by Turhan
“Hi Kylar, name’s Elektra,” she stepped forward and hugged me, “but you can call me Elektra.” I thought, good, she has a sense of humor. “Any friend of Kira is always welcome here.”
Kira stole a knowing look at me as she started to walk away taking Elektra along with her. “Hey before Kylar starts to bore you guys with all that digital nonsense why don’t you tell me what’s going on with your new boyfriend?”
Kira continued to walk away from me into another section of the station. I think she guessed my dilemma and seemed to be doing some bridge building with her friend to help me fit in without having to explain things to Boris or the other three crew members at the station. Boris had brought the final bags in from outside. “Come Kylar, let’s put our bags in our rooms, looks like they need to catch up on some girl talk.”
After Boris and I had finished settling into our respective rooms, we started to walk back to the canteen and I was getting curious as to why Kira had to be the one to go out to Moon Rising. What could have been so important that a pregnant woman was compelled to be out there in such treacherous territory? Why didn’t Elektra or one of the other team members take on that assignment?
“Boris, do you mind if I ask you a question?”
“Shoot.”
“Thanks. Kira was pregnant, I don’t get why it was so important that she had to be the one that went out to analyze the reports about the sub glacial rumblings, shouldn’t one of the other scientists have done that?”
“I can tell you this. Kira’s specialty is BSC, or Broad Spectrum Cryogenics. She is highly qualified in meta-analysis of Sub Zero life forms, from single celled organisms all the way to well, let us say the remains of creatures frozen in ice that are as yet, unidentified.”
“So, she can tell if something is, different?”
“Not just different, she can tell if something is dangerous, this is why she had to be the one that analyzed the rumblings that had been occurring at Moon Rising, and to be quite honest my friend, most of the other staff have been too frightened to investigate, especially after the Morning Spirits were seen again a couple of days before.”
“Wait, didn’t you mention them last night, back at the cabin?”
“Sorry, I don’t remember, maybe if we had a little help it may loosen up my tongue.”
By “a little help” Boris meant something liquid, cold, and alcoholic. We had arrived back at the canteen and he knew exactly where the stash was kept that helped stave off the cabin fever that must be part of the job description in what is likely one of the most remote and unfriendly, frozen places in the world. If Hell is the hottest, then this has to be literally the polar opposite.
With two glasses of what Boris called medicine sitting in front of us I asked again. “So, what are these Morning Spirits that are appearing out here? Are they something like a mirage in a desert?”
“If they are a mirage, then I am Mickey Mouse! They appear in the shadows when you don’t expect them. A few days ago my neighbor saw um, um, oh yes, an apparition of his daughter, it almost gave him a heart attack. It seems they are trying to contact their parents, the ones that have lost children in strange accidents, just like Kira.”
Something started to tell me there was a pattern going on here, I have three daughters that are somewhere in Hell, Kira lost her baby daughter and now Boris is talking about yet another girl. Why are there no boys mentioned, I didn’t get it.
“Has anyone ever seen a Morning Spirit that was a boy?”
“I am,” a quick swig of another glass of medicine and Boris held his forehead between his thumb and forefinger trying to think about my question. “I am not sure, I didn’t think about that, maybe when Kira comes back you can ask her, I think it’s time for me to take a little nap.”
Boris picked up his “medicine” and headed off to his room. I was alone with just the ticking of the wall clock, the steady sound of the late afternoon freezing wind and the thoughts that are beginning to run rampant in my mind. I still need to know who these Morning Spirits really are, and is it true that it’s just girls that are appearing, why aren’t there any boys?
In the distance Elektra could be heard laughing and Kira was talking in an animated tone. It sounded like all was well in Dome A. I decided to ask if I could join their little Tête à Tête and see if it would prompt a discussion about some of my questions.
Making my way toward the sound of laughter I came across a room that had a steel door with a small reinforced glass window. Looking inside I saw what seemed to be several large sealed vats with the words ‘obraztsy ledyanogo kerna’ So now I was curious. I couldn’t read Russian, but guessed that there may be a clue in there that I needed to uncover that may help me with my mission.
“Hey Kylar, what did you do with my husband?”
“He said he needed to get a little shut eye, so I figured I’d come see what you girls were doing.”
“Kira brought me up to speed about your trip to our humble town and luckily for you we can help,” said Elektra, “but that doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re crazy?”
“Believe me, I think I’m crazy too, but I had to give this a shot, if only to say I tried.” It was great that Kira had talked to Elektra about my real reason for being here.
“Well later today we plan on taking a trip toward the lake.”
“Wait a minute, what lake? Everything is frozen out there.”
“Oh, sorry, I’m so used to talking shop with the crew that I guess I assumed you knew what I meant. Yes, of course you’re right. If there was a lake out there, then it would be frozen, but actually I’m talking about the site where there is a lake. It’s buried over two miles down from the surface at Moon Rising and we plan on taking some more samples before sunset.”
Intrigued, I asked, “Samples? What do you mean?”
“Did you see the room down the hallway before you came here?”
“Yes I saw some large containers with some Russian words on them. I was going to ask what they are.”
“Those words say ‘Ice Core Samples.’ We have been collecting them for the last eleven years, ever since the first reports of sub glacial movement were reported by our seismological team. The problem is no one locally, except for Kira, has the expertise to analyze them, unless we send them to our facility for cryonics that has a division that can handle this kind of unstable data and it’s not always convenient to do that.”
“Got it, so if you don’t mind me asking, what have you discovered so far?”
Elektra looked over to Kira. “Do you think it’s okay to talk about this? I mean how well do you know him? Maybe he’s a reporter looking for an unusual story to boost his readership.”
“I trust him,” Kira looked at me. “I saw the way you reacted when I showed you my picture, if I’m wrong then you’ll be making a fool of me and−”
“Stop, let me just say this, the last thing I want to do is to take advantage of a woman that lost her child−”
“He knows?” Elektra interrupted. She was looking at me as though she’s continuing to question my ethics.
“Yes,” said Kira. “After talking with him back at my house I sensed he was being truthful and genuine with me. I don’t know, maybe there’s a part of me that also wants answers about the evil face I saw that day when I lost Davina, but you and I know there’s more than that, right?”
“Fine Kira, but I’m only going to go along with this for you,” Elektra was staring at Kira’s eyes and leaned forward to touch her on her face, as if to say she felt her grief, but there was more going on between them, I couldn’t figure it out.
“Thank you, I promise not to betray your trust in me, you’ll see. The only reason I came here is because I’ve also experienced some supernatural occurrences in my life and I’m just here to bring some closure to that. I really feel lucky to have met you both.”
“Fine, tell him then, but I hope your instincts are right because I don’t want you to be hurt any more than you already have b
een.” Elektra looked at me for affirmation. “The memory of that evening is still so raw and I don’t want you to have your hopes of closure dashed by a stranger.”
“There’s something about his story that struck a nerve with me, what he said about, not abandoning his daughter,” Elektra walked up to me, real close. “I’m just going to say this once, so listen like your life depends on it. If we tell you what we know about the results Kira has researched, it has to remain our secret. That means me, you, and Kira, not even Boris knows about this.”
While Elektra was talking to me, I peered over her shoulder. Kira had walked over to a glass panel that spanned from the floor all the way to the ceiling, about eleven feet tall and maybe six feet wide. On shelving behind the glass were rows of what looked like bones from different animals. There were skulls, hands, feet, and some body parts that looked very odd to my uneducated eye, I had no clue what they could have been. I also couldn’t tell if any of them were human.
By this time both Elektra and I had turned and watched as Kira using both her hands slowly traced out what seemed to be a pattern onto the glass panel. As she did this, her imprints on the glass started to glow neon purple. Suddenly the glass panel seemed to liquefy and then to my amazement completely disappeared.
“How . . . how did you?” Kira hadn’t finished. She slid the whole display over to one side like a sliding door. What I saw next, scared the living hell out of my mind and it was the reason we were all here. Fate had brought us together, to this place, and before the night was over we would all be thrust into a series of events that would change our lives forever.
Chapter 4
Tragedy
There were now four of us present in the room. Elektra, Kira, myself and the most fearsome looking, inhuman creature, that looked like it had stepped out of the pages of an apocalyptic story about Hell. Kira and Elektra showed no signs of fear as they both waited for me to absorb what I was looking at.
“You can come over here,” Kira held out her hand, her face confident in a way that made me feel it may be safe to approach this nightmare, borne of the imagination of the likes of Tolkien or Dante.
“Trust me,” Kira beckoned. Despite the apparent calming nature of both Kira and Elektra I was hesitant to move. Elektra took my arm and gently tugged me in the direction of this, thing. Giving in to her perceived sense of safety I allowed her to walk me closer.
Black and gray in color, with body hair like a hog, arms and legs revealing powerful sinewy muscles and bone structure, it stood the full height of the opening it was in. Its face stretched forward and narrow is vicious, with several rows of long rapier thin teeth. It had pointed goatee-shaped hair below the chin, ears like a goblin, and eyes that are vertical and narrow slits. Rising upward from its shoulders are spiny webbed wings like those of a bat that extend all the way to the floor.
“There’s nothing to fear, see,” Kira touched the creature’s bony knee and I began to feel a little less intimidated.
“Where did you find this thing?”
“We’ve had this almost from the very beginning of our research,” Kira said. “Maybe ten or eleven years, that’s why we were able to get continued funding from the FSB.”
“Can I?”
“Yes, go ahead,” Smiling to put me at ease, Elektra said, “touch it.”
Having walked into the opening and behind the creature she looked at me from between its legs. “Look!”
Finally, after mustering enough courage I joined Electra around the other side of this thing and touched its wings, tentatively at first, as though I were waiting for it to suddenly whip around and slice through me with its teeth that looked as though they were made of steel.
Sensing my caution and uneasiness Elektra clapped her hands together which immediately made me fall back in terror. “I just couldn’t resist!” she exclaimed, with mischief in her eyes.
I remembered Elektra has a sense of humor. “Thanks, I think I needed that.”
“Elektra! You scared him!”
“No, it’s fine,” Standing up I looked at Kira. “Where did it come from?” I asked a second time.
“The ice core samples that we had been examining from about three quarters of a mile down showed signs of an unidentified life form and after receiving approval we mined the area at Moon Rising until we hit this jackpot. As you can see on the shelves that I slid over, we had been finding smaller samples, but nothing like this.”
I began wondering what I was getting myself into, am I really insane enough to pursue this until I actually find the gates of Hell or should I take Kira’s advice and just go home before I get any deeper into this? My thoughts are barely finished before Elektra answers them.
“We’ve recently conducted further mining at the eastern end of Moon Rising and the excavators have cleared a path through the ice. It’s Showtime, because the other three crew members are scheduled to return to base and we’ll be replacing them in a couple of hours.”
Stepping around the creature, Elektra went back into the room. “If you want to stay in there with your buddy you can, but we’re going to close the door and start packing.”
“Very funny,” I said, having also returned back into the room.
Kira slid the shelving back and holding her outstretched fingers flat against the wall she activated the glass panel that reappeared as instantly as it had disappeared earlier in front of the shelves.
“Looks like magic,” I said.
“No,” Kira said. “Just technology from our silicon valley in Skolkovo that your technology hasn’t caught up with yet.”
“We’re going to get ready,” Elektra said. “Maybe you should get Boris up and eat something before we leave. I don’t want it to get dark before we get there, the roads can be treacherous.”
Returning to my room I made sure to grab my backpack, ate something at the canteen, then suited up for the extreme cold weather. Within forty five minutes the four of us were sitting high up in a tractor type of vehicle that cautiously traversed the terrain as we wove our way through the mountains of ice that the excavator crews had plowed ahead of us.
Boris was at the helm of this vehicle and shouted back to Elektra, “What’s the game plan for when we get there?”
Raising her voice so as to be heard over the sounds of the ice navigator we are traveling in, Elektra had to lie. “Kylar is going to use his new gizmo to help us analyze the new ice core samples, it should only take us a couple of hours, then we can head back to base again!”
Boris rolled his eyes up at me and took a shot of ‘medicine’ from his flask. “Oh, sounds like fun!”
Turning into an area littered with vehicles, small outposts, and materials, we stopped outside what looked like the main hub of operations. One by one climbing down from the vehicle we made our way inside the building.
“You haven’t been here for a couple of months Kira?” Elektra asked. “Right?”
“I haven’t, what happened over here?”
“Well we had to reinforce the walls after the last ground movement, it was the worst yet.”
“Is there any food in this God forsaken place?” Boris hadn’t eaten before leaving Dome A so Kira took Boris through to what presumably was somewhere he could eat, leaving Elektra and I in the operations room.
“So, Kylar, what do you want to do?”
“I have a map, maybe you can help me figure out exactly where Moon Rising’s center is?”
“Sure thing.”
Picking up a magnifying glass Elektra began to scan my map, at which point Kira had already returned after showing Boris where the canteen is. “What are you guys up to?”
Elektra Pushed her fingers through her Kool Aid dyed, multi colored, and spiked hair. “We’re looking for the epicenter of Moon Rising on Kylar’s map, it should be . . . here it is! Hmm, it isn’t the center according to all the topographical depictions we have, it’s a quarter mile off from ours, where’d you get this from? According to your old map, it’s over by th
e abandoned subterranean Shaft.”
“It’s dangerous,” Kira said. “What exactly do want to do there?”
“I guess, well I don’t really know. I’m just assuming it may be a good starting point to find a way into . . . ” My comment was left dangling in the air. We were all looking at each other with a mix of fear, excitement, and disbelief that maybe, just maybe, we are all on the genesis of an epic journey that could unravel the mysteries of death itself . . . Does Hell, really exist? If it does, can we really go there and then return from it?
Questions such as these are daunting to say the least but somehow in the ensuing silence we found a strange connection to each other. It seemed as though the three of us were destined to come together at this place and at this time. What took place next was to be both revealing and comforting.
Kira took Elektra’s hand into hers, and in turn Elektra reached out to me and held mine. With my other hand I held Kira’s and we instinctively formed a circle, it felt as though together, we were invincible.
“Elektra, I think the time has come to tell our secret.” She nods in agreement and Kira continues, “When we were kids, I was barely seven and Elektra was five. Mom and dad told us that we came from a ‘special’ family, a family that possessed special gifts and that we weren’t to use them if we wanted to have normal friends, or unless we had to protect ourselves. That time is now, let’s show Kylar what those gifts are.”
“Wait, you two are sisters!?”
Moving her gaze from Kira to me, Elektra squeezed my hand as though she wanted me to feel safe. Her lissome body began to twinkle a million specks of amber light that warmed my body, at the same time, Kira began to turn almost invisible, but no, she was turning into ice!? “Fire and Ice?”
“That’s right and we can control the intensity, but we haven’t had to really use our powers for anything meaningful before today.”
Boris called out, “Where is everybody?!” We quickly let go of each others hands as Boris entered the room and both sisters were back to themselves, no sign of their gifts remained to be seen. “We’re going to go out to the abandoned subterranean shaft to field test Kylar’s new equipment, you can stay here until we get back.”