The Ice Limit

down with a loud crunch, and began to chew.

McFarlane placed his candy on the table. 'So what are you saying?'

'You know what I'm saying. I'm saying it's made of some weird element we've never seen before. So stop being coy. I know that's what you've been thinking: This is it: this is an interstellar meteorite.'

McFarlane raised his hand. 'All right, it's true, I have been thinking about it.'

'And?'

'All the meteorites ever found have been made from known elements — nickel, iron, carbon, silicon. They all formed here, in our own solar system, out of the primordial cloud of dust that once surrounded our sun.' He paused, choosing his words carefully. 'Obviously, you know I used to speculate about the possibility of meteorites coming from outside the solar system. A chunk of something that just happened to wander past and get caught in the sun's gravitational field. An interstellar meteorite.'

Amira smiled knowingly. 'But the mathematicians said it was impossible: a quintillion to one.'

McFarlane nodded.

'I ran some calculations back on the ship. The mathematicians were wrong: they were working from faulty assumptions. It's only about a billion to one.'

McFarlane laughed. 'Yeah. Billion, quintillion, what's the difference?'

'It's a billion to one for any given year.'

McFarlane stopped laughing.

'That's right,' said Amira. 'Over billions of years, there's a better than even chance that one did land on Earth. It's not only possible, it's probable. I resurrected your little theory for you. You owe me, big time.'

A silence fell in the commissary hut, broken only by the rattle of wind. Then McFarlane began to speak. 'You mean you really believe this meteorite is made of some alloy or metal that doesn't exist anywhere in the solar system?'

'Yup. And you believe it, too. That's why you haven't written your report.'

McFarlane went on slowly, almost to himself. 'If this metal did exist somewhere, we'd have found at least some trace of it. After all, the sun and the planets formed from the same dust cloud. So it must have come from beyond.' He looked at her. 'It's inescapable.'

She grinned. 'My thoughts exactly.'

He fell silent and the two sat, absorbed for the moment. 'We need to get our hands on a piece of it,' Amira said at last. 'I've got the perfect tool for the job, too, a highspeed diamond corer. I'd say five kilos would be a nice chunk to start with, wouldn't you?'

McFarlane nodded. 'But let's just keep our speculations to ourselves for now. Lloyd and the rest are due here any minute.'

As if on cue, there was a stomping outside the hut, and the door opened to reveal Lloyd, even more bearlike than usual in a heavy parka, framed against the dim blue light. Glinn followed, then Rochefort and Garza. Lloyd's assistant, Penfold, came last, shivering, his thick lips blue and pursed.

'Cold as a witch's tit out there,' Lloyd cried, stamping his feet and holding his hands near the stove. He was bubbling over with good humor. The men from EES, on the other hand, simply sat down at the table, looking subdued.

Penfold took up a position in the far corner of the room, radio in hand. 'Mr. Lloyd sir, we have to get to the landing site,' he said. 'Unless the helicopter leaves within the hour, you'll never get back to New York in time for the shareholders' meeting.'

'Yes, yes. In a minute. I want to hear what Sam here has to say.'

Penfold sighed and murmured into the radio.

Glinn glanced at McFarlane with his gray, serious eyes. 'Is the report ready?'

'Sure.' McFarlane nodded at the piece of paper.

Glinn glanced at it. 'I'm not much in the mood for drollery, Dr. McFarlane.'

It was the first time McFarlane had seen Glinn show irritation, or any strong emotion, for that matter. It occurred to him that Glinn, too, must have been shocked by what they found in the hole. This is a man who hates surprises, he thought. 'Mr. Glinn, I can't base a report on speculation,' he said. 'I need to study it.'

'I'll tell you what we need,' Lloyd said loudly. 'We need to get it the hell out of the ground and into international waters, before the Chileans get wind of this. You can study it later.' It seemed to McFarlane that this was the latest salvo in a continuing argument between Glinn and Lloyd.

'Dr. McFarlane, perhaps I can simplify matters,' Glinn said. 'There's one thing I'm particularly interested in knowing. Is it dangerous?'

'We know it's not radioactive. It might be poisonous, I suppose. Most metals are, to one degree or another.'

'How poisonous?'

McFarlane shrugged. 'Palmer touched it, and he's still alive.'

'He'll be the last one to do that,' Glinn replied. 'I've given orders that nobody is to come into direct contact with the meteorite, under any circumstances.' He paused. 'Anything else? Could it be harboring viruses?'

'It's been sitting there for millions of years, so any alien microbes would have dispersed long ago. It might be worth taking soil samples and collecting moss, lichen, and other plants from the area, to see if anything's unusual.'

'What would one look for?'

'Mutations, perhaps, or signs of low-level exposure to toxins or teratogens.'

Glinn nodded. 'I'll speak to Dr. Brambell about it. Dr. Amira, any thoughts on its metallurgical properties? It is a metal, isn't it?'

There was another crunch of candy. 'Yes, very likely, since it's ferromagnetic. Like gold, it doesn't oxidize. However, I can't figure out how a metal can be red. Dr. McFarlane and I were just discussing the need to take a sample.'

'Sample?' Lloyd asked. The room fell silent at the change in his voice.

'Of course,' said McFarlane after a moment. 'It's standard procedure.'

'You're going to cut a piece off my meteorite?'

McFarlane looked at Lloyd, and then at Glinn. 'Is there a problem with that?'

'You're damn right there's a problem,' Lloyd said. 'This is a museum specimen. We're putting it on display. I don't want it chopped up or drilled.'

'There isn't a major meteorite found that hasn't been sectioned. We're only talking about coring out a five- kilogram piece. That'll be enough for all the tests anyone could conceivably think of. A piece that large could be worked on for years.'

Lloyd shook his head. 'No way.'

'We must do it,' McFarlane said with vehemence. 'There's no way to study this meteorite without vaporizing, melting, polishing, etching. Given the size of this thing, the sample would be a drop in the bucket.'

'It ain't the Mona Lisa,' Amira murmured.

'That's an ignorant comment,' Lloyd said, rounding on her. Then he sank back with a sigh. 'Cutting it up seems like such a — well, a sacrilege. Couldn't we just leave it a mystery?'

'Absolutely not,' said Glinn. 'We need to know more about it before I'll authorize moving it. Dr. McFarlane is right.'

Lloyd stared at him, his face reddening. 'Before you'll authorize moving it? Listen to me, Eli. I've gone along with all your little rules. I've played your game. But let's get one thing straight: I'm paying the bills. This is my meteorite. You signed a contract to get it for me. You like to brag that you've never failed. If this ship returns to New York without that meteorite, you will have failed. Am I right?'

Glinn looked at Lloyd. Then he spoke calmly, almost as one might speak to a child. 'Mr. Lloyd, you will get your meteorite. I merely want to see you have it without anyone getting unnecessarily hurt. Isn't that what you