Druid's Descendants (Druid's Path Book 4) by Mark Philipson

Author:Mark Philipson [Philipson, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub, mobi
Tags: Climate change, Flying creatures, Genetics, Sea creatures, Ancient civilizations
Publisher: Mark Philipson
Published: 2018-02-22T16:00:00+00:00

17

THE GATO CONTINUED making its way slowly, scouring out a path to the top of the ice-shelf.

Keeping the ship in a near vertical position, Kenshin guided the Gato as it stood on its tail and pushed the blowhole up into sheets of pack-ice. The whale maintained the pose while Kenshin set the detonator in the final meter of ice.

The crew and ship repeated this process again and again. Two days and twelve detonations later, the Gato melted four meters of ice and broke through to the surface.

Sobuku had spent the entire ice ascent strapped into the chair. Climate assessment equipment was tested and ready to deploy. There was only one thing left to do before leaving the ship and bring her gear onto the shelf.

Kenshin turned the Gato on its tail and maneuvered the massive whale head in tight circles. The blowhole converter melted a circular pattern. As the pattern widened, Kenshin eased the Gato on its side until the ship scoured out an elliptical hole roughly twice its size.

Two sections lifted off the face of the converter and telescoped outward and at a diameter of 20 meters. A network of blue cells lined the underside of the paddles. Sensors in the cell indicated temperatures nearing the freezing point at the bottom of the access point. The cells turned red. Radiant heat flowed off the grid and bathed the water column.

The ship-whale rested while radiant from the converter kept water temperatures above freezing and cutting off the ship’s escape route.

Because the sun rotated in a narrow circle on the horizon, light conditions remained the same 24 hours a day.

Because she had no need for sleep, Sobuku ran a final check on the equipment and second skin. She prepared to disembark.

She messaged Kenshin

— I’m ready to go out, Captain.

— Do you need assistance?

— I’ll be fine.

— Very well. Bring your gear to the bridge.

Sobuku threw the backpack over her shoulder, folded a tripod, telescoped the legs down, and slipped it into a sleep on the pack.

She climbed to the bridge. When she neared the top, Sobuku held on with one hand while she unslung the pack and then hoisted it into Kenshin’s waiting hands.

Kenshin set the pack down and pulled Sobuku the rest of the way up.

“I don’t think I’ll be able to fit through the converter with this pack on.”

“No, you won’t …” Kenshin looked at he pack. “I know, we’ll do it the old-time sailor way and hoist it out of the tube,” he said. “One of us must remain with the ship at all times. Mission Specialist Sato, bring the gear topside.”

Sobuku set the pack beneath the entrance to the blowhole. She located a rope, remembering to refer to it as a line when addressing the captain. After tying a perfect slip-loop to the shoulder harnesses, Sobuku climbed to the top of the converter tube.

For the side of the tube, Sobuku pulled out a hidden cleat and tried off the free end. She hauled the pack from the deck of the bridge to top of the blowhole.

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