million flashes of memory cascade behind her eyes — she saw the dreams, the images of this continent. They flew across the screen of her mind's eyes faster than she thought possible.
What was happening to her?
Mick shook her.
'Julia!'
She opened her eyes. The creature was still staring at her, its deep bulbous orbs probing. Finally, it broke the stare and slipped back out of the opening.
On to the roof.
Then it was gone.
The last of its screeches died as the cold Antarctic winds drowned out anything else.
'Oh my God.'
She looked at Mick. His face still looked hard. Determined. She'd never seen him look like that before. Was this some type of warrior conditioning he'd learned in special operations?
'You okay?'
She shook her head. 'What the hell was that?'
'I don't know.'
'The lights — '
'Yeah. They worked.'
'Lucky for us.'
'I don't know how lucky we'll be in the future.'
'What's that supposed to mean?'
Mick shrugged. 'Maybe it can adapt to whatever we throw at it. If it knows we know it's sensitive to light, maybe it has some method of protecting itself from it.'
'Great.'
'Did you see the way it paused at the top there? Maybe the lights only work within a set range. Once it's beyond that range, it can operate unaffected by it.' He looked at her. 'You okay?'
'Yeah.'
'You looked like you tuned out there for a second.'
'It…looked at me.'
'Yeah, it did.'
'I saw things. Memories. Dreams. I don't know. I felt like it was…almost accessing my mind.'
'Maybe it can.'
She looked back up at the opening. 'My God, what was it?'
Mick shook his head. 'I don't think we'll have any more visits tonight.'
The sound of running feet behind them made them turn around. Julia saw Wilkins duck through the door.
'What the fuck?'
'We saw it.'
'Saw what?' Kendall strolled through the door as if nothing had happened.
'The creature,' said Mick. 'It was inside.'
Wilkins nodded at the lights. 'They worked?'
'Yeah. Fortunately.'
Kendall frowned. 'Sure was a lucky thing that you thought of it, too, Mick. I'd sure love to know how you arrived at the idea they might be sensitive to light.'
'It seemed to make sense since it was coming at night.' He frowned. 'How about you tell us why you always speak in plurals when we talk about this thing?'
'What do you mean?'
'The rest of us say 'it'. You say 'they.' You know something about this thing that the rest of us don't?'
'Of course not.'
Julia searched his eyes but found no sign that he was lying. A scumbag like Kendall, she reasoned, he could talk his way out of anything.
Wilkins leaned against the wall. 'Well, what happens now?'
'I could use a break,' said Julia. 'I think waiting for that thing to come in sapped the rest of my energy.'
'It's adrenaline,' said Mick. 'Happens like that to everyone.' He glanced at Wilkins. 'You want to wake another team up and see if someone else will watch now. I don't think it'll be necessary. I doubt very much we'll see out visitor any more tonight.'
'You mean this morning.' Nung poked his head through the entryway.
Mick grinned. 'Yeah.'
'Me and Darren will take another spell of it anyway. Just to be sure.' He thumbed over his shoulder. 'The remote work okay for you?'
'Like a charm.'
Nung nodded. 'Good. We'll need it if that thing comes back.'
Havel wandered in drinking coffee. 'I made another pot. I thought perhaps people would want some.'
'I could use some sleep,' said Mick.
Julia looked at him. 'I think that's the first time I've heard you admit you might be human like the rest of us.'
He smiled. 'We'll need a lot more sleep to take care of what we'll have to do later today.'
'And what's that?'
Mick looked back up at the roof. 'Find out where that thing is coming from.'
8
By noon, Mick had woken up and rejoined the rest of the team. Julia felt a measure of relief flood her when he walked into the galley area and asked for coffee. Nung handed him a cup and Mick drank it down straight, without even pausing to let it cool.
'Good sleep?' Julia asked.
He looked at her and grinned. 'Are you serious?'
'I was.'
'Nice of you to ask,' said Mick. 'But it was a pretty hard deep sleep without much in the way of good dreams.' He turned to Wilkins. 'Do we have an extensive map of the area we're in?'
'Sure. I'll get it.'
Mick waited for him to return and then cleared a space on the main table and watched Wilkins spread the map out. He leaned in close and took his time examining the contour lines.
Wilkins pointed. 'We're here.'
Mick nodded. 'The rest of this area seems pretty barren. Just level plain,' his voice trailed off, 'until we get to here.' His jabbed at the spot with his thumb. 'What's the deal with these?'
'The mountains?' Julia shrugged. 'Supposedly the team here before us was supposed to do some exploring in them. We don't know, of course, if they were successful or not.'
Mick frowned. 'I wonder if…'
'What?' Kendall appeared out of nowhere.
Mick eyed him. 'I wonder if the team that explored the mountains maybe woke something up.'
'Are you nuts?'
'I'm open to other possibilities,' said Mick.
Kendall ducked back out of the room shaking his head. Julia watched him go and the turned back to the others. 'I suppose we have to consider the possibility.'
'There's no other place this thing could be coming from,' said Mick. 'Unless it can burrow under fifty feet of
