she spotted us. She and Vernon headed in our direction. “We are ready to start documenting!”

“Our first interview isn’t until after lunch. Since that’s not for a few hours, we’ll start with getting candid shots.” With the captain shadowing us, I retraced our route, this time with Joslyn filming while Vernon dangled a boom microphone over my head. We captured some footage of our current environment as well as a few videos of me pointing out places of interest, like the volcano steaming at my back.

By supper time, I’d conducted my first interview with a paleoclimatologist, Isobel Townsend, who gave me a scientific explanation of the ice samples she’d been studying. Details about drilling to extract ice cores from deep within the glaciers and the Ross shelf, even the mountain. Much of what she had to say would probably be too complicated for viewers to follow, but we’d still put in parts of it because, after all, we needed legit sources for our facts. Fact being, she found periods of heating that stretched back millennia. Ash from past volcanic eruptions. Dust and trace metals, possibly from drifting pollution in the air. Some ancient microbes, but nothing that infected and turned people into raving lunatics or monsters. Radiation appeared as well, some the man-made result from past nuclear tests. Cosmic rays also contributed.

Of more interest, she told me to speak to one Dr. Latimer who’d been studying and trying replicate the results from the Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna experiment. Nicknamed Anita, and funded by NASA, it was apparently some kind of ballon fitted with all kinds of fancy monitors that had succeeded in capturing ultra-high-energy cosmic neutrinos coming from below the ice. Don’t ask me to explain what that meant; all I knew was it sounded interesting and appeared to be cause for excitement.

Once Isobel finished explaining Anita’s findings, Joslyn’s eyes widened, and she exclaimed, “Is it aliens?”

Isobel shrugged. “Some would say yes, but we’re more of the mind that it’s caused by a new form of physics we’ve yet to understand.”

Dr. Latimer, the guy who knew more about these neutrinos, was on my list, and, after doing a bit of internet research, I had a list of questions prepared. One of which would be a repeat of Joslyn’s: could the findings be of extraterrestrial origin? The audience would love the fact I even contemplated it.

Dinner our first full day at the station proved a busy affair as many gathered for the evening repast, unlike lunch, which some skipped or carried away with them.

Raucous laughter. Ribald jokes—to be expected in a male dominated space—and interesting anecdotes as word had spread of my presence, leading everyone with a story to seek me out. Vernon and Joslyn kept busy recording these impromptu conversations, many of which started with, I’d only had a few drinks or I’d just woken up when it happened.

Over the next few days, I kept conducting my interviews, Latimer being one of them. While not coming outright and saying he believed in aliens, he’d hinted at it strongly. I found the most interesting stories came at night when many gathered in the common areas, especially from those who stayed during the dark months. I began noticing a common theme amongst them. Almost all mentioned dreams of an ice cave and a conviction that something lived in it, even as none mentioned an actual creature—or an opening eye. Many claimed to have heard a voice, and all described it as deep and reverberating, filling their heads with the words, Free me. All admitted to only experiencing the voice and visions when they slept or stepped outside and heard it carried on the wind. This indicated the possibility of a group psychosis likely exacerbated by their stressful situation. I couldn’t imagine living days, let alone months, without seeing the sun.

Their conviction proved contagious, though, because my own dream from the first night repeated, over and over, until it became so familiar I no longer fell off the icy slope when the eye opened. Rather, I stared right back. But of the voice? Never repeated again.