Sarah Andrews - In Cold Pursuit

Valena shook her hand. “Well, what luck, then. I need to come see you this morning to check out some equipment.”

Nancy set about consuming a large bowl of the homemade granola topped with yogurt, canned peaches, and milk. “No need to. When George told me to reinventory the gear Emmett had checked out, I sent someone to fetch it but simply put it back into Emmett’s cage. Like you, I am hopeful that he shall return this year.”

“His cage?”

Nancy smiled. “It’s a system we have so that people can come and go at whatever hour to work with their field gear. In the back of BFC, we have a series of screened alcoves with combination locks on them, and you can get in there and get your gear anytime you want. That way I don’t have to lock the whole place up or be there twenty-four hours a day.”

“I see.”

“Before he came south this year, Emmett filled out a request for the equipment. That way we know we have enough, and if we don’t, we can order more.” She waved her spoon concisely in the air to describe things shuttling back and forth. “At any rate, when he arrived this year I already had his order waiting for him in his cage. He took his part of the kit when he went to the high camp last week and left it in his office. They weren’t planning on spending the night”—she gave Valena a look that said little do they understand this place —”but of course they had all the equipment they might need, including sleep kits, tents, stove, food, and a Gamow bag.”

“A Gamow bag.”

“Of course, I don’t handle that gear,” she said. “The Gamow is issued through Science Support Center, I believe, but for some reason, it was returned to me last year instead of going directly to them.”

“You mean the one that was airdropped?” Valena asked. “But I thought—” she managed to stop herself before saying, they only found that this year.

“I mean the one Emmett had with him when he first went up to the high camp last year.” She paused from her eating to study Valena’s face. “You don’t think that Emmett would go to high elevation without proper precautions, do you?”

“I… to tell you the truth, I don’t know Emmett all that well.” She paused, then stated, for what felt like the fiftieth time, “I was brought onto the project just a short while ago.”

Nancy went back to her granola. “Of course. Yes, I heard about that. His other fellows decided to come down with a different event this year.” She shook her head. “Irritating fellows. You’re much more pleasant. What were their names?”

“Schwartz and Lindemann.”

“Ah, yes; Schwartz and Lindemann. I always thought of them as Rosencranz and Guildenstern, only with attitude.”

“And Emmett is Prince Hamlet?”

“Very good. Yes, the one with the conscience.” Nancy shook her head again. “He gets himself so wound up. But that shouldn’t be your problem. You are here to do research and get your degree.”

“I’m here to get my degree, yes, but also do something worth doing and to see Antarctica.”

“We all like to feel that we are making a contribution down here. That’s why we’re all here, you know. To support science. It takes this whole support staff”—she lifted her spoon and made a circle in the air to encompass the entirety of McMurdo Station—”to send you scientists into the field each year. I forget what the ratio is, but there must be four or five of us to send each one of you into the field. But it’s worth it. Do your best to preserve this place, Valena. Help keep the ice from melting. It’s so special. No, that’s trite. It is an extraordinary place, and I personally believe that our continuance as a species depends on humbling ourselves before such mighty and fragile places as this.”

Valena could think of nothing to add to that.

Nancy set down her spoon and took a sip of her tea. “You know how quickly it’s melting, don’t you?”

“No, I don’t know. Not for sure. That’s part of what we’re here to study. But there are indications that it is accelerating, and that scares me.”

“Good. Pay attention. I am pleased to support you in your work.”

Valena felt like she had received a benediction from a priest. “Thank you. You remind me of my high school history teacher.”

Nancy smiled more broadly. “Perhaps because I was one, before I started coming here.”

“What an interesting change of jobs. How did you come to make such a change?”

Nancy smiled sadly. “One has one’s reasons.”

Valena took several more bites of her eggs before her mind swung back to an earlier part of the conversation. “Tell me more about this Gamow bag that came to you. The one that Emmett took up originally. How did you get it, and why wasn’t it at the camp when it was needed?”

Nancy shook her head. “I’m not sure why, but it came back with some field gear they weren’t using. The guy who unloads the Twin Otters down on the flight line brought the load up. It had apparently gotten put into the plane… by mistake.”

“But how could that happen? What do these things look like?”

Nancy continued to consume her breakfast with utmost serenity. “You’re talking about a bundle about a foot and a half square, rolled up. It’s made of a flexible material, rather like an overlarge sleeping bag. You open it up, put your patient inside, zip it shut—special zippers that don’t leak air—and then pump it up to pressure, simulating sea level or even below. But it doesn’t work if it isn’t there.”

“Did it look like it had been stuffed in with the other gear intentionally?”

“Perhaps it had merely been placed inside the wrong duffel. A poor arrangement, obviously, the duffels looking so much alike.”

“No one’s mentioned this to me before.”

“Interesting. I suppose they were all rather embarrassed.”

“Embarrassed? There’s not a bigger word than that?”

Nancy took another sip of tea.

Valena had finished her eggs and muffin and was working to get enough water down her throat.

Doris arrived at the table and set down a tray full of food, her lascivious boyfriend in close pursuit. “Hey, guys,” she said. “So, Valena, you got everything you needed off of Emmett’s laptop?”

Valena gagged on her water.

Doris continued, “Hey, you got to watch that stuff. It’s got a kick. Just come and see me if you’re having any trouble getting into anything you need,” she said. “You got me?”

“Thanks,” said Valena.

Nancy said, “Oh, did Emmett have books on disc or something?”

“No, just scientific gobbledygook,” said Doris. She gave Valena a sly wink.

Valena stared in wonder. Everybody seemed to know her business, a sensation that had her strung between relief and paranoia.

Nancy had finished eating. “I’m heading over to BFC right now if you’d like me to show you how to get into that cage,” she said.

Valena hopped up and grabbed her tray.

Doris offered a casual wave, as if nothing of importance had been said.

Along the road that led toward the Berg Field Center, Valena asked, “How many seasons have you come to the ice?”

“Ten,” said Nancy. “Not every year, but most. I took a few off. There aren’t many who have been here more than I have. I’d say Dorothy has me by a season or two.”

“Dorothy? You mean Cupcake?”

“People call her that, yes.”

Valena’s pulse quickened. “Is she kind of…”

“A shit-stirrer?” asked Nancy.

“Yeah.”

“Valena, this is an unusual community. Of course you’ve noticed that. People who come here like the wildness of the place, and yet most are all but cooped up on this island. I dare say Dorothy’s never been past the runways. The rec department tries to arrange Sunday outings for people, but once you’ve been out to Pegasus packed into the Delta with twenty other people to see the wrecked plane, you’ve done that. People get to living out of each others’ pockets. There are people you’ll never see do essential jobs, like running the power plant, or keeping the trash sorted out. Just imagine if it was allowed to stack up. They’re like troglodytes. They don’t want to talk to anyone, so they don’t. They eat their meals in their rooms. And then there are others, like Dorothy, who get overly involved with each and every person. Dorothy gets particularly personal with grantees. Forgive me if I speak plainly. This is not a classless society.”