“Not very exciting,” Boro said, looking out the open hatch and surveying the twilight scene before him, a vast expanse of nearly flat ice that stretched to the horizon where it met the dim overcast sky.
“Has anyone ever been here before?” Sata asked.
“No one from this world,” Ilika began. “It’s hundreds of kilometers to the nearest land or open water, even in the summer.”
Kibi frowned. “I don’t see anything . . . alive.”
“Nothing to eat,” Rini observed, “except maybe in the ocean under the ice.”
“But the ice is too thick here for anything to get through,” Boro pointed out. “Except a response ship. Those bears we saw near the coast, fishing at holes in the ice, they’d starve here.”
“It’s very peaceful,” Mati shared, leaning on Rini. “I’d like to go for a short walk.”
“That would be good for all of us,” Ilika said. “We’ve been flying for hours, and we’ll soon be in the ship for several hours more.”
“But it’s so . . . dark,” Sata mumbled. “Couldn’t we wait for the sun to come up?”
The silence lengthened until Ilika spoke. “It’s the middle of winter. The sun doesn’t come up.”
“Oh . . . yeah,” the navigator said with embarrassment. “I remember that lesson now. And in the summer, it never sets!”
Boro put his arm around his trembling friend, knowing well she was
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experiencing more than cold.
After short walks in pairs over the nearly featureless ice, feeling naked in their wool pants, hooded cloaks, and leather boots, they gladly returned to the warmth of their little ship. Hot mint tea and lively dance music, provided by Kibi, thawed their spirits while Manessa thawed their bodies.
“Everyone ready for the last leg of the flight plan?” Ilika asked.
Sata made a tiny whimpering sound. “It’s gonna be . . . dark down there
. . . isn’t it?”
“It’s dark here,” Rini pointed out.
“Manessa will light the way!” Boro proclaimed, smiling at Sata.
She nodded and sipped her tea, but didn’t smile.
Ilika and Boro spent a few minutes at the engineer’s station talking about the hull radiation controls, and everyone else prepared for departure. Kibi stepped outside for a few more breaths of the bitter crisp air, and Rini searched for aurora lights with his eyes and his sensors, but found none. Mati watched Sata drag herself to her station as if going to her own funeral.
“Okay,” Boro began, still in command. “I guess Rini will be telling Ilika where the bottom of the ocean is, and Sata will keep us on the chart.”
The watch and navigator reported their status.
“Kibi, why don’t you do that hull thing, you know, diagnostic?” Boro requested.
“Already done, all green and yellow, internal air, ship secure for departure.”
“Good. Um . . . anti-mass and thrusters are ready. Infra-red hull on your signal, pilot.”
“Airborne,” Ilika said as he lifted the ship from the ice. “Struts in, going to minimum profile, ready for infra-red hull radiation.”
Mati watched Ilika as he smoothly made the transition to flight, then turned her attention back to Sata.
“Infra-red,” Boro confirmed.
They all watched their displays as the ship settled back onto the ice, then slowly began to sink lower and lower. After about a minute, the smooth sides of the ice shaft became visible, its walls glowing blue in Manessa’s external
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lights. As they continued to sink deeper, water soon covered their view, and before long they could see an ice crust quickly form on the surface of the water as it receded above them.
Mati noticed Sata gripping the arms of her chair fiercely, but waited.
“Two more meters of ice under us,” Rini reported, watching one of his displays.
In the silence that followed, Mati could hear Sata’s breathing, deeper and shakier than usual.
Ilika kept his eyes on the pilot’s console. Suddenly the Manessa Kwi began to plunge downward into the inky depths of the mid-winter polar ocean. “We have punched a hole in the polar ice cap,” Ilika declared. “Finished with infra-red hull.”
With no nearby surfaces to reflect the ship’s lights, their displays suddenly seemed pitch black.
“I . . . um . . . I wanna go home,” Sata moaned loudly and burst into sobs.
Mati crossed the small space from the command chair by hopping on her good leg, then wrapped her arms around her friend from behind. “Well you can’t, so you’d better start pounding on your display selector until you find something that makes you feel good, and then grow up and do your job, or I will personally throw you out the hatch and chase you all the way back to your parents’ inn! If you fail, I fail, and that means you have to take care of a crippled girl for the rest of your life, and I’ll remind you of it every day, with my crutch over your head if necessary!”
Ilika pretended not to hear, but jaws were slack at the other three stations.
Mati’s voice was shaking and cracking, but even as she yelled at her friend, she continued to hold her tightly. “Go on, start selecting, or I’ll kill you right where you sit even before we get the hatch open!”
Sata reached out with a shaking hand toward her display selector, now crying deeply but no longer gasping. She found dark visuals and a topographic too featureless to be interesting. Then on channel two, she discovered a video of a bright, sunny day in a gentle forest, tiny insects floating on the air and chipmunks scurrying about in the trees. A slight smile appeared on her face, and her crying became little more than sniffling.
“Thanks, Kibi,” Mati said. “We could use a towel or two.”
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The steward soon appeared with the request.
“Now you have to do your job, navigator. And remember, I’ve been watching, so I know what your job is.”
“Um . . . um . . . chart is still good. Um . . . updating the depth profile. Um
. . . ship’s position looks good, within eight meters of the North Pole, but I can’t verify visually.”
“No problem,” Ilika assured, smiling, but keeping his eyes on his console.
Sata began wiping her face with a towel.
“You ready to take responsibility for yourself and get what you need?” Mati asked with a challenging tone, “or does Kibi have to pick you a video every day, maybe read you a bedtime story too?”
Sata took some deep breaths as she continued to watch the forest scene, which now included a doe and her fawn grazing. “I . . . um . . . I could never ask for anything back home.”
“And not much was being asked of you, other than repetitive work,” Ilika pointed out.
“Um . . . yeah . . . it was so boring I sometimes fell asleep doing dishes.”
Mati chuckled. “Now you’re a navigator. I’ve seen how complicated your job is. Which is it? Are you and me on or off this ship?”
There was a long pause as Sata watched the scene on her display and finished wiping her tears. “Kibi, would you show me how to select music and videos and stuff tonight?”
The steward smiled and nodded.
A few minutes later, Ilika extended landing struts and settled the Manessa Kwi onto the bottom of the polar ocean. Kibi and Sata made dinner while lively music played and outdoor videos, on every display, kept the navigator in good spirits.
But every half hour or so that evening, in between eating, watching videos, and playing games, Ilika called Sata onto the bridge. They spent a few minutes just looking at the actual underwater scenes around them with no audio or video distractions. Each time she would tense up and start gasping for breath, but he watched her gain more and more control over her reaction as the hours passed.
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After a hot bath and a friendly pillow fight on the lower deck, Sata was in such a good mood that she forgot to ask Ilika to move the ship back to the surface before falling into a deep sleep in her bed.
Deep Learning Notes
Salt water freezes at lower temperatures than fresh water, so a floating ice cap is probably far below “freezing” (0°C = 32°F = 273°K).
Our own North Pole was possible visited by people and dogs in 1908 and/or 1909, but they could not prove it. It was seen from the air in 1926, submarine in 1959, and snowmobile in 1968.
Since the planet where the story takes place had 24-hour night in mid-winter and 24-hour day in mid-summer, it must have a rotational axis that is not at a right angle (90°) to the plane of the solar system (the “ecliptic”), just like our planet. Earth’s axis is 67° from the ecliptic, so it is 23° “tilted” from “straight up and down.” It is this tilt that gives us shorter days in the winter and longer days in the summer.
Although it varies from year to year, and has been thinner recently because of global warming, the 4-meter (13-foot) thickness of the polar ice in the story is similar to our own North Pole.
Infra-red radiation is what we call “radiant heat,” and can be felt by placing your hand near any fire or dark, hot object. It is a broad band of electromagnetic radiation between microwave radiation and visible light.
When Sata experienced her claustrophobia again under the polar ice cap, why was Ilika careful to only look at his piloting displays and not say anything about it?
Almost by accident, Sata made the discovery that part of her problem was fear
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of asking for what she needed to deal with her problem. Have you ever had a problem, knew what you needed, but were afraid to ask for it?
It is true that in most human groups, there are negative consequences for admitting weakness and asking for what you need. How is Ilika’s ship different in this way?
Ilika was “desensitizing” Sata to the ocean depths around them by having her take a short look once in a while. We can often take frightening things in small doses, and by slowly increasing our exposure, make progress toward mastering our fears.