by Zulu, Arthur
The Transantarctic Mountains divide Antarctica into the colder and higher East Antarctica and the less cold and lower West Antarctica. The continent is not only the coldest, but is equally the windiest and most arid of all the seven continents on the face of the earth. It has many frozen mountains and icy lakes, which includes the volcanic Mount Erebus and Lake Vostok. It is this intimidating lonely continent at the bottom of the earth that the Chinese now find themselves . . .
Back in America, NASA, NRO, and CIA officials were giving one another back slaps and high fives. The technology worked!
Intercepting a plane’s flying instrument and teleguiding it to a predetermined location is an engineering feat worth celebrating. And there was no better place to send the competing Chinese than the forbidden continent.
It would take a considerable amount of time for the Chinese government to find and rescue them. That length of time would be enough for the American team in Turkey to pick up the pace.
CHINESE PLANE LOST IN ANTARCTICA
That was the news of the day. There was no guessing who the news hit the most—the Chinese government. The Chinese president and premier were furious. Mr. Yong was dumbstruck.
The Chinese president gave orders: The air force should fly airplanes to Antarctica. The satellite should immediately start searching the continent. The navy should sail ships to the frigid continent. All in a bid to rescue the missing prized team.
The planes flew, and the ships sailed, and the satellite peered, and China waited.
The French Polynesia-bound Chinese plane landed on an island in Antarctica. The landing startled a flock of Snow Petrel, which immediately fled away. Just then a flock of albatrosses flew into the island as if saying to the straying travelers, Welcome to our world!
The blind flight had been brought to a stop. The rest of the team now discovered that they were in the worst place to be on mother earth—Antarctica! They did not know the name of the island. They had been in the aircraft since it landed. Who would dare step out and die of cold or be swept away by the wind?
The best was to call home and plan their exit. Mr. Cheung used Antarctica country code 672 and called.
Their immediate need, however, was survival. How would a team of thirty survive inside an airplane without food and water till help comes? They only had a few bottles of water, snacks, and wine. Nobody foreknew their present predicament.
The team pressed the pilot to explain how they got to Antarctica instead of French Polynesia. But he had nothing to say other than that the instruments failed. Well, what would they argue with a pilot possessing two decades of flight experience? They were happy they survived.
That itself was remarkable. Antarctica is a continent of mishaps. One major tragedy was the crash of an Air New Zealand Flight on Mount Erebus in 1979 killing all 257 passengers on board. Even their ill-fated plane had unknown to them landed on a grave of forty-five men.
Team spirit helped the Chinese to survive the early days of their disconnection from the rest of the world. They rationed food, water, and wine while waiting for rescue.
However, there seemed to be no help in sight despite repeated calls that the air force officers were already searching the continent. Where were the airplanes?
They did not even know how long they had been on the island. They had continuously been in darkness since they landed. Antarctica is in darkness six months of the year.
They slept and woke when they liked. The wait was becoming interminable. Would they die of hunger and thirst in this continent?
The flock of albatrosses took off, hovered over the aircraft and left as if saying, You are abandoned here!
The island rumbled.
The birds and animals in Antarctica have mastered its geology. So they could detect trouble in the bowels of the earth and escape just in time. That was what the albatrosses had done.
Not too long, flocks of rooks flew into the island from opposite directions. It was as if the birds came to watch a rare cosmic occurrence in the South Pole despite the looming danger.
This was because above the sky was the green light of Aurora Australis called the southern lights. A beautiful sight to behold, this phenomenon results when solar winds interact with the earth’s magnetic field. The birds seemed satisfied; they fled.
The trapped Chinese, however, temporarily forget their plight and began to gaze at this once in a life-time panorama.
The island rumbled again.
The splendid spectacle was beclouded by dark smoke and falling ash from a mountain. The travelers did not know what had happened. They only cursed the smoke that truncated their entertainment. Then they began to worry again and think of the planes that had been sent to rescue them, which would not come.
The Chinese air force planes had been crisscrossing the skies of Antarctica. Two airplanes were searching East Antarctica while another two planes were traversing West Antarctica. The rescue teams had not yet seen their missing country people.
They had been to all the lands and shelves of Antarctica without finding the lost team.
“We have not found the missing plane and passengers.”
That was the message the air force rescue team sent back to China. Two weeks passed. The marooned Chinese were half alive by now.
“Keep searching!”
That was the message from China. They would obviously continue to search for the missing men and women. They wished their lost compatriots knew they were already searching Antarctica.
They certainly could not be in Ross Sea or Weddell Sea nor would they be in Kirkpatrick and Markham mountains at the South Pole. The search teams had flown over those places, except the smoke-covered island south of South Shelter Islands.
Only God would save the lost Chinese.
The air force search team came with enough food and drinks, medical supplies and doctors for the lost adventurers. The Chinese navy ships too had arrived in Antarctica similarly equipped. Now, knowing where to search was the great task!
The Chinese air force officers were examining the satellite photos of an island. The first few images were cloudy but the latter contained interesting revelations.
They saw a plane; disused aircraft hangar, boilers, and tanks; and scientific stations—almost covered with snow and ashes. The photos also revealed a caldera in this island with many maars along with bays and several mountains.
What interested the rescue team, however, was the partially-covered plane. Could it be the lost aircraft conveying their citizens that they had been searching for? If so, where are the passengers and crew?
Neither the Chinese air force pilots nor the satellite was able to spot this island on account of the smoke hovering over it. However, the smoke cleared and the satellite was able to take clear photographs of the island. The air force rescue team must now head there!
The place they were flying to is called Deception Island. It is located in South Shetland, West of Antarctica.
Deception Island is an almost circular island twelve kilometers long and twelve kilometers wide. There is a large bay in the island known as Port Foster and safe bays for ships. Much of the ice-covered island itself is safe, save for volcanoes that erupt periodically from the mountains in the island. It has been a favorite resort for whale seekers, sealers, and scientists.
This was where the lost Chinese landed. They had now been on the island for four weeks without food and water. Their saving grace, however, was that they did not step out of the plane. They would have been dead!
This was because soon after the display of the aurora Australis, a volcano had erupted on the island. The volcanic action pumped out hot lava on most of the island and spewed out dark smoke and volcanic ash which eclipsed the whole island.
However, such geologic catastrophes do not catch winged Antarctic creatures. The birds flew to other nearby islands before the disaster. They saw it coming.
The people in the plane later knew what happened. They had seen the fire and the smoke on top of
a mountain. A volcano was erupting. They had felt as if they were all dead. It was the dark smoke that had initially prevented the flying rescuers from detecting the plane on the island.
Soon the Chinese navy ships arrived in the island’s harbor, the air force planes landed on the island, and the rescue officials and doctors with food, water, and medicine headed toward the ash-and snow-covered plane. The Chinese flag color and the plane’s flight number were partially visible to them. This was it!
They could not see the inside of the plane and the door could not be opened. They, therefore, started breaking into it. No one inside stirred.
The passengers were as good as dead. Hunger is a bad thing, hopelessness is worse, and resignation is the worst.
They were all lying motionless on their seats like phantom beings. They felt human hands, heard strange voices, opened their mouths and swallowed what tasted sweet; but it seemed as if they dreaming . . .
Chapter 11
One month had passed since the Chinese expedition was rescued from Antarctica. The team of doctors revived the starving and dying officers inside their grounded airplane, and as they regained consciousness, they were flown back to China. The nation rejoiced to see them back alive, yet the battle for their lives had just began.
All thirty of the sick rescued travelers were kept in a specialist hospital where doctors and nutritionists worked round the clock to save them. Most suffered from dehydration, pneumonia, and high blood pressure. They were lean and weightless.
It was not until after two weeks that they started coming back to life in the full sense. Another two weeks passed and twenty of them were discharged from the hospital including Cheung their leader.
Chinese medicine was good, but the tree of life was the best. They had lost plenty of time and the twenty were ready to fly again in search of this tree in French Polynesia.
This time, however, they travelled by a special air force flight with an air force pilot in control.
French Polynesia, formerly called French Oceania, is made up of 130 widely scattered islands grouped in six archipelagos: Society Islands, (including Windward and Leeward islands); Marquesas Islands; Tuamotu Archipelago; Gambier Islands; Austral islands; and Bass Islands. The capital of the French Polynesian islands is Papeete in Tahiti Island.
The Chinese choice was informed by the fact that these islands are remarkable for their pristine beauty. Men like Herman Melville, Paul Gauguin, and Charles Darwin saw “paradise” in Tahiti, the major island. So Cheung and his Medecins Sans Frontieres team were sure to find Eden there.
They were to visit all the archipelagos in their hunt, asking questions and treating the natives with local herbs as Chinese doctors. The search would begin clockwise from Marquesas Islands to Tuamotu Archipelago, Gambier Islands, Austral Islands, and terminate in Society Islands. They would surprise the Americans!
The air force plane safely landed in the Marquesas Islands.
President Bill Godsend held an exclusive meeting in the White House soon after Madam Pennington, the Secretary of State, notified him of the release of Professor Muse in China. He was naïve not to have thought of China as the culprit even after JFK airport security director alerted him of the suspicious diplomatic box. Eagle-Eye is an excellent detective.
Well, China took advantage of diplomatic immunity to deal unkindly with America and those rogue states suffered the penalty. The president was not happy. He could not even pick up a phone and call President Wing Wang.
The high point of the meeting was that America should not go to war with China. The professor had been released after deceiving them.
However, those enemies of America deserved no apologies. After all, their sins were many and they would have needed a dozen more bombings to atone for their errors.
The U.S. surveillance satellite was trailing the Chinese in their mission. The Americans were not taking the Chinese for granted anymore.
The American Turkey team was to redouble their efforts to get this tree of life before these Chinese get started. That was the only way to pay them back. The United States would do anything to make it a reality.
The meeting ended on a hilarious note. Maj. Eagle-Eye was privately decorated with the Presidential Citizens Medal for excellence.
In the brief ceremony, the president said that the award was in recognition of his unequalled contribution to the security of the Union and as an incentive to do more.
“Thank you Mr. President, Not a fly!” That was all Eagle-Eye could say in his acceptance speech.
He was nonplussed. The thought of a presidential medal of honor, a handshake, and a photo-op with the president never crossed his mind. Why? It was better than a billion dollars!
Everyone was congratulating and having a handshake with him. And he kept touching the prestigious medal hanging on his neck, smiling and saying, Not a fly!
Attorney General Lawman was sitting in his office. His eyes were glued to the tons of pictures forwarded to him by the CIA. What are these Chinese doctors doing in French Polynesia?
Well, they can deceive the natives with their medicines, but not the Americans. Why look for Eden in those archipelagos? Is it because the beautiful islands attracted Darwin and Gauguin? The tree of life is not in Polynesia.
It was, however, good for the American team in Turkey where Eden and the tree are. That was a clever decoy by Professor Muse. Let the Chinese waste precious time while the Americans look at the right place for the real thing.
He shuffled through more photos. The spy satellite was doing a good job. These are clear photos. Even the names on the islands visited were shown on the pictures.
The Chinese had been to the Marquesas Islands, the Tuamotu Archipelago, and the Gambier Islands with lightning speed. They seemed to be going clockwise. If so, they would soon be in Austral Islands.
Do the Chinese not know that there are more coral reefs than forests in archipelagos? he asked himself. Good for America, he repeated. The president will love this. He rose to see him.
Cheung and his team were now in the Austral Islands. They were not happy that they had not yet found a clue to the location of the tree of life. Only the islanders had benefited.
They went around the Marquesas Islands, passed through the Tuamotu Archipelagos, and searched around the Gambier Islands. They found nothing!
Were they in the right place? Perhaps it was too early to despair. They were there on a make or mar mission and they had the human and material resources to make it a reality.
After Austral and Bass Islands, they would fly to the Society Islands, the last. Cheung, was wondering what would be next if they did not find their treasure then.
They are actually groups of beautiful islands. What they saw so far to tell their story were coral reefs and the blue waters. There was no much vegetation on the islands.
However, there was a twist in the hunt at Austral Islands. The group was complaining about the sparse vegetation in French Polynesia to the locals. They wanted to know where to get medicinal trees to cure the natives of the many sicknesses in the islands.
The Chinese were surprised at the answers they got: “Go to the Society Islands.” “There are forests in Tahiti.” “The trees are good for healing.” “One fruit tree is forbidden in Tahiti but the roots, bark, and leaves are used for curing diseases.”
That last sentence caught their attention. They pressed the speaker for more information but they could hear no more. The Chinese would find answers in Tahiti.
So the next day the doctors flew to Tahiti, the largest island in the Society Islands of French Polynesia.
They were smelling success.
Mr. Hunter finished reading the president’s message asking him and his team to put their expedition on the fast forward. They need not be reminded of the immediacy of this quest. The news that China abducted Professor Muse added to this necessity. Their succor was that the Chinese had been sent to the wrong direction.
He and his team had already been t
o the first two towns on their list: Kurtalan and Batman. The folks openly received these happy but curious American tourists eager to know about their mountains, tree, and rivers. What have these Americans got to do with the trees, mountains, and rivers of their land? they asked.
In those two places, the Americans asked a couple of natives the questions: “Can you take us to Pishon and Gihon Rivers for $500?” “Can you take us to Eden for $1,000?” “Can you show us the tree of life for $5,000?”
Some of the folks merely shook their heads while others looked at the Americans as if they were space aliens.
Pishon and Gihon rivers?
Garden of Eden?
Tree of life?
A handful though ventured answers: “Those rivers are in the Bible.” “They say the rivers rise from Eden.” “God dried the rivers.” “Noah’s Flood leveled them.” “Eden is around here.” “I will like to know the tree myself.” “The tree is forbidden.” “You will find it in Eden.”
The Americans found these answers encouraging. Eden and the tree of life were in the vicinity. They would find it!
Now, with the president’s message and the new development from China, they had to fast track the search. They moved to the next two towns: Diyarbakir and Elazig.
Mr. Hunter and his team were full of curiosity. They had spent days examining a half-circular mountain at Elazig, the fourth town en route to their destination.
It was at Diyarbakir, the third, where they did not find anything of interest that the team was taken by a tourist guide to Elazig. The guide was a native of Elazig, who lived and worked at Diyarbakir.
The question: “Can you take us to Eden for $1,000?” reminded him of the Eden-like mountain in his hometown of Elazig. So he took them there. But would they find the tree of life there?
It was an almost circular 500 meter-high mountain. The mountain seemed to have been badly battered by the elements through the ages.