The four were sitting in the first-floor TV lounge. The galley, their preferred haunt, had been taken over as a staging area for the final flights of the season, making the simple acts of getting a coffee or finding a seat nearly impossible. They’d already said their tearful farewells to friends and colleagues, with promises of getting together in the future. Better to stay out of the way for a few hours until the last flight had taken off.
In groups of four, six, or eight, travelers were summoned via the PA system to report to Destination Alpha so they could begin the shuttle process to the Hercules. Each time the speaker crackled to life, the group of friends would pause, listen to the call, then pick up their conversation.
“None of you have wintered over, right?” Anne looked at the other three, who all shook their heads. Although they’d been at Shackleton for the summer season, it was surprising how little they knew about each other.
“I’ve heard things can get pretty squirrelly,” Tim said. “A crew of two hundred shrinks to forty. Nine months together. Dark for two-thirds of it. We’ll have our work to save us, of course, but that only goes so far.”
“I’m sure we’ll think of something,” Carla said, glancing at Colin.
The geologist nodded. “I already mentioned to Deb that I’d like to start a chess tournament. Someone told me Pete has a rating over two thousand! I’d love to go head-to-head with him.”
Carla mocked smacking her forehead, but as Tim started to laugh, Colin caught his eye, and the geologist winked at him, which just made him laugh harder. Anne, puzzled, asked, “What’s so funny?”
Before Tim could say anything, the PA speaker screeched to life. “Senator Sikes. Senator Sikes. Please report to Destination Alpha and ask your group to do the same. This is the last load of the season. If you’re not on that plane in the next five minutes, then you’ll be our guest for the next nine months. Senator Sikes. Please report to Destination Alpha. ”
The voice disappeared with an electrical snap and the lounge went quiet.
Carla cleared her throat. “Anyone else thinking about running out and stowing away on the senator’s plane?”
“Of course not,” Tim said. “I had a very good reason for almost jumping up and sprinting out the door in the general direction of the skiway just now.”
Anne smiled. “It is going to be weird, isn’t it? Do you remember how strange the winter-overs acted when we landed last summer?”
“They huddled together in one corner of the galley and wouldn’t look at us as we came in,” Carla said, her eyes unfocused as she remembered. “I mean, I wasn’t expecting a brass band, but some of them looked like they wanted to claw my eyes out just for being there.”
“One lady actually snatched a chair away from me when I tried to sit at her table,” Colin said, his tone still injured. “I swear she almost growled at me.”
“I heard one of them call us the ‘orange people’ because we actually had some color to our skin,” Tim said.
“Pasty, mean, and anthropophobic. Great,” Anne said. “I hope we’ll be a little different.”
“Don’t count on it,” Carla warned. “Your biology is a slave to your environment. In nine months, another crew is going to land and wonder what happened to all those bitchy lunatics in the corner.”
They debated the point until the PA suddenly crackled again.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is station manager Jack Hanratty. ” The voice came across the system as gruff and flat as it did in person. “As you no doubt heard, in just a few minutes the final flight of the season is about to leave for McMurdo. I urge you to head outside to watch it take off. It will be the last plane you will see until November. ”
“Guy really knows how to improve morale,” Tim said. Carla shushed him.
“Now that our guests have left, I wanted to ask you to take a moment to remember our friend and colleague, Sheryl Larkin. As many of you already know, she was found yesterday unresponsive, alone, and without a radio several hundred meters from the station. We don’t know why Sheryl wandered so far from base, but she appeared to have sustained an injury in her attempt to return and, unable to walk, had unfortunately succumbed to exposure. ”
The quasi-permanent grin that Tim normally wore melted away. Anne leaned forward, bowing her head so that her long hair hung down, covering her face. Carla stared at the coffee table in front of them and Colin absently rubbed the tips of his fingers together, as if to make sure they were all there.
“I know Sheryl’s death has been a terrible shock to you all, as it has to me. She will be remembered as one of our team and, more importantly, one of the Shackleton family. I can’t claim to know why she died, but I do know she wouldn’t—not for a second—want us to compromise the work we do here. Please think of Sheryl as we enter this winter season and know she stands behind us every step of the way. ”
Hanratty cleared his throat, a strange sound that came across as a flat bark over the PA system.