by Greig Beck
“Ooh, they sound like fun.” He grinned.
She turned back to her screen. “I just need more data.” She leaned in closer to her screen, elbows on the desk. “I’ve got an old pal up there who owes me a favor or two. We can grab a quick peek of the opening in the cliff wall without getting our hands dirty.” She spoke over her shoulder. “No mess, no fuss. Sound like a plan?”
“Sure… then what?”
“Then, if there’s something interesting there, we get approval for a full expedition.” She held out her hands, shoulders hiked. “See? Easy as A-B-C.”
Greg gave her a broad smile. “You know me; I’m all for doing a little preplanning before jumping right in and doing something expensive, career ending, or just plain dumb.”
She laughed softly. “Always good to have you onboard, Mr Jamison.”
* * *
Three days later, Cate, Greg, and Abigail Burke, a newly minted PHD straight out of the geology department, sat in Cate’s office – their Home Base, as Cate called it. An enormous curved computer screen was center stage, and several computers were set up in a horseshoe shape on the tiered desks before them. They waited on a communication link to be established between Frederick Wan Ling – a friend of Cate’s doing some research on migrating Arctic birds – and their in-house system.
Greg brought in the coffees as Cate checked the speaker on the desk for the fourth time. She checked her watch again and then turned to Abigail. “We’ll record everything, but keep your fingers crossed the link holds. This is costing me the last of my exploration budget, and a truck-load of goodwill with a friend.”
“You must have pull. I didn’t think anyone was getting extraneous budget allocations anymore.” Greg took his seat.
Cate wiggled her eyebrows. “I knows people.” She swallowed; truth be known, there was no exploration budget. Getting funding to go on questionable treasure hunts in today’s razor-thin funding environment was near impossible, especially at a time when university departments were being shut down or downsized.
Even if there was the prospect of finding any money, it’d take weeks to procure its release. Cate had no time or patience for university political maneuvering, so had dipped into her own savings for the project. Getting a result was now damned personal.
“Professor Cate Granger… Cate? Are you there?” The voice was scratchy, and as disembodied as she expected.
“Freddie!” Cate scooted forward in her chair. “You made it. How is it?”
“How is it? Fucking freezing.” His yell competed with the sound of a rushing wind in the background.
Greg leaned towards Cate, whispering. “Remind him he’s in the Gulf of Alaska.”
Cate turned and scowled before spinning back to the speaker. “I owe you big time, Freddie. Did you get all the kit?”
“Yep, top of the line; spared no expense. And had a nice meal as well. Spent every penny you gave me.” There was grating laughter.
“And another nice meal when I see you again, Freddie, promise. Are we just about ready?” Cate held up her hands, fingers crossed on both.
“Sure am, ran a test flight, and am just preparing to attach the spare relay beacons. Nice piece of tech, if I do say so myself.”
“What’d you get?” Greg sat, sipping and listening.
“The DJI Phantom 2 with HERO4 GoPro – eye in the sky, baby.” Freddie’s voice bubbled with excitement.
Abigail mouthed, wow, then leaned forward. “Hi Frederick, this is Abigail Burke. Is that the quad copter version?”
“Hi Abigail. Call me Fred or Freddie; only mom calls me Frederick, and that’s only when she’s pissed at me. And you bet it is; Phantom Quadcopter v2.0, with gimbal control dial and built-in battery, compass, thermal reader, full hour flying time, and relay drop-crane for WiFi buoys – means when it enters zero line-of-sight areas like a cave, it can drop the relays, and continue to send and receive signals so we don’t lose him.”
“Cool, very cool,” Greg said. “No wonder he blew the budget.”
Cate clasped her fingers together on the desk. “Okay, Freddie, we’re ready when you are.”
“Then let’s do this, and before I lose all feeling in my fingers and toes.” There was muffled sound over the comm-link as Freddie fiddled with something, followed by a small electronic whine.
“Camera up.”
Immediately the curved screen on their desk popped to life, showing nothing but a close up of rock, a scattering of snow, and some hardy lichens.
“Here we go.” Cate sat back.
The image vibrated for a few seconds before stabilizing and lifting higher. The quadcopter swiveled in the air to show a freezing landscape, thankfully with manageable wind gusts. It continued its slow turn until they could see a young, Asian man on a small foldaway chair, heavily bundled up in a bulky parker, beanie, and with a large hood pulled up over the lot.
He had a box on his lap that contained two joysticks, numerous dials and toggles, and a small screen, whereby he was seeing the same feed as they were.
“Can you see me?” Freddie lifted a hand and waved.
“Can see and hear you loud and clear, Freddie. This is great.” Cate grinned, waving back.
“Then we’re good to go.” He looked up at hovering drone. “Buzz, you ready?” Freddie made the camera tilt up and down as it whined mosquito-like above him.
“Okay, he’s ready, so…” He pointed. “…to infinity and beyond.”
Greg groaned.
Freddie kept the quadcopter hovering above him, and Cate shrugged her impatience.
“Cate, just remember, we have limited time. And if the drone loses power somewhere inaccessible, then it’s staying.”
“So go for it; we’re just along for the ride,” Greg said, pulling up his chair, and sipping coffee as if he were at a movie matinee.
“Along for the ride and paying the bills.” The grating laugh again.
Greg mouthed: I love this guy.
Cate rolled her eyes and leant back in towards the screen. Abby had a pad on her lap, and pen poised. The images coming through were so sharp they looked more like they were seeing out of a window rather than an image feed from over ten thousand miles away.
“Status check, ladies and gentlemen.” Freddie’s voice became business-like. “We have a slight breeze of three knots from the south-southeast, temperature is a bracing three degrees, and time is 10:20 hours and counting.”
The drone rose higher, and then moved towards the cliff edge. It lifted rapidly for a few seconds as it was caught in a sudden updraft, but the gyros kept the image balanced. It moved out over the lip, and then the drone started to drop.
Cate clicked her fingers at Greg. “Start recording.”
“Will do.” Greg crossed to one of the computers and hit a few keys and then returned to his seat. “Going to E-Drive. We can clean it up later.”
The drone hovered for a moment more at the edge, turning back to Freddie one last time, who lifted an arm to wave goodbye, and then the drone turned back, and began its descent.
“Diorite batholith, quartz and some granite – damned hard rock,” Greg said, turning to Abby and raising his eyebrows.
“Very good, Professor Jamison.” Abby smiled. “And it’s old; there’s exposed Jurassic-age plutonic rock I can see there. That’s the result of the magmatic arc most probably created by the northwest-directed subduction. What I can see is hornblende gabbro through quartz monzonite, tonalite and quartz diorite.” She smiled, disarmingly. “But like you said, damned hard rock.”
He nodded, mock serious. “I was just going to say all that.”
“Quiet, you two.” Cate threw the words over her shoulder as she frowned at the screen.
There was a soft moan rising from the speakers as the wind moved across the cave mouth as the drone approached. The cave itself was a vertical tear in the rock, about ten feet high, and three wide – narrow.
“We going to fit in that?” Cate asked.
“
Just.” Freddie’s voice was distracted.
The drone eased towards the dark opening, and immediately its brilliant lights blinked on. The darkness inside the cave was pushed back and the hovering machine moved carefully into the tear.
“Hold it there… back up, back up.” Cate stood, sat back down, and then half stood again, her neck craned forward. “Slow, slow, rotate ninety degrees to your left.”
The drone backed up to just inside the cave, and the turned in the air. The lights illuminated a large flat wall. The scratched message was still clear. She breathed the words as she read.
“Jim Granger went in here – 12 Oct 52.”
Greg sat back. “So, this is not about your grandfather, huh?”
“I knew it.” Cate made a fist. “I knew he came this way.”
Freddie’s voice filled the room again. “Interesting; outside it’s just on three degrees, but temperature inside the cave mouth says it’s fifty. That’s a massive jump. Got a real hot zone in there somewhere. Okay guys, we’re burning time, so gotta get moving. I’m taking Buzz in.”
The drone moved slowly, the images now compressed down to the width of the cave entrance, until it opened out into a large flat room. Freddie swiveled the drone through a full three-sixty-degree turn.
“Looks to be about a hundred feet in here, give or take.” The drone hung in the air for another few seconds, before zooming ahead. “There’s another opening on the far side – going in.” Freddie now whispered his words as if worried about being overheard. “You should be seeing a thermal readout beside your screen – temperature now about seventy degrees. I’m dropping a relay beacon, so we don’t lose contact with Buzz.”
The drone lowered for a moment, gently rose, and then tilted forward to show a small box on the ground with a green blinking light.
“Relay beacon 1, away. Good to go.” The drone moved on, and they heard an intake of breath from Freddie as they approached another narrowing in the cave. “Jesus, going to be tight; if we get wedged, we’re done. Cate, give me a go/no-go on this; after all, it’s your kit.”
Cate didn’t hesitate. “Go for it; that’s why were all here.” She checked the timer on the side of the image – they’d been flying for twelve minutes – so far so good. The drone eased in, the internal gyros keeping the small four-prop craft rock-steady.
“Going down now. Angle of descent is about twenty-five per cent. Cave now opening out. Thank you, oh god of the caves. Hey, guys, who was the god of the caves?”
“Lots of them,” said Abigail. “Mostly minor Greek goddesses like Nyx, Hypnos, and Eileithyia, come to mind.”
“Cool, all goddesses. I like it,” Freddie said.
“And don’t forget Hades… but he’ll be deeper where it’s nice and hot,” Greg said, turning and winking at Abby.
“Hold it. Swivel left.” Cate sat forward and then broke into a smile.
On the wall they could see an arrow and underneath, the initials ‘J.G.’. Cate exhaled with satisfaction. “This is it.”
“You said he went missing…” Greg glanced at her. “…so, um, Cate, you’ve got to be ready for what we find. He could still be in here – or what’s left of him.”
Cate stared straight ahead. “Even if he was there, it would be closure, nothing more.” She gripped the desk edge. “Whoa…”
“Well, well, well, looks like your grandfather wasn’t the only one in here; this place was a regular Central Station.” Greg straightened in his seat.
The drone illuminated the cave wall, showing ancient rock art images of small human figures, fish, sharks, turtles, and other creatures that were unidentifiable. Natives either speared them, or were themselves pulled into the water, and attacked.
“Awesome,” Abby breathed. “And old.”
“Must be Nantouk,” Greg said. “But this looks almost prehistoric. How long have they been here?”
“Around ten thousand years, but before them, who knows.” Cate’s mouth hung open in an awed smile.
The next narrow fissure took five full minutes to navigate, but this one opened to a large flat room with evidence of a recent rock fall at its edges. But that wasn’t what held their attention – at its center was a dark, gaping hole in the cave floor.
“You seeing this, Cate?” Freddie sounded breathless. “The wall, do you see?”
“Yes.” Cate had her nose only inches from the screen. “Blackened. There’s been an explosion of some sort… and fairly recent.”
“Yep, and it’s also damned hot in here. There’s an updraft coming from that big cavity.” The drone went and hovered over the hole, and it was buffeted slightly, even with the gyros working to keep it level.
“Can’t get a reading. No idea how deep it goes.” Freddie let out a huge juddering breath. “It’s freezing.”
“The cave? The hole?” Cate frowned.
“No, but I wish I was in that nice warm cave. I can’t feel my fingers anymore.”
They could hear another exhalation, and Cate pictured her friend blowing on his fingertips.
“Guys, we now have ten minutes of time left… and we’ll need most of that to get Buzz back to us. Sorry, time’s up.” Freddie started to back the drone up.
Cate sat staring at the screen for a few more seconds, her mind working. There was no other exit from the cave other than that hole. There had been an explosion and the edges of the hole looked raw, new, so she bet her last dollar that her grandfather fell in, or travelled into that damn pit.
“Why?” she sat back.
“Huh, why what?” Freddie asked.
Cate shook her head, sitting forward. “Freddie, you know what? I don’t really want a drone. What I really want is to know what’s in that hole, and why Jim Granger went in there.” She folded her arms, knowing she was about to kiss her investment goodbye.
“But…” Freddie sighed. “Wow, okay Professor, you’re the boss lady. Dropping the last relay beacon.”
He moved the drone to the edge of the hole, and let another of the small boxes fall to the cave floor at its edge. Then he lifted over the stygian dark void. He tilted forward, but there was nothing but blackness filling the screen.
Cate imagined this was what it would be like if you were in deep space, and came across a black hole – no light, no sound, no nothing – there was just the absence of everything.
Greg nudged her. “If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” He grinned. “Ready?”
She nodded dreamily. “Let’s do this. Freddie, take it in.”
“Aye aye, Captain, taking her in.” They passed over the lip of the hole, and continued to drop. “Going to use full illumination as I guess we don’t need to save any power for a return journey.”
Extra lights came on, but there was still nothing but darkness. Numbers scrolled up on the side of their screen showing descent rate – fifty feet, one hundred, five hundred, six… the rate of drop was accelerating as Freddie let gravity take over.
“Whoa, we’re now well below the lake’s water level. Must be some sort of partition between it and what’s down there. And this cavern is big, real big! Buzz has pinged it and estimates it to be about a mile long and half that wide – and that’s just above the water line.”
“Plenty of humidity,” said Abby, pointing with a pencil to the scrolling numbers.
A glowing set of bars appeared on the bottom of their screen – there was ten – eight were red, and only two green. It was a warning, and while they watched one more went to red.
“Shit, we’re gonna lose Buzz. We’re getting too far from the last signal relay buoy,” Freddie said.
“Good, it’s been boring as hell; wall to wall darkness,” Greg added. “Hey, Freddie, what happens if we do lose contact with the drone?”
“We’ll either just drop out of the sky, or Buzz flies away by himself.” Freddie laughed. “He’ll be free from us clumsy humans to sail away into the wild black yonder of a brave new world.”
“
Thank you, Freddie, very dramatic. But how much time have we got left?” Cate frowned at the screen.
“Time? I’m guessing another few more minutes, and then it’s bye bye Buzz.” Freddie sounded like he blew more air on his fingers. “We’ll probably lose rotor and navigation control first, because it feeds off the strongest signal. But we’ll have some of the sensor and analytics for a little longer.”
“What about our eyes – the HERO4 GoPro camera has a separate signal, doesn’t it?” Abby asked. “Will that continue to function?”
“Yeah, good question, Abby. As it’s got its own WiFi frequency and battery, maybe that might still record and transmit, after everything else is gone. We’ll find out real soon, won’t we?”
The drone continued to drop, its level at eight hundred and fifty feet when the screen began to fizz with snow.
“Okay, I’m losing him. Going to switch over the HEROs frequency and try and lock the controls so it simply continues to drop without sailing off into a rock wall or something. Here goes…”
The screen went from static filled darkness, to complete dead black and there was nothing but the sound of Freddie breathing. Then suddenly the drone’s small halogens came back on, lighting nothing but walls of dark. Half the data readouts on Cate’s screen had vanished, with just chemical analysis, sonar and the camera still working.
“Worked, but we’ve lost thermal, sound and navigation. At least we can see, taste our environment, and also work out how big it is. But I’ve got no idea how fast we’re dropping or where we are at the moment. We’ve got visual markers only from now on… that’s if we get any at all.”
They waited, and then there came a crazed jostling from the screen images.
“I think we’ve hit something, or landed,” Freddie said.
The image stabilized, and then they could make out the black water, washing up over the camera lens. Cate hurriedly read off some of the details.
“Salt water, I knew it.” She turned and high-fived Greg before turning back to her screen.