The Encounter

by Donal Myrick

  They found a small icy outcrop and parked nearby. Peggy leaned her seat back and looked out the window. She said, “Max, I never saw the northern lights until this trip. Tonight they are awesomely beautiful. They seem brighter than when we were on the boat.”

  Max agreed, “Yes, they are.” Max went on to say, “Have you ever read that poem ‘The Cremation of Sam Mcgee’ by Robert w. Service?”

  “No,” Peggy replied, “I’ve never heard of him.”

  “I can’t help but think about that poem as we sit here now.”

  “How does it go? Do you remember it?”

  “I sort of remember the first part. I couldn’t begin to recite the whole thing.”

  “Tell it to me. Tell me the part you remember.”

  “Okay, it starts like this:

  ‘There are strange things done in the midnight sun

  By the men who moil for gold;

  The Arctic trails have their secret tales

  That would make your blood run cold;

  The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,

  But the queerest they ever did see

  Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

  I cremated Sam McGee.’

  You have to admit, as we sit here in Journey, we are definitely high on the list of queer sights; maybe not the queerest you ever did see, but still pretty queer. When we get back to civilization, I’ll look it up and read the whole thing to you.”

  Peggy thought for a moment, then said, “Oh my god, Max, that poem is about us right now. You know that would make the perfect introduction to the story of our adventure. Just change a few words. Substitute ‘alien spaceships’ for gold, and what was that you said, ‘Lake Labarge’? For that, we could substitute ‘Meighen Island’. You would have to find something to rhyme with island, but you could do it.”

  “It would take a lot of rewriting!”

  Laughing out loud, Peggy said, “I can’t wait to hear the rest of it. I know we can make some great revisions. I’ve got ideas.”

  Max said, “You’ve always got ideas. Give it a rest, Peggy. You are tired. Go to sleep.”

  At this latitude and this time of year, the sun would barely rise above the southern horizon and would shortly thereafter dip back below. So the nights were long and the days were short. Peggy remarked several times that she had never been this far north before and that the short days and long nights were really strange to her. Max told her that in the summer, it was just the opposite; a little further north and the sun would never set, and in the winter, it would never rise.

  The night was long, and eventually, they both got some sleep. They were awakened by “This is W5JRZ calling W8MJZ, Carl, do you have your ears on?”

  “W5JRZ, this is W8MJZ, and I do have my ears on. I was just wondering when you would call.”

  “Carl, I’ve got another message for my friends that are coming your way. When you see them, tell them to hunker down, because there is a storm coming. They will know what I mean.”

  “Do you mean a real storm or something else?”

  “Just tell them to look up and down to be safe. Carl, I’m sorry for the short call, but there is a lot going on down here right now. I give you a shout later. W5JRZ signing off.”

  Max said, “That is a warning for sure. Let’s get that thermal tarp secured over our top, and we might need to let everything cold soak in here as well so as to reduce our infra-red signature as much as possible. Then we need to make a dash. We need to keep an eye out for any ice ridges sticking up that we can hide behind if necessary.”

  “Do you think they know where we are?” Peggy asked.

  “I doubt it, but they may have figured out that we are up here somewhere. I’m pretty sure that we are invisible to satellites, but low flying aircraft might be another story.”

  Peggy asked, “How about submarines? Do you think that they can hear us?”

  “Hell, I don’t know. I hadn’t thought about that. They might be able to. I’m thinking that if they know we are up here somewhere, how did they come by that knowledge?”

  Peggy opined, “They must have searched all of the border crossing manifest records looking for anything with HyTech Marine’s name on it.”

  Max replied, “If they did that, then they must also know that we had to ship Journey to an entity identified as the Arctic Winter Research Group, and the destination was listed as Axel Heiberg Island. There is a university-sponsored research station there, but it is manned for only a couple of months each year during the summer. I’ll bet their search will be concentrated in that area.”

  “That puts them between us and our objective,” Peggy noted. If we go near Axel Heiberg, we will run right into the teeth of their search.”

  “Obviously, we need to steer clear of Axel Heiberg.”

  “How far do we have to go?” Peggy asked.

  “GPS says about two hundred miles as the crow flies, or about three days if we travel only during the daylight. We need to game some route options.”

  “What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking we need to get to our destination as quickly as possible and hunker down. The longer we piddle around out here on the ice, the more time they have to bring more assets to the region to search for us.” Max continued, “If we stay out here too long, they will find us no matter how stealthy we are, and that is a definite.”

  Peggy offered, “Let’s go west of that island that is just ahead. We can creep up the west side until we get to the tip, then we can make a dash to the west side of Meighen Island.”

  “That might work, but I think we might need to get a little further north before we dash to Meighen Island. Let’s get going and let’s keep our eyes open for anything that moves.”

  They started off moving to the west through Hendriksen Strait, heading towards Hassel Sound. Hassel Sound was stretch of now frozen pack ice between the two Ringnes Islands. The new ice was smooth and had frequent open leads. Max liked the open leads because he could open Journey up to close to twenty-five miles per hour, so they were able to make really good time. They covered almost one hundred and fifteen miles during their six-hour daylight period. As it got dark, they chose a ragged pressure ridge to hide behind. They hunkered down and broke out some rations. As they ate, their idle conversation was interrupted by an alarm tone and a caution light that popped up on Journey’s console.

  Startled, Max said, “What the hell is that?”

  Peggy touched the screen and said, “You installed all the electronic features of the electric car in Journey, didn’t you.”

  “Yes, this is the car’s dashboard with only a few modifications.”

  “Well, you installed a radar detector, so we are protected from getting a ticket for speeding.”

  “You are kidding!”

  “Nope. Not kidding, and it looks like it is one of the good ones with multi-band capability. Max that means that we have just been swept by a radar beam. Do you think they saw us?”

  “Probably not, because all those traffic radars use Doppler. So if we aren’t moving, they won’t see us. Damn, we are lucky. I didn’t know that a radar detector was part of the car’s electronic suite, but it may have just saved us. It was far easier to just include everything rather than trying to figure out what to selectively delete.”

  “That thing is pinging us about every second, and it has been doing it for about two minutes. Do you think it is going to quit?”

  “Hopefully.”

  Shortly thereafter, it quit.

  “Do you think they found us? Peggy asked again.

  Max said, “I don’t think so, but I think we have just found out how sensitive our detector is. When it got close, the detector lit up. When they got out of range, it quit. So we have got basically a three-minute window, actually, let’s say half of that time to react. When it goes off, we must stop immediately, even if we are out in the open. Our motion is more likely to be detected than we are to be seen.”

  “Looks like to
morrow is going to be stop and go.”

  “I’m afraid so. Let’s try to get some sleep.”

  The radar detector didn’t light up again that evening, so they assumed that the airplane wasn’t in search mode. The night was long, but they eventually got some sleep. Max woke up early the next morning before it began to get light. Even though it was still very dark outside, he was surprised that he could actually see by the light of the aurora. He could see, but not really well. He thought that if the aurora stayed this bright, they could travel some at night, but they couldn’t go faster than a walking pace.

  Peggy felt Max moving and woke up. “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yes, I’m fine. I just noticed how well I can see by aurora light. I think we can travel slowly if it stays this bright.”

  Peggy noted, “It is bright, isn’t it? We couldn’t see this well last night, or maybe our eyes weren’t adjusted. Are you going to try driving now?”

  “Yes.” Max pulled the back of his seat up and took the controls. “Let’s cross the Sound and hug the shore of Ellef Ringnes Island for a while.”

  The going was slow, but as it began to get lighter, Max was able to go faster. Then it happened again, the radar detector sounded the alarm, and Max slid to an immediate halt. A few minutes later, the alarm went silent, and Max continued dodging around small pressure ridges and floes along the frozen shore of Ellef Ringnes Island. This continued for the rest of the short day, and they finally arrived at a point on the northern shore of Ellef Ringnes Island, where they planned to dash across the open area of Norwegian Bay that lay between them and Meighen Island. At this point, they were roughly one hundred miles west of Expedition Fiord, and their destination was slightly over eighty miles away to the north. Max was concerned because he felt that this was the area that the planes had been flying over, presumably delivering assets to somewhere near Expedition Fiord. Max had correctly guessed that the Russians had assumed that Expedition Fiord was Max’s destination and that they were assembling assets to scour the area looking for them. Max knew that they could not dally because as the area near Expedition Fiord was swept, the search would expand to the west and south, and they would be caught in the net if they didn’t move.

  CHAPTER 63

  Bear Encounter

  All through the long night, as Peggy slept, Max pondered their options. Max wondered what they should do if they were caught. He knew that legally the Russians had no right to detain or interfere with them, but way out here, who would know? Who would see? Who would advocate for them? Max only knew that if they wanted to live, they must exert every effort to prevent that occurrence. Max also didn’t like the prospect of running blind across that wide expanse ice. He thought maybe Charlie could be put to good use to help with that concern. He wanted to wake Peggy up and ask her, but he knew that at least one of them need to get some sleep. He continued to work various scenarios through his mind, and finally, he fell asleep only to be rudely awakened by something bumping the side of Journey. He and Peggy sat up abruptly, startled out of their sleep. Max knew immediately that it had to be a bear poking around. He had the captain’s rifle handy, but in these close quarters, there was nothing to shoot at. He quickly pulled the back of his seat up and took control, and Journey sprung to life.

  Peggy asked excitedly, “What is it? Is it a bear?”

  “That’s the only thing it could be!” Max replied as he spun Journey in a circle and peered out into the darkness. “I don’t see anything. Do you?”

  “No. Wait, is that something out there?”

  Max said, “I’m going to risk using the lights.”

  With that, Max flipped on the headlights, and sure enough, twenty-five feet away stood the largest polar bear either of them had ever imagined. Neither of them had actually ever seen a polar bear before, so this one seemed unnaturally huge.

  The bear was startled by Journey suddenly leaping to life and was even more startled by the bright lights. Although the bear was startled, he was not afraid. He had seen Inuit’s before, and in this milieu, he was the apex predator. He sensed that there likely was a meal inside this contraption and that he might as well help himself to it.

  The bear started towards Journey, so Max whipped Journey around, gave the bear a jet blast in the face, and sped away with his headlights on. Max knew this was dangerous, but with the bear hot on their tail, he had no choice. He continued for about five minutes hoping that no one was looking. He slowed down and continued north at a snail’s pace with the headlights off.

  “We should have about two miles between us now. Do you think he is following us?”

  Peggy answered, “God, I hope not. Did you see the size of that thing? It was a monster.”

  “I know. He could easily rip Journey apart. We are lucky that he started by poking around, rather than ripping the door off. Do you think we can use Charlie as a rearview mirror?”

  “We could, but I thought that you wanted to maintain radio silence. If I activate Charlie and fly him around, they could pick up the control signals and know where we are.”

  “You are right. I guess I’ll just have to turn around every once in a while to see if he is following us.”

  “One thing I could do. If we could stop for a few minutes, I could let Charlie fly up autonomously, take pictures and video and return. There would be no radio emissions, but we would have to stop to let him return.”

  “Let’s do it. That will certainly be better than nothing.”

  Fifteen minutes later, Charlie was ready, and when it got light, they stopped, and Peggy launched Charlie. He flew straight up for four hundred feet, took three hundred and sixty degrees of still pictures and video, and returned. The entire round trip took less than five minutes.

  After retrieving Charlie, they continued moving north. Peggy began looking at Charlie’s images and exclaimed, “Holy crap, that damn bear is following us. He is not more than a mile behind us.”

  “They can move pretty fast,” Max replied, “but I think we can outdistance him.”

  “Good,” Peggy replied. “Eat our snow, Mr. Polar Bear.”

  They continued on for a couple of hours, dodging around some large pressure ridges and flying across some open leads before stopping again. This time Max said, “Send Charlie up about a thousand feet and let’s see what we can see over towards Expedition Fiord. Do you know how far you can see from that height?”

  Peggy replied, “Oh, about thirty-five to forty miles, I think.”

  “That should be enough. Send him up.”

  When Charlie returned, they poured over the images, zooming in and out whenever they thought they saw something. Then suddenly Max said, “Whoa! What is that?”

  They zoomed in as tight as they could without losing resolution, and Peggy said with surprise, “That looks like a submarine conning tower, and what are all those little dots?”

  Max said, “I think you are right, and I’ll bet those dots are snowmobiles. How far away do you think they are?”

  “I have no idea,” Peggy replied. “My best guess would be about halfway to the horizon.”

  “That would be somewhere between fifteen and twenty miles. It looks like they have already extended their search pattern way out in this direction. We need to get to our destination and get hidden. They are way too close for comfort.” Max continued, “We’ve got a couple more hours of daylight, so let’s make the best of it.”

  CHAPTER 64

  We Are There

  As they continued their northward trek, the wind began to pick up, and the dry snow began to blow. An hour later, they were in a full-blown arctic blizzard, and could barely make three miles per hour. Max decided they needed to stop until the blizzard slowed down. He knew storms like this could last for days up here, but he also knew that they were less than twenty miles from their destination. In some ways, this storm was a blessing, and in another way, a curse. While the storm was raging, no one could begin to track them, but on the other hand, he could only go three m
iles per hour. And right now, he felt that they needed to stop because he couldn’t see anything.

  Peggy opined, “You know what, Max? If we can’t see anything, that means they probably can’t see us either. Turn the headlights on dim, and let’s see if we can see well enough to keep going.”

  “It’s worth a try. I’m not sleepy, and we are so close. It would be good to get there before the storm lets up.”

  So, on they went, just like in the poem, and seven hours later, the GPS indicated that they were directly over the precise location.

  “What are we going to do now?” Peggy asked. “It’s thirty-five degrees below zero, and the wind is blowing fifteen miles per hour. It has got to be murderously cold out there.”

  “I know. It is way too dangerous to try and set the tarp and tent up while the wind is blowing like it is. Even with our arctic gear, we would be risking frostbite in just a few minutes, if not seconds. We have to wait until the wind dies down some.”

  It was still dark outside and would be so for several more hours. They settled down to rest and to wait out the storm. They were grateful to be in a vehicle with unlimited clean power. Outside, the wind howled, and it was bitterly cold. Inside Journey, the temperature was quite comfortable, and they both were able to get a couple of hours of much-needed sleep.

  Just before dawn, Max was awakened by the silence. The wind had stopped. He climbed into the back of Journey and began brewing some coffee. The aroma woke Peggy up, and she said, “I love the smell of coffee in the morning. It is morning, isn’t it?”

  As he handed her a mug of coffee, Max replied, “It is early still. I don’t call it morning until it starts getting light outside. By the way, notice that there is no wind outside. After I eat something, I'm going to start staking the thermal tarp down and get the big tent set up.”