Astrid Maxxim and the Antarctic Expedition Page 6

  “Going on with what?”

  “Maxxim Industries is big news here. Everyone is wondering if it’s going to be around much longer.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” advised Astrid. “Maxxim Industries will never go away.”

  “Astrid, there’s a lot going on. If the company gets bought out or taken over or something, my dad and I might have to move. We might not be neighbors anymore. The news said there was a board meeting to discuss Maxxim’s future July 30th.”

  “Well, I’ll be home by then,” said Astrid.

  “But what can you do, Astrid. You’re not even on the board.”

  “Don’t worry. These things always work out for the best.”

  Chapter Eleven: Penguins and Seals

  Astrid checked on Christopher once again before turning in. He seemed to be doing better. Once she had brushed her teeth and climbed into her bed, she began to feel some of the effects of motion sickness. Her cabin seemed to be going up and down a lot more than she knew it actually was. Remembering the red pills that Océane had given her, she took one with a glass of water and eventually fell asleep.

  It took the two teens from Maxxim City about a week to learn all the duties and procedures that they needed to know as members of a research crew, but by the following week they were hard at word, rotating through the various laboratories. It took them almost that long to get their sea legs, and to no longer feel the effects of the constant movement of the ship. Every few days though, when the icy winds brought in another storm, they had to resort to the little red pills. Even then they suffered from queasy stomachs.

  For Astrid and Christopher both, their work on Amphitrite was a dream come true— days filled with nothing but scientific research and observation. In their off duty time, they made new friends among the crew and spent a lot of time with Océane, whom they both liked more and more as they got to know her. They made sure to spend the hour and a half or so of daylight on deck, whenever possible.

  Astrid hadn’t forgotten about her four projects back home. She sent several emails to Dennis Brown Sr. about both the design of her space plane and the aerodynamics of her electric racecar. She jotted down ideas to try out with her ground Astridium. Finally she sent a long email to a prominent veteran’s organization regarding Project RG-7. The organization responded with a string of messages and ultimately with a file on a wounded American soldier named Captain David Bonnefoy.

  It was on Wednesday of their third week aboard Amphitrite that Astrid ran into Océane as she was on her way to enjoy the brief sunshine.

  “Astrid, come topside. We are surrounded by penguins!”

  Even hurrying, it took several minutes to get all bundled up in her cold weather gear, but at last the two girls reached the ship’s deck and peered out over the railing. The sea was churning with black and white torpedoes. Several nearby ice flows with flat tops were crowded with the little fellows resting between fishing dives.

  “This is awesome!” shouted Astrid with excitement.

  “Ever seen anything like it?” asked Christopher suddenly at their side. “I was up here working with Augusto and they just started arriving in groups. Just when you don’t think any more can show up, some do.”

  “There must be some massive school of fish down below.”

  A moment later, Dr. Feuillée stepped out onto the deck.

  “This is too good an opportunity to pass up. We’re diving to shoot some film. Would the three of you like to come along?”

  “Absolutely,” said Astrid. “Are we using the mini-subs?”

  “No. We won’t be able to get the shots we need unless we’re swimming among them.”

  “Isn’t it too cold?” asked Christopher.

  “We’ll be alright for a short time in our drysuits,” said the French oceanographer. “I know that Astrid and Océane are experienced divers. What about you?”

  “I don’t have as much experience as Astrid, but I do have my certification,” explained Christopher. “I’ve never used a dry suit before though.”

  “We’ll take care of you,” said Dr. Feuillée. “Come on. We have to hurry.”

  They quickly climbed down to lowest deck above the waterline where a dive room was located. Though they hurried and had crewmen to help them, it was still quite an ordeal to put on the drysuits. They were several times as thick as normal wetsuits, which were themselves no picnic to get into. Unlike those more common diving outfits, which let water between the neoprene rubber and the skin, these would keep the water out entirely. Instead of a traditional face mask and a regulator with a mouthpiece, they donned full-face masks, which not only kept water off of most of their face, but also allowed them to talk over radio.

  Finally the outer hatch was opened and eight divers helped each other step out onto a floating platform just outside. In addition to Dr. Feuillée, Océane, Astrid, and Christopher, there were four Amphitrite crewmen. Lucas and Enzo were camera operators, while Hugo and Emma had been instructed to keep an eye on the three fourteen-year-olds.

  Even with the drysuit on, when Astrid jumped into the water, the cold was like a kick in the chest. She couldn’t ever remember being that cold; even standing in the Antarctic night while Remie repaired the ice sensor. A minute later though she forgot the temperature as what seemed like a hundred penguins shot past her. They looked more like they were flying than swimming and soared along at incredible speed. Her eyes followed them and she saw more in the distance, along with a large dark patch in the water.

  “That’s a bait ball,” said Dr. Feuillée’s voice over the radio. “It’s a huge cloud of krill. We’re going to swim over toward it. I want to remind you to be on your toes. There could be other creatures arriving to feed on the krill or the penguins and some of them can be dangerous. If you see something, report it, and then swim back toward the ship.”

  They swam about a hundred meters until they could make out the enormous cloud of life, though it was only possible to identify it as krill by the few stragglers that swam closer to the humans. They proved to be the luckier members of their species, since the penguins left them alone, either because of their proximity to people, or the bird’s desire to scoop up more than one at a time.

  “Keep a sharp lookout for orcas,” said one of the crewmen, Astrid couldn’t tell which one.

  “I thought killer whales didn’t come in close to the ice,” said Christopher.

  “That’s true in the arctic,” said Dr. Feuillée, “but down here we have a different and much larger population and they have taught each other to hunt far into the ice flows.”

  “They aren’t dangerous to humans are they?” wondered Astrid.

  “There’s no recorded case of an orca attacking a human in the wild. Still, they are powerful wild creatures and it is good not to take that for granted.”

  Only a few seconds later, Astrid caught her first glimpse of an Antarctic mammal swimming underwater. It wasn’t a killer whale though, but a seal. It was about seven feet long, with fur that was almost white.

  “Crabeater seals,” said Dr. Feuillée. “They don’t eat crabs though. They eat almost exclusively krill.

  Soon there were dozens of lightly colored seals, pausing only briefly to eye the strangers before shooting into the cloud of krill. Then Astrid saw another seal. This one had to be at least ten feet long, with spotted fur, and was much heavier than the crabeaters. She recognized it as a Weddell Seal. She looked around but didn’t see any others like it.

  “We have only about ten more minutes,” said Dr. Feuillée. “Lucas, Emma, and Enzo are going in with me for some closer shots. You kids stay back here with Hugo.”

  The four researchers swam toward the feeding penguins and seals, lighting up the dark water with massive movie lights attached to the cameras. Astrid and the others did as directed but having nothing to do but watch the filming from a distance gave her time to remember just how cold she was. She was starting to feel a dull ache in her fingers and toes.

  Sud
denly a cloud passed over her. She looked up and for a second she thought the Weddell Seal had returned to give her a second look. Though it was about the same size and color, this was not the same seal. Instead of the friendly smile common to most pinnipeds, this creature had a mouth full of sharp teeth that would have put a Siberian tiger to shame.

  “Leopard seal!” called Hugo, with a hint of panic in his voice.

  Before anyone could do or say anything else, the sea mammal shot down toward them like a rocket. It opened its mouth and latched onto Astrid’s right foot, dragging her along like a big dog would drag a play-toy. Though she flailed her arms and kicked her feet, she was unable to get away, or even slow her descent, and the leopard seal dragged her down into the depths.

  Astrid struggled against the downward pull of the leopard seal, but it was no use. The water around her quickly grew darker until it was so black, she couldn’t see the sea mammal or even her own hands. She looked up as she tried to swim and saw that she couldn’t even see light in that direction. It was as if she was lost in interstellar space being tugged toward a black hole. And suddenly the pulling stopped. She kicked both her feet, but the seal no longer had her. She looked around, expecting at any moment to be grabbed again, or to be bitten, but the predator could have been two feet away and she wouldn’t have known it.

  Realizing that she was breathing very rapidly, she struggled to slow her breaths. She couldn’t afford to use up all her air supply, and she certainly didn’t want to hyperventilate and pass out down here. As she concentrated on breathing in and out slowly, she suddenly realized that half a dozen voices were screaming over the radio.

  “Silence!” It was Dr. Feuillée’s voice. All the shouting ceased. “Astrid, can you hear me?”

  “Yes, Dr. Feuillée. I’m okay, at least for now. The seal let me go, but I can’t see it now.”

  “How deep are you?”

  “Well, my friends tell me I speak emotionally but thoughtfully,” she said.

  She heard Christopher snort, but nobody else reacted.

  “That was a joke,” she said looking at the luminescent dial of her depth gauge. “I’m at 210 feet, give or take.”

  “Good,” said the oceanographer. “Now you know you can’t come up all the way at once?”

  “Yes. Toby got the bends a couple of weeks ago and that spoiled the idea for me. I may be short on air though. I’m afraid I didn’t control my breathing like I should have.”

  “That’s fine, Astrid. Don’t worry about that. We have more air. Are you injured?”

  “I honestly don’t know. My limbs are so cold they all hurt and it’s too dark to see blood in the water.”

  What followed was a hasty conversation, most of which she couldn’t follow because it was in French.

  “All right, Astrid,” said Dr. Feuillée at last. “Lucas and Hugo are taking Christopher and Océane back to the ship. Emma, Enzo, and I are coming to you. I want you to swim up to 150 feet, wait there, and look all around. We’ll be swimming in your direction with the camera lights on. When you see us, let us know over the radio, but don’t swim up until I tell you to.”

  “Roger.”

  Slowly kicking her feet, all the while watching her depth gauge, the girl inventor rose to the prescribed depth. She turned around and around, straining to see the lights. After a couple of minutes, she started getting a little dizzy so she stopped. It was then she saw the spots, perhaps only twenty or thirty feet away, but some distance above.

  “I see you,” she said. “You’re almost on top of me.”

  The lights pointed downward but not quite at her.

  “A little to the left.”

  Then they were shining in her eyes so brightly she had to turn away. Even looking away though, she could feel them coming closer.

  “Now Astrid,” said Dr. Feuillée. “We have descended to 100 feet. I want you to slowly swim up to meet us.”

  The fourteen-year-old did as directed and minutes later the four divers were united.

  “Let me see your air supply indicator,” said Dr. Feuillée. “I think you have enough air, but Enzo has an emergency tank just in case. Now we’ll all swim to just below Amphitrite, then from there we will ascend in two stages. An ascent rate of 30 feet per minute is usually acceptable, but since there isn’t a decompression chamber within 2000 miles, we’ll err on the side of caution.”

  They swam along fairly quickly for a few hundred feet to pause beneath the slightly darker spot above that represented the research vessel. After waiting for two minutes, they slowly rose to the 50 feet mark. Astrid could now clearly make out the shape of Amphitrite.

  “Mon dieu!” said Emma.

  Astrid turned and saw the leopard seal zooming directly toward her. The others tried to block her from it, but it easily maneuvered around them. Only when it was right in front of her could she see that it carried the body of a penguin in its maw, trailing a thin line of blood in the water behind it. It swam right up, bumping into her chest and then zipped away, but left the dead bird floating next to her. The group shot up to the surface, but Astrid kept her eye on the beast the whole time. It swam to where she had just been and grabbed the penguin, once again shooting toward her. As she bobbed in the waves, she felt two sets of strong hands grasp her shoulders and lift her up out of the water. She jerked her feet up above the surface too. The others quickly followed her onto the diving platform by way of ladder.

  Seconds later they were all inside the ship, being helped out of their scuba gear and being wrapped in warm blankets. They examined Astrid’s swim fin to find a row of large teeth marks, including two round holes made by large upper and lower canines, just below where her toes had been.

  “Thank goodness it didn’t get your foot,” said Christopher. “It might have taken it off.”

  “Yes, I’m sort of attached to my foot,” replied the girl inventor. “I’ve had a lot of adventures this year, but there’s nothing quite so freighting as something trying to eat you.”

  “I don’t think she wanted to eat you,” said Dr. Feuillée.

  “She?”

  “Yes, a mature female about 14 or 15 years old I would say. I think she was playing with you when she grabbed your foot. Then she brought you the penguin as a present. I believe she thought you would make a good mate.”

  “Well, the feeling isn’t mutual,” said Astrid.

  Chapter Twelve: The Lost Base

  Astrid and Christopher continued their work aboard Amphitrite, learning a great deal about oceanography, marine biology, undersea seismography, global weather patterns, and other related topics. They made one other scuba dive, but experienced no adventure quite like the one with the amorous seal. They also made a dive in the mini-subs, sailing in and among the icebergs. It was a crystalline wonderland. They also endured two days of extremely rough seas.

  Astrid received video calls from home about every other day, as did Christopher. She spoke to her parents often, though conspicuously absent from their conversations was any news of Maxxim Industries and its financial situation. She also spoke several times with Denise and the two Valeries, and once to Austin. She talked several times at length with Maxwell Bauer. Sadly there were no more calls from Toby. Five days after her underwater adventure, Astrid received a call from Connor Brown at the New Zealand Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

  “Hello Miss Maxxim. I just wanted to let you know that my idiot… my movie director has found the site of your great-grandfather’s camp. He also discovered what it is that’s under the ice.”

  “It’s not a shape-changing alien, is it?” she asked.

  “No. It’s gold—possibly a lot of it. Of course currently the United Nations prohibits any mining beyond simple research on the continent. That being said, your family might have some claim to it, based on your great-grandfather’s discovery. It will probably take years to figure out the legality of it all.”

  “Well I don’t want any of it. My feeling is that rather than destr
oying the fragile ecosystem of Antarctica, it should be left there for posterity. If, in the future, technology is developed to safely mine it, then the money from the sale of the gold should be set aside for the preservation of the continent.”

  “I agree with you completely, Miss Maxxim, but can you speak for your whole family?”

  “I can on this,” she said.

  “Excellent. I’m going to pass all this up to the politicians. In the meantime, our movie director, Bart Greenwood is his name, wondered if you wanted to visit the site. I have his coordinates.”

  “If I can use Dr. Feuillée’s helicopter, I would love to get up there.

  “Excellent, I’ll let him know. One other thing, Miss Maxxim.”

  “Yes?”

  “I love my hoverbike.”

  The following day was clear so Astrid, Christopher, and Océane climbed aboard the helicopter and travelled south to the coordinates. The location was in the foothills of the Queen Maude Mountains. The flight took three hours and the pilot landed only long enough for the three teens to debark. Then he took off for the return trip, promising to pick them up the next day if the weather was just as clear. It was so cold that had the engines been shut down, they might have frozen and not started again. On Amphitrite they had the de-icing gear they would need in such a situation, but not in the frozen wilderness.

  The film crew consisted of about thirty people set up in a dozen large orange tents. When the three youths were ushered inside one of them, they were surprised at just how warm it was. Bart Greenwood introduced himself as a cameraman filmed.

  “So this is the daughter of French oceanographer Jean Paul Feuillée, and this is the famous girl genius Astrid Maxxim.”

  “A pleasure to meet you,” said Astrid. “This is my friend Christopher Harris.”

  “Come along,” said Greenwood. “I want to show you what we’ve found.”

  They hiked through the darkness, up the slope of a hill, until they came to a hollow between the foothills. Here, scattered around were the remains of a campsite preserved for nearly a hundred years. Greenwood pointed out items of interest— pick axes, the remains of snowshoes, an ancient rusted pistol, and finally, half excavated from the ice, a human skull. All the while, the movie camera whirred behind them.