by G R Jordan
“I’m not sure there’s more to be gained out here except for my catching my death from cold. I suggest we retire back to the station. Miss? I say Miss, let’s retire back inside…”
Calandra was staring into the distance, not flinching, almost as if she had frozen. Havers followed her gaze but saw nothing.
“What is it? Where?”
“Bitch!” yelled Calandra and ran off towards the horizon.
Caught unawares, it took Havers a moment to pursue. Although Calandra was hundreds of years old, she moved like a twenty-something, and Havers fought hard to keep up. After a couple of minutes of hard running, Calandra dropped to the ground in front of him and began to cry out at the air in front of herself. Approaching at top speed, Havers began to comprehend two people in the air in front of them.
One was a man on his knees, arms outstretched before him, shivering in the cold wind. Above him was the head of an old haggard woman, snowflakes whirling around her in a wild dance. Havers watched as the man began to freeze and turn to ice. His detail was lost as he became fully translucent and then shattered, pieces of him showering over Calandra and himself. The witch’s head began to laugh and speak in a language that Havers did not know.
The figures then vanished.
It must have been a vision, thought Havers. After all, there’s no one about here. Maybe the water in the pool was playing tricks on us, I’m sure we must have taken some in.
He shivered. It really was cold out here.
“Come on. We should get back and let the doctor take some samples. I’m sure there must be some sort of hallucinogenic in the water of that pool. There’s no one here. Nothing out here at all.”
Calandra had her face buried in the snow, lying prostrate. Her bare legs, milky white, showed goose pimples along them. Her body convulsed like someone crying deeply, wrenched and gutted by pain. But there seemed to be something missing, something wrong. It was like the dam could not break and the wall was merely buckling before retaining its shape.
Havers grabbed her shoulders and pulled Calandra to her feet. The snow had melted in contact with her and left her clothing soaking wet. With the rapidly freshening wind buffeting her top, she cut an impressive figure, and Havers momentarily lost his professionalism as he stared at her. But his upbringing and general chivalry took over as he removed his own coat and placed it around her. Taking her in hand, he led Calandra back to the base.
As they approached the base, the doors flung open and several of the station crew ran out to help them. Havers was feeling chilled having relinquished his jacket to Calandra’s modesty and gratefully took a silver blanket around his shoulders. Calandra was taken inside by two men, each taking an arm around their shoulders for support.
“Infirmary please, everyone,” shouted Havers, “and once there, just the doctor and myself please.” The commander looked at Havers sternly. “If that’s alright with the Commander.”
The Commander nodded appreciatively. “I’m sure it will be.”
The infirmary was on the lower level of the station, and Havers kept his blanket around him as he entered. Some ten people had entered the infirmary with them and had begun to fuss around Calandra. This would not do, and he was damn cold.
“Everyone out! Now! I believe I made myself perfectly clear upstairs.” His voice defied anyone to stay, and they began to leave in a hurry. “Not you doctor,” said Havers nodding at a female in a white coat.
“Actually, sir, Doctor Carwin is the duty doctor. I just came running because of the alarm the station sounded. I’m sure he can handle this.”
“Doctor, please stay. Doctor Carwin?” said Havers looking for the other medic.
“Yes, sir?”
“No offence but I believe this requires a female.” The tall male, Doctor Carwin, nodded politely but offence was definitely taken. “Commander?”
“Yes, Major?”
“I would be obliged if you would get a couple of hot cups of coffee, I got quite a chill out there.”
“Certainly, Major. Haskel, run to the canteen and…”
“No, Commander, I want you to get them.”
“Me? Coffee? Bring you coffee? I’m a station commander!”
“And I’m the bastard that runs this whole damn operation so look lively and get me my coffee. And please, knock before coming back in here.”
Havers watched the man nod curtly but it was clear that underneath he was raging.
Tough! I don’t intend to start explaining myself. Something’s up with this girl, and I need to know what.
With the room clear except for Calandra, the doctor and himself, Havers stood and watched the doctor take Calandra’s pulse and blood pressure. The blonde haired doctor, slightly overweight and short in height, worked at the process several times before turning to Havers, shaking her head.
“You should get those wet clothes off her,” suggested Havers.
“Of course. If you step outside, I’ll get a gown on her.”
“I’m fine here, please proceed.”
“Major!” contested the doctor. “I must protest at my patient’s treatment. Kindly step outside.”
“Doctor, no. Get those wet clothes off her, that’s an order.”
The doctor stared, flaring her nostrils before turning to Calandra and grabbing her top firmly. She pulled hard and the damp top came off when tugged clear of her arms. The doctor then tugged at Calandra’s bottoms and removed them swiftly. Calandra was left facing Havers with nothing on. Walking slowly forward, Havers focused on a patch around Calandra’s belly. Her skin was translucent, and he followed the icy stripe around to her back where it terminated just above her bottom.
“Satisfied?” mocked the doctor
“Hardly.” Havers nodded towards a gown on the wall, and the doctor reached for it. Calandra had not spoken through the whole examination, and Havers took her hands in his. Deep pain had weighed heavily on him most of his life at the loss of his mother, and he knew what it had done to him. But what had Calandra been through?
“From the top, my dear, just what did they do to you?”
An Agent’s Mother
“I think I need to tell you a little about my history, for while we are both seeing things from our past, I doubt that they are truly connected. Rather, I believe something is tapping into us on a sub-conscious level.”
Havers handed a tumbler of neat whisky to Calandra who seemed somewhat shaken by her ordeal. They had retreated to Havers’ personal cabin, a six-by-four-foot room with a bunk and a small desk. There was sparse decoration on the walls with a few pictures, one of which was of Ernest Shackleton.
“The image we saw relating to myself was of my mother. My parents were both agents in Russia for the British government, and through various regrettable events, it came to pass that my mother had been caught out in the wilds of Siberia whilst my father had escaped. However, I was a mere six years old and was still with my mother when they found her.” Havers showed the slightest twitch as he recounted this.
“They let her march out in front of us before gunning her down in the snow. I was left there to die by the bastards that shot her, and sat with her as the snow turned a diluted red. She was a strong and hard woman, but she had cared for me deeply. Fortunately, she had also drilled into me, even at that tender age, some of the skills needed to survive in such an inhospitable place. It was five months before my father found me hiding out in the barren land, having endured that time stealing from outposts in the wilderness.”
“And that woman with the blood, that was your mother?” asked Calandra.
“Oh, yes, definitely her image, but I doubt that was her. I may entertain the idea of resurrection but not out here in this environment and after so long. I doubt there is anything religious about what we have seen.”
“So what do we do then, Major, as we seem to have very few ideas?”
“One thing we have that is concrete is that pool. I suggest we go to the pool and complete a more thorough invest
igation. I’ll need some diving gear, but I doubt you’ll want a swimsuit. Will breathing apparatus be appropriate or do you have other talents I am not aware of?”
Calandra laughed. “I have other talents but underwater breathing is not one of them.”
Opening the cabin door, Havers departed the room leaving Calandra alone. Seeing the neatly kept but basic bunk, Calandra decided to avail herself of some rest while Havers was gone. Dressed in light shorts and top, she lay on top of the covers as she always did, having no requirement for heat. With no one around, she closed her eyes and waited for sleep to come upon her.
“I’m here, little one.”
Calandra’s eyes opened quickly, and she scanned the tiny cabin. Nothing had changed. The light above her illuminated the room along with the desk lamp and there were no shadows. Swinging her legs off the bed, she checked underneath and then in every other corner of the room but still there was nothing.
“I’m here.”
The voice was sweet and tender and had the merest hint of an accent—Russian—if Calandra was any judge. There was no sense of malevolence in the words but something did not sit right with her. Where was this intruder?
“Show yourself. Where are you?”
“I’m with you, little one.” The voice came from in front and behind at the same time and Calandra felt she was going crazy.
“I said show yourself.”
“You need comfort,” said the voice. “Come closer, little one, and I’ll hold you tight until they’re gone. We need to hide and be quiet. If we stay quiet, they will be gone. Are you scared, little one?”
Calandra backed herself onto the bed and into the corner against the wall. Her instincts were to fight and punch her way out of the situation, but there was nothing to fight. Nothing was there. The room looked the same as it had done before she had succumbed to sleep.
“Where are you?” repeated Calandra.
“I’m here with you. I’m here for you. I’ll protect you from them.”
Calandra jumped forward off the bed as she thought the voice was coming from the wall behind her. Taking up a central position in the cabin, she spun round and round seeking the speaker. A spot of red on the desk caught her eye. In the air above, blood was dripping down onto the desk. Blood was an assumption, but it was dark and red with a slight thickness to it.
Having seen much blood spilt in her time, Calandra didn’t recoil but instead dabbed her finger and raised it to her lips, wanting to see if it was real. She recognised the taste.
A sudden knocking on the cabin door caused Calandra to jump. The door handle turned and someone pushed the door without success. The handle turned a few more times, more frantically and then a voice cried out.
“Miss Calandra, have you locked the door?”
“No!” shouted Calandra, “There’s someone—something—in here. I think it’s your mother.”
The door handle was pushed hard again, and then a shoulder thrown at it. Calandra turned and grabbed the handle too and pulled at it hard. She turned the locking mechanism but it was already open. Nonetheless, for some unknown reason, the door wouldn’t budge. Calandra turned around as she thought she heard movement behind her.
“Dear God!”
“Miss Calandra, Miss Calandra, what is it?”
Calandra watched the woman materialise in front of her, blood pouring from wounds on her chest, multiple holes torn in the white blouse and red seeping across her top. A hand reached towards her, and Calandra struck out with her fist. Her hand was caught by the woman’s hand, and she felt herself being encompassed by the woman’s arms.
Calandra screamed.
Into the Pool
Havers pummelled the door with his shoulder, but the fixture was built in a solid fashion. The extreme conditions experienced by the station here in Antarctica meant that the entire building had been created to last. Cursing the design, the Major looked around for another option. He saw the fire extinguisher cabinet containing an extinguisher and an axe. Ripping open the translucent door, he took the axe in both hands and assaulted the cabin’s locked entrance.
It took a minute of gutsy work to wreck the lock and free it from the wall. A small crowd had arrived, racing to the noise Havers had created, and they watched in astonishment as he put a final shoulder to the door, forcing it open. Stepping inside, axe still poised in hand, he quickly checked the small cabin.
The room was empty; Calandra was gone.
He saw where the military-quality sheets on his bed had been disturbed, and deduced at one point Calandra must have climbed up on his bed to escape her attacker.
Then he saw the blood on his desk. There was more on the floor as well, and his mind raced back to the Russian snow, the blood staining his clothes as he held her close, the last precious moments of life with his mother.
“Bloody hell, Major. What the heck’s been going on in here?”
In his mind, Havers had two words for the station commander but his training produced a more eloquent response. “Quarantine this room, Commander. I want no one in or out without my say. And I mean no one. I can’t be sure, but I doubt it’s safe for anyone to be here alone.”
“Of course, Major. I’ll put an armed guard on the door. Where’s the girl? Where’s Calandra?”
“That, I intend to find out. Tell me, has anyone reported anything unusual? Anyone given reports of seeing things from their past?”
The Commander thought for a moment. “The doctor’s reported a number of station crew experiencing insomnia, nightmares. Usually occurrences of a crewman’s past, something unsavoury.”
Havers nodded and contemplated his next course of action. He needed to get to the bottom of this before it endangered the whole station. These couldn’t just be visions, there was physical blood left behind, after all. But what were these images they were seeing? And where was Calandra? Antarctica was known for the mystery its inner mountains held, of the days of the Elder ones, but this was something different.
“Commander! I’ll need four of the station crew, armed please and one of the larger snow mobiles.”
“Of course, Major. Where are you going?”
“Time for a swim, Commander. Time for a little dip.”
An hour later, Havers stood before the pool in the ice cave, dressed in a dry suit, breathing apparatus on his back and ready to dive. Staring into the pool, he believed he could still see lights in the depths. Orders had been issued for everyone else to remain outside the cave and not to enter under any account. Indeed, he had given his staff a direct command that should he not return in twenty-four hours, the station must be abandoned immediately and a further investigation conducted from a safe distance.
Dropping backwards from the pool’s edge, he felt the cold water through his suit and across his face. The diving mask kept the water from his eyes, but his cheeks felt the icy liquid. The water, whilst clear, still blurred the lights far below. Kicking out, Havers made his way down into the murk.
“Hold me!”
Immersed in fluid, Havers knew the voice was too clear to be coming from inside the water. Something was getting into his head. He didn’t recognise the voice, nor the sentiment, from his past. His mother had never spoken after being shot. She had merely bled.
“Everything’s so white.”
The voice was male and not one he could place. With his training, he rarely forgot any voice he had heard and if this was from a dark memory it was evading him.
Then there was snow falling in front of him. He was looking out a window onto the scene of a village in the early hours of day. There was little activity but a storm was obviously brewing. Snow began to thicken and lie on the ground. He looked down and saw an arm encompass him. It was male and someone kissed his neck.
His father had never been a sentimental kind of dad, and no man had ever touched him in this way. Whilst romantic encounters were few and far between, they had all been with female counterparts. He had no issue with homosexual relationships, but
he was definitely drawn to a woman’s body. Seeing the arm around him and the hot breath on his neck he was repulsed, bemused and slightly panicked. Throwing an elbow to the supposed ribs of the man behind him, he sought to step away.
Havers was back swimming down into the pool depths. Circling briefly to check for anything around him, he found nothing and continued to dive into the deep.
Focus, Arthur, you need to damn well focus. Find the girl and get back out!
Beneath him, the lights were becoming stronger and more distinct. He saw what appeared to be a cave below and kicked hard towards it. Acutely aware he didn’t have any weapons to speak of, he tried to think of how he would approach whatever he would find. Plunging downwards, he suddenly stopped himself, feeling his hands exiting the water around him. His mind was confused as they were the appendages furthest below him and yet seemed to have cleared the cold water. Reaching further forward, he felt the cold lift from his arms and then his head.
And then he fell.
His training kicked in, and as his hands touched the ground, he started to roll—regrettably forgetting that he was wearing air tanks. The tanks hit hard, bring a halt to this manoeuvre, and leaving him lying flat on his back. Without hesitation, he unclipped his air reserve and sprung to his feet. Finding himself in a dank grey cave, he pulled off his mask and looked above. The ceiling was water, and he suspected above him was a passage back to the surface.
He took off his flippers and breathed deeply. The air seemed okay, and he saw an exit in the cave. With little other options, Havers began to move to the opening. After a single step, something formed before him. It seemed to be a mass of snow and ice and a howling wind tore over him. Shivering, Havers thought back to the tale Calandra had told him of her past.
“It has been a long time. How does it hurt without him?” The voice was a woman but cackled and sounded wicked. It laughed hard as the wind continued to blow. Havers wondered how to react.
“Excuse me Ma’am. I believe there’s been a mistake.”