O-Negative: Extinction (10 page)

Mr Lynch paused and for the first time looked not exactly uncomfortable but as if he was thinking about how to deliver a rather unpalatable message that wasn’t going to be received very well by the members of the committee. 

“Firstly I’d like to press upon you all the need to maintain the integrity of the information I am about to share with you.  With this in mind I’d like to request that the recording information be turned off at this point.  Chairman I believe you have the authority to authorise this in cases of national security?”

“I do Mr Lynch but such a measure has not been evoked for some time and it requires a quorum of committee member to agree to it.  Gentleman could I ask you to raise your hand if you agree to this request”

While David and the other Republicans raised their hands none of the Democrats, including Trip Wyatt, did so.  Nevertheless as the Republicans were in the majority 4 to 3 the motion was carried.

“Let it be known that the committee has agreed to the temporary secession of the recording equipment at…. 10.25 a.m. I am now turning off the equipment”.  Trip reached across the desk and pressed a small button recessed into the desk in front of him.  The red light in front of each of the congressmen’s microphones went out.

The only Congresswoman on the panel Marlene Baker piped up at this point to say “Mr Lynch this is highly irregular I do hope what you have to say is worth circumventing the democratic process.  We are all accountable to our constituents and if there is one thing they can all agree on it’s that transparency and free speech are an integral part of the American way of life”.

“Thank you for your forbearance Ms Baker.  I can assure you that the information I will be sharing with you is somewhat different and potentially more sensitive than some of the classified material you may previously have had access to.  I suspect that after hearing what I have to say you will in hindsight agree with me that a short break in the recording of this briefing is merited.  Now perhaps the first thing to do is to briefly describe the NEX group’s history and function.”

“We were originally set up in 1950 by President Truman.  Given the geopolitical situation at that time with ourselves and the soviets increasing our arsenals of atomic weapons it was decided to create an organisation whose sole function was to ensure the continuation of the American way of life.  To that end we coordinated a programme investigating how and where a selective number of Americans might be accommodated should nuclear war break out.  Between 1950 and 1989 this largely consisted of monitoring soviets nuclear facilities, building bunkers and identifying groups of people to be relocated in the event of a nuclear attack.  Those were our sole tasks.  However at the end of the cold war President Reagan, ably assisted by the then Director of my organisation, modified our remit to ensure a number of other apocalyptic scenarios were incorporated into our planning.  This included the monitoring and planning for any event that might result in a biotic crisis, or in other words any widespread and rapid decrease in the amount of life on earth.”

Another Democrat Congressman Napier interrupted at this point.  “Not to be too blunt Mr Lynch but unless I’ve missed something the Russians aren’t about to launch any nuclear missiles and neither are we about to be hit by an asteroid – are we?”

“As far as I’m aware neither of those scenarios are likely Congressman but I provide this information only in order that you understand what it is that the Nex group is tasked with planning for and reacting to.” 

“I would highlight that given the potentially devastating consequences of such occurrences the Nex group has had a relatively free rein in monitoring a range of information sources from military, intelligence and civilian agencies.  One of the sources of such information for my small team is the government’s SETI programme.”

Mr Lynch paused and took a drink from the glass of water he’d previously poured for himself before continuing in the same calm and measured manner.

“Three months ago the SETI programme identified an extremely low frequency radio signal which did not seem to be normal background noise.  Two and a half months ago after this another set of extremely similar signals were picked up   10 in all.  The picking up of 10 non-standard signals all utilising a similar radio wave length is unusual but not unheard of – approaching meteorite showers can sometimes display similar patterns.  As a result there was little initial attention paid to these reports.  That was until it was realised that the bodies from which these signals were emanating had begun to decelerate - they were not maintaining constant speeds as they approached the vicinity of earth.  These masses which had been detected on the edge of our solar system were slowing down.  Though this information was of concern to the staff at SETI the scientists disagreed amongst themselves about what this actually meant, which resulted in the information only reaching the Nex group within the last few days.  Fortunately, despite our low profile we have retained the ability to bring such an occurrence to the attention of the President, which is what we did yesterday afternoon.  Unfortunately this was several days after the first of these signals entered the earth’s atmosphere above the South Pole.  Additional enquiries by my team revealed that shortly after losing track of the first mass that SETI had been tracking we lost contact with the Antarctic Amundsen-Scott research station.  It also became apparent that the Russians also lost contact with Vostock and the Japanese with their Dome Fuji station.  We have not been able to regain contact with any of these Antarctic bases.”

Mr Lynch sat back in his chair and placed his hands together in front of him.  A stunned silence followed for several seconds before everyone tried to speak at once.

Trip Wyatt banged his hand on the desk and said “Gentlemen please one at a time, Congressman Dawson please ask your question”.

“Mr Lynch are you telling us Aliens have landed in Antarctica?”

“I’m not in a position to confirm or deny this Congressman, I’m merely highlighting to you the information that I am aware of.  I should note that attempts to perform aerial reconnaissance missions of the area have met with a complete loss of radio contact.  The one satellite above the South Pole which remained functioning after the ‘mass’ hit our planet was able to take one set of images before it too went off line.  Furthermore given our lack of resources in the Southern Hemisphere, most of which were based at the now incommunicado Amundsen station, we find ourselves reliant on our Allies to try to establish what has actually happened.  In the first instance this has meant asking the British to send a land based expedition from their coastal base at Halley to see if contact can be made with Amundsen-Scott that way.  We should hear back from them in the next couple of days.”

David couldn’t help himself and asked a question without the authority of the chair.

“But your involvement in all this, and the meeting with the President would seem to indicate that you think something serious has happened or is happening?  What are the President and his staff doing about this?”

Lynch replied without blinking.  “There are indications of a potential threat Congressman and as such we and others have been tasked to establish exactly what type and severity this threat may pose to US interests.  The President as you might expect remains sceptical but has nevertheless authorised the movement of some naval assets to the Southern Ocean.  It will take a few days for them to reach the area.”

Trip himself then spoke. “To be honest Lynch I’m also deeply sceptical, isn’t this likely to be some kind of strange meteorite that has simply burnt up in the atmosphere and disabled our normal forms of communications, a remote outpost, which is, if I recall correctly, often beset by adverse weather conditions?  Also, and not too put too fine a point on it, but why don’t we have our own forces on Antarctica but the British do?”

“With regards to whether it is a meteorite Congressman, it could be - though as I say the mass did appear to undertake a controlled ascent into our atmosphere…. As for military assets the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 prohibits the establishment of military bases or carrying out military manoeuvres on the continent so we have no units stationed there at present.  The British have however maintained a presence there for a number of years; they interpreted the Treaty provisions to mean that a small military presence was permissible for ‘scientific research’.  They also have a larger presence on the Falklands.  I believe several of our Navy Seals teams are on one of the vessels making their way to the Falklands as we speak.  However at the moment we’ve agreed with the British that we’ll wait and see if their initial team can get any closer to the central region before ruffling feathers by flying attack helicopters across what is still a neutral and demilitarised region.”

Congressman Harper came in with. “Mr Lynch exactly how close have we got before we lost contact with the reconnaissance planes?  And secondly not withstanding your precautions with us, how long do you expect to be able to keep all of this clap trap out of the press?”

“Approximately 500 miles to Amundsen is the closest our planes have got before we lost contact.  With regards to information leaking out I note this briefing and the briefing for the President and his team are merely a prelude to a need to make some sort of statement over the next few days.  At the moment we’re putting it about that the Russians are playing silly buggers like they did with that flag under the North Pole – as yet the media don’t appear to be that interested”.

David laughed at this “That won’t hold up for long Mr Lynch, the civilian scientists at the other bases on Antarctica not as yet offline are going to be asking all sorts of questions when they can’t establish contact with their colleagues.  I’m less concerned about this getting out than I am about the other ‘9 signals’ you picked up, do we know where these are due to come down?  A large meteorite on an urban area will cause widespread devastation.”

“We don’t yet have any definitive information on this Congressman. And I agree this isn’t going to be kept quiet for long.  However I would urge all of you to refrain from talking about this until after any official response.  As you can imagine if this does turn out to be more than a large meteorite shower it has the potential to cause unnecessary concern and possibly panic in the civilian population”.

Several other questions were fired in from other congressmen but David had heard enough.  There was no way someone like Lynch got involved unless something out of the ordinary had happened.  Chad McGovern wasn’t going to believe a word of what he’d just heard.  It was a good job he’d had the foresight to set his phone to record when he sat down.  As he thought about what this all meant he heard Lynch apologising once again.

“Gentleman I’m afraid that’s all the time I’m able to spare at the moment.  Please be assured that we are doing what we can to establish how serious or not this situation is.  I hope to be able to speak with you again in the not too distant future with any further news.”

Trip replied “Well I guess we have to let you go Mr Lynch.  I hope all these unanswered questions can be answered as quickly as possible.  Is there anything we can do in the meantime to assist you?”

“Thank you Chairman for your offer of assistance.  At this time there is nothing you can do, but that may change once we have a better handle on the situation and should a greater level of public awareness become apparent.”

“Ok well thank you for taking the time to brief us on this, I’m sure the committee will want to speak with you again within, shall we say, a week’s time?”

“I will endeavour to comply with this. Gentlemen and Mrs Baker thank you for your time”.  With that Mr Lynch got up from his chair and exited the Committee Room.

He opened his eyes.  It was no use he wasn’t going to be able to sleep anymore.  He swung his legs over the bed, stood up and went through the Pilates stretching exercises he’d picked up from all the lessons Jessica had made him go to.  His now battered looking alarm clock stared back at him - 05.54 am.  Not even six am.  Finishing his stretching he pivoted on one leg and marched himself to the shower cubicle for what might be his last ever cold shower.

The dining room was empty.  Empty that is apart from the 25 or so Marines and Lieutenant Taylor.  He waved his hand vaguely in their direction and picked up a tray before proceeding towards the kitchen hatch where Carole was beginning to fill up the counter ready for the rest of the station staff. 

“Morning Carole.  Many thanks for the toast and coffee yesterday. You were a real life saver”. 

Carole started loading up a plate for him “No problem Dr Harper, we all have one of those crazy nights every so often – you have to don’t you working and living in a place like this?  Did you sort things out with Susie?” 

He nodded “I think so. I’m hoping I’ve persuaded her that I’m not really relationship material.  I told her I wasn’t over Jessica yet and she seemed to accept that.” 

Carole frowned slightly. “Mmmmhhh well that’s not going to wash for long if she finds out about you and Professor Chapman”. 

He raised his chin in surprise “Have you been talking to Wendy and Ben?”

Carole gave him a look. “Are you serious Joey?  You think I’ve been working here 10 years not to notice what goes on when 50 scientists have to spend six months tripping over each other with no other entertainment than a pack of cards, a table football table and a DVD collection from the 1990’s?  Please.”

He felt like he was under unwanted scrutiny “I guess not.  Anyway I’ll make it doubly doubly clear to Susie that I’m not the right guy for her when I get back”.  ‘If I get back’ he thought to himself. 

Carole passed him his plate.  “You know I’m right Joe, now you mind and have a good trip”.  He thanked Carole and went to join Lieutenant Taylor at one of the tables.

Lieutenant Taylor greeted him. “Morning Dr Harper.  Good to see you.  Let me introduce you to Sergeant Tucker and Corporal Brightman.” 

Sergeant Tucker looked like he was around the same age as Joe but somewhat smaller and better built.  He also sported a rather stereotypical moustache.  Corporal Brightman was younger but had a nasty looking scar on one cheek and on his head there was a patch where no hair was growing.  Both men looked pretty capable and gave Joe a firm handshake when he shook hands.  Joe glanced around.  Though Lieutenant Taylor had told him the platoon didn’t have cold weather training, none of them looked wet behind the ears.  Joe indicated the rest of the men “Looks like you have a close knit team here what were you doing before you got sent to Antarctica for training”. 

Sergeant Tucker answered him in a Scottish accent “9 month tour of Helmand”.

Mmmmhhh no wonder they didn’t look too wet.  “Helmand and now Antarctica gosh you boys are lucky devils”. 

The three of them smiled and Lieutenant Taylor answered “Well we thought we were until we were told to trek to the South Pole without actually getting any cold weather training”. 

He could hear the hidden tension behind his words.  Sergeant Tucker and Corporal Brightman looked suitably serious.  They knew this wasn’t quite the jolly they’d originally thought it would be.  He tried to reassure them. “Well gentlemen let’s just pray it’s all down to some freak magnetic storm or something.  Have you heard from the transport plane yet?” As he said this the sound of a plane could be heard passing overhead.  Lieutenant Taylor and his NCOs stood up and started giving orders to their men.  He also stood.  “Listen Lieutenant I’ll just go and pick up my stuff and see you over by the departure gate”. 

Lieutenant Taylor gave him a thumbs up “Ok see you there in a few minutes Dr Harper.” 

The departure gate was in fact a wooden building that was now used for all the junk that had been ousted from the equipment shed.  Nevertheless it still had an old desk with a visitor’s book on it set next to the door nearest to the landing strip.  Some of the original scientists had even cobbled together an immigration stamp which was used to stamp visitors passports.  These days the British Antarctic Survey registered everyone electronically from an office not far from Victoria station in London. But everyone still wanted a stamp in their passport to show family and friends.   Sergeant Tucker was giving his men some last minute instructions and making sure their kit and equipment was packed appropriately.  Lieutenant Taylor was by the plane talking with the pilot while Greg and his team were finishing loading all three of the station’s snow tracks into the belly of the transport plane.  Lieutenant Taylor called over “Sergeant Tucker let’s get everyone aboard”.   He joined the line of Marines as they filed towards the plane. 

Corporal Brightman drew alongside him.  “Cheer up Sir, we’ll be back before you know it.  Lieutenant Taylor’s got us out of much worse spots than this.  To be honest I’d take a mysterious structure any day over 50 Taliban charging me with Kalashnikov’s firing.  But I guess you might know something about that n’ all.  Lieutenant says you was in Iraq?” 

He smiled ruefully “Corporal Brightman you’re right on both accounts.  I was in Iraq and yes there are worse places to be right now - Afghanistan and Iraq both falling into that category”. 

He and the Marines entered the transport plane through the loading bay doors at the rear of the plane.  They then made their way to the front of the aircraft where the passenger seats were located in two rows, one on either side of the plane.  In between the rows of rather basic seats the snow tracks had been loaded along with their carrier units.  The carrier units were normally used to ferry equipment around, but they could also be converted to carry people, which is what they’d be used for when they reached their destination. 

Once everyone was on board Lieutenant Taylor jumped in and using an instrument panel at the rear of the plane closed the loading bay doors.  Sergeant Tucker double checked the locking mechanism and while he moved to sit up near Joe and Corporal Brightman Lieutenant Taylor joined the pilot in the cockpit.  The pilot came on the PA and went through the normal spiel of introducing himself as Captain Jackson and that he was happy to be flying them this fine morning etc. etc.  He then introduced Lieutenant Taylor as his co-pilot who would be running through the safety briefing.  Lieutenant Taylor came on the speaker and asked everyone to “fasten their seat belts and not to bother checking under their seat for their life jackets as there weren’t any and nor would any oxygen masks drop from the ceiling in the event of a loss of air pressure”.  The Marines laughed in a way that indicated that this wasn’t the first time they’d heard this.   The plane then started to taxi along the temporary runway.  He glanced out the window and saw Greg and his team standing by the transport hanger.  They’d been up early this morning giving the runway a sweep but even so the pilot still accelerated the plane quickly.  The idea being to spend as little time on the ground as possible thereby minimising the risks of hitting something or conversely if you were in a combat zone being hit by something.  The short take off experience was a bit hairy the first time but he and the others were expecting it and none of the Marines looked even slightly bothered.  As they took off Corporal Brightman passed him a packet of Wrigley’s’ Extra “to help with the pressure”.  He was only too happy to take one as his ears began to pop and they ascended rapidly into the cloud cover. “Cheers Corporal Brightman.  Good timing”. 

“Any idea how long until we reach the drop off Dr Harper?” 

He tried to remember how long it had taken when he’d made the trip a couple of months ago. “It’s less than 2 hours but if the pilot’s not happy with the first landing strip he’ll take us to another one further to the east.  That would be a bit of a pain though as it adds another 75 Km to our journey.” 

Corporal Brightman nodded his head. “Ok well I’m going to get a bit of shut eye – if there’s one thing I learnt in Afghanistan its sleep when you can - you can’t be sure when you’ll next get the chance.”  At that he closed his eyes, put his head back and seemed to drift off almost immediately. 

He saw that most of the other Marines were doing the same, though a couple of them had got out a pack of cards and were quietly playing some version of brag.  He thought about trying to emulate Corporal Brightman, especially given he hadn’t slept that well the night before.  Unfortunately though he drifted off into a bit of a doze he couldn’t stop thinking about all the things he should have done before getting on the plane.  For a start he hadn’t even bothered to send an email to his parents or his brother back in the UK saying ‘just in case I don’t see you again…..’ he guessed if he didn’t get back they’d infer all they needed to anyway – and hopefully say a few nice things about him at his funeral.  Though they weren’t exactly close his Mum and step Dad John had been pretty decent when he’d split with Jessica – they’d never really liked her anyway.  His step Dad had always referred to her as “your townie lass” until they’d got married and afterwards he just referred to her as “your wife”.  Yorkshire men like John didn’t give their friendship away lightly.  His mother had always wanted him to marry someone local and then settle down and give her the grandchildren she’d always wanted.  In the end she’d had to wait for his half-brother Tom to do just that.  His mother adored Tom’s children, his nieces, and was always round at their house helping out with the childcare duties and spoiling them rotten.  He and Jessica were never going to be able to compete with something like that, especially as Jessica’s career as a Public Relations Executive was pretty much an anathema to his mother.  As a Yorkshire ‘lass’ from a farming background she called a spade a spade and in this particular case a public relations executive  was to her ‘a glorified saleswoman’, which was in fact an accurate description of what Jessica did but when said to her face didn’t endear his mother to her.  Their visits back to his home town had been infrequent and when he’d gone up to tell them he and Jessica had split up his parents had been sympathetic but he could tell they weren’t too troubled.  His mother had even ‘unexpectedly’ run into a good friend of hers and her ‘lovely’ (and single) daughter within a couple of days of his staying with them.

He’d gone back to London a couple of days later to find Jessica had moved her stuff out.  As most of the furniture, pots and pans, pictures knick knacks had been hers the flat initially appeared to have been burgled.  Left in the flat was an old chair, the TV, a microwave oven and some plastic cutlery in an otherwise empty kitchen drawer.  In the bedroom, as well as his clothes, were a couple of cardboard boxes containing his rock collection – the collection which had never been deemed fashionable enough to be put on display when they were together.  He’d sat in the battered old chair turned on the television and watched six episodes of Red Dwarf back to back.  It turned out there were some benefits to being a relationship phoebe after all.  When a few days later he’d been asked if he wanted to continue his research in Antarctica he hadn’t hesitated.  This time he could go and do what he loved unburdened by the guilt of leaving his poor and not so lonely wife behind.

A sudden burst of turbulence bounced him around in his seat.  The shift in the planes trajectory also woke up most of the other Marines.  Corporal Brightman remained firmly asleep.  Lieutenant Taylor came on the speaker to let them know they were making their descent to the first landing site.  The Lieutenant explained for the benefit of the rest of his men that if the landing site didn’t seem good enough they’d move on to the next.  His warning however appeared to be unnecessary.  After a first pass the Captain seemed happy enough to land the plane and though somewhat bouncier than a normal landing they were soon on the ground in one piece.  Lieutenant Taylor came out of the cockpit and he and Sergeant Tucker got the loading door open.  Joe and the Marines started getting into their cold weather gear.  Perhaps expectedly he got into his somewhat quicker than they did and he made sure to go down the line giving the soldiers some pointers about how the snow suits were worn best in terms of maximising warmth and in accommodating the large packs each of them seemed to be carrying.  Lieutenant Taylor then opened a couple of green boxes and started handing out Army issue rifles.  Though he paused to look at the weaponry for a moment he simply sighed and went back to packing his stuff into the back of the first snow track.  ‘Did he really think 30 Marines were going to investigate a mysterious structure in the middle of a previously unoccupied desolate landscape unarmed?’  Once the Marines had exited the aircraft he got in the first snow track and started backing it out.  Lieutenant Taylor had already asked him to do this for all three of the tracks.  His skills were undoubtedly greater than the rest of the team and reversing a two tonne track with a carrier unit attached to it down a steep ramp wasn’t exactly easy.  Once he’d got all three out he’d been asked to take the lead in the first track while the other two would be driven by Corporal Brightwater and a sprightly Private named Jimmy Wentworth who spoke like he’d just stepped out of an episode of East Enders.  Corporal Brightwater had driven tractors for most of his life on his parents’ farm and Jimmy had been a fork lift truck driver in a previous existence.  Corporal Brightwater’s tractor experience was definitely of value driving a track but Joe wasn’t sure whether Jimmy’s experience would be much use.  Nevertheless once all three tracks were out Jimmy seemed to get the hang of the track pretty quickly.