Under the Ice

Though his instincts warned him to back away from the edge of this open lead, his feet were stuck to the ice below, and any escape on his part proved impossible. Forced to look down into the waters of the circular pool, he viewed a series of bubbles rise up from the depths. This disturbance increased, until a constantly blinking, intense red light could be seen glowing from the water below. This blindingly bright strobe seemed to have hypnotic powers, and began rising from the depths with a frightening swiftness. Again Ootah struggled to flee, yet he could only stand there and tremble in terror as a huge, black rectangular object broke through the ice and towered above him. Two men in fur parkas could be seen standing in a well that had been cut into this monolith’s top. One of these men had snow-white hair and bright red cheeks. Above this figure, the flashing strobe incessantly blinked away from its perch on a thin black pipe that extended high into the heavens.

It was at this point that Ootah snapped awake.

The pictures this trance had painted were still disturbingly real. This was especially true of the flashing strobe that continued blinking from the floor of the igloo before him. Vainly trying to make some sort of sense out of this macabre vision, the Inuit could suddenly hear his dogs barking in the distance.

There was an intense urgency to these yelps, and Ootah stiffly rose to see what this commotion was all about.

He hastily pulled on his caribou-skin parka and crawled out the tunnel-like entryway. The icy wind greeted him like a slap to the face as he scanned the horizon. Though the muted dawn was just forming, he could see his dogs perched anxiously beside their tether pole. They were howling away like Tornarsuk himself was after them, and Ootah made his way through the snow to attend to them.

It was because of the whinings of his lead dog, Arnuk, that Ootah directed his gaze to the northwest.

Here a line of men were visible. These figures were dressed in strange fur parkas, and had rifles slung over their shoulders. The Inuit’s instincts warned of trouble, but he walked out to greet them anyway.

The strangers seemed to be of immense size. Because of the woolen masks they wore, Ootah was unable to see their faces. Yet this was soon to change when one of the figures who had been traveling at the back of the pack walked out and raised his voice in greeting.

Though this stranger’s words were of a strange dialect the Inuit had never heard before, they were spoken with a forceful directness that hinted this man was the leader. Only when it was apparent that his words weren’t sinking in did this figure pull back his hood and yank off his mask. Taking in this stranger’s face, Ootah shuddered in horror. For staring back at him was the white-haired, red-cheeked man whom he had just encountered in his vision!

“I show a green light on laser activation, proceeding to interface with the Defiance’s Nav system.”

Dr. Laurie Lansing’s words rang out through the control room. The crew had long since adjusted to the presence of the hardworking scientist, and continued to pursue their individual duties without the least bit of distraction.

Captain Matt Colter was thankful for this fact. As he stood at the chart table watching the attractive civilian efficiently address the new surface-scanning Fathometer’s keyboard, he found himself inwardly hoping that the new device would function properly.

Not only for the Defiance’s sake, but for Lansing’s as well.

“Skipper, we should be just about at those coordinates our last radio fix relayed to us.”

The XO’s observations caused Colter to shift his line of sight back to the chart that lay spread out before them.

“I don’t think we’re going to be able to get much closer to the coastline,” said the captain.

“It shouldn’t be more than a kilometer hike,” observed

Al Layman, who pointed to the north shore of the Brodeur Peninsula with the well-chewed stem of his pipe.

“And if our fix is accurate, another kilometer or so inland should bring us right there.”

Matt Colter intently studied the chart and thoughtfully responded.

“I’m glad it’s not much further than that. Our last meteorological reading showed that blizzard still blowing with a fury topside.

A hike on the ice is dangerous enough, even without this storm.”

“We’ll manage. Skipper. Besides, at least we don’t have that Russian sub to worry about anymore.”

Colter looked up and directly met his XO’s stare.

“Can you really say that for certain, AI. I know we heard our three fish explode, but after that, all that followed was the sound of fracturing ice. We copied absolutely no evidence that indicates a successful hull penetration.”

The XO shook his head.

“Even if we didn’t hear their hull imploding, the chances are good we did enough damage to at least knock out their propulsion system. Why I’ll bet they’re sitting up there dead in the water right now, trapped beneath the ice cover.”