by Rick Chesler
The photographer looked away from his camera, a devilish grin overtaking his features. “Sweetheart, you can overlay your points on my photo anytime, all right?” He gave an exaggerated wink along with a good-natured laugh and turned back to his image capturing. Lara rolled her eyes, but couldn’t help but smile.
“Go ahead and smack him, I would.” Richard’s counterpoint, the other National Geographic Explorer-In-residence, one Anita Clarkson of California, weighed in. At 31 years old, she was an accomplished blue water sailor and most noted for being the youngest female to sail solo around the globe, at age sixteen. Her sky blue eyes hid behind disheveled, blonde bangs. Though she was Richard’s peer, that didn’t necessarily endear her to him.
“Remind me again what your expertise is, dear? I get that if we were sailing to the island your skills would come in handy, but seeing as we flew here…”
Anita shot him a look to kill. “We both have the same sponsor, Richard. The same people who deemed you suitable for the expedition felt the same way about me. So get over it.”
A peanut gallery of “ooohs” echoed throughout the cabin as the helicopter approached the mouth of the volcano. Joystna Chandahar, a 39-year-old Indian-American and the team’s medical doctor, raised her voice above the fray. She was all of four-foot-eleven inches, but her diminutive stature belied her quiet intensity. She wore her long, black hair parted in the middle, pausing often to sweep it back from her face, as she did now.
“C’mon, people, we’ve got to work together. I figured I would be here to help with field injuries, not cat-fights.” Joystna possessed extensive experience in providing emergency aid in disaster-affected areas including India and Southeast Asia. She generally put out a serious demeanor and was not much for small talk.
“Okay, everybody. Here we are—take a look down there!” Kai Nguyen, the team’s foreign language translator, pointed excitedly. A 42-year-old born in Hawaii but now living in Washington, D.C., Kai was brought into the fold because he was an expert on Pacific island languages. If the team did manage to locate any of the Tongan landing party still alive, they would need to communicate. Kai’s wavy black hair and classic Polynesian features made him look more at home in this part of the world than the rest of the team, but the truth was that while he spent his childhood in Hawaii, he now passed most of his time in D.C., where many of his translation jobs were conducted via video chat, Internet or telephone. This was his first trip to the South Pacific in many years.
The craft flew directly over the middle of the volcano’s peak, and those on either side of the helo looked directly down into it.
“There’s a lake!” George pointed but the gesture was wholly unnecessary since it was easy to see that the entire bottom portion of the volcano was flooded with water.
“Seawater coming up from below or perhaps trapped inside during formation. Will be interesting to find out,” Skylar said.
“What’s not so interesting about it,” Richard pointed out, “is that it means there’s nowhere flat for us to put down in there.”
At this, the pilot nodded. “After we fly across, we’ll circle the perimeter and see if we can find a level enough spot there.”
No one disagreed, and they flew over the yawning opening in silence. When they were about halfway across, Lara pointed excitedly.
“Look! I see something, something orange.” She raised binoculars to her eyes and focused. “Looks like it could be a life jacket.”
Ethan clicked off a few photos. “Definitely a good place to start looking, then.”
When they reached the other side, the pilot made a right turn and began following the curve of the island’s roughly circular form.
“Not a whole lot of optimal landing spots here, either. Maybe we should have come by boat after all.” Anita glared at Richard, who shrugged as he looked down at the rugged new landscape.
“We’ll see. We have yet to go all the way around.”
But as the circumnavigation of the island continued, it became clear that the topography varied little. Steep, rocky sides thrust up from the open ocean with very few exceptions, and none of those were sufficient to land a helicopter. By the time they had gone all the way around, a sullen silence had fallen over the cabin as they all pondered the unspoken question: where to land?
At length, that silence was broken by Richard, the explorer who had figured out many a route into inhospitable places over the decades. “Look, the Tongans must have found a way either inside it or up onto it, right? And they came by boat…”
Anita, the sailor, was quick to reply. “Unless their boat sank on the way there—who knows, maybe they never even got here. There hasn’t been any proof one way or the other.”
The pilot interrupted them by leaning back and saying, “It’s up to you, but we do have options. Let me lay them out. One: we can fly around a little more to try and find a nice flat landing zone, but when I reach my low fuel point, we’ll have to head back to Samoa.” He continued on over the groans in response. “Two: we can abort now and head back after seeing the place up close.”
“Anything else?” Richard asked.
“Yeah, or three: We can try having Steve, here, lower you down wherever you want to go by winched cable.” He patted his co-pilot on the shoulder, and Steve nodded.
“Then we’d pick you up the same way in reverse—lower it down, you grab hold of the basket, and I reel you back in.”
“Just remember to ground ourselves first before we touch the cable, right, or zap!” Richard mimicked convulsions induced by electrocution.
The co-pilot grinned. “I see you’ve done this before.”
Richard nodded. “More than once, I’m afraid. Somehow, it’s always worked out for me so far.”
“Let’s hope that luck holds out, because I think at this point that’s our best option.”
“So where to lower us down?”
“All business as usual, eh, Dr. Chandahar?” Richard smiled in her direction. “I like it. I say we split up, if it’s okay with our good pilot.”
The pilot’s brow furrowed. “Split up how? I don’t have all day.” He tapped his fuel gauge.
Richard was quick to reply, as he could see others about to protest as well. “Two groups of four. One dropped somewhere up on the outside slope, wherever you think you can pull it off. And the other to be dropped along with the inflatable boat down into the lake, near where we spotted that life jacket or whatever it is. That’ll give us a chance to cover the most ground possible. This is considered a search-and-rescue mission, let’s not forget. We should cover as much area as we possibly can.”
The pilot pointed up and to the right. “Let’s check out the outer slope up near the top. This side looked a little better to me, and then from there, we can drop in for the lake shot.”
No one voiced an argument, although there were no actual agreements, either. Everyone still mulled over the ramifications of the plan, which had them suddenly from a comfortable helicopter ride to confronting the reality that they were going to get out of the aircraft and step onto a highly active volcano. This was not some inviting tropical island with a sugary sand beach and palm trees swaying in the breeze. There was no way to walk onto the isle at all. Or off of it.
The pilot ascended, and the team watched the pastiche of brown lava rock stripe vertically past their window, where spotty patches of molten lava bubbled up every so often. George pointed out the first traces of new plant life, already taking root in the rocky substrate, eking out a living on this harsh terrain.
They were jolted from their thoughts by the pilot waving to get their attention. “I can’t land here, but I can hover a few feet off the ground until you can jump out.”
“I’m game.” Richard raised his hand like an eager school kid.
“Same here, mate.” Ethan was grinning ear to ear, like this was the best thing he could possibly be doing.
A couple of seconds ticked by during which the noise of the rotors holding their position
over the scorched ground was the only sound. “C’mon, who’s next?”
Anita raised her hand and Richard frowned. “Really, dear, don’t you think you ought to be on the boat team so we can at least make use of the narrow range of experience you do have?”
“Perhaps you should try the boat, Richard. Get out of your mountain climbing comfort zone.”
“Enough!” Joystna, the M.D., raised her voice to a sharp trill, silencing the team. “I would have thought that the team’s two professional explorers, both from the same organization no less, would at least have a working rapport.”
“I don’t mind being on the boat team,” Anita offered.
George Meyer nodded. “If we’re splitting up, we should probably split the expertise as well. We have two professional explorers, so one on each team.” He looked at Skylar. “Two geologists, so one on each team.” Skylar was quick to nod her agreement to this.
“Make sure we split up the sat-phones, as well,” Kai suggested. Every member of the team carried a two-way radio, which would keep them in touch with each other over short distances on the island, but for contact with the outside world, only satellite phones would do. The team had two of them, so it was decided that one would go to each sub-team.
The group was in agreement, and they quickly worked out a roster for each team, designated Slope and Boat. By the time they had finished with that, the pilot was hovering over the Slope Team drop zone.
“This is as good as it’s going to get for the slope. Looks like you have a little bit of semi- flat ground to get started on. After that, good luck!”
The helicopter descended to three feet above a rare level patch of ground and the four Slope Team members, each wearing a backpack, lined up to jump out. Richard Eavesley led the way, followed by geologist George Meyer, photographer Ethan Jones, and translator Kai Nguyen. The crunch of lava rock under boots was drowned out by the helicopter’s engine. After all four duck-walked out from beneath the rotors, the chopper lifted off while the team still on board waved their temporary goodbyes.
The pilot lifted the craft higher and then moved forward until they cleared the lip of the volcano. In the back, Anita and Skylar worked to unpack their small inflatable raft. It would float the four of them and their gear, but just barely. As they inflated it with a hand pump, they stuck the nose out the door. Meanwhile, the craft descended, and it became noticeably darker inside the volcano, light only penetrating from directly above.
“Anybody notice something funny?” Anita asked the group, her blonde eyebrows furrowing above sky blue eyes.
“What’s that?” Skylar didn’t look up from adjusting the straps on her backpack.
“We split the two teams into men and women.”
All four women of the Boat Team looked around at one another and burst out laughing. “Probably better that way, no distractions, right?” Lara said.
“On my go, people…” The pilot’s voice put an end to their banter. His hand moved over the controls as he steadied the aircraft a few feet above the lake’s surface, now whipped into a frenzy of whitewater by the rotor wash.
Anita grabbed hold of a rope tied to the raft. They had fastened a weight to the nose of the raft to make sure it would drop down and not get buffeted into the rotors, destroying their boat and possibly the helicopter, too.
“Here goes.” She and Skylar kicked the little boat out the door.
Even with the added ballast, the lightweight raft caught an updraft, and for one heart-stopping moment, it seemed the raft was going to hit the rotors, but then it slanted down at an angle and hit the water. Their luck wasn’t perfect, however, since it landed upside-down.
Anita cursed the turn of events. She still held the rope attached to the raft, keeping it from being blown across the lake by the rotor wash.
“Now what?” Joystna asked. “Haul it back up and try again?”
It was the helicopter pilot who answered. “No way. That was too close to the rotors. We’re not trying that again. Deal with it. Get down there and flip it over.”
Before anyone could say anything, Anita jumped out the door, splashing into the lake a few feet from the boat. Those in the helo looked down on her, waiting to see she if was okay. What if the water was still almost boiling hot? They’d all heard the predictions, based on science—it should be about the same as the surrounding ocean water, maybe a little warmer—but still. Here she was, actually taking the plunge. Another unsettling thought—what if the water wasn’t that deep and she hit the bottom hard?
But Anita gave a casual wave to let them know she was okay after making the drop. Then, using the rope, she pulled the raft to her. It was light enough that she was able to flip it over herself. She did so and then shrugged off her pack. She chucked it up and over, into the raft. Then she got in herself, kicking until she was able to flop inside.
Skylar Hanson was next to jump, followed quickly by Joystna Chandahar and Lara Cantrel. The chopper rose up and out of the volcano as soon as all of the passengers were clear, lessening the rotor wash for the swimmers. Anita helped the others aboard the raft, and then they craned their necks upward to watch as the pilot lifted the helicopter out of the cone and flew away from the island.
Expedition Gaia had landed.
Chapter 5
All of Boat Team, including Skylar, the geologist, had thought that the water in the lake would calm down once the helicopter had left, that all of the churning had been due to rotor wash. They could see now, however, that this was anything but the case. All around them the lake—which was in fact ocean water that had been trapped in the center of the forming volcano cone—bubbled and sputtered, with gasses rising off of it giving the whole place an eerie, ethereal feel.
Skylar picked up the paddle, but seeing Anita reminded her that the professional explorer on Boat Team was an experienced boater, so she gave it to Anita. Skylar wondered if Anita might be irritated that Richard’s comments about her boating experience were coming to pass, but these thoughts were interrupted by Anita, who asked, “Where to?”
All of them looked around, and Skylar produced a powerful flashlight to use as a search beam. She directed its illumination onto the jagged shoreline, sweeping the beam around in a clockwise circle.
While she did this, Joystna put her hand in the water. “Warm. About the same as the outside ocean water.”
“That’s because it is outside ocean water,” Skylar said. “This subsea volcano formed underwater, and as it grew, it formed a caldera, a depression formed by the caving in of an empty chamber of magma. Then, seawater rushed in to take its place. It looks like an enclosed lake, or bowl of water, but it’s most likely connected to the ocean through openings and chambers below the surface.”
“Good to know it’s warm in case we have to swim.” Lara put a walkie talkie to her lips and spoke into it. “Boat Team to Slope, you copy?”
Static issued from the radio speaker but then Richard’s English accent became decipherable. “We copy you, Lara. Still getting situated right where we got dropped off, but almost ready to move out. How’s the boat?”
“Wet, but we’re in it, safe and sound. Same situation here, basically, we’re ready to move out.”
Richard’s laughter pealed out of the speaker, followed by the words, “Roger that, we’ll check in later, then. Toodles!”
“So which way, then?” Anita asked again, paddle poised above the water.
“I don’t see anywhere we can get out on so far.” Skylar continued playing the torch beam around the volcano’s interior. She studied the walls of the volcano leading up, narrowing as they reached toward the sky.
Joystna gazed up with what appeared to be trepidation. “All I can say is if we can’t find a way out from in here somewhere, it’s going to be one hell of a climb up. Either that, or we’ll have to sit in this raft until the helicopter comes back to pick us up.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Skylar agreed. “But it’s a big island, and in my profe
ssional opinion, the chance that it’s one hundred percent solid down here except for the lake is remote.”
No sooner had she completed her sentence than Skylar steadied the search beam on an area of shoreline. “Look here.” A narrow depression pockmarked the otherwise smooth surface of the curved shore.
“Looks like it could go back a ways. Let’s check it out.” Anita dug the oar into the water, paddling them toward the spot. As they progressed, a loose chunk of rock fell from somewhere high above on the inside volcano wall, making scraping sounds on the way down and finally splashing into the lake, a reminder that the brand new island was far from stable. Anita stopped paddling as they reached the mouth of an opening in the rocky wall of the lake chamber. Sheets of mist or vapor wafted from the surface of the lake, obscuring visibility into the opening.
“What do you think?” Skylar asked no one in particular.
Anita looked around the lake walls, seeing no other opportunities for exploration short of getting into full-on rock climbing. “I say we take the boat in a little ways and see where this goes, if anywhere.”
The rest of the group voiced uneasy agreement, and Anita paddled the raft into the misty cave.
Chapter 6
Ethan Jones wiped his eyes again as he trotted ahead of the group so that he could turn around to snap a photo. He wanted an image to prove they were really here, boots on the ground, doing their job kind of thing. A public relations type shot. Document the expedition, that’s what he was here for. But his eyes kept tearing up before he could compose his shot.
“Air up here is murder on the eyes.”
Richard Eavesley led the Slope Team past Ethan along a rare horizontal section of the volcano’s outer mountainside. “Sulfuric gasses coming from deep within the Earth. You should have thought to bring goggles. They’re always a part of my kit.” He made it a point to turn and look at Ethan with his plastic bug-eyes on.
“I see you’re the only one wearing them. Thanks for letting the rest of us know,” Ethan shot back. “Besides,” he added quickly, deciding he’d come off a little harsh, “I couldn’t really take good pictures with those on.”