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THE ICE SHEET:
Alex stares across the empty expanse of ice to where the island had disappeared. My friends are dead. The mission is a failure, and I’m alone on a thousand mile sheet of ice. It’s as if something is deliberately blocking my every attempt to shut down the devices.
Dark gray clouds sweep in from the north, blocking the sunlight. The cold seeps through the thin protection of his jeans and he’s losing the feeling in his legs. He pushes up from the deck and steps out onto the ice and feels the weight of the satellite phone in his coat pocket. He brings it out and turns on the power. The signal is erratic, and the GPS is not working. He was more than five-miles out from the island before he got a signal, so he knows he has a long walk ahead to get the signal back.
He looks back at the boat and knows it’s pointed at the island and remembers seeing the Mystic through the left rear window before the ice rose up. He slowly turns in a circle, searching for some sort of landmark, but the ice disappears over the horizon in all directions. He walks in the direction of the Mystic, using the boat as a point of reference. Hopefully, he’ll get a signal before he loses sight of it. If not, he might walk in a circle and never get a signal. He glances over his shoulder at the boat and quickens his pace across the ice.
***
THE ISLAND:
Okana walks down the gangway to the beach and over to his friends, standing outside the spaceship. “Any luck with the shutdown program? We could sure use it right now.”
“I think we have found the problem.” Henry informs him. “The ship crashed because the control system failed due to some sort of interference. Every electronic system on this ship failed at the same instant. Whatever caused the interference has stopped, and David and I are just about to begin the startup procedure.”
“You mean it still works?”
“Possibly. We will not know until we start each system.”
Lisa steps up to Okana, a pleading question in her eyes. “Did you see Alex before the ocean froze? He could be trapped out on the ice and all alone.”
“The only boat was the Mystic on the horizon.”
Henry turns and starts walking back into the ship. “We need to hurry, David. Come, come.”
Lisa sees the deep concern in Okana’s eyes. “You said Alex has a way of getting out of difficult situations. It must work, because we managed to find him in a thousand-miles of ocean.”
“You’re right. We’ll find him again.”
Lisa spins around and they follow the others into the spaceship. In the center of the circular room are four high-backed padded chairs. Two in front of the control console, and two behind them, slightly elevated above the front two.
Henry moves in front of the main console and presses a small touch pad. A tray slides out, and he indicates the four small depressions inside. He holds another crystal out for them to see. “When we entered our first spaceship in nineteen-fifty-eight, there were small remnants of these crystals in each of the depressions. We did not know what they were at first, but over years of testing they kept getting smaller and we realized they were the power source. We had no idea what they were made of or how to get more.”
With a sense of reverence, Henry slowly places a new crystal into an empty depression. It immediately turns light blue and glows, then the ceiling shimmers for a few seconds before becoming transparent. Suddenly, the interior is illuminated by the dull sunlight, and they see the volcanic rock around most of the exterior walls from inside the spaceship.
Henry smiles and clasps his hands together. “We are one step closer to shutting down the devices.”
Okana smiles with the others, then turns and goes outside to do some exploring. He stares at the narrow tornado swirling up from the tip of the device and walks over to find out how powerful the wind will be up close. When he’s within five-feet, the suction pulls at his coat, dragging him closer and he cannot back up. The wind pulls harder the closer he’s pulled to the tornado. “Oh, shit!”
He feels his belt tighten as he’s yanked backward onto the ground below the tornado, and he rolls away and jumps up.
Bett gets up from the ground. “That wasn’t real smart, Okana. For a minute there I thought you were a goner.”
He turns around and smiles at Bett. “I was getting a little worried myself.”
“What’s in the cave?”
“I saw a skeleton just inside. The owner is wearing an old German Officer’s uniform. It must be Dieter’s relative.”
***
Henry and David walk over to an odd-looking control console that appears to have been smashed against the floor. “I don’t recognize it, Doc.”
“I do not, either, David. This must be the control for the devices. Lewis said it will be on this ship and none of the others.”
David kneels down next to the two-foot-long by one-foot-wide oval cylinder. When he sets it up straight, the back cover falls onto the floor. He looks inside, then looks up at Henry. “The optical cables are still attached to the floor, and it has power.”
David looks closer at the interior, and notices one of the tiny optical cables is dark, not neon blue, like the other cables. “I think I found the problem.”
He pinches the tiny end between his fingers and shoves it into the only empty hole in the connection board. It turns blue like the others, but when he lets go, it falls out and goes dark. He looks up at Henry. “The tip of this cable has broken off inside the connector. If I hold it in place everything works, but I receive a slight electrical tingle when it’s on. We need something to hold it in place. Something nonconductive.”
David stands and looks around the interior of the spaceship. “I don’t see anything in here that could work.” He looks over at Rita. “I don’t suppose you have any electrical tape in your pocket.”
Rita indicates she doesn’t. “Isn’t that a little old fashion for a ship this advanced?”
“You’re right, but I left what I need on the Mystic. I didn’t know we’d get stranded.” He looks over at the entrance as Okana and Bett walk in, then Bett turns around and faces the doorway. “Stop!” he yells and hurries across the room.
Bett turns and stares at David. “What’s the matter?”
David holds out his hand. “I need your gum.”
Bett reaches into her pocket to get the package of gum out for David.
“No, I need the piece you’re chewing.”
Bett gives him a quizzical stare, then pulls the piece of gum from her mouth and drops it into his hand.
David goes back to the control console, kneels down behind it, then wraps the gum around the end of the optical cable and pushes it into the hole, pressing the gum tight to the connection board. The interior systems light up, and he stands to study the illuminated touch pads on top. “Do you recognize any of these symbols, Doc?”
Henry stares down at the controls for a moment, rubs his chin, then reaches down, and holds his finger above one of the touchpads. “I believe this is the one for deactivation.”
“Okay. Push it and let’s see what happens.”
“Hang on a second,” Okana asks, and steps into the exit so he can see the device in the cave. “All right. Go ahead.”