The Resurrection Key

by Andy McDermott

  At some point the bulging pillar of ice had been underwater, the sea washing it as smooth as glass. Fortunately, it was dense enough to take his weight, though the surface layers creaked and whitened with stress. He drilled in more ice screws and attached carabiners before securing the rope through them, soon stepping with relief onto the long ledge. It was narrow, ranging in width from roughly a foot to just a few inches, but would provide adequate footing for the group to traverse the cliff once he placed guidelines along its length.

  He looked ahead. If the object trapped in the ice wasn’t an alien spaceship, it was doing a damn good impression of one. He could see more detail on its glistening metal surface, including—

  ‘It’s got a door!’ he shouted, seeing an oval void in its flank. ‘It’s open.’

  ‘Can we reach it?’ Nina called back.

  ‘Should be able to, yeah.’ The opening was higher up than the crack, but a few more screws would make it accessible. ‘Okay, I’ll climb over and set up the rope.’

  He started across the ledge, drilling in more screws and attaching carabiners as he went. What had begun as a relatively straightforward journey became complicated by unexpected obstacles: debris from the Dionysius embedded in the icy wall. Barrels, tools, chains and pieces of broken crates were frozen into the cliff like flies in amber. Halfway along, a hunk of metal that he guessed was a ratchet from the ship’s crane jutted out across his path like a claw. It was buried too deeply for him to dislodge, so he put an extra screw above it to serve as a handhold while he swung past the obstruction.

  A glance at the source of the debris. The hanging anchor was now below him. From here, he saw that the Dionysius was pinned between two heavy sheets of ice, trapping it in its gravity-defying prison.

  How long it would remain there was another matter. Icy flakes constantly fell from around it, the low moans of the overstressed ceiling louder and more alarming now he was closer.

  The thought spurred Eddie to quicken his pace. He moved on, laying a trail for the others to follow, until he reached a jutting ledge just beneath the ‘spaceship’. The inverted icicles stabbed up at him from below.

  The view above was no less unsettling. He was almost underneath the looming metal shape, and something made a sixth sense clamour in warning. He couldn’t escape the feeling that even after being buried for over a hundred thousand years, the object was not inert.

  He put the disturbing thought aside and shouted back to the rest of the party. ‘Okay, ropes are in place! Come across!’

  Nina led the way, picking her way around the icy outcrop to the crack. With the line to support her, it did not take long to reach the frozen ratchet. ‘Oh, this is conveniently placed!’

  Eddie started drilling screws to act as steps up to the higher ledge leading to the opening. ‘Hold the spike I put in as you go around, you’ll be fine. Just make sure you’re still clipped to the rope.’

  ‘I wasn’t planning to unfasten myself, don’t worry.’ She looked down. The drop to the frigid water below was an almost sheer sixty feet. ‘Actually, I might put another clip on!’

  Eddie smiled, then resumed his task.

  She took hold of the protruding ice screw and leaned back as far as she could, pushing out her butt to clear the metal talon. ‘This is dignified. I’m glad nobody’s filming me!’ The ice under her crampons crackled, but held. She brought herself around the ratchet and, relieved, continued onwards.

  She soon reached the wider ledge. Her husband was above, finishing the steps to the object. This close, she finally got a full sense of its dimensions. Her first thought was that it was the size of a plane, a small commuter jet or large business aircraft, but that was doing it a disservice. An airplane’s fuselage was a long, slim tube, but this was wide as well. Vorster was right that it couldn’t be a ship; the underside was practically flat. A giant sled, able to be towed across the ice? It didn’t seem likely.

  So what the hell were they dealing with?

  Eddie started to descend. ‘Ay up. Here comes Cheng.’ Cheng clumsily clambered around the outcrop. His movements were made more awkward by his backpack. ‘What’s he got in there? Bowling balls?’

  ‘I think it’s his laptop and satellite link,’ said Nina.

  He scoffed. ‘What’s he going to do, livestream everything?’

  Cheng reached the ledge, relieved to have something other than steel spikes beneath his feet. He began the traverse, conspicuously not looking down. Imka appeared around the pillar behind him. Eddie watched with disapproval. ‘Don’t really want more than one person coming across at a time.’

  ‘Won’t the ropes take it?’

  ‘I’d rather not find out. Imka!’ he shouted. She paused. ‘Wait until he’s over here before getting on to the ledge.’

  ‘I can’t just hang on here!’ she protested.

  Eddie frowned. Amateurs becoming impatient was a recipe for trouble. ‘At least let him get past that piece of metal.’

  ‘Cheng, the ice is loose there,’ Nina warned. ‘Be very careful.’

  He clutched the screw and swung around the ratchet. ‘I’ll be fine—’

  The ice burst apart beneath his right boot.

  He flailed his leg, trying to regain his foothold – and the crampon came off, flapping from his heel on its strap.

  Cheng squawked in surprise and instinctively shifted his weight to regain his balance. His other foot slipped from the ledge. He fell—

  The ropes caught him.

  For a moment. Then one of the ice screws burst free.

  Cheng screamed as he dropped again—

  The other screws on each side held. He jerked to a halt three feet below the ledge. Gasping, he flailed at the wall, gloved hands struggling for purchase on the smooth surface.

  Eddie was already moving back across the cliff. There wasn’t time to clip his harness to the rope; instead he simply gripped it as he half walked, half leapt along the ledge. ‘Cheng, I’m coming!’

  The student was becoming panicked. ‘Cheng!’ Nina shouted. ‘Use your foot, dig the crampon into the ice! No, not that foot,’ she added almost with a disbelieving eye-roll as he kicked at the ice with his right foot, the loose crampon flapping beneath it. ‘The one with the spikes!’

  He made another attempt, this time with the fully attached crampon. Metal bit into the surface. That secured him just enough for him to raise himself. One hand found a hold on the ledge. He shouted in Mandarin, straining to bring himself up.

  ‘I’ll be there in a second!’ Eddie yelled. ‘Try and get hold with your other hand!’

  The student did so, fingers clutching the edge. Eddie hopped sidelong to the nearest screw holding Cheng’s weight. The ice around it had turned opaque under the strain, crackling and squealing. He wrapped his right arm around the rope leading back across the cliff, then took hold of the length supporting Cheng and pulled. ‘Can you get your foot any higher?’

  Cheng made a face of extreme effort. ‘I . . . yes, yes, I can,’ he said, inching upwards.

  ‘Great. Hold on.’ The Fast Ice and screw racks were still attached to Eddie’s harness; he fumbled a foot-long rod into the chuck, then drilled it into the wall. Once it was in place, he gripped it with one hand and reached down as far as possible to take hold of Cheng’s rope. ‘Okay, I’m going to pull you up. Ready?’

  Cheng nodded. Eddie braced himself, then hauled. Even with eight inches of steel embedded in the cliff, he still heard the ice around the screw moan, but it held. The youth rose higher, clawing at the ledge before finally bringing one elbow over it. ‘Now lift your foot!’ The Yorkshireman took Cheng’s whole weight for a moment as he raised his leg and kicked his crampon spikes into the wall. ‘That’s it, keep going!’

  Cheng brought himself high enough to hook his foot over the ledge. Eddie helped him fully onto it, then climbed up beside him. Crouching, he reatta
ched the crampon to Cheng’s footwear. ‘For fuck’s sake, son!’ he snapped. ‘It helps if you actually fit them to your fucking boots properly!’ There was almost a centimetre of play around the toepiece. ‘I thought you said you knew what you were doing?’

  ‘I . . . I thought it was secure,’ Cheng replied, unable to meet his eyes. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Chase. I should have let Mr Naider check them . . . I just didn’t want to seem useless.’

  ‘There’s useless, then there’s worse than useless,’ Eddie growled as he tightened the crampon. ‘That’s when you get other people hurt as well as yourself. At least if you’re just useless, I can look after you.’ He straightened, using the drill to attach a replacement screw and carabiner and clipping the line through it. ‘All right. Wait for me to get across, then start after me. And don’t fuck things up again.’

  He made the crossing, shaking his head.

  Nina awaited him. ‘Kinda harsh, weren’t you?’

  ‘I should’ve been harsher. The kid could’ve killed himself.’

  She shared her husband’s view, but at the same time felt sympathy for Cheng. ‘He’s just young – and he’s obviously a nerd. He probably felt threatened by you.’

  ‘Well, he definitely does now.’ Eddie stood with folded arms and watched as Cheng resumed his journey, considerably more carefully than before.

  Eventually he reached the ledge. ‘Are you okay?’ Nina asked him.

  It took him a moment to find his breath. ‘Yes, thank you, Professor Wilde,’ he said, still avoiding Eddie’s hard gaze. ‘I . . . I should have been more careful. I’m sorry.’

  ‘You made it in one piece, that’s the main thing. Let’s try not to break rule number one again, huh?’

  Imka resumed her crossing. Eddie watched her progress, but Nina turned her attention back to the strange object above them. Cheng stood beside her. ‘It’s so big,’ he said, awed. ‘I never thought . . .’

  ‘Never thought what?’ Nina prompted after a silence.

  ‘That – that I would find something like this. An outpost of a lost civilisation, a lost race, hidden in the ice for all this time.’

  ‘You think it’s an outpost? Some kind of building rather than a ship?’

  ‘I don’t believe it’s a UFO,’ he said, directing a small smile at Eddie’s back. ‘And Mr Vorster is right. It’s the wrong shape to travel on the sea. It must have been built in Antarctica.’ He looked up at the dark, sinister shape. ‘A fortress?’

  ‘Protecting against what?’ Nina asked, though she had her suspicions. The Veteres had travelled to the literal ends of the earth to escape their former slaves: humans.

  Although that description wasn’t strictly true, she reminded herself. The Veteres certainly considered humans as lesser beings, much as humans regarded apes and monkeys, but they had tried to teach and uplift them to something more. Their mistake was in not recognising until too late that distinctly human trait: applying any new knowledge first and foremost to the purposes of violence. They had given their primitive charges the most powerful weapon possible to use against them.

  Imka arrived. Vorster began his traversal, Naider rounding the icy outcropping behind him. ‘It’s gonna get cramped on here,’ Nina said to Eddie. ‘Some of us should go up to make room.’

  ‘“Some of us” meaning “the redhead New Yorker”, right?’ Eddie replied.

  She grinned. ‘Am I that transparent?’

  ‘You’re easier to see through than this ice. Go on up, then. We’ll follow as soon as Marc gets across. Oh, and radio the Torrox – let them know we’re okay and that we’re checking the ship.’

  Nina glanced between the inverted Dionysius and its shadowy companion. ‘I guess we don’t need to tell them which ship just yet, huh?’ She took Eddie’s radio, then moved to the ladder of ice screws. ‘Cheng, with me.’

  She started up the cliff face. Eddie had drilled in enough steel rods to make the ascent straightforward, but a glance at the icy stalagmites far below gave her added incentive not to get complacent. Before long she reached the upper ledge and clambered towards the unidentified object.

  The tall oval opening loomed across a short expanse of exposed metal. She switched on a flashlight and shone it inside. A door made of the same faintly oily-looking material was revealed, a disc inset at its centre. Beyond was a passageway, tilted at the same steep angle as the rest of the object. Exploring the interior would be tricky; they might need ropes to stop themselves from sliding out of control.

  She radioed Tate to update him on the situation. ‘Roger that,’ the Australian replied, crackling interference masking his voice. ‘Any sign of the Dionysius’s crew?’

  ‘Not yet,’ she replied. ‘We’re going to start a search.’

  ‘Understood. Keep us posted.’

  Cheng had by now huffed and puffed his way up the ladder. As Nina stepped onto the hull to make room for him, the interference became audibly worse. ‘Can you still hear me?’ she asked.

  ‘Just about,’ Tate replied through the distortion. ‘There’s some really bad static. You standing next to a generator or something?’

  ‘Something,’ Nina echoed. ‘Keep talking, I want to check this.’

  ‘Keep talking? Sure, what about? I could tell you about the cricket, I supp—’

  She stepped through the oval hatchway – and the moment she crossed the threshold, Tate was cut off. Back outside, and his voice returned. ‘—fifty runs!’

  ‘Okay, thanks,’ she said, before calling down to her husband. ‘Eddie! This thing blocks the radio! Someone might need to stay outside so we can keep in contact with the Torrox.’

  Eddie had just helped Vorster onto the ledge; he looked between him and Imka. ‘Any volunteers?’

  ‘I’ve got to find out what happened to Arnold and the others,’ Imka insisted. The shipowner expressed a similar sentiment.

  ‘Either me or Marc, then – and as much as I’d like to chill out, there’s no way I’m letting you wander around an alien spaceship on your own,’ the Englishman told Nina. A glance at the approaching crewman. ‘I’ll break the news to him.’ He took back the radio and descended.

  Nina peered into the opening again, Cheng using his own torch to illuminate the interior. He muttered something in Chinese. ‘What?’ she asked.

  ‘It’s the same metal. The hull and the door,’ he clarified with unexpected emphasis, indicating the dark material. ‘But it is different inside.’

  ‘Orichalcum,’ said Nina, aiming her beam at one wall. Panels of the red-tinted gold alloy shone back at her. Like the outer hull, there was a surprising lack of frost.

  She leaned through the hatchway, after her experience with the radio now hesitant about setting foot inside. The light picked out something else protruding between the orichalcum panels. She thought at first it was ice, but then realised it was something altogether more unusual. ‘It’s crystal.’

  Cheng looked for himself. ‘Is it broken?’

  ‘I . . . don’t think so.’

  She was distracted from his odd question by the arrival of the South Africans. Imka stared through the entrance with concern. ‘Arnold!’ she shouted. ‘Arnold, it’s Imka! Is anyone there?’

  Only echoes reached them. ‘I haven’t seen anything yet,’ said Nina. ‘But this thing is big – someone might have gone deep inside to protect themselves from the cold.’ It was a very long shot, and she was certain Imka knew it, but her companion was still clinging to any crumb of hope she could find.

  Vorster’s eyes went to the walls. ‘That looks like gold!’

  ‘It’s orichalcum – an Atlantean gold alloy,’ Nina told him.

  His eyes narrowed calculatingly. ‘You know . . . under the law of finds, this thing is ours! We’re in international waters, so anything we discover here belongs to us.’

  ‘We came here to rescue Arnold and the crew o
f the Dionysius,’ said Imka with a hint of anger.

  ‘Of course we did. But I’m just letting you know how the law stands.’

  Eddie made his way back up. ‘Well, Marc’s thrilled about having to wait outside,’ he said. ‘What have we got?’

  ‘Not much yet,’ Nina told him. ‘We were waiting for you before we went in.’

  ‘Needed a canary, did you?’ He peered through the entrance. ‘Steep floors. We might need ropes.’

  ‘Yeah, I thought that,’ said Nina. ‘How much do we have left?’

  ‘Hundred and fifty feet, maybe. Don’t know if it’ll be enough. Looks like this thing’s got two floors, maybe even three.’

  ‘You’re right.’ Seeing the object almost in profile, it appeared they were about to enter it on the lowest level. The ceiling of the entrance passage was about twelve feet high, while the eye-like windows were at least fifteen feet above. There was also a bulbous section rising out of the top of the fortress that looked almost like a separate entity, nestled into the larger structure.

  ‘We might need to go back to the ship for more,’ said Vorster.

  ‘We need to find Arnold and the others,’ Imka insisted. ‘Come on – we’ve got to go inside!’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ said Nina, gently but firmly moving to block her. ‘But let me and Eddie go first? We’ve got experience of this kind of thing.’

  Eddie sighed. ‘Here we go again.’

  Nina smiled at him, then raised her flashlight and stepped into the mysterious object.

  8

  Even though Nina had crossed the threshold once already, this time it felt different. More portentous . . . more dangerous. She was entering the unknown. The only people who had been in here before her were mad – or dead.

  She examined the rib between the orichalcum panels. The material was definitely crystal, glinting under her light. ‘Eddie,’ she said quietly. ‘Recognise this?’

  He nodded warily. ‘It’s like the stuff inside the vault in Turkey. Think there’s another bomb in here?’

  Imka had pushed ahead of Cheng, anxious to be near the front of the search, and overheard. ‘A bomb?’