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ICELAND:
Having gotten little sleep over the past few days, Alex is out cold when he feels a hand on his shoulder. He looks up at Skip.
“We’ll be on final approach in twenty minutes, Alex. I thought you might want some time to wake up before we touch down in Reykjavík.”
“Thanks.” He stands and hears Okana’s soft snoring further up the aisle. He walks forward and bumps the side of the cushion with his leg. “Time to get up.” He grabs his clothes bag on the way to the lavatory to clean up.
When he returns to the lounge, Okana is staring out the window while using an electric shaver. He sits down, fastens his seat belt, and stares out the window. He feels a soft thud vibrate through the fuselage as the wheels hit the ground. The engines roar in reverse thrust for a few moments, then the jet taxies to the air terminal.
Alex stands and makes his way forward to the cockpit, opens the door, and leans inside. “I’m not sure how long we’ll be gone, Skip.”
“No problem. Carl and I will refuel and find a place to park the jet while we get some sleep. Call me when you’re on your way and I’ll tell you where we’re located.”
“Sounds good.”
Alex sees they are about to stop, and steps back to grab a handhold. When all motion ceases, he presses the button to open the door and stairs, then turns and grabs his backpack from the storage compartment. With Okana right behind him, he goes down and heads toward the door into the terminal.
Once through customs, they meet Sliven and Hardin in the reception area, and Alex directs his attention to the slender man with curly-gray hair. “It’s nice to see you again, Director.”
Sliven smiles. “You, too, my friend.”
After shaking Sliven’s hand, Okana turns to the man standing beside him. “I’m Okana.”
“Terry Hardin.”
“Have you worked here long?”
“Nope.”
Okana waits for him to elaborate, but he just stares back evenly. He turns back to Sliven while Alex explains that only the two of them will go check it out from the surface.
Hardin isn’t about to be left out of this, and leans in toward Alex. He feels a hand against his chest and glares at Okana.
Okana maintains eye contact. “Take it easy.”
Hardin leans back and stares at Alex. “I made the initial discovery and I’m going with you.”
Alex stares back evenly. “I’m sorry, but that’s the way it has to be for the moment. I promise you’ll be involved once we know what it is.”
Sliven has worked with Alex recently, and knows to trust his judgment, so he turns to Hardin to intervene. “I’m sorry, Terry, but I must agree with Alex. You are a fine volcanologist, and we will be able to study what caused this to happen once we know it is safe to proceed.”
Hardin stares into each man’s eyes for a second, then turns and stomps toward the exit.
Sliven turns to his friends. “I apologize for Terry. He has a stubborn streak, but he is a good researcher. How are you going to get to the site?”
Okana smiles. “I have a friend here who has a plane I can borrow. His name is Huckabee.”
“Ah, yes, Patrick.” He turns to Alex. “Well then. I will let you people get on with your business. Please keep me informed on your progress.”
“I will, Director.”
When Sliven turns and heads for the main exit, they leave the building through another door and walk along a row of private aircraft hangars, looking for a specific number. Alex knows little about the pilot they are meeting, and they were both too tired to talk about it after they left the base. He looks over at his friend. “How do you know this guy?”
Okana smirks. “A few months ago, I was dating his cousin for a few weeks. It turns out Huck and I had more to talk about than I had with his cousin. He was our helicopter pilot during a mission in the Middle East.” He looks up at a number on the side of a hangar. “Here it is.”
Alex follows Okana into the structure, and sees a beautiful orange Dahavlin Beaver aircraft parked in front of the large sliding doors. He knows it’s a great plane, used by Alaska bush pilots.
Okana looks around for his friend. “Huck? Are you in here?” He hears the bathroom door open, then a blue-colored cast protrudes through the doorway, followed by a man struggling to roll his wheelchair through the opening. He rushes over to hold the door open. “What the hell happened to you?”
Patrick Huckabee looks up at his guest. “Snowboarding accident.”
“Ouch. Are you still able to fly?”
“Nope, but you can take her for a ride. She’s fueled and ready to go.”
“I really appreciate this, Huck. This is my friend, Alex Cave.”
Alex shakes hands. “I love your plane.”
Huckabee smiles like a proud father. “Thanks. Yeah, she’s a sweetheart. Go ahead and stow your gear while I open the doors.”
Alex takes both backpacks and walks around to the other side of the aircraft, while Okana transmits a flight plan to the control tower using Huck’s computer. He listens to the rattle of chains as the doors slowly roll to one side of the hangar, while he straps the packs into the cargo hold. A moment later, Okana helps him push the aircraft out onto the tarmac.
Once inside the plane, Alex puts on his headset and sits quietly while Okana goes through the preflight check and approval to take off. They wave at Huck as they gain speed along the runway.
Alex has a pilot’s license, but with Okana always insisting on driving, he forgot how exhilarating it is to feel the powerful surge of a large single engine in a small aircraft. He stares out the window in comfortable silence while they fly past Iceland and over the vast Arctic Ocean. If this ship is big as described by Hardin, it will be difficult keeping it a secret.
***
Alex stares at a ten-foot wall of light blue ice rising up above the water. At the top, the massive Polar Ice Sheet stretches away to the horizon. He feels the plane bank left as Okana swings around the three triangular blocks of ice protruding above the barren landscape.
Okana studies the terrain around their destination. He chooses a section with the least amount of washboard, which is created by the chop of the waves while the seawater is freezing. “It shouldn’t be any problem landing.”
Alex feels his stomach rise as the plane drops down toward the ice. Tiny ice crystals swirl into the air as Okana sets down on the frosted white surface. He taxies toward the blocks of shattered ice rising above the horizon. When they are turned around, Okana shuts down the engine and everything seems deathly quiet.
Alex climbs out and surveys his surroundings. If not for his dark goggles, the glare off the unending ice would be unbearable. The first fracture is two-hundred-feet to the south, with the large slab tilted up at a slight angle. They determine the far edge of the block is the most direct passage down to the alien craft.
While Okana grabs the bags of climbing gear from the side compartment, Alex slides a metal briefcase from under the seat, opens the lid, and enters a command into a laptop computer. The main screen appears and he reaches into the case, grabs a small communication device, and inserts it into his left ear. Next is a head strap with the light and body camera. He turns it on, slides the strap over his head, and looks at the screen. The video image is clear, and when he speaks, the audio signal is strong.
Okana steps up next to Alex and does the same with his earpiece and camera. “How do you read?”
Alex looks at the screen. “You’re good to go.”
Alex grabs the side-straps and hoists a bag onto his shoulder, as does Okana, and they walk toward the strange looking triangle of blue-white ice. Before they start up the angled surface, Okana drops his bag and kneels down, removes a hammer and a large metal anchor, and drives it into the surface.
Alex climbs into his harness, attaches the rope and safety line to a carabineer, and hikes up to the tip of the triangle. He looks over the edge, but can’t lean out far enough to see the spacecraft. He holds the mirror on a rod over the edge of the ice and studies the area below the block, but still can’t see the ship. He looks at Okana, who is kneeling beside him. “There’s a slight outward angle going down for about ten-feet before it opens into a hollow area above the surface.”
Okana grabs the safety line as Alex turns around and backs down over the edge. He feeds the line just enough to stop Alex if he falls.
Alex eases down the wall of hard ice, then the block angles away from him and he’s hanging in the air. When he drops onto the surface of the ship, his feet slide out from beneath him, but the strain on the rope keeps him from toppling over. He looks up and can’t see Okana, but knows he’s listening. “The ice doesn’t stick to the surface of the spaceship.”
Alex uses his foot to brush away the pieces of ice, and can see his reflection on the surface of the alien craft. “It’s just like the surface of our ship.”
“I wonder how many people it holds.”
“I wonder when it arrived. It might have crashed at the same time ours did, one-hundred and eight-million-years ago.” He reaches into his pocket and brings out the earpiece he uses to communicate with his spaceship. “I’m going to try to make contact with them.”
Okana grins. “Are you kidding? Everyone on board our spaceship turned to dust millions of years ago. You can’t possibly believe there is someone still alive on this old thing.”
“It doesn’t hurt to try.” He puts the communication device into his right ear and speaks. “My name is Alex. Is there anyone on board?” He tries a few more times with no response. “There’s nothing more we can do here. Pull me up so I can tell Donner what we’ve found. I’m sure this is going to turn into an international issue.”
***
Huck has the hangar doors open when Okana turns the aircraft off the taxiway. When the engine shuts down, Alex and Okana climb out and push it backward into the hangar. They walk beside Huck across the tarmac to their jet, where they thank him and say goodbye. Skip and Carl have the engines running, and they hurry up the steps into the plane.
Once they stow their gear, Alex brings out his phone. “I’ll see if Donner can let us try to get inside before this goes public.”