Дэниел Смит - Below Zero

There was a brief blink and the screen was filled with an image of The Hub’s interior. It was in total darkness except for the piercing white light mounted on the camera. On the top left of the screen, the timecode indicated the video was filmed about twenty-two hours ago.

‘ This isn’t right ,’ Peters said as the camera panned around the room, illuminating and casting shadow. ‘ Not right at all .’

The last time Zak had seen The Hub on screen it had been filled with people, but now it looked exactly as he knew it. Like the ship in his book – the Mary Celeste . Everybody was gone, and he could hear the storm raging in the background.

‘ We’ve checked every module .’ Peters spoke to the camera. ‘ But there’s no sign of them. Nothing. Power’s down; no light or heat. I don’t— ’

‘ Hey, what about the tracker? ’ The camera panned round to focus on Sofia’s face. ‘ We can find them with that .’

‘ Good thinking .’

‘That’s why we couldn’t find it,’ Mum said.

The video blinked again, and they were inside the Control room. Sofia was standing in front of the bank of computer screens, holding something the size of a smartphone. She stared right through the screen at Zak. ‘ Peters thinks we should keep recording. We don’t know what the hell is going on here and, ugh, this is ridiculous, it feels like I’m in a horror movie or something . You ever see the one where the guys are isolated in— ’

‘Stick to what is important. The tracker.’

Sofia sighed and lowered her eyes. ‘ Look, we’re going to keep rolling on this because we don’t know what we’re going to find, and we don’t know what’s going to happen , so …’ She focused on the device in her hand. The camera moved closer, bringing the device into shot, and Sofia used her thumb to switch it on.

‘The tracker,’ Dad said.

The device came to life, and a satellite image popped into view. Mostly it was white, with a few patches of grey dotted here and there. Illuminated grid lines criss-crossed the image. Sofia pinch-zoomed in until the base came into view, the separate buildings clearly visible against the ice and snow. A second later, a collection of blue markers lit up, clustered together in one place.

‘ We found ’em ,’ Sofia said.

‘ That’s all of them .’ Peters focused the camera on the list of names beside the map. ‘ My family, your family… everyone. But what are they doing out there? ’

‘ I dunno. Some kind of meeting? ’ Sofia looked at the camera. ‘ I guess we’d better go and find out. ’

When Sofia Diaz was thirteen years old, she read an article in Adventure Magazine about a one-way trip to settle on Mars. The article described details about how the project would unfold, and was asking for families to apply. The Exodus Project was looking for highly intelligent, resourceful personnel seeking adventure.

Sofia knew, straight away, that she wanted to go. No, not that she wanted to go, that she had to go. That she was supposed to go. There was no question in her mind, she and her family were exactly the kind of people needed for the project.

Her papa, Professor Eco Diaz, was a well-respected expert in astrophysics. Born in Australia, he had worked on the space programmes in Russia, the United States and Great Britain. Sofia’s mama, Professor Rosita Diaz was a biochemist working on groundbreaking techniques to grow plants in difficult environments. Sofia’s brother, Pablo, was at university studying maths, which meant Sofia was the odd one out. At school, she was average across the board, but outside of school, every moment was spent seeking adventure. Scouts, rock climbing, kayaking, surfing, caving, even skiing – which wasn’t easy when you lived in Australia. She could ride a dirt bike like a professional, and had already spent two years learning Wing Chun Kung Fu. Sofia was hungry for adventure, always pushing herself to the next thing, but she couldn’t find anything that gave her quite the adventure she craved.

Until now.

It took her ages to persuade Mama and Papa to apply, and her friends told her she was mad. Two years training in Antarctica, followed by a six-month one-way space flight to settle on a dusty planet with a handful of other families wasn’t their idea of fun. But Sofia felt as if it was her destiny. She wanted to do something no one had ever done before. And, as young as she was, she knew she had something to offer. She wasn’t a science nerd, but she was smart, strong and resourceful.

Sofia Diaz believed she would be an asset to the Exodus Project, and now, at fourteen years old, and only two months into her training, was the chance for her to prove it.

The wind rose like a demon in the night and didn’t let-up for hours. It howled across the ice, bringing with it a blizzard that turned the world into a blur. It made driving difficult, so she and Peters took three times longer than they should to reach Outpost Zero. Sofia insisted on driving the Magpie – she was better at it than Peters – but spent the entire journey going no faster than a crawl, with her nose centimetres from the windscreen. One wrong move could see them swallowed by a crevasse and never seen again, so she kept it slow and steady even though she was desperate to get back. Everyone she loved was at Outpost Zero, and she had a feeling they needed her help.

Arriving at the base was like coming into a ghost town. There was no power, the temperature had dropped, and The Hub carried the faint smell of overripe fruit and…

‘Do you smell fish ?’ Sofia asked.

‘I don’t know,’ Peters said. ‘Could be.’

The smell stood out to Sofia because Antarctica was bland. Snow and ice don’t smell of anything, and the extreme cold meant most objects held on to their aromatic chemicals. In the warmth of The Hub the most common smells were usually coffee, fried food and sweaty people.

When she noticed the fragments of insect casings littering the floor, Sofia immediately thought of her trip out to the BioMesa cavern, and how she had returned with Ice Core #31. Doc Blair’s bugs.

That was when her first feelings of guilt began to form. Perhaps this was all connected to something she had done.

In the Control room, Sofia turned on the tracker and zoomed in on the base. Instead of there being blue dots scattered all over Outpost Zero, showing everyone going about their work, they were all focused in one place.

‘We found ’em.’ Sofia tried not to sound scared.

‘That’s all of them.’ Peters focused the camera on the list of names beside the map. ‘My family, your family… everyone. But what are they doing out there?’

‘I dunno. Some kind of meeting?’ Something wasn’t right. ‘I guess we’d better go and find out.’ Sofia gave him a reassuring smile, but inside she was on full alert and fighting a rising sense of panic. ‘I’m sure everything’ll be fine.’ She double-checked the fastenings on her coat, and tugged at her fur hat with the floppy dog-ears to make sure it was on tight.

As soon as they were both ready, Sofia lowered her goggles and opened the door. Feeling the full force of the blizzard, she put her head down and stepped out into the cold, holding on to the handrail as she scanned the area surrounding the base. There was nothing to see. No clues about what had happened there. The ferocity of the blizzard meant she could barely see more than a couple of metres ahead of her, and any tracks were long gone.