The Sam Reilly Collection Volume 2

by Christopher Cartwright

  Matthew shook his head. “Why don’t you take the Sikorsky instead of the hovercraft?”

  “Because I checked on her systems an hour ago and there’s a couple of parts I can’t confirm aren’t frozen, so I don’t want to risk it – unless I have to.”

  “Unless we have to, you mean?”

  “Sure,” Sam replied, with his usual noncommittal insouciance.

  “It doesn’t matter anyway. Unless you forgot, I’m one of the best skippers you’ll ever meet, but I can’t fly a helicopter.”

  “That doesn’t matter.”

  “Who do you expect me to get to fly the chopper if you get yourself stuck?” Matthew looked at Genevieve, who was smiling, wickedly. “You can fly? Where the hell did you learn?”

  Genevieve nodded. “Don’t ask where I learned, but yes, I can fly that thing if it thaws in time.”

  “All right then, Sam, go and come back as quick as you can. Good luck.”

  “I’ll see you in less than three days.”

  Sam closed the door, sealing himself and Alexis inside the hovercraft. He pressed the start button and the twin six foot fans which ran directly behind them started to turn. Within a minute they reached full speed and whined more like the blades of a helicopter as they produced the air current required to create lift. Confident enough air pressure had been developed, Sam adjusted the gear lever in order to split a fifty: fifty ratio of that air current through the ducting gearbox. The impeller below them suddenly roared into life with the flow of the powerful air current, which then became trapped in the hovercraft’s flexible skirt – causing the entire amphibious craft to raise five feet into the air on top of the trapped air cushion.

  “Are you ready, Alexis?” he asked. His eyes fixed on the flat platform to the aft of the Maria Helena.

  “Good to go.”

  “You’d better hold on.” Sam waited until he saw her hands grip a holding point in front of her. “This might be a little rough.”

  Sam then adjusted the gear lever, so that all remaining thrust was expelled through the rear propellers, and increased speed to full. The hovercraft leaped forward, running off the flat aft deck of the Maria Helena and into the ice cold water of the McMurdo Sound.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Sam sped past Ross Island, across McMurdo Sound heading east towards Taylor Valley. The hovercraft skimmed across the surface of the cold and still waters at speeds above 70 miles per hour. If they were lucky, and the weather held, they would enter the dry Taylor Valley and from there they would cut across the Taylor Glacier and into East Antarctica where they raced time to reach the scientists from the Pegasus station.

  Their speed would be drastically reduced once they entered the valleys. It was a twenty four hour run each direction if they were lucky, leaving a full day for the inevitable delays and complications. If Taylor Valley had become inaccessible, they would need to revert to the Wright and Victoria valleys, which were further away, to cross the Transantarctic Ranges.

  Sam watched the majestic scenery through the windshield, which approached them with monotonous apathy no matter how fast he drove. He looked at Alexis, curled up in a ball in the passenger’s seat. She was hugging herself through her cold weather jacket and had already fallen into a light sleep.

  He set the hovercraft on autopilot and pointed the nose to a waypoint just before the entrance to the Taylor Valley. It would still take a number of hours to reach, even at the speeds he was doing. Sam then picked up a heavy blanket and covered Alexis to her shoulders. It was just enough warmth to send her into a deep sleep. She smiled at the warmth, sending big dimples to her freckled cheeks; her thick brown curly hair nestled like a pillow as her head sank into the seat.

  Sam figured she’d been on edge for a number of days after her ordeal aboard the Antarctic Solace. He envied the sound sleep that she was now having, but figured she probably needed it more than he did. It made her look more innocent as she slept.

  Sam couldn’t help but notice that she was beautiful. Something about her current position made him want nothing more than to take her in his arms and just hold her tight; reassure her that everything was now going to be okay.

  Alexis turned and leaned against him. Sam restrained his natural desire to embrace her. He caught the scent of her perfume. It was subtle, but intensely feminine. The more he looked at her the more he realized she was painstakingly beautiful. Not in the glamor magazine type of way and not in the overtly skinny or athletic kind of way, but instead in the homegrown natural beauty of a down to earth, stunning woman. He was also a sucker for beautiful eyes, and her green eyes took his breath away. If she was a physicist at CERN by the age of thirty-eight, it meant she was exceedingly intelligent. He stared at her as she buried her beautiful face into his shoulder. He tried to slide away, but she moved closer until she was close enough he could feel her warm breath on his neck. She was everything he desired – and exactly what he didn’t need right now.

  He suddenly felt guilty for admiring her while she slept, and instead turned to work on the navigational routes through the McMurdo dry valleys.

  Three hours later the still waters of the McMurdo Sound reached the rocky beach that led to the entrance of the Taylor Valley. He slowed the hovercraft and increased power to the impeller, creating more lift to mitigate the deep rifts and openings in the mountainside. He then shoved the hovercraft forwards and began the steep climb out of the water.

  It took forty minutes to reach the peak before descending into the Taylor Valley. Sam had an immediate misgiving about his ability to maneuver the hovercraft if the wind gusted through the valley.

  On the right side of the valley entrance the remnants of what was once a large glacier still made its exceedingly slow journey towards the sea. It was ancient ice, compressed by thousands upon thousands of years of snowfall which had squeezed all the air bubbles out, leaving an extremely dense mass of ice. Like any body of deep water, this ice absorbed the red, orange, yellow, and green wavelengths of light – leaving in its place the shorter wavelengths of the most splendid blue Sam had ever seen.

  The hovercraft dropped off a ravine larger than Sam had realized – the engines whined as the cushion of trapped air in the skirt beneath them became free from the confines of earth, causing them to land with a soft jolt. More like landing on a semi-inflated jumping castle than the shock absorbers of a car. He continued to drive through the Taylor Valley. In front of him the mountains extended on each side of him like the jaws of a monster; rising so high that even the snow failed to reach their peaks.

  Next to him, Alexis startled after the sudden movement. Not quite awake, she took his left arm in hers and held his hand; her delicate fingers interlocking with his. Sam knew he should let go of her hand and somehow find a way to send her back to her side of the hovercraft, but at the same time, didn’t want the experience to ever end.

  She opened her eyes and looked up at him; they were dark green like jade with a multitude of sparkles. He felt her squeeze his hand in hers. Did she just mean to do that? She then let go of his hand and rolled back to her side of the hovercraft.

  “Good morning,” he said.

  “How long have I been out for?” she asked without making any mention of the fact she’d been lying in his arms.

  “About three hours. We’re descending into the Taylor Valley now.”

  After crossing a land filled with snow and ice, the hovercraft reached the floor of the Taylor Valley – a barren land, and driest, windiest desert on earth.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Sam adjusted the first gear lever to his left, cutting power to the main propellers which generated forwards propulsion. The hovercraft immediately slowed along the barren valley floor. He then used his right hand to reduce the revolutions of the impeller which was the downward facing propeller used to generate lift. Thirty seconds later the hovercraft slowed to a complete stop and sank gently to the ground.

  Alexis sat upright. Her eyes wide with sudden concentr
ation. “What is it?”

  Sam grinned as he reached for his orange exposure suit. “I thought it was time to get out and stretch my legs.”

  Alexis stared at the arid landscape; bitter in its hostility. “You want to get out here? The outside temperature is minus 65 degrees Fahrenheit!”

  “All the same, I need to get out and refill the fuel tanks.” Sam began sliding each of his legs into the thick exposure suit, which more closely resembled a spacesuit than snow clothing. “Do you want to wait here, in the warmth?”

  She smiled. It was full of wonder, like the scientist she was, and it expressed her interest in this rare phenomenon. “And miss seeing this place, first hand, are you kidding me?”

  Sam finished zipping up his exposure suit. He wore a thick woolen beany and then strapped the hood of the suit over the top as an additional shield from the elements. Over his eyes, the only aspect still vulnerable to the extreme conditions, he wore thick snow goggles which formed a perfect seal. His entire outfit was cumbersome but imperative to protect him from the katabatic winds that raced down over the ice at the edges of the valley, potentially ripping through the hostile valley floor at speeds as fast as 220 miles per hour.

  He waited until Alexis had fully donned her purple exposure suit and then said, “Ready?”

  “I’m good to go,” she replied.

  Sam released the opening hatch and climbed out through the top of the hovercraft. Standing on the stainless steel grate which protected the massive impeller, he had an unhindered view of the entire Taylor Valley in all its splendor.

  Like the other dry valleys that make up the legendary McMurdo Dry Valleys, the Taylor Valley was an Antarctic anomaly. While most of the continent was covered in a thick layer of ice, the dry, frigid valleys were almost entirely ice-free. Sam examined his unique surrounding environment. An arid expanse of mostly dirt, small rocks, and big boulders littered the valley floor. A single frozen lake stood like a mirage on the horizon and Sam couldn’t tell if it was made entirely of salt or ice. There were five jagged trenches – ancient remnants of streams that no longer flowed, and now scarred the valley floor.

  Giant ventifacts lined the valley; some as large as the hovercraft. The oddly shaped, smooth formations of the stones were caused by the erosive action of wind and grit sandblasting the valley over the millennia. Sam took a deep breath. The intensely dry, cold air stung his throat. The entire valley gave him the impression he was visiting Mars rather than Antarctica, and with the exception of the fact he could breathe – both environments were just as inhospitable to human flesh.

  He felt Alexis’s hand on his arm. Sam looked up; the only part of her face visible were her green eyes, which radiated wonder. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. Even though it’s lethal.”

  “Oh, it’s deadly, all right,” she agreed. “We should probably do what we need to and get inside before the weather changes.”

  Sam nodded and then removed the first fuel jerry can from its cradle. He carried it to the back of the hovercraft where the fuel cap was located. Undid the jerry can’s cap as well as the hovercraft’s fuel tank cover and began pouring.

  “Why doesn’t that freeze?” Alexis asked.

  “I used an antifreeze additive before we left the Maria Helena.”

  “Good thinking. How many of these jerry cans do you think we’ll need?”

  Sam finished pouring the first one. “Three more.”

  “I’ll start fetching them for you. I don’t want to be stuck outside the vehicle if a windstorm erupts.”

  “I agree. This place is cold enough without adding its sandblasting wind-chill.”

  Sam started on the second fuel tank. “So, Professor, explain to me the anomaly of the valley?”

  “Are you asking me why it doesn’t snow in the valley?”

  “Yeah. I mean, it’s certainly cold enough, isn’t it?”

  Alexis changed her voice, as though she was suddenly accustomed to lecturing a student. “They’re caused by the katabatic winds – do you know what those are?”

  Sam matched her erudite tone as he responded. “A wind that carries cold air, which is therefore of a higher density, from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity.”

  “That’s right. So you were listening at school?”

  Although he couldn’t quite see Alexis’s face through her protective clothing Sam imagined she was grinning at him with that teasing smile he was fondly getting used to seeing. “Just a little bit.”

  “The wind can reach extreme speeds in excess of 220 miles per hour, heating as it descends, and evaporating all water, ice and snow. This valley in particular will receive the equivalent of only 10 cm average of water each year in the form of snow.”

  Sam poured the third fuel tank. “So, why doesn’t the snow eventually form water?”

  “That’s easy,” she replied.

  “Go on.”

  “The Taylor as well as the other dry valleys are nestled between the Transantarctic Mountains, which serve as a barrier, largely blocking them from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. You will have noticed a few small glaciers creep through the gaps, but any ice that breaks off those quickly sublimates – transitioning from a solid state to a vapor without passing through the intermediate liquid phase because of the arid atmosphere.”

  “You really are a nerd!” Sam congratulated her.

  “Hey, I thought you liked me?”

  “I never said I didn’t like nerds,” he teased.

  “Didn’t you?”

  “No.” Sam stopped pouring. “I’ll have the last jerry can, please.”

  She handed it to him and he began to pour the final container. He quickly filled the tank with the final container and firmly locked the fuel lid. He then placed the jerry can back inside its cradle and tightened the strap.

  Alexis tapped him on the shoulder and pointed up at the peak of the mountain closest to McMurdo Sound, where they had just come from. “Just in the nick of time.”

  Sam looked up. A small tuft of snow rolled over the tip of the mountain. Known as a rain shadow effect, it was often caused by air rolling off the polar plateau being forced over the Transantarctic Mountains; which then cools it, condenses and deposits its moisture as snow which dips down over the ice at the edges of the valley peaks.

  Such a formation precedes any number of meteorological events around the world. But in the dry valley of Taylor, it meant one thing only – an extreme wind was coming. The type capable of sending sand, gravel, and grit through the valley at such speeds it would tear holes through the hovercraft and kill them both.

  Sam checked the last strap was secure. “Get in the hovercraft!”

  He waited until Alexis was inside and followed her, quickly securing the hatch behind him. Sam then immediately went through the process of restarting both the impeller and aft propeller engines.

  The engines whined as the thick rubbery skirt inflated, raising the hovercraft five feet on to the new cushion of air. Worried about the effects of the extreme cold, he glanced at the few engine gauges. They were still within normal parameters, which meant they hadn’t cracked a seal yet. Not that it mattered if they had, he couldn’t wait the storm out – he had to go now. Sam threw the left hand throttle down to full, sending maximum power to the aft twin propellers. The hovercraft lurched forward towards the mirage in the horizon – at full speed.

  “You’ll never outrun it!” Alexis said.

  “Got a better plan?”

  “As a matter of fact, I do.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Head for the lake!” Alexis shouted.

  “How far do you make it?” Sam asked.

  “No more than two miles.”

  Sam swerved to the left to avoid falling into a large crevasse without reducing speed. “What’s there?”

  “An ice cave. The remnants of a glacier that once ran through the mountain. It’s now retreated leaving a hollowed tunnel like a scar beneat
h the mountain.”

  “That’ll do, but can we reach it?”

  “I have no idea – how fast can this thing go?”

  Sam looked at the speedometer. On the completely level surface of the valley’s floor the hovercraft had reached its maximum speed and wouldn’t gain a mile no matter what he did to coerce the dual engines. “Eighty-four miles per hour!”

  “It’ll be close.”

  The violent wind screamed from behind them, sending dust and grit running through the valley at a lethal velocity. The small stone particles mostly bounced off the hovercraft’s hardened rubber skirt as the anemometer registered gusts above a hundred miles per hour.

  “It might be too close.” Sam glanced at the speedometer. The speed of the hovercraft had increased to a hundred and two miles per hour; running with the wind like a sailboat. Several small stones smashed into dust particles as they were pelted into a solid boulder. “Keep a look out for any other caves, we might not get a chance to reach the one you're talking about while we’re still alive.”

  Alexis flipped through detailed maps of the Taylor Valley. “I’m on it!”

  Small stones showered the rubber skirt and hovercraft’s aluminum shell like a machinegun. Sam considered his chances of pulling in behind even a small boulder, but something told him he needed to keep driving to reach the cave if they were going to survive the storm.

  A rock no larger than a dime shot through the aluminum backing and ricocheted through the windshield like a bullet.

  Sam swore. Then swerved right and aimed for a small opening in the glacier. “What about this one?”

  “I have no idea where it goes,” she replied. Her voice loud enough to be heard through the storm. “It’s not on the map.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “It might not be stable,” she pointed out.

  “We’re not going to be stable much longer. If that wind picks up any more speed those rocks are going to rip right through our hull.” Sam steered towards an opening just slightly larger than the hovercraft. “Outside in the wind tunnel we won’t last more than a few minutes before one of those stones takes off our heads – I’m willing to take my chances inside the glacier. How about you?”