Antarctica was different from any other continent Rear Admiral Silver had ever visited. Not because it was locked in ice and was difficult to reach, but because it announced its presence in a regal fashion, with heralds and fanfare and majesty. He had sensed it in the chill air as far away as Stanley. Now, standing just below the bridge, the feeling was even stronger.
Silver had come on deck shortly after dawn. They were in a region where there were now just two hours of darkness each day. Captain Colon, who was his bunkmate, slept through the end to the brief darkness. Dressed in his sweater and a felt-edged capote that reached nearly to his shins, Silver kept the hood tied tight to protect him from the wind. He had a heavy scarf tied around his mouth and nose and the wind still bit through it, still turned his hot breath to crystals under the scarf. It wasn’t helping much, so Silver asked one of the crewmen to bring him a thermos of coffee.
The day before, the Abby had traveled west of South Georgia Island. They’d sailed close enough to catch a quick look at the king penguins clustered on the beach. There had to be twenty or thirty thousand of them, shifting about or racing in what appeared to be a mating ritual or early-morning mess call—Silver wasn’t sure which. He also noticed a clutch of fur and elephant seals hanging out on or near isolated offshore rocks. There were albatross and seabirds he did not recognize, some fishing in flocks, others traveling alone. Behind all the activity were sentinels as titanic as any he’d ever seen: snow-covered mountains, plum-colored in the rising sun. But only on one side, the north. The other side was still dark. It was like seeing a halfmoon, but this was a terrestrial range. Clouds crept by the peaks, but slowly, as though afraid to wake the sleeping giants too suddenly.
Now, just a few hours later, Silver glimpsed the South Orkney Islands, a bump on the far horizon as they entered the Weddell Sea. The science ship was now in the antarctic throne room. At least, that’s how it felt to the rear admiral. The winds were less bruising here, the cold less aggressive. Silver dropped the ice-encrusted scarf and lowered the hood. The air felt good on his ears for about three seconds. Then they began to burn; it was still, after all, the south pole. He ignored the pain, a minute or two shy of frostbite. He wanted to hear as well as see.
Silver could hear cries from distant birds and the slosh of the water against the hull. But like the wind they seemed smaller, somehow, than they had the night before. Silver watched the horizon. It was free of morning mist, the water crisp and bright, the skies absolutely clear pale blue. As they sailed south, the continent appeared as a slightly saw-toothed line of gleaming white. It seemed to rise from the sea, growing in breadth and stature as they sailed closer. But the change was in three dimensions. The continent was also coming toward them. And with its approach came something else that was unique in Silver’s experience. A sense of age, of time locked in place, of a kingdom indifferent to the events and wishes of the rest of the world. He saw cracks and fissures in the sides of the ice. He realized, as a commander, that these were the soldiers of the realm. Change came with angry protests, a splitting off from shelves and glaciers, a cry to the planet to let it be or it would visit terrible suffering on others.
Silver wasn’t a save-the-earth man. He liked to see human finger-prints, human ideas, and human vision on the world. He had never paid much attention to the ozone hole, which seemed very far away from Georgia. But he had to say, it was a lot less far at this moment. He felt slightly ashamed. Not for his inactivity, since naval officers did not have a lot of leeway regarding causes they could champion, but for not having cared at all.
With respect, Silver had to admit that this was a continent with a strong, unique, persuasive personality.
The intercom behind the rear admiral chimed loudly. Silver checked his watch as he touched the button. He was surprised to find that he had been on deck for over an hour.
“Yes?”
“Rear admiral, we are about two miles from position,” Angela said.
“Thank you,” Silver replied. “I’ll inform Dr. Carr. Has Captain Colon signed in yet?”
The bridge controlled the locks to the door of the hold. All of the crew members had to signal the bridge to go below.
“Not yet. He was up pretty late last night.”
“I’m not surprised,” Silver said. Even though they shared a cabin, Silver had not heard him come in. That was one benefit of a lifetime spent in the military. Since soldiers never knew when or where they would be needed, they learned to fall asleep fast and deep and wherever they happened to be. This was especially true in R&D work, where Silver often grabbed power naps at his desk while engineers, welders, and cranes did their noisy work around him.
Colon had been going over a checklist of D components with Carr’s team at the Ant Hill. Though the full-scale Tempest would be nuclear-powered, the smaller prototype ran entirely on battery power. Ten batteries were grouped aft, each five-foot-tall panel producing 7,000 amps, 15,400 watts per hour. They could run for forty-five days without being charged, thanks to an innovative oxide-lead positive plate that was laced with calcium. This made for very low charge loss. Colon needed the batteries to run for just two days. Nevertheless, to err on the side of conservation they had put the submarine in hibernation mode on the way down. To keep electronic clocks and gauges from needing to be reset, they were individually powered by small cadmium cells. Last night they woke the D and started running their systems checks. Silver had gone to bed when it appeared that everything had come on all right. Obviously, Colon had not.
Silver was about to go below when the intercom beeped again.
“Yes?”
“Rear Admiral, Captain Colon is awake and at his post,” Angela said. “He had three and three-quarters hours of sleep and seems a little cranky.”
“I’m not surprised,” Silver told her. “It’s time for him to start dealing with Dr. Carr.”
“I heard they were not close.”
“No. Though I’m hoping they get past that. I have to say, the captain has seemed pretty content these past few days.”
“He has,” Angela agreed.
The rear admiral went below. He entered his personal code in the keypad at the door and was buzzed in from the bridge.
And ran right into a shooting war.