Дэниел Смит - Below Zero

Peters.

‘ You all set to go, Prof? ’ Diaz spoke with an Australian accent but her voice was muffled. Peters gave her a thumbs-up, and she turned the camera on herself. Zak saw a close-up of it reflected in the tinted lenses of her goggles. ‘ Oh. Wait a minute. ’ The camera pointed at the floor for a few seconds, then raised to focus on Diaz’s face. No goggles this time. ‘ Here I am! ’

Zak was surprised to see that Diaz was the girl from the photos in the living quarters. He guessed she was about fourteen, with olive skin, short dark hair, and eyes that twinkled when she spoke. He couldn’t imagine why anyone that age would want to be involved in something like the Exodus Project, but she appeared to be enjoying herself, smiling and waggling her eyebrows at the camera. ‘ Sofia Diaz reporting for duty ,’ she said. ‘ And they told me I’d never amount to anything. Well, look at me now, Mr Allen , I’m part of a mission. And guess what, sucker? I’m going to Mars. My only regret is that you poor Earthlings are going to have to manage without me . Later, losers! ’

‘Scan forward,’ Dad said, so Mum moved the slider along the bottom of the screen.

In fast-forward, Zak saw a shot of the Magpie on the ice and a stack of gear piled beside it. It was dark and there were pools of light spilling out from the base, flooding across the ice. A brief blink and the gear was gone, and Peters was climbing aboard the Magpie. After a sweeping shot of The Hub, the video blinked again and Mum let it play.

‘ Looks small from here .’ It was Sofia Diaz again.

The screen was mostly dark apart from a fuzzy light in the centre, towards the bottom. When the camera focused, the fuzzy light sharpened and separated into a number of small lights.

‘That’s Outpost Zero,’ Dad said. ‘She’s filming the base from way out on the ice.’

The camera lingered on the lights. ‘ A few more weeks and we won’t even be able to get a plane in here,’ Diaz said. ‘Imagine that. It’ll be so cold, the fuel will turn to gel. We could be on our own for months.’

‘Wait.’ May reached forward and paused the video. ‘Did she just say they won’t be able to get a plane in here?’

‘Don’t worry,’ Dad reassured her. ‘We’ll be long gone by then.’

‘But you never said anything about that. You never said anything about not being able to leave.’ May put back her head like she was trying to stay calm. ‘Ugh. This just gets better and better.’

‘We’re going to be fine,’ Mum told her. ‘We still have weeks before it’ll be that cold. Please. Panicking won’t help. Let’s just watch this and find out what we can, shall we?’

‘And on the bright side,’ Zak said. ‘If we get stuck here, you won’t have to go back to school. Just think – no more Vanessa Morton-Chandler.’

May looked at Zak like she was about to lose it, but finally she took a deep breath and nodded slowly. ‘All right. Just play the video.’

Mum tapped the pause button and the screen jerked back into life.

Feels like we’re a million miles from anywhere ,’ Diaz said, and Zak thought there was something comforting about her slow and considered accent.

‘ We will be when we’re up there .’ It was the first time Zak had heard Peters’ voice. He sounded like he was from Scandinavia.

The image tilted to reveal a clear sky filled with more stars than Zak thought possible. ‘ You think there’s anyone else up there? I don’t mean on Mars – that’s just Spiders building us a base – I mean further out. ’

‘ Do you? ’ Peters asked.

‘ I dunno. I reckon there could be. But I’m starting to wonder what we’ve got down here .’ The camera swivelled, showing a glimpse of Peters as it swept around to take in the view of the icy desert. ‘ You know, since those guys from BioMesa turned up, I’ve— ’

‘We were told not to ask about that,’ Peters said. ‘To not talk about it. If we do, it could jeopardize the whole project.’

‘They’re doing something out at The Chasm.’ Sofia ignored Peters. ‘I’ve seen it.’

‘You’ve seen it?’

‘Yeah. I reckon they’re taking the Spiders out there and lowering them in. Doing something they shouldn’t.’

‘I don’t want to know.’

‘Don’t you? You don’t want to know they’re using the Spiders to drill core samples from way down? You don’t want to know they found something under the ice? And I mean deep under the ice. You’re a scientist, I thought you’d be interested…’

‘Found something?’ The camera swung back and focused on Peters’ face. ‘Something like what?’

‘Some kind of bug. Doc Blair’s been looking at the core I gave him, and the thing I found inside it. An insect. Something—’

‘Stop. Not on camera.’ Peters leant forward, his hand looming over the lens. There was a fumbling sound as the image blurred and flicked to a first-person view of a drive across the ice, the inside of the Magpie jolting about. Another flick and the image switched to a shot of two people walking away from the camera.

Dad leant over and paused the video. ‘BioMesa? What were they doing here? And what were they doing with our Spiders?’ He took off his glasses and rubbed his nose before putting them back on. ‘Sounds like she’s talking about those things we found in the lab. Those insects, or whatever they are.’

‘Insects deep under the ice?’ Mum said. ‘That no one has ever found before? How could—’

‘Just play the video,’ May said. ‘Then we’ll find out.’

When Dad unpaused it, Sofia and Peters continued walking away from camera. They used a small drill to put a hole in the ice, then waved to camera before coming back. For a few long seconds, the lens remained pointed at the spot until Sofia said, ‘ Fire in the hole .’

There was a loud crack and a plume of ice shot into the air where they had been standing.

‘They’re blowing stuff up?’ Zak asked.

‘Small controlled explosions,’ Dad said. ‘It’s all part of the collection process.’

Mum scanned the video forwards and more events passed in jerking, twitchy movements as Sofia and Peters went about the business of collecting samples to bring back to base. There was loads of footage like that until a sudden change made Mum stop and let the movie play at normal speed.

The screen was now filled with an image of Sofia’s face. Her eyebrows were drawn together, her lips were tight, and her eyes were narrowed.

‘ OK .’ She swallowed. ‘ My name is Sofia Diaz. From Australia. I’m the daughter of Professor Rosita Diaz and Professor Eco Diaz. The cameraman is Professor Valter Peters, from Sweden.’

‘Norway. I’m from Norway.’

The camera turned around briefly to show Peters’ concerned face, and Zak leant away from the screen as if expecting something bad to happen.

‘Umm… ’ Sofia took a deep breath as soon as the camera was on her again. ‘We might have some kind of problem. We’re not sure, it could be nothing, but we checked in with Outpost Zero before bedding down – like we’re supposed to – and Commander Miller said there were issues with power at the base. Outside comms not responding, lights and heat going off . Could be the weather but Mac was working on getting it fixed. Thing is, we tried to report in this morning and there’s no answer. Radio’s working fine, there’s just no answer. It’s… ’ Sofia shook her head and her frown deepened. ‘ Storm picked up a right shocker in the night and she’s been going for more than four hours now. We’re getting worried so we’re going to cut our trip short, come back into the bowl. Prof Peters… Sorry, Professor Peters and I are heading back to Outpost Zero now. We’re a couple of hours out, maybe more in this weather, so we should be there by… ’ She checked her watch, ‘… sometime after midday .’ She stared into the lens for a while longer before her eyes shifted and she nodded to her cameraman. ‘ OK? ’