Beneath the Ice (18 page)

“But I need to monitor—”

“Gleason will keep an eye on Hairy and will
let you know if there are any problems or changes. Now go.” Perry
looked at Gwen, who nodded. “If Gwen gives you the okay, you can
come back after a few hours’ sleep. Got it?”

“There’s really no need . . .”

“Got it?”

“Yes, sir!” Sarah jumped to her feet and
snapped a salute. Perry saw the anger on her face. She marched off,
and Gwen had to step fast to keep up.

Chapter
15

“
Because it’s none of
his business,”
Sarah snapped after she and
Gwen had reached her small room. “And quite honestly, it’s none of
yours.”

“You couldn’t be more wrong, and you know
it,” Gwen replied in the same tone. “I don’t know where you think
you are, but death is just outside those walls. We’re not in a
comfy apartment with a hospital around the corner should we need
it. We’re in the middle of no-man’s-land—no-woman’s-land, if you
prefer. What happens to one of us happens to all of us.”

“You’re overstating the issue,” Sarah
said.

“Oh, really? And you’ve spent how much time
on the ice? My time on the continent adds up to two years. Yours?
Two weeks. And do I need to remind you that we have no
communications with the outside?”

“No, you don’t need to remind me.” Sarah
moved to her bed and plopped down.

“Good, now let’s start from the beginning.
What just happened?”

“I told you. I fell asleep.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

“It’s the truth,” Sarah said, her voice
softening. “In a manner of speaking.” She was being evasive, and
she didn’t know how to stop herself. She had been making excuses
for herself since she was a child.

“What do you mean, ‘in a manner of
speaking’?” Gwen’s face darkened in thought. “Wait a minute. Are
you telling me you have narcolepsy?”

“More like it has me.” There, it was out,
and there was no taking it back.

“Ah,” Gwen said. She pulled the room’s lone
chair from under the tiny desk and sat down. “That does shed some
light on things.”

“I’ve had it since I was a teenager.” Sarah
felt a tear brim the edge of her eye. Confessing weakness was not
something she did well. “Medication has kept it in check, but
stress sometime sets it off.”

“
Stress? You mean like living in the world’s coldest place,
knowing
that a plane full of people went
down ten minutes after you waved good-bye? Something as simple as
that?”

Sarah chuckled. “Yeah, I’m sensitive that
way.” She took a deep breath. “It’s not all that rare really. One
in two thousand people are affected. Many are undiagnosed. It’s
what kept me out of the astronaut corps.”

“I can’t believe Perry would let you come
out here with a condition like that.”

“He doesn’t know. I’ve worked hard at
keeping it under wraps. This project needs me, and I need it. I
couldn’t let the opportunity slip by. In one way, I’m lucky. I know
I have it. The average span between onset and proper diagnosis is
fourteen years.”

“Fourteen years? You can’t be serious.”

“I’m serious about most
things. I’m especially serious about my
disease.”

“I’m afraid this is a
little beyond my paramedic training,” Gwen
confessed.

“There’s nothing you can do, or should do.
Mine is a moderate case. I can drop off at anytime, but my meds
keep things in check. I haven’t had an episode like what you saw in
months.”

“Any other triggers besides stress?” Gwen
wondered.

“Not for me. Some people go under when they
feel strong emotions, such as surprise or amusement.”

“And the symptoms?”

“They range from extreme
daytime drowsiness to sleep paraly
sis.”

Gwen shook her head.

“Sleep paralysis,” Sarah explained, “is an
abnormal episode of REM sleep atonia. The victim can’t move for a
few moments and may suffer hypnagogic hallucinations. You know
those people who claim aliens visit them while they’re asleep in
their beds?”

Gwen nodded.

“There’s a good chance that what they’re
experiencing is sleep paralysis with hallucinations.”

“Do you hallucinate when you have an
episode?”

“No. I just slip under for a few
minutes.”

“What should I do if it happens again?”

“Nothing. It probably won’t happen again,
but if it does, just leave me alone. It never lasts more than five
minutes.”

“What about your medication?”

“I take Protriptyline. It’s an
anticataplectic compound.”

“Any side effects I should know about?”

Sarah was tired of talking about it. She
just wanted to be alone. “Nothing serious: dry mouth, constipation,
sometimes blurred vision if the dosage is too high.”

“You know,” Gwen said, leaning forward,
“I’ll have to tell Perry all this. He is the team leader, and he
has a right to know.”

“I’d rather you didn’t,” Sarah said. She was
feeling sick.

Gwen smiled. “Well, here’s the good news:
You’re already here, and there’s no immediate way home. I doubt
he’ll tie you to the bed.”

“He can and will send me home as soon as a
plane arrives.”

“Maybe,” Gwen said. “Let me talk to him. In
the meantime, it’s my turn to issue orders. I want you to rest for
awhile, and you are never to go outside alone. Your episodes may
only last five minutes, but that could be a death sentence out
there. Agreed?”

Sarah nodded. “Agreed.”

“
What’s going on?” Griffin said, pulling Gwen
into the galley.

“You’re hurting my arm,” she said and jerked
free. “Lighten up.”

“I’m sorry . . . I noticed that you were in
Sarah’s room.”

“So?”

“With the door closed.”

Gwen felt defensive. “You were listening at
the door. Snooping is beneath you.”

“I wasn’t eavesdropping.” Griffin frowned.
“What do you take me for? If I had my ear pressed to the door I
wouldn’t be asking you questions now. Something happened, and I
think I have a right to know about it.”

“There was a small
incident in the Chamber,” Gwen said light
ly. “There’s nothing to get worked up over.”

“Why don’t you let me decide that? Something
happened to the cryobot? It broke?”

“No,” Gwen said, marveling at her brother’s
hopeful questions. “Hairy was on target and on pace when I left.
Sarah just had a little spell.”

“Define
spell.”

Gwen wondered if she should continue. She
was at odds with herself. One portion of her mind wanted to keep
Sarah’s secret private; another part acknowledged the need to be
open and honest in their hostile environment. As it was, she was on
her way to talk to Perry about the matter when her brother
sidetracked her.

“Don’t switch sides on me now, Gwen. You’re
not a doctor; there is no doctor-patient confidentiality here.
You’re under no obligation to keep secrets.”

“You’ve always been a real pain, Griffin,
and now you’re starting to annoy me. I know what my duties are. I
know how to carry them out, and I don’t need you to act like my big
brother. And you’re right, I’m under no professional obligation to
keep medical data private, but there is such a thing as simple
human courtesy.”

“So you have gone over?”
He crossed his arms and narrowed his
eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“I’ve been monitoring the interpersonal
dynamic between you and the others. You’re crossing over to their
side.”

Gwen was nonplussed, uncertain that she
heard correctly. “Their side? Griffin, you idiot, there are no
sides. We’re a team—a team with a mission, and a team that has
experienced tragedy. If there are two sides in this situation, then
you’re the lone member of one of them.”

“So you agree with their puncturing the ice
cap? How did you fall so far? I thought we were in agreement on
this.”

“We are. But they’re going to Lake Vostok
whether I agree or not. My concerns are on the record. I have fears
about contamination, but I can’t stop it. At least I can learn from
it.”

“Tell me about Sarah.”

Gwen hesitated and studied her brother. He
had always been the dominant of the two. They were born the same
day, and both had a lifelong passion for science, but those were
the only things they had in common. Griffin studied harder than
anyone she had ever met, and she had attended the university with
some of the finest young minds in the country. Griffin excelled
them all. He had had no life beyond his studies, and now, his
research consumed him. He had no friends, attended no parties; he
was happiest when alone and surrounded by books and data. Still, he
was her brother, and he loved her, in his own way. He never said
so, but she could tell he was watching over her. They were close,
tied together by an unseen umbilical that only twins
understood.

“Sarah fainted.”

“Fainted? In the Chamber? While at the
controls?”

“Leave it to you to paint the situation in
the worst possible light.”

“But she was at the controls, right? So
what? Did she just collapse?”

“That’s what people do when they faint.”

Griffin stared at her, and Gwen felt like a
microbe under a microscope. “What are you not telling me?”

Gwen shrugged.

“You know I can read you like a book.”

“And I you.”

“Agreed, so let’s put this little charade
behind us. Give me the rest of it.”

The turmoil in Gwen rose to a boil. “She has
narcolepsy.”

Gwen had seldom seen Griffin stunned, but
this was such a time. “The sleeping disease? I don’t believe it.
Worse, I don’t believe Perry Sachs would be so stupid as to bring
someone with a neurological disorder to the heart of
Antarctica.”

“He doesn’t know. She kept it a secret from
everyone. I was just going to tell Perry.”

“Oh, you tell him first and then decide if
I’m worthy to hear the news later.”

“He is the team leader. Proper protocol
requires that I tell him first and let him decide the next
step.”

“What’s the protocol for family?” he
chided.

Gwen shook her head. He had reached the
point where talking was useless. He was quick with his tongue, and
Gwen had never been able to outthink him in a debate. She doubted
she would succeed this time.

“I think you’re getting
too close to the others,” Griffin said. “
I
think you’re being swayed because Perry is a tall, handsome
guy
. You’ve put your brains on the back
burner and are letting urges take over.”

A fire ignited deep in
Gwen’s stomach. She took a step forward until her nose was a mere
inch away from her brother’s. “I am my own person. I am no one’s
puppet. I make decisions
be-cause I have
thought them through. My urges do not make up my
mind for me. Besides, my urges are my business,
dear brother. And as far as family loyalty goes, it is the only
thing keeping me from slapping that arrogant look off your face.
That is an urge I might give in to.”

“You wouldn’t dare—” He stopped
midsentence.

“You ever say anything like that again, and
you will find out what I dare.” She whirled and stomped from the
room.

Perry raised his eyes as something in his peripheral
vision demanded his attention. He had been watching Gleason watch
the monitors, wishing that Hairy could move faster than a few feet
per hour. Someone was approaching. Dressed in a clean suit, Perry
had trouble recognizing the person. All he could tell was that it
was a woman. He hoped it was Gwen since he had ordered Sarah to
rest.

His hope was fulfilled as Gwen approached
with a snap in her step he had not seen before.

“How’s Sarah?” Perry asked when Gwen was in
earshot.

“Fine for the moment,” Gwen said. Perry
thought the words were more forced than needed.

“Any idea what happened?” Gleason asked,
looking up from the monitors.

Gwen looked at Gleason then at Perry.

“You can speak freely,” Perry said, picking
up on the unspoken question.

“Sarah has narcolepsy,” Gwen blurted, then
related the discussion she had had with the stricken woman and the
minimal exam she had given.

Perry leaned his head back and stared at the
domed ceiling of the Chamber. He had been so careful, so demanding
of details. How had that slipped past him?

“She says it is a mild case and that she’s
been living with it since her teen years. She also said she has
medication to control it.”

Perry shook his head and wished he could
remove the face shield and rub his eyes. “Is she in danger?”

“No,” Gwen said. “According to Sarah, more
people have this than we realize. She hasn’t had serious problems
before, and her episodes don’t last long.”

“I don’t know why I didn’t recognize it when
she passed out then awoke so quickly,” Gleason said, returning his
attention to the video gauges. “My high school biology teacher had
narcolepsy. One day while he was teaching, his speech became
slurred, his eyelids drooped, and his knees went wobbly. We had a
teaching assistant in the class who calmly stepped over to the man,
took his arm, and called for a chair. I brought one up.” Gleason
laughed. “That TA was great. A college girl as I recall. Anyway,
she held up a finger to quiet the class, which was naturally
disturbed, and said, ‘Watch.’ It wasn’t more than three minutes
until my bio teacher hopped up and took a quick look around.
Realizing what had happened, he gave us a thirty-minute lecture on
the disorder. At the time, I thought it was the strangest thing I
had ever seen.”