Read Online Beneath the Ice by Alton Gansky - Free Book Online Page A

could tell that just by
talking to—
    The computer sounded an alarm, and the
instruments froze. “What the—” Sarah studied the readings then
realized she had let her attention wander and allowed the speed to
increase to a rate faster than the winch could handle. She had
broken the connection.
    Good thing this is just
practice, she said to herself as a feeling
of embarrassment rose in her. Feeling like a schoolgirl, she was
grateful that no one was around to see her blunder. She reset the
program. I need to get Perry out of my
mind.
    She reset the computer and wondered if she
would ever get it right. Instead of starting the program, she
pushed away from the simple desk, rose, and left her monastic
cubicle.
    I wonder what Perry is
doing?
     
    Gwen James stood to one side as Perry, Jack, and
several of the workmen struggled to erect the first of two tubular
aluminum towers. The tower stood ten feet tall, was triangular, and
held in place by four-foot lengths of rebar pounded deep into the
ice. She watched the men grunt, struggle, lift, and push until the
tower was exactly where they wanted it—a job made more difficult by
the clean suits they wore.
    Perry was in the middle of it all. She had
assumed he would stand off shouting directions from a safe
location, but he was clearly a man more comfortable when his own
hands were involved in a task.
    “I show level on this axis,” Gleason
said.
    “The bubble’s in the middle here,” Jack
added.
    “Let’s take a look,” Perry said, stepping
back.
    “It looks like a gantry for some kinda
rocket,” Jack said.
    “In a sense, it is,” Perry agreed. “Except
we’re going down and not up.” He took several deep breaths, bent
over, and placed his hands on his knees. “Growing old isn’t for
sissies.”
    Gwen smiled. Perry was far from old and,
based on what she had seen over the last two hours, very fit.
“How’s the head?” she asked.
    Some people never adjusted to high altitude.
For some, exertion at this altitude and temperature could be fatal.
It was one reason she was hanging around. As the camp paramedic,
she was responsible for everyone’s health—even that of the
sometimes exasperating Perry Sachs.
    “Not bad,” he replied. “The pain is almost
gone, but this thin air makes me feel like I’ve just run a
marathon.”
    “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?” Gwen
asked. “Men have this weird sense of bravado.”
    “I think she just said you were weird,
Perry.” Jack flashed one of his famous smiles. Gwen could see that
the big man was sucking in air by the barrelful.
    “She wouldn’t be the first,” Perry said.
    “This is all very sweet,” Griffin said. He
had been standing a good distance away as if getting too close to
physical labor might tarnish him. “But I still don’t fully
understand. The tower is the support for the cryobot? It doesn’t
seem strong enough. More to the point, how do you plan to load that
thing on a vertical surface? It’s huge; it must weigh a ton.”
    Gwen frowned at her brother. She loved him
dearly, but more days than not, he was a serious pain.
    “It does weigh a ton,” Perry explained.
“Hairy is an amplification of a prototype. Sarah’s space-bound
version is much smaller, but we wanted big, and big requires
support. This tower is a secondary guide.”
    “That doesn’t explain how you plan to lift
such a heavy and awkward device,” Griffin complained.
    “That’s why the world needs engineers and
not just scientists,” Jack quipped. “We like heavy and awkward. It
makes life interesting.”
    “If you don’t have an answer . . .” Griffin
prodded.
    “We have more than an answer,” Perry said.
“Follow me.”
    Gwen watched as Perry released his workers
for a well-earned break. They had worked in shifts day after day
and hand in hand with the Seabees to erect the Chamber, unload
equipment, and do work that Gwen’s degrees in biology had not
equipped her to understand.
    “You were eyeing him,