Brandy inspected the satellite image. “Ye say this lake is buried beneath the snow?”
Dr. Ahmed nodded. “Beneath an ice sheet thirteen thousand feet thick. The lake was sealed off approximately fifteen million years ago.”
“But its waters are frozen… ”
“No, Mrs. Wallace,” Liao replied. “Lake Vostok’s waters are actually quite liquid.”
“That makes no sense. How can a lake remain unfrozen beneath, what… four thousand meters of ice?”
Dr. Liao seemed slightly annoyed at Brandy’s distraction. “The water remains liquid because of two factors: the tremendous pressure generated by the weight of the ice sheet from above and the presence of geothermal vents pumping superheated waters into the bottom of the lake, which may actually be a tectonically active rift.”
Dr. Ahmed pushed back from the table. “Dr. Wallace, Lake Vostok represents a precious, unspoiled time capsule into our past, a fossil-rich water reserve that may still harbor life. This recent discovery has accelerated everyone’s interest in both the government and private sector. The United States has joined China and Australia in a joint effort to develop the means to explore this lost world, while taking every measure to protect its microbial life from contaminants — something the Russians have not taken to heart. With a new budget in excess of a billion dollars, the conversation has changed from developing cleaner methods of deep ice-core drilling to actually sending drones into the lake itself.”
“You didn’t recruit a deep-sea submersible pilot to operate a drone.” I glanced at the shaggy-haired American, who looked more like a graduate student than an engineer. “Mr. McFarland, why don’t you cut through Dr. Ahmed’s politics and tell us how Bill Stone and his team at Stone Aerospace intend on delivering a manned vessel into a lake buried under two-and-a-half miles of ice.”
George McFarland grinned. “As I’m sure you know, Dr. Stone has been developing robotic explorers to access hard-to-reach exotic environments for years. Our focus of late has been the frozen ocean on Jupiter’s moon, Europa, which has an ice sheet twenty times as thick as Antarctica’s. Europa and Vostok present similar technical challenges. First and foremost, we need a far more efficient way to descend through miles of ice while maintaining the integrity of the borehole. The Russians have been pouring kerosene and Freon down their ice shaft, a move that has pissed off the entire international community. Vostok has remained preserved for fifteen million years; the last thing we want to do is introduce toxic chemicals into the habitat.
“Then there’s the issue of hydrostatic pressure created by the sheer weight of the ice sheet sitting on top of these subglacial bodies of water. Vostok is essentially a massive topographic hollow filled with water that is being squeezed beneath trillions of tons of ice. Think of it as a giant water-filled balloon. Puncture Vostok and water explodes out the exit at five thousand pounds per square inch of pressure. The Russians learned this the hard way when they retracted their last ice core and water blasted up through the borehole, flooding their drill cab with a hundred cubic meters of kerosene.”
McFarland powered on his laptop and turned the monitor to face Brandy and me. On screen was a six-foot-long cylindrical device. “This is Valkyrie, the cryobot we designed for Europa. The vehicle is an autonomous ice-penetrating machine. It is linked by fiber-optic cable to a power source that remains on the surface and is equipped with a high-powered laser that quickly melts the ice ahead of it. The hole then re-freezes behind the cryobot, preventing the pressure from forcing water out of the shaft. To return topside you simply invert the unit and blow ballast, and the capsule melts its way back to the surface, rising up on its own bubble with the hole re-freezing behind it.
“The three-man submersible we’ve designed will be flanked by two Valkyrie lasers. Once the lake is reached, the sub will run autonomously. When it’s time to ascend, the Valkyries will burn a borehole through the ice, raising the sub on a geyser of water created by Lake Vostok’s own internal pressure. Cool, huh?”
I shook my head in amazement. “It’s an incredible feat of engineering, but why a submersible? Why not simply let the Valkyrie unit do its job?”
Dr. Liao appeared irritated by the question. “Why put an astronaut in orbit when a chimpanzee will do? Why put a man on the moon? Lake Vostok is the equivalent of journeying to another world. A robot can collect a few fossils, but it cannot experience the wonderment of exploring an ice sheet from below, nor observe Vostok’s underworld through a scientist’s eyes. Are there dangers? Of course. But we’ve minimized the risks, and I dare say exploring a subglacial lake is far less taxing than rocketing into space. There are no less than a dozen scientific organizations participating in this venture, with volunteers vying to be among the chosen few to visit this lost world.”
“If that’s the case, why choose me?”
“You have been blessed with the unique ability to see what others have seen and think what nobody has thought. While we’ll have teams of paleobiologists at the camp, none have your field experience or reputation. Who better to resolve what will no doubt be a Rubick’s Cube of fossils and processes—”
“And perhaps a life-form or two,” interjected Dr. Ahmed. “It is my belief that your team will come across bacteria and biologicals that have survived in that isolated environment for millions of years. As Captain Hintzmann mentioned, your participation also helps us procure the necessary funds to expedite this mission — funds from which you shall be well compensated.”
Dr. Liao handed me an envelope. Inside was an offer for a research stipend covering September through February of the coming year. I passed the sheet of paper to Brandy, whose eyes widened at the mid-six-figure salary. “Who do ye have tae murder, then? The Queen, I hope.”
“I’d be gone six months. The way things have been lately, maybe that’s a good thing….”
Brandy’s eyes teared up. “Go, then. I ken ye want tae. It’s in yer blood as sure as the plaid’s in mine.” She straightened in her seat. “Besides, we need the money.”
For months we had poisoned our arguments with the threat of divorce. Threats are threats until they force you to make a decision. At that moment we both sensed that this was it — we’d either commit to staying together or officially end our marriage with my acceptance of Dr. Soto’s lucrative offer.
Put to the test, neither of us wanted to be without the other.
“Here’s another alternative, Brandy. I was just offered a teaching position at Cambridge University. It’s not nearly as much money, but at least I’d see you and William on weekends.”
She reached for my hand beneath the table. “Or we could stay wit’ ye during the week and see my father on weekends. True could handle things while I’m away.”
It was as if a vise had been removed from my heart. I squeezed my wife’s hand, suddenly anxious to end the meeting. “Dr. Liao, gentlemen, while I appreciate the offer, I’m afraid I’ll have to pass.”
3
Brandy had felt certain I would abandon my family, accept Dr. Liao’s offer, and end up in her arms. In turning the offer down, I had placed the needs of my loved ones ahead of my own. Or as my wife put it, “I had changed the energy in our marriage from negative back to positive.” In turn, Brandy could now leave Drumnadrochit in good conscience to join me in Cambridge.