Polar Quest

In 1610, Galileo pointed his telescope at Jupiter and discovered four moons orbiting the giant planet. This discovery came at a time when the whole of Western civilization believed that the earth was the center of the universe. News of Lake Vostok’s discovery and the possibility of life in its hidden waters coincided with the arrival at Jupiter of a spacecraft bearing the great astronomer’s name. During a fly-by of one of the moons discovered by Galileo – an ice-covered rock named Europa – the spacecraft transmitted a series of images as astounding to the scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as the discovery of the moon itself was to Galileo four hundred years earlier.

Europa was named after the mythical Phoenician princess that Zeus carried off and ravaged. Detailed images from the spacecraft revealed a pattern of fractures on the frozen moon’s surface similar to ice flows in the Arctic Ocean – evidence that beneath Europa’s frozen shell lay an immense body of liquid water larger than all Earth’s oceans. Dark regions mottling the moon’s surface revealed ongoing volcanic and seismic activity, likely the result of Jupiter’s intense gravity wracking Europa’s molten core. With heat, minerals, and liquid water, scientists now saw Europa as the most promising place in our solar system to search for extraterrestrial life.

The complexity of a mission to Europa was unlike anything NASA engineers had encountered since the days of Apollo. Forays to other worlds had thus far only scratched the surface of those celestial bodies. Once on Europa, NASA planned to bore through at least six miles of ice in order to explore a mysterious ocean. A submersible robotic vehicle designed to plumb those hidden waters would not only have to survive a journey in the vacuum of space, but also be able to withstand a crushing pressure that, at a minimum, would equal the deepest place beneath Earth’s oceans.

NASA’s Europa team, led by Collins and his wife, sought out the best minds in robotics, biologic testing, artificial intelligence, and deep-sea remote vehicles to help tackle the technical problems posed by the mission.The Europa Lander not only had to perform numerous complex tasks in an extreme environment but, due to the distances involved, it also had to be capable of making decisions on its own.

Early on, Collins’s team seized on the idea of exploring Lake Vostok as a full-dress rehearsal for the mission to Europa. Exhaustive testing of various subsystems finally led to the construction of a prototype. Ice Pick incorporated all but three of the main systems to be used by the Europa Lander. The deep-space communications unit was deleted from Ice Pick, since the probe’s first stage wouldn’t be more than fifty feet from the people controlling it. While it would have been nice to have the genetic analysis module on board, the scientists at UGene were still tweaking it, and any samples retrieved from the lake would be analyzed in their laboratory afterward. The probe’s nuclear power supply – a radioisotopic thermoelectric generator – was not included, because an international treaty expressly forbade the importation of nuclear material into Antarctica.

The wind shifted and the parhelic circles slowly faded away. Satisfied that he’d captured what he could, Collins picked up his camera and headed back to the station. He followed the thick orange umbilical line that provided power and communications to Ice Pick.

After a quick look around the station, Collins reentered the tower air lock and closed the door. He wasted no time stripping down to his jeans and turtleneck – the station’s interior was over a hundred degrees warmer than outside. Static sparks crackled as he peeled the woolen balaclava from his head; his black hair and beard were matted down by the protective head covering.

‘Water?’ Nedra asked as Collins clambered up the spiral stair to the station’s main level, scratching his chin.

‘Oh, yeah. My mouth is drier than a camel’s ass.’

‘That’s not the image I want in mind the next time you kiss me.’

Nedra filled a tall plastic glass and handed it to him. Keeping hydrated was critical in a place totally devoid of humidity, where the average annual precipitation was less than the Sahara Desert. Collins sat down beside his wife at the long workstation. Nedra’s monitor displayed the same information she hoped to receive one day, several years from now, from a spacecraft on the surface of Europa.

‘Status?’ Collins asked.

‘The sample capsules from the last mission are stowed and a new set of empties are on board the hydrobot. Batteries are at one-hundred percent charge.’

‘Then let’s see if we get lucky today.’

Clinging by actuated crampons to the underside of the glacial ice sheet in the slushy upper boundary of Lake Vostok, the second stage of the Ice Pick probe waited for its next command. It had taken five days in late November for the three-foot in diameter sphere to melt its way straight down through over two miles of glacier. The cryobot liquefied the ice beneath it with the heating panels on its lower hemisphere, and, as it sank, the displaced water refroze above it to prevent contaminants from the surface from entering the hidden lake. A filament of superconducting wire imbedded in a carbon nanotube sleeve emerged from the top of the sphere like a strand of webbing from a spinneret, and ran straight up along the path of the cryobot’s descent from beneath the first stage on the surface.

At Nedra’s command, the circular heating plate at the lower pole of the cryobot receded about a quarter-inch into the sphere, then slid away to expose an iris diaphragm.

‘Equalizing tube pressure,’ Nedra announced.

A series of pressure-relief valves slowly opened to allow a flow of water from the lake to gradually enter the cylindrical chamber behind the diaphragm. Once the air inside the chamber had been evacuated and the water pressure inside made equal with that of the surrounding lake, the valves closed.

‘The tube is flooded and equalized,’ Nedra noted.

Collins switched on the monitor in front of him and gripped the joystick controls. ‘Launch the fish.’

The rings of the iris diaphragm rotated to create an eight-inch aperture at the base of the cylindrical chamber. A blast of compressed air shot the two-foot-long, torpedo-shaped hydrobot through the slush into the dark water below.

Once the hydrobot was safely away, three telescoping masts extended out from the bottom of the cryobot. A pre-programmed series of transmissions verified that communications between Ice Pick’s second and third stage had been established.

‘Hydrobot is in the water,’ Nedra said. ‘She’s all yours.’

The graphical display of gauges and bar graphs on Collins’s monitor became colorfully active as the stream of real-time data began flowing in from the hydrobot.

‘All systems are up and running,’ Collins announced. ‘I’m switching on lights and camera and powering up the propulsion system.’

Halogen lights in the bow of the hydrobot illuminated the crystal-clear water as it slipped downward toward the distant lake bottom. The hydrobot’s descent slowed, then halted as the screw propeller in its tail dug into the frigid water, spinning in reverse to counteract gravity. A trio of maneuvering thrusters clustered around the hydrobot’s center of mass pivoted in response to Collins’s command and slowly rotated it like a baton.

‘Signal strength is good. The hydrobot’s responding to guidance commands,’ Collins said, the image on his screen spinning wildly.

‘Do you have to do that every time we launch?’ Nedra asked, clinching her eyes shut as she rubbed her temples. ‘You know it makes me dizzy.’

Collins brought the hydrobot to a level stop. ‘Plotting course to the next search area.’

The bow of the hydrobot dipped down and Collins piloted the submersible in a gentle sloping descent toward the bottom. Other than a few gently drifting particles, the water in the upper reaches of Lake Vostok was crystal clear – there was no wind, currents, or tide to stir things up. Through the first three hundred feet of its journey downward, the hydrobot recorded only minor temperature fluctuations in frigid water.

‘I think I see something,’ Collins announced as the hydrobot entered the search area. The clear water characteristic of the upper lake was giving way to a gray-black haze. ‘Visibility is dropping.’

Nedra looked over her husband’s shoulder. ‘Where’s the bottom?’

‘Fathometer reads about seventy-five feet of water beneath the fish. This is deeper than the surrounding area. May be a rift in the bottom. The haze looks a lot heavier than before. I think we found a smoker.’ Collins slowed the hydrobot’s descent as it reached the haze. ‘Temperature is rising, pushing into the fifties.’

‘Let’s hold here and take another water sample.’

A clear rigid pipette extended out from the bow of the hydrobot into the water, the submersible’s camera relaying the action to the station above. Inside the hydrobot, a pump drew some water into a sterile sample capsule. After the capsule was filled and sealed, the sampling system purged its lines and withdrew the pipette.

‘Damn, I wish we had that lab kit on board. It’d be nice to know if we found anything alive down there.’

‘You’ll just have to wait. We’ll know within a couple of weeks after we get home.’

When the sampling was complete, Collins resumed the descent. Sixteen feet down, the water in front of the camera cleared considerably. The hydrobot’s lights grazed the underside of the thick silty cloud suspended over the lake bottom. Particles glinted as they fell through the powerful beam of white light.

‘I’m going to maintain about thirty feet off the bottom while we take a look around,’ Collins said. ‘Water temp is now in the mid-seventies.’

‘It looks like we’re inside a snow globe.’

‘Only that’s volcanic ash, not white glitter.’

Collins moved the hydrobot forward slowly as they scanned the image of the silty bottom for any sign that life existed inside this remote, alien realm.

‘Water temp is moving up,’ Collins said. ‘There just has to be a vent close by.’

‘If you do find one, just make sure you don’t get too close or you’ll fry the electronics,’ Nedra cautioned.

‘I know what I’m doing,’ Collins snapped.

He brought the hydrobot to a stop and began turning it in a slow horizontal sweep to the right. Forty-three degrees right of his previous heading, he spotted a plume of particles billowing out of a lumpy black mass of rock that jutted up from the lake bottom like a broken fang. The ash gray landscape surrounding the smoker was mottled with patches of white.

‘Is that what I think it is?’ Nedra asked.

Collins swallowed hard, his throat suddenly feeling very tight and dry. He pushed the hydrobot forward, gliding cautiously toward the nearest field of iridescent white. As he closed the distance, details began to emerge from the indistinct mass – long, thin strands of filaments. Collins brought the hydrobot to a stop just a foot above the edge of the spaghetti-like mass. The gentle turning of the hydrobot’s maneuvering thrusters disturbed the water, rippling through the filaments like a breeze through a wheat field. Small, transparent creatures similar to jellyfish darted out of the hydrobot’s light.

‘I don’t think you need that lab kit now,’ Nedra said.

Collins’s eyes were transfixed on the digital image. ‘Send a message to the Jet Propulsion Lab: Lake Vostok is alive.’

3 JANUARY 25 Ann Arbor, Michigan

‘Is the coffee in there any good?’ Nolan Kilkenny asked as he approached the main conference room.

Loretta Quinn, executive assistant to the chairman of the Michigan Applied Research Consortium, looked up from the letter she was preparing and gave Kilkenny an annoyed look. ‘Does this look like the counter at Starbucks?’

‘No, but you’d be making a killing if it was. Maybe I should talk to the boss about leasing them some space, might be a good way to generate some extra revenue.’

‘Don’t you dare, Nolan. Knowing your father, he’d probably think it was a marvelous idea and I’d end up with a cappuccino maker next to the fax machine. There’s a fresh pot of coffee on the table, and – ’ Quinn glanced down at her notes, ‘your satellite window opens at four-forty-five, and you only have about ten minutes of air-time.’

‘Thanks, Loretta.’

Inside the conference room, Kilkenny set his files and a legal pad on the granite table and poured coffee into one of the dark blue mugs that bore the consortium’s logo. Outside the snow was steadily falling on the wooded grounds surrounding the building.

One of the files he brought with him contained the current financial projections for the biotech firm UGene. The Michigan Applied Research Consortium, known as MARC, had provided UGene with several million dollars of venture capital in exchange for a significant piece of the company. That investment paid its first dividends when Kilkenny orchestrated UGene’s initial public offering on Wall Street, a feat which turned him into a paper millionaire.

It still amazed Kilkenny how much his life had changed. Three years earlier, he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, commanding a squad of SEALs and existing on a military paycheck. Now he was crunching numbers and helping promising young companies develop their potential – and getting rich in the process.

‘It’s called snow,’ a basso profundo announced from the doorway, cutting through Kilkenny’s drifting thoughts.

‘I’m familiar with it, Oz,’ Kilkenny replied without looking. ‘I grew up here.’

‘Then you have my condolences.’

At six-foot-six and 220 pounds, Oswald Eames had the physical presence to justify a voice that broadcast in the Barry White-James Earl Jones spectrum. Kilkenny turned his chair around as Eames entered the conference room, followed by his partner, Lloyd Sutton.

‘Thanks for coming, gentlemen,’ Kilkenny said. ‘Have a seat.’

Sutton shot a nervous glance at Eames as he shed his overcoat. ‘What’s this all about, Nolan? The fourth-quarter numbers?’

‘Partly, though the numbers are fine,’ Killkenny said reassuringly. ‘I’ve got the preliminaries from our accounants and there are no surprises.’

Kilkenny handed out copies of the financial statements and quickly ran through the highlights: Bottom line, UGene was generating a modest profit – which was no small feat for a newcomer in the notoriously capital-intensive world of biotechnology. What kept UGene from burning through its IPO cash horde like one of the many over-hyped dot-coms was the total focus of Eames and Sutton on ‘bioinformatics’ – the company’s main product line, biological information. UGene specialized in parsing the genomes encoded in lengthy strands of DNA, identifying genes and proteins, and determining how they function inside living organisms.

‘Any updates on the most recent batch of patent applications?’ Kilkenny asked.

‘It’s the Wild West all over again.’ Eames’s reply masked little of his frustration. Like the work of early cartographers in the American West, what the scientists from the Human Genome Project and Celera produced was little more than the first decent map of a previously uncharted territory. The real work came in exploring this vast frontier, and biotech companies were staking claims – in the form of patents – over potentially valuable sections of genetic real estate.

The genetic gold rush was on, complete with prospectors in lab coats and outlaw claim-jumpers in dark suits armed with lawsuits and patent applications instead of six-shooters. ‘Most of our work is clear and uncontested,’ Eames continued, ‘but there are a few sequences we’re going to have to fight for.’

‘That’s why I prefer my side of the business,’ Sutton offered. ‘The patents on my work are based on inventions and processes – they’re totally unambiguous. Gene patents are a claim of ownership over a naturally occurring molecule.’

‘Are you saying we shouldn’t try to patent what Oz and his lab team finds?’ Kilkenny asked.

‘Not at all. As long as it’s legal to do so, we have to file patents on our work, if for no other reason than to prevent some company from shutting us out of a potentially profitable line of research.’

‘Lloyd and I have had this conversation before,’ Eames explained to Kilkenny, ‘usually after a couple beers when we’re both feeling philosophical.’

‘Sounds like the old debate between discovery and invention. You can’t patent the fire, but you can patent the matches.’

‘Exactly, Nolan,’ Sutton agreed.

‘Since you brought up your side of the business, Lloyd, how’s work coming on that package for NASA?’

‘Slow, but we’re getting there. The biggest problem we’ve run into is vibration. Our equipment has to withstand a launch and a jarring impact on Europa.’

‘Take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’,’ Eames summarized.

‘I sent out a unit this week to NASA for testing. We should know something in a few months.’

‘Good,’ Kilkenny said. ‘Where are we on building depth?’

‘We’ve sampled just over twelve hundred individuals from a variety of ethnic backgrounds,’ Eames replied, ‘including multiple family members, so we’re making progress on building a database of genetic norms and variations. I’m just starting to get DNA in from zoos around the country, as well as material from the agriculture firms you cut deals with, but we’re about where we expected to be with the flora and fauna side of our database.’

‘What about the Jurassic Park stuff?’ Kilkenny asked.

Sutton rolled his eyes. He hated Kilkenny’s nickname for the extinct and endangered species portion of the database. ‘We have the first few samples, with more expected to trickle in over the next few months. Sorry to say, but there’s not a T-rex in the lot.’

‘Make lousy house pets, anyway,’ Eames added. ‘Better off sticking with your dogs.’

Kilkenny checked his watch. ‘Gentlemen, thanks for the update. Now I have a little surprise for you.’

A high-definition video monitor on the wall of the conference room displayed a bright blue test screen. A moment later, square bits of a still image appeared like scattered pieces of a puzzle trying to assemble itself. The image blinked once and filled the screen as the satellite connection between MARC and the LV Research Station was established.

‘Hello from scenic Lake Vostok,’ Nedra said with a smile, Collins seated at her side. ‘How are things back in the world?’

‘Cold, and we’re getting a bit of snow right now,’ Kilkenny replied.

‘You poor boys,’ Nedra said. ‘It’s a lovely morning here. The sun is shining, just like it does all day, every day, and it’s a balmy minus forty-four.’

‘You want to trade?’ Collins asked.

‘No way,’ Eames replied. ‘Michigan is more than cold enough for me. I don’t know how you two can stand it down there.’

‘Actually, it’s very cozy,’ Nedra said. ‘I’ve even managed to get a pretty good tan.’

Nedra turned in her chair and rolled the waist of her sweatpants down just enough to reveal a tan line on her hip. Collins laughed at the embarrassed looks on the faces of the three men in Ann Arbor.

‘You’ve been sunbathing at the South Pole?’ Kilkenny asked.

‘They’ve been down there too long, Nolan,’ Eames said. ‘NASA better pull them out ASAP.’

‘When there’s no wind, the sun’s strong enough to keep you warm,’ Nedra explained. ‘It’s like spring skiing at Tahoe.’

‘Enough of this chit-chat,’ Eames said. ‘What are you bringing home for us?’

‘It better be more than a T-shirt,’ Sutton added.

‘Oh, it will be,’ Collins promised, ‘considering what you’ve invested in this project.’

Nedra looked directly at Eames and Sutton. ‘The life flourishing in Lake Vostok is far beyond anything we anticipated. We’ve got some great samples for you guys to work on. Did IPL send you any of the pictures?’

‘Yeah, just got ‘em,’ Kilkenny replied. He slid a file across the table to Eames and Sutton.

‘Jesus, that’s beautiful,’ Eames said as he spread the glossy prints on the table.

‘Cousteau would’ve been proud,’ Kilkenny agreed.

‘We loaded the last samples yesterday and the cryobot is on its way back to the surface,’ Collins said. ‘As the pictures show, there’s some pretty bizarre stuff down there, and we’ve only just started exploring this lake. I hope we can count on UGene’s continued support of this project.’

‘Once we get these first samples analyzed, I’m sure there won’t be any trouble funding a more comprehensive investigation of Lake Vostok,’ Kilkenny predicted. ‘Since NASA’s announcement in December, I’ve taken calls from several drug companies offering millions for a peek at your samples.’

‘Lloyd and I have increased the scan rate on our sequencers,’ Eames said. ‘Depending on the size of the genome, it shouldn’t take more than a few weeks to decode whatever you’re bringing back.’

‘And we’re working on some more improvements to make the process even faster,’ Sutton added.

‘I’d be even happier if you’d make your equipment smaller and lighter,’ Nedra said. ‘As you already know, space on the Europa Lander will be at a premium.’

‘We’ll do what we can,’ Sutton promised.

‘While you two are busy raising the cryobot and getting packed for the trip home, I’ll be working my way south to pick you up,’ Kilkenny announced.

‘What? You’re coming here?’ Collins asked, incredulous.

‘Yeah. Something came up and the NSF agreed to let me have a seat on one of their planes. If everything stays on schedule, I’ll be knocking on your front door in couple of weeks.’

The image on the wall monitor began to degrade.

‘Looks like our time is up,’ Kilkenny announced. ‘See you soon.’

Collins and his wife waved, then the image disintegrated and the screen turned solid blue. Kilkenny switched the monitor off. ‘It’s not every day you chat with someone at the South Pole.’

‘These photographs are amazing,’ Sutton said. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite like this.’

‘Twenty million years of total isolation will do that to an ecosystem,’ Kilkenny said. ‘The Galapagos Islands were never cut off like Lake Vostok.’

Eames looked up from the photos. ‘All this good news calls for a celebration. Everyone up for dinner?’

‘I’m in,’ Kilkenny replied.

‘I’ve got plans,’ Sutton said apologetically, ‘but let me make a quick call. I’m sure I’ve got time for a drink.’

They ended up at Connor O’Neill’s, a Main Street restaurant modeled after the pubs of rural Ireland. In the front corner, a live band filled the place with a rollicking ballad that incited several patrons to holler and clap along with them.

‘Evening, Oz,’ a waitress called out as they entered, her accent authentic Dublin. ‘I see you brought some friends with ya tonight. If you like, there’s an open table by the fire.’

‘Thanks, Hannah.’

‘You come here a lot?’ Kilkenny asked.

‘I’m a regular,’ Eames replied. ‘Didn’t I ever tell you I was Black Irish?’

Kilkenny considered for a moment if Eames was serious. While it was obvious that most of Eames’s lineage was African, Kilkenny had to concede the possibility that, somewhere in the scientist’s ancestry, there might be a Spanish sailor who washed up on the Irish coast after the English navy destroyed the famed Armada. ‘I guess that would make us cousins.’

Eames turned and smiled at him. ‘Glad you finally noticed the family resemblance.’

On the way back, they ordered three pints of amber ale from the bar and settled in at a table by the fireplace.

‘To Lake Vostok,’ Kilkenny offered, his pint of beer raised.

Eames and Sutton seconded the toast and drained an inch from their glasses.

‘May I join you?’ a woman asked.

Kilkenny looked up as a woman approached the table. She looked to be in her early forties, with shoulder-length blond hair and the wardrobe of a working professional. To Kilkenny’s surprise, Sutton rose and kissed the woman on the cheek.