Interlude

#HT-C935-1109-463 a.k.a Earth.

Southern hemisphere.

Antarctica.

A polar desert.

Antarctica is a massive baren continent made up of massive flat sheets of ice.

The land with lowest recorded temperature of about 89 degrees Celsius below zero.

A frozen hell.

East Antarctic Ice Sheet.

There was a blizzard of magnificent proportions currently going on.

Powerful gales were whipping around enormous clouds of snow. Strong winds going nearly 300 kilometers per hour sent shattered shards of ice whipping about haphazardly.

These extreme conditions ensured that visibility remained steadily at zero. It would be lucky if you could see your own hands.

...

Donning a bright orange jacket with stripes of retroflective material looking like a blown up Michelin Man is Jimmy.

The 6'8" nearly 6'9" giant of a man looked tiny in the storm.

Jimmy wore a harness attached to a cable connected to the twelve other members of the expedition to prevent him from getting lost in the snow storm.

...

A few months back, satellite images showed a crevice in the ice and, as expected, scientists thought that it was the most fascinating thing ever and decided to explore it.

Initial probes discovered that there was a city-sized lake hidden deep underneath the Ice.

The hidden lake, which was named Lake Snow Eagle, had an estimated surface area of 370 km² (about 143 square miles) and lies in a mile-deep canyon beneath about 3 km of ice.

The team uncovered the lake following three years of aerial surveys over the ice sheet, using radar and special sensors designed to measure minuscule changes in Earth's gravity.

The scientists believe it could contain 34 million-year-old river sediments that are older than the ice sheet itself and could shed light on what Antarctica was like before the entire continent froze.

The current expedition served as the first on-the-ground team with the objective of setting up a forward base and, if possible, collect some samples to be sent back for further analysis.

Jimmy served as the team's Equipment Manager and General Assistant.

A very sophisticated way of calling him a pack mule. The extra muscle. A glorified servant. Fancy name or not, at the end of it all, that's what he was. A servant.

...

It started just like every other day Jimmy spent in this shit hole.

Jimmy woke up, prepared rations and coffee while the scientists talked about fancy stuff and generally ignored him.

One of them would look at weird pictures on his fancy machines to decide if they'd go out. They'd been stuck inside for several days now but it seems like the weather would be nicer today.

By nicer, they meant around 50 degrees below zero but atleast there'd be no storms.

For some reason Jimmy had a bad feeling about this but Jimmy said nothing.

Jimmy did not have thirty PhDs or a fancy machine so what did Jimmy know.

They started packing their fancy gadgets and as usual Jimmy got to carry the heaviest of them.

"Try not to break anything," They'd always say.

According to the pretty blonde girl with the glasses, they should get to the lake by today. Jimmy didn't know what was so special about a lake.

Jimmy used to swim in the lake back home with his cousin Judy all the time. It was fun but not nearly enough to go through all this trouble.

Jimmy thought about asking the pretty girl to go swim in the lake with him like he did with cousin Judy but decided not to.

Jimmy didn't think she'd like it.

So jimmy kept quiet and just followed them.

Everything was going well but the further they travelled, the worse Jimmy felt.

Jimmy tried to ignore the bad feeling in his tummy but could not hold it any longer and decided to tell the pretty lady about it.

She paused for a moment before taking out some fancy device from her pocket. Studying it for a while, her brows furrowed and then she slapped it against her gloved hand twice before looking at it again.

Whatever she saw must have satisfied her because she put it back with a small smile on her face.

"Don't worry, everything's fine. It's probably just the cold bothering you." She said.

Jimmy had a strong body and cold as it was, Jimmy didn't think it was the problem.

Jimmy knew he wasn't the smartest tool in the shed so Jimmy decided to stay silent.

The pretty lady was so smart, with her cool gadgets and fancy words and pretty hair and beautiful eyes and nice butt-... ahem. Anyway, she was a lot smarter so Jimmy decided to keep his worries to himself.

She probably knew better.

Jimmy truly thought so.

Until the storm began.

...

It wasn't obvious at first, just a small breeze. The rest of the scientists didn't notice it but jimmy did.

Jimmy wanted to tell the pretty lady about it but decide not to.

She looked so beautiful, I mean busy with her pouty lips and creased eyebrows looking at her fancy gadgets.

Jimmy decided not to bother her.

Besides everyone was way smarter than he was so they probably already know about it and decided it's fine. Once again, Jimmy stayed silent.

The small breeze started gaining momentum.

Jimmy noticed this too.

This time Jimmy was getting worried so he decided to voice his concerns.

"It's within acceptable range in this region. It will pass in a bit, don't worry about it," is what they said.

Jimmy didn't stop worrying. On the contrary, his worry increased the more they asked him not to worry.

Jimmy looked at the pretty lady.

She had her brows furrowed and her lips pursed in concentration while looking at something in her fancy gadget.

Jimmy wanted to ask her what she thought but decided to do so later. She seemed to be thinking about some super important stuff.

Jimmy didn't want to bother her so, once more, Jimmy kept quiet.

...

That was half an hour ago.

...

Now Jimmy was slowly trudging through chest high snow with both hands crossed near his face, futilely trying to protect himself from the flying ice shards.

It wasn't doing much good.

The fact that all Jimmy could see was white and was barely able to hear himself think also wasn't helping very much.

Jimmy wanted to find the pretty lady, and the other scientists of course, to know how she was doing but first, Jimmy needed to take care of himself.

Jimmy did not like this.

Oh no.

Jimmy did not like this at all.