Under The Ice

Greg looked out the station's only almost floor to ceiling, triple paned, window at the barren and windswept arctic landscape. Snowdrifts the size of apartment buildings cast long shadows across the glaring white of a dead continent. Holding a steaming mug of coffee, he took a sip and immediately made a face. "This shit still tastes just as bad as when we first got here two years ago." He set it down on a nearby countertop. The mug read DARPA and the fact his wife gave it to him to keep her in mind was the only reason he had coffee today. With the world turning on its head he hoped she was ok. Nervous energy creeped into his fingers making them drum on the counter. "Raul!" He called to the next room where all the computers and the computer geek was trying to get a connection to the agency. The mainland had stopped responding a couple days ago and a supply shipment that was supposed to arrive the other day didn't. At least they wouldn't die of thirst, so long as they had fuel and sunlight. "Where are we with communications?"

He rounded the doorway to see Raul hunched over a laptop, sorting through lines of code. There was a bank of monitors bolted to the wall in front of him displaying various systems, one of them the drill sensors for the automated driller roaming the arctic for ice cores. Raul finally glanced up to see Greg waiting in the doorway for a response. "Sorry, I've gone through it at least twice in the last forty-eight hours and everything checks out, not only that but the hardware and software agree. The problem isn't with us." Just at that moment a small alarm started blaring from one of the driller monitors.

"Another malfunction?" Greg asked moving over to look at the monitor bank himself.

"Actually, looks like driller three stopped drilling because it hit a..." He stopped and furrowed his brow in confusion. "An open space under the ice."

"Finally. something that doesn't involve me sitting around with my thumb up my..."

"I think Rachel will want to come too. Should I send her a message?"

"No. I don't think it's anything more than probably a large pocket of air that got opened by a thermal vent sometime in the past."

"If you insist." He rolled his eyes and sat back with a silly grin on his face. "But she's going to be pissed."

"Yeah. What else is new." Greg shook his head before heading back out into the main room. he deposited his mug on the counter and strapped on the winter gear that would help him withstand the absurdly cold temperatures. At least it was summer, Greg told himself, this far inland there was no way it would ever reach over -20 Celsius, which was still way too cold in his opinion.

He entered the small "airlock". It was really just there to keep the whole place from cooling off when they exited. The latch hissed as he cranked it open and promptly got hit in the face with what felt like a cold towel, if the towel was made of woven dry-ice and stuck to his cheeks. He mounted a nearby snowmobile and punched in the coordinates for the halted drill. Gritting his teeth, he took off as the cold stung even worse. Greg hated the cold, but as an atmospheric scientist he couldn't really say no to the opportunity when the government approached him. To Greg's relief the driller wasn't too far away and when the monster-rig came into view it was quite the piece of technology.

The driller stood almost as tall as an industrial dump truck but with legs that protruded from each corner and would anchor the truck to the ice as the drill deploys. The drill itself sat tall and only grew in size as he approached. The driller was designed to drill relatively deep and store the cores in metal tubes in a compartment that would automatically deposit the cores in a containment unit back at home base once it filled up. The tall drill part was designed to contract, and the vehicle would slowly move to the next drilling location. The massive vehicle would refuel every so often, but they might have to halt the drilling if the situation on the mainland didn't clear up before too long. He came up to the massive vehicle that made him feel like he was on a scooter.

He dismounted and approached the vehicle. Popped open a panel near the door to reveal a small control interface. Punching in a series of memorized commands, the monstrosity rumbled and shook as the drill retracted. As soon as the drill structure disappeared the anchors released with a punching crack and the truck lumbered forward slowly, making its way to the next zone. The hole it left behind would easily let the snowmobile fall into the black maw.

"Never gets old." Greg said as he watched a feat of engineering just do its thing. Turning back to the mobile, he removed what looked like a cross between a harpoon gun and hand-held core driller. he set it up and pushed the button. With a clunk it punched an anchor into the ice that was attached to some rope and a harness. He triple checked it was secure before peeking over the edge. Gingerly, he descended into the abyss.

As he got further down, he switched on a lamp that was hidden in the shoulder of the harness. it immediately illuminated the layers of packed ice, and snow, and some dirt that appeared. At least it looked like dirt.

He was watching the layers go by as he descended before they abruptly ended, and he was suddenly hanging freely over a small chasm. His heart leapt into his throat as he slowly spun above what looked like at least a hundred or so meter drop. The remainder of the rope seemed like it should reach, but what calmed his nerves was a structure that looked vaguely like an arch made of metal sitting dead center of the open space. It also looked like the ice ended at the bottom of the chasm and gave way to actual ground, and it looked like to Greg there was some grass growing there somehow. It didn't look exactly like the grass that was everywhere else on earth as it had a slightly pink making it look odd from a distance, it also seemed to be emanating from the structure.

As he continued his tenuous descent in mid-air the structure grew nearer until he eventually alighted in the pink grass. It crunched under his feet, sending streaks of purple shuddering through it. The arch itself looked like it had seen better days and had a Romanesque design. Save for the strange runes that graced the peak, it could've been in the center of rome and no one would've batted an eye. Approaching it made the runes begin the glow. When he stopped just short of walking through it the air in front of him shattered away into a vortex.

Without Greg noticing, the air had gotten so warm it was no longer fogging his breath, and the urge to step through the vortex became almost inescapable. Giving into the mystery without a thought for anyone, he stepped through.

Before he had the time to process what was happening he was ejected from a similar archway into an eerily similar cavern, only this one wasn't made of ice and somehow it was clear as daylight. The puzzling thought of how the other cavern had been so brightly illuminated flashed through his mind to be replaced by the awe of a Ziggurat towering before him. And a girl, with short black hair and bright brown eyes lounging on the bottom step. She was in a modern summer dress, for some reason.

Greg was about to say something when she bolted upright. He blinked and she was in his face, hand gripping his throat like a vice. He began to sweat from the heat of the cavern as her face contorted in confusion while keeping her hand tight. "How did you get here? You must've used a gateway, but how!" She hissed in a voice that was simultaneously old and young and female but not just female. It clearly wasn't human and it seemed to want him dead.

He opened his mouth to let a choking cough out and not much else. She realized he couldn't respond that way so she released her grip enough to let him breathe. "I just found an arch... Under the ice." Greg managed to whisper between painful gasps.

The inhuman girl got a distant look in her eyes and let go fully, letting Greg collapse to the grassy ground. The same pinkish purple gras crunched under his weight. "Under the ice..." She whispered to herself as she floated back towards the ziggurat. "Where was this place under the ice? What do you call it?" She rounded back to him again. this time less aggressive.

"Antarctica." Greg was gradually getting his voice back. "I'm actually a DARPA Atmospheric Scientist."

"What's a Darpa? And Antarctica. It must be the homeland." She floated a little ways away. and gestured at the structure. "Were there any more of these there?"

"Not that I could see." Greg got to his feet and began shedding his heavy winter gear before he passed out. It was beginning to get unbearable. "Where are we exactly?" At that moment his phone pinged a message. Digging it out of his back pocket he discovered he had service. unlocking it, he opened the map app and his location freaked out for a moment, having been in Antarctica just a few minutes ago. It quickly readjusted to... North America? Greg only had a moment before the phone disappeared from his hand. The girl floated towards him with it dangling from her grasp.

"These devices annoy me for some reason." She dropped it to the ground where it sparked and puffed smoke. Greg gasped before he could stop himself. "Why do you rely on them so much?"

"Can you just send me back?"

"No."

"No?"

"No." She said, with a finality that made Greg's heart sink. "You can never leave, now that you know about this place. But don't worry, I'll make sure you never die." She reached out her hand and touched his shoulder. Everything warped, and suddenly he was in an odd chamber that was definitely in the ziggurat. She appeared in front of him and shoved him towards an alcove in the wall.

"WaitWaitWait!" Greg exclaimed as a sheet of glass encased him inside. "What If you didn't freeze me or hibernate me or... do whatever it is you're about to do!" He pleaded, pressing himself against the glass.

She raised an eyebrow at this as an intriguing protrusion rose from the ground. Definitely a control console for whatever this was.

"What if you didn't do... that, and instead let me live out my days studying this structure." He was beginning to hyperventilate in a near panic. Being put into some kind of stasis without being awoken was basically a death sentence. The thought that it was better to do something productive as he withered away instead of being frozen while unconscious for an eternity flashed through his desperate mind. "It's not like I can actually go anywhere."

"That gate is one way..." The not girl said out loud.

After a strenuous and terribly long minute she rested her hand on the console. Greg was about to cry out, but the glass retracted.

"I suppose that's not a bad idea." She moved away from the console, letting it retreat into the floor as well. "Besides, you said you're a scientist right?" Greg nodded vigorously. "That's someone that's good with technology and fixing it right?" Again he nodded. "Good. Maybe you can help me figure out what this means." She waved her hand in the air in the direction of one of the other walls and it transformed into a massive bank of what looked like ancient, and at the same time, far more advanced computer consoles. The transformation reached the upper wall where a massive orange holographic monitor flickered to life. The same runes that graced the arch flowed by. The only familiar symbol pulsed in the right hand quarter of the wall. The radiation symbol. He looked at her with a slack jaw.

She shrugged at him. "I'm just the night guard."