It was a six-hour flight, the first half of which was quite boring. During the second half, they encountered quite a bit of turbulence. Even Astrid was forced to admit it was a fairly rough ride, and Christopher deposited part of his sandwich and cocoa into an airsickness bag. At last the copilot walked back to speak with them. She was a tall blond woman with short spiky hair.
“Time to get into your gear,” she said in a thick Aussie accent. “We land and stay on the ground just long enough to get you and your luggage unloaded. Then we turn around and we’re off. Too cold to stick around.”
The flight attendant invited Astrid into the curtained galley to change, while Christopher did so in the aisle by their seats. Their cold weather gear was three layers thick. The core foundation was a pair of high-tech synthetic long johns: comfortable, breathable, and treated with an antibiotic material. The middle layer was a fleece shirt and thick pants made of moleskin, which despite the name was a type of cotton and not the skin of a rodent. Next was a down-filled jacket and then a pair of thin synthetic gloves, along with a hood that covered the neck. By the time Astrid had all of this on, she was so warm she thought she might pass out, but she still had an entire layer still to go. She felt the plane begin its descent as she stuffed herself into a synthetic insulated polar parka, lined with fur and matching synthetic insulated pants, along with thick waterproof mittens and a pair of gigantic insulated boots.
When Astrid returned to her seat, she could hardly bend her body enough to sit down. As it was, she took the aisle seat across from Christopher because there was no way that they could both fit in the same row.
The jet aircraft bounced and slid as it landed on the runway of smoothed ice. But at last it came to a stop, and as soon as it did, the hatch just behind the cockpit was opened. The two teens from Maxxim city were ushered to the doorway, where they looked out into the darkness to see a massive tractor, covered in huge lights, rolling across the ice and snow toward them. It came to a stop right next to the plane and a set of four steps was raised up to the bottom of the hatch.
“You two take care not to freeze,” said the flight attendant as first Astrid and then Christopher climbed down the steps.
A figure just as wrapped up as they were awaited them on a metal walkway that led around the cab of the huge tractor. With a wave, this person led them to the cab door and guided them inside. There was a seat in front for the driver and in the rear, two bench seats, facing toward each other. Astrid and Christopher sat down on the bench seats as the door slammed shut.
“Hey guys!” said a cheerful voice from beneath the layers of fur and insulation. “Let me pull this buggy back out of the way so they can take off.
The great tractor rumbled and growled as it was backed about fifty yards from the aircraft, which had never stopped its engines. The plane turned quickly around, and with a throaty whine, shot down the runway and off into the darkness.
“Welcome to the Antarctic Circle,” said the tractor driver. “We had about twelve minutes of daylight today, but you missed it.”
“Are you Australian?” asked Christopher.
“No, I’m a Brit. I’m here working with the Frenchies. Melanie Kincaid.” She stepped around the seat and shook hands with both of them. “You cold yet?”
“Actually, I feel pretty comfortable,” said Astrid.
“Not bad in here. Still, we don’t want to get stuck and have to walk home.”
The cab door opened and another figure climbed in.
“Bonjour,” said the newcomer.
“This is Nathan,” said Melanie, pulling her outer hood back to reveal from forehead to chin a pretty, freckled face.
“Nathan Oliver,” he said, sticking out his hand.
“This is Christopher Harris,” said Astrid, “and I’m Astrid Maxxim.”
“So, it really is you,” said Melanie. “We heard you were coming, but we didn’t quite believe it really.”
“Why not?” wondered Astrid.
“Come on,” said Nathan. “Let’s get them back to the station.”
Climbing back into the driver’s seat, Melanie threw the tractor into gear and turned it around. It was a ride of only three hundred yards or so back to the station, which consisted of four medium-sized buildings and one large one. The latter turned out to be a vehicle hanger, into which the tractor was driven. The four parka-clad travelers climbed down a metal ladder from the vehicle cab to the cement floor. Nathan ran over to throw a switch, which caused the huge barn door to close.
The big hanger held three of the massive tractors and several snowmobiles, which looked ridiculously tiny sitting next to them. The four exited out a small side door and walked down a trail of packed snow, banked higher than their shoulders on either side, to another door. Inside was a warm room, lined with lockers, much bigger than the lockers at Rachel Carson High School.
“Strip off your top layer and stow it in your locker,” said Melanie, pointing to two of the metal cabinets. “There’s a lock and key in there. Lock ‘em up and don’t lose the key. Those clothes are literally the difference between life and death here.”
“You guys are lucky,” continued Melanie, after the outerwear was stowed. She led the two Maxxim City youths down a narrow hallway lined with doors. “You get your own rooms. During the summer, this place gets pretty busy, but right now we only have a few winter researchers.”
She opened the door revealing a small room with triple bunk beds on either side. At the far end of the room were six lockers of the same kind as those located in the entry, and just to the left of the door was a small desk and chair.
“Christopher, you can bunk in here. I’ll get you some bed linen. Astrid, you’ll be in the next room over.”
“We really didn’t expect to stay too long,” said Astrid. “Do you know when… oh my gosh! What about our luggage?”
“Don’t worry. Nathan is getting it off the tractor now. He unloaded it from the plane while I was unloading you.”
“That’s good. I’m glad somebody was thinking about it. So, I was about to say that we expected to be picked up by Dr. Feuillée pretty soon.”
“It’s probably going to be at least the day after tomorrow,” said Melanie.
“How come?”
“Dr. Feuillée’s ship is out at the edge of the ice. It’s a couple of hundred miles away. The weather’s okay here, but it’s not too good there at the moment. His message said the chopper might be grounded till Friday. With any luck, they can fly in and scoop you guys up then, before the weather closes in at either location.”
“I guess I forgot how huge Antarctica is. It just seemed like you guys would be pretty close together.”
“It’s big alright. Imagine we were in New York. Then the American base would be about where Los Angeles is. Dr. Feuillée would be in Chicago… or I guess actually somewhere in Canada. You get the idea. Anyway, while you’re here, you can take a look at what we’re working on.” They left Christopher in his room and Melanie led Astrid to the next door. “Here you go, kiddo.”
Astrid walked across the room and placed her hand against the far wall. It was colder than the inside of her refrigerator at home.
“It felt pretty good when we first came in from outside,” she said. “But now, I’m starting to feel cold, even with all these clothes on.”
“It’ll get worse,” said Melanie. “After all, today is only the first day of winter.”
“And here I was still thinking of it as the first day of summer,” the girl inventor thought to herself.