In the Arctic (5 page)

There was a long table at the front of the briefing room with eleven chairs behind it. Nameplates had been prepared for Director Blair and each of the ETF members. Archibald and Jockabeb quickly took their assigned seats directly to the left of the PSA Director and right next to Lynch and two rugged looking men dressed in Navy uniforms. A woman and two distinguished looking men were sitting directly to Director Blair’s right, with Meatloaf and Willow seated at the far end of the table.

The table, which was flanked by two speaking podiums, faced out toward six rows of chairs where the fifty or so people were rapidly taking their seats. A large screen was on the wall directly behind Director Blair. As the lights dimmed, the PSA insignia was projected onto the screen.

Switching on the microphone that sat in front of him, Director Blair began his remarks by saying, “Thank you all for joining us on such short notice. I know many of you had to rearrange your schedules, but when you hear this morning’s briefing on what we’ve code-named ‘Operation Deep Freeze,’ you’ll understand why that was necessary. However, first I think some introductions are in order.”

He then proceeded to introduce the three PSA scientists sitting next to him. Even though Dr. Susan Henderson, Dr. Hideki Watanabe, and Professor Werner Eberstark had been born in different countries and received their various degrees from different universities, they had one thing in common—all three were experts in paranormal activity.

Dr. Henderson was just shy of fifty years old. She was of average height and weight. Her auburn hair was loosely drawn back into a bun, and a pair of wire-rimmed glasses accented her sharp, angular features. Director Blair said Dr. Henderson had grown up in Boston. She stayed close to home when she obtained both her undergraduate and master’s degrees from Harvard University, and also when she completed her doctorate from MIT. Willow felt a twinge of female pride when Dr. Henderson was also introduced as the ETF’s Mission Commander.

Dr. Hideki Watanabe was born in Osaka, Japan. He was about the same height as Dr. Henderson, and he also wore wire-rimmed glasses. However, that’s where the similarities ended. He was twenty years older, and he carried about thirty pounds more than his female colleague. His long gray-streaked black hair was gathered in a ponytail. Dr. Watanabe’s four degrees were all from Tokyo University, where he’d also served on the faculty before accepting a visiting professorship at Caltech.

Professor Werner Eberstark was the elder spokesman of the group. In his late eighties, the tall silver-haired,
bespectacled old man looked like the stereotypical professor in his gray-tweed sports coat. Born in Frankfurt, Germany, he’d immigrated to the U.S. right before the beginning of World War II. While in Germany, Professor Eberstark earned his Diplom-Ingenieur from the University of Heidelberg. After arriving in the United States, he’d received advanced degrees from Princeton and Rice University.

Director Blair’s introduction of the three men sitting to the left of the boys was brief when he simply said, “Mr. Lynch will be in charge of security, and he will be assisted by two Navy SEALs, Lieutenant Otis Flint and Lieutenant Junior Grade Luke Adams.”

The PSA Director then moved on to the four civilians sitting on the panel. He began his introduction of them by pointing out that they were the only ETF members who’d actually come face to face with an extraterrestrial. Adding extra emphasis, he when on to say, “The two young gentlemen immediately to my left and the young lady and redheaded gentleman down at the far end of the table to my right have been chosen because they have firsthand knowledge of how to track and deal with an extraterrestrial.

“They found what our PSA team couldn’t find far below the streets of Manhattan. And when they were faced with circumstances that threatened their own lives and those of others, they demonstrated undaunted courage and amazing resourcefulness.”

Looking right and left at the ten-member ETF, Director Blair announced with pride, “These brave men and women will board a transport plane immediately following this morning’s briefing and fly to Thule Air Base. They’ll receive additional briefings at Thule. Weather permitting, they will then be airlifted the next day to a spot a few hundred miles from the North Pole.”

Pausing, Director Blair then started to divulge the most highly classified information, saying, “I’ll now tell you what we think they’ll be looking for once they get there. Our friends over at NORAD have been tracking an object that they first thought was either an asteroid or a comet.”

Seeing the bewildered look on the teenagers’ faces, Dr. Blair explained that NORAD stood for North American Aerospace Defense Command. He went on to explain, “It’s a joint organization we have with the Canadians to provide aerospace warning and defense for our two countries.”

Looking back at his audience, Director Blair resumed the briefing. “The closer the object came to Earth, the more NORAD and NASA scientists concluded that it wasn’t just a large hunk of rock, or metal, or ice. No, it was something quite different because it was emitting, and I will use layman’s terms here, electromagnetic waves in a definite pattern.

“Well, that’s when they called the PSA in. Dr. Watanabe was one of the first experts we contacted because he has dual doctorates in linguistics and physics. He is
well known in the physics world for his work in quantum mechanics. As a result, we asked him to work with NORAD and NASA.

“After applying the Schrödinger-Katz Equation to the electromagnetic wave patterns, Dr. Watanabe was able to organize them into logical sequences, resulting in the discovery of an aphonic language. This is not a spoken language but rather a language that can be used for other forms of communication. We have designated it a ‘communications configuration’.

“You’ll hear more of the details later in the briefing, but the bottom line is that the message that was repeatedly sent from whatever was hurtling toward Earth included a statement and a question. The statement was: ‘This is a peaceful mission.’ The question was: ‘Will you send a small delegation?’

“Just before the spaceship, if it really is a spaceship, entered Earth’s atmosphere two days ago, we beamed a series of powerful electromagnetic waves directly at it. Using the communications configuration I just mentioned, we answered back, ‘Yes, we will.’

“Soon after our reply was sent, we lost contact with whatever or whoever was trying to contact us. However, based on the last contact we had, we know one thing for sure—the alien craft was headed for a spot near the North Pole.”

For the rest of the morning, the three scientific members on the ETF took to the podium to express their views and answer the host of questions that followed.
Lynch fielded a few inquiries relating to safety measures that were being taken, including contingency plans should the ETF encounter any trouble. Even Meatloaf made a few comments on what had happened the night the Ratweil was killed.

It was close to noon when the briefing session ended. Half an hour later, Jockabeb looked out the window of a government van and saw the gray P-3 Orion turboprop that would fly him and the other ETF members to Thule.

Even though the P-3 Orion’s primary mission was anti-submarine warfare and maritime surveillance, Director Blair had commandeered the plane after pulling some strings inside the Department of Defense.

The ETF’s journey to the North Pole was now set to begin, and it would turn out to be a journey that would test human survival skills in ways that no one who sat through the PSA briefing that morning would have ever imagined.

Archibald had waited to board the plane until Willow arrived in the second van. Immediately after the briefing session had concluded, the emergency task force members had been split into two groups for the short ride to the waiting plane, so he’d barely had a chance to say hello.

“Do you want to sit together?” he asked as she stepped out of the van.

“What do you think?” she replied with a big smile on her face. Her next words erased all doubt as to how she felt about him. “Archibald, it’s been five months since I’ve seen you. Of course I want to sit with you. I just hope we’ll have time to talk.”

From the door of the airplane, Dr. Henderson looked at her watch and yelled down, “Okay you two, you’re the last ones left to board. We’re already running fifteen minutes behind schedule, so get a move on.”

Jockabeb had taken a window seat in the last row, reserving the seat next to him for Archibald by putting his cap on it. When Archibald arrived and saw that the only other empty seat in the cabin was next to Lynch, he leaned forward and whispered, “Do me a big favor and let Willow take your seat, okay?”

“You owe me one,” Jockabeb said as he stood up. Then seeing the person he’d be sitting next to on the long flight to Thule, he turned and added, “Now you really owe me one, and it’s a really big one!”

Once airborne, Dr. Henderson handed out box lunches and thick manila envelopes with briefing papers inside. After explaining that there’d be another oral briefing as soon as they landed, she reviewed the envelopes’ contents, emphasizing that everything had to be read before they reached Thule. “Go ahead and open your packets,” she began.