[Atrocities]

In the mid day sun the temperature on the Northern Victorian Glacier can reach as high as minus thirty degrees below zero. However if you factor in the wind chill the temperature can plummet to minus two hundred below zero. Zero being the point at which water freezes.

Standing in the open, Captain Macmillan estimated the temperature to be, factoring in the wind chill of course, around minus fifty degrees at the moment. Without his cold weather gear, he would have frozen to death in a matter of seconds. Such vastness he thought to him self, how could anyone ever ignore its beauty. He was studying the newly established parameter for this current base of operations, a parameter that was nearly a mile in circumference around the object frozen in the glacier.

By this time tomorrow, but not soon enough for his needs, this entire area would be monitored for movement, sound, heat and even pressure changes, nothing would be able to enter or leave this site without his knowing of it.
“I want this area secure by the end of the day.” Said Captain Macmillan as he pointed to areas around the discovery site. “I want motion sensors and heat detectors along the entire circumference of the operations area and our compound.” He pointed to key location on a digital map on his command and control pad, CCP for short. A device used to relay order to team leaders instantly without the need for verbal communications. It was an effective way to give orders and have them carried out. Quick reliable, and fool proof.

“Yes sir.” Responded a Lieutenant Michael Winston,, Captain Macmillan’s aid, as he to entered data into his command and control pad. “The Engineering Team has arrived, and the Chief Engineer would like to meet with you”
“Very good.”
“Guardian One has returned with the missing scientists and all other search teams have been ordered back.”
“Assign them to patrol duty in layers ranging from one mile as far out as five hundred.”
“Yes sir.”
“I also want the scientist at that the Glacier research base camp taken to Davenport. Tell them that they are under military quarantine.”
“What about the ones here?”
“They know to much, I want to keep them here until I receive orders to the contrary.”
“Yes sir. I’ll have then collared.”
“Do that and make sure they understand what will happen to them if they attempt to escape. In the mean time direct the Chief Engineer to Operations Tent.”
“Yes Sir.” Responded Winston as he walked away. Macmillan stood there for a moment looking about the vast openness of the northern part of the Victorian Glacier. My god what desolation. He thought to himself then walked away.

Lieutenant Winston and five armed men carrying what looked like small black belts walked into the mess tent where all of the scientist were being held. He wasted no time on pleasantries as he made his announcement.
“You are all going to be fitted with monitoring collars that will allow you to move about the camp but will prevent you from leaving it. It you attempt to leave it, the collar will paralyze you and notify Command Operations. You will then be taken into custody and placed in a five by eight holding cell on the Argo once she arrives.” He looked about the room to ensure that everyone there had heard him.
“Just for your information these devices are sound monitored, and we will be listening.” He nodded at one of the armed soldiers to begin placing the collars on people. For the most part everyone complied without resisting. Everyone that is except Dr. Mentor who demanded to speak to Captain Macmillan.

“I will not allow you to place that damned thing around my neck until I have spoken to your commanding officer!” Stated Dr. Mentor adamantly.
Winston just looked at him for a long second then nodded. “Very well Dr. Come with me.”
Dr. Mentor and Lieutenant Winston left the mess tent. Not more than a foot out of the door Winston, a tall and very strong man struck Dr. Mentor in the lower left leg just behind his knee with his left foot causing the Dr. to scream out in pain and fall to his knees. Winston then grabbed a handful of the doctors hair and pulled his head back. One of the other soldiers placed a collar around Dr. Mentors neck and stepped back. Winston knelt down beside Dr. Mentor, still holding a handful of his hair, and whispered into his ear.
“If you ever talk to me like that again in front of my men, I will break your legs in five places and leave you without regard to die in an open pit. Have I made myself clear to you doctor?” Mentor looking rather startled and in some pain simply nodded as best he could against the constant pull of his hair.
“Very good. No follow me.” With that Winston released his grip on Dr. Mentors hair and stood. He began walking toward a solid black tent that Mentor assumed was the newly established Operations Tent. It took him a few seconds to gather his composure and stand. He had underestimated their situation, if people like this Lieutenant Winston had their way, they would all be lined up and shot. He knew he had to be careful now, for one wrong move, and everyone would surely die.
“Coming doctor?” Asked Winston in a mock polite tone.
“Lead on Lieutenant.” He replied as politely as he could given the anger he felt.

“At best estimate it will take us about two weeks to dig an access shaft to that opening.” Stated Engineer Ron Lindley as he pointed to a digital reading on his data pad. Ron was a husky man with short brown hair. He had a tan complexion and seemed to always be smiling. “From what we have here, the data shows the entrance to be nearly half a mile down through solid hardened ice.”
“Two weeks is unacceptable.” Said Macmillan as he stood next to him looking at a data pad. “Is there no way that you can speed things up?”
“Well we could if we had a clear and accurate depth and density reading of the ice around and under the object. With that we could use sculpted charges and cut our bLast time in half.”
“The winter weather will begin to effect this area in about a month.” Commented Macmillan
“I understand that Captain, but this core sampling the one the scientist did.” He held it up for inspection. “Just does not have the information I need. For all we know, the ice around the object could be unstable.” Lindley looked down at the data pad on the table. “Hell we’re not even sure that this is an opening, it could be just about anything. We simply do not have enough accurate information to be certain.”

“We could perform another core scan of the object.” Commented Calvin Kurd, another engineer.
“No, they’re not accurate enough.” Replied Lindley as he moved to a large display of a top down satellite image of the object and the outlining area.
“We could just bLast according to our best guess, and conduct scans as we go deeper. It would speed the process up by a few days.” Commented Kurd.
“That would be far to dangerous, one wrongly placed charge and we could severely damage or even destroy the object.” Responded Lindley flatly.
“Destroy it how?” Macmillan asked.
“Its like this Captain, we have to be certain of how the ice will fracture when a charge is detonated, how thick the ice is, what its density is and how the bLast will effect the overall stability of the ice. BLasting ice is like cutting diamonds. One wrong move and you destroy the diamond. For example, the ice could fracture under the focal layer and this entire shelf could simply shift to the side with the least amount of pressure thus crushing the object.” Ron was deadly serious, and he wanted the Captain to know it.
“Simply put we do not know how deep this ice is. For all we know, that thing out there could be sitting on only an inch of ice covering a vast chamber and one wrong bLast and this entire area would collapse into the chamber and game over.“
“What is the likelihood of such an event?” Macmillan asked.
“The likelihood of such an event occurring is high given the fact that this entire region has thousands of such caverns.”
He paused for effect as he folded his arms.
“Basically put sir, If we just bLast without regard, we could cause the entire ice flow to collapse inward and that is something we do not want.”
“So bLasting is out of the question?” Commented Macmillan more to himself than to the people around him as he tossed his data pad onto the table.
“Unless you can give me a core sampling that accurately reads more than a hundred feet, there is no way.”
“Perhaps I can be of some help then.” Said Dr. Mentor politely.
Both men were so intent upon their discussion they did not notice that Dr. Mentor and Lieutenant Winston had entered the tent. Both Lindley and Macmillan looked over at the doctor in silence.

“I could not help but over hear your situation as the Lieutenant and I walked up.” Said Dr. Mentor as he removed his coat. The temperature in the Operations tent was a comfortable sixty degrees above zero. Odd thought Dr. Mentor, why they called these things tents when in fact they were prefab buildings complete with insulated walls, flooring, and ceiling. Perhaps because they assembled like tents.
“Captain Ron Lindley, meet Dr. Brook Mentor.” Introduced Macmillan as he flashed the doctor a casual smile.
“I am familiar with Dr. Mentor.” Said Lindley as he smiled from ear to ear and offered his hand to Mentor. “I attended a few of his seminars on gravitational technology. I was going to enter the field of Gravitational Theory but life took me in a different direction.”
Taking the offered hand Mentor smiled.
“Indeed, it is a shame that life would be so cruel as to place a potential gravitational scientist in with such bad company?” Mentor said in serious non-joking tone as he shook Lindley‘s hand. Winston flashed him a dirty look and was about to revive the good doctors memory of their earlier conversation when Macmillan put his hand on his arm to steady him.
“Very clever Doctor.” Replied Macmillan. Mentor just smirked at him as politely as he could.
“What do you propose?” Asked Lindley with some agitation in his voice.
“First I want this god forsaken thing off of my neck.” Mentor said angrily.
Macmillan looked at him for a second then nodded to Winston who reluctantly stepped behind the doctor and started to remove the collar. He slapped Mentor on the back of the head, accidentally of course, as he finished removing the it. He flashed the doctor a ‘oop’ look as he stepped to the side. Mentor just looked at him without an expression. ‘In time all good things come to those who wait.’ Thought Mentor to himself before directing his attention back toward Captain Macmillan.

“One other thing, we over heard your men earlier commenting that they had captured both Nina Smith and Bill Ramzies. Is this correct?”
“Yes.” Replied Winston without explanation.
“Why have they not been returned to use?”
“Because they are being treated for injuries sustained during their apprehension.”
Commented Winston again.
“I am not asking you Lieutenant, I am asking the Captain.” This time Mentor was the one to flash the dirty look. Politeness be damned, Winston’s arrogance was getting on his nerves. If he was going to die, then he would die like a man, and not like some cowardly whimpering old man.
Winston took immediate offense at Dr. Mentors tone and stepped forward. “What did you say?” He damned in a hostile tone. Mentor matched posture for posture before choosing to ignore the danger, and looked directly at Winston, and said as sarcastically has he knew how; “You heard me Lieutenant.”

After what felt like hours, but was in fact only seconds, Dr. Mentor looked away from the menacing Lieutenant to make eye contact with Captain Macmillan.
“Captain Macmillan, what happened to them?”
“Your people are well doctor, and Lieutenant Winston will see to it that they are escorted to the mess tent immediately.” Winston cringed ever so slightly, but never the less he stepped back away from Mentor.
“Yes sir.” He said with professionalism and then left the tent.

“Thank you Captain.”
“Why are you here doctor?” Asked Macmillan without pretence and it took Mentor a second to collect his thoughts before he could answer.
“I wanted to know why my people and I are under arrest.” Stated Mentor flatly. “And why my people have been collard like animals?”
“Doctor Mentor.” Said Macmillan as he causally stepped to within inches of Mentor. He was in charge, and he wanted Mentor to understand that. “You and your people are free to move about the compound, provided that they do not attempt to leave it.” Macmillan was studying him for a reaction. “The collars are a necessity doctor.” He smiled. “A matter of global security.” He then stepped back a bit and gestured at the satellite image. “Now would you be so kind as to explain just how you can help us.”

Mentor looked for a long second at Macmillan. He was indeed an intelligent and perceptive man. Mentor knew that if he thought he was lying about being able to help them, he would have allowed that sadistic fleer Winston to beat the crap out of him.
“You need to know the depth and density of the ice around and under the object correct?”
“Yes.” Replied Lindley.
“I can use the Gravimetric Core Sampler to accomplish that.”
“I thought you had already done that?” Asked Lindley. “I am reviewing the data your team gathered, and it is noted that that is how you obtain the earlier readings.”
“We only used the Core Sampler part of the device, a core sampler that is specially designed to work in extreme cold weather. We did not use the GCS equipment when we took those readings.”
“What is a GCS?” Asked Kurd innocently.
Mentor looked at him and smiled. “GCS stands for Gravimetric Core Sampler. It is the device that we came up here to test.” Mentor pointed to the satellite image as he continued to speak. “As you all know this area has never before had an accurate core sampling. It is theorized that there may well be vast untapped resources under the Glacier, and with an accurate core sampling, we can begin the process of bLasting access tunnel through the ice to the ground beneath it. Given the fact that the Northern Glacier is riddled with thousands of caverns that can cause collapses without warning, having an accurate core reading is a must.”
“Dr. Mentors device, if I understand it correctly, uses a reverse gravimetric field to nullify the planets gravity to any depth thus allowing a core sampler to take an accurate reading of the ice.” Commented Lindley.
“Correct, as you know, fractures in the ice are so small that they can not be seen without the help of specialized equipment. And given that the ice flow of the Glacier is constantly in motion, it is next to impossible to obtain an accurate reading beyond a few feet. The GCS suspends an area in zero gravity thus stopping the motion of the ice and allowing the core sampler to obtain an accurate reading of the ice.”
“And without an accurate reading of the ice below you, you could easily tunnel right into an open cavern, and collapse the ice for which you are standing.” Commented Kurd as he began to understand the significance of the Dr. Mentors GCS device. “I guess the next question would be when can we get started?”
“With my teams help, we can perform a complete scan of the object and the area around it within three days.” Said Dr. Mentor.
“We can begin bLasting an entrance shaft once the reading is completed and we have a day or so to survey the best route.” Said Lindley excitedly as he punched figures into his pad.

“I am impressed Dr. Mentor.” Commented Macmillan as he put on his coat and stepped toward the entrance. “Have your team ready for work within the hour.” He said then exited the tent.