Just then the handheld radio came to life, “Jim, this is Vince. Our good professors request the presence of our VIP. I’ve had his arctic gear delivered to his room. Could you run him down and have him suited up? I’ll have Jorgen waiting for him with a snowcat at the bottom of the stairs.” Jim replied, “Roger, Captain Sheridan is in the console room with me. He copies.”
Jim gave Dave some pointers on how to bundle up and cover exposed skin. He then went to his room and opened the arctic survival gear duffle bag and put on long johns, fatigues, iron pants, two pair of thermal socks, a parka, and a pair of deerskin gloves. He pulled on his mukluks which were genuine seal skin. Nothing was ever found that could substitute for a good pair of mukluks. He then put on his ski mask, glasses and goggles.
Dave stopped by the console room on his way out. Jim gave him a status check to make sure he was properly suited up for a trek on the icecap. The extra pounds he was wearing were taking a toll as he exited the complex and climbed down the stairs and headed towards the snowcat. Jorgen saw him descend and opened the door for him as he climbed up into the cab. In a thick Danish accent, Jorgen welcomed him to DYE-3 and told him to sit back and enjoy the ride over to the ice drilling camp. They could barely see the tail of a C-130 off on the horizon. “Why are they so far out?” Jorgen replied, “For a couple of reasons. Their gravimetric instrumentation is very sensitive. They need to get clear of the DYE site vibrations and structural steel. They are also located in a radar beam side lobe gap. They aren’t constantly bombarded every sixty seconds with umpteen thousand watts of radar energy. The camp is about five miles out. They are far enough away to be clear of the site and close enough for logistics support and emergencies. We will be there in about ten minutes. Captain, help yourself to some hot coffee from the thermos there. It is always good to warm up the gut if you can before you venture out onto the ice.”
“Sounds like good advice.” He poured himself a cup of thick Danish coffee and sipped it down. He was beginning to wonder if the Air Force had a caffeine addiction program. He could see he was going to have to learn to like this stuff.
About halfway there, they could see that the C-130 was beginning to taxi towards them.
“They must be finished offloading the drilling supplies. They will taxi the five miles back to the DYE-3 site and use the skiway to take off. It is too bumpy out here for them to get enough air speed to attempt to lift off.” It was kind of strange to pass a C-130 coming at you, but Dave and Jorgen waved to the pilot as he passed off to the left on his way back to the skiway.
As the snowcat neared the drilling camp, they could see a few tents set up and a few large cargo containers strung together. Off to one end was a drilling derrick. Another snowcat was pulling a huge sled full of piping and crates towards the derrick. Jorgen pulled the snowcat up to the cargo container and got on the handheld. The handheld was a small radio which had a thirty mile range that was line of sight limited. “Vince, this is Jorgen. We are outside now.”
“Roger, we’ll be out in a minute.” Vince and Rapp exited the cargo container and opened the back door of the snowcat and climbed in. The snowcat had bench seating along both walls and had a couple of cable drums turned on their sides to use as desks and tables.
Rapp’s beard was already frosted over when he climbed in. “Welcome to the Apple Orchard, Captain.” Dave thought the code name for this camp was kind of funny. “Why is this place called the Apple Orchard?” Rapp smiled and said, “In deference to Sir Isaac Newton and his falling apple that revolutionized the world of physics. We are about to change the world here, too.”
Rapp pulled a PVC tube from the wall of the snowcat and pulled out a set of drawings. He rolled them out on the table. “This is one of six camps located up here. We are spread out in a pentagon pattern of about four miles apart with the sixth located in the center. We are drilling eight inch diameter holes through the ice down to within five hundred feet of the bedrock nearly two kilometers below us. We are looking for several things. First, any signs of torsional waves. Second, any signs of gravitational waves. These are much harder to detect due to their long wavelengths, and then, lastly, for any variances in the Universal Gravitational Constant, alias the big G, that we explained to you in Sonde.”
Vince told Jorgen to head for the drilling rig. The snowcat lurched forward. When they reached the rig, Vince and Rapp leapt out the back as Dave crawled out of the cab and was surprised at how warm it felt outside. The sun was bright and there was no wind. The snow was crisp and powdery dry under his feet. He followed Rapp and Vince into the canvas covered derrick. Inside was a tripod frame about fifty feet tall with chain hoists and rigging. Several pieces of pipe were stacked vertically along one side of the frame. Timken and another man were bending over the generator on the backside of the rig. Dave couldn’t quite make out the discussion, but it was pretty intense and sounded like a few Russian expletives were thrown in for good measure.
“Dostal, dostal. Dis a pizdet. Da balvin.” Just then Timken turned and saw Dave, Vince, and Rapp. He threw up his hands in disgust and exited the tent. “What’s wrong with him?” Dave asked. Rapp replied, “He is pissed off at Boris here, because he let the fuel run out in the generator while he was off loading the C-130. They can’t get it restarted. The battery is nearly drained.” Dave looked over at the generator. He wasn’t a mechanical engineer, but he grew up in northwest Ohio and knew how to jump start a clunker to get her started on a winter morning. He asked if the snowcat had a set of jumper cables. He was surprised to hear from all the men standing around him, “What are they?” He thought to himself, “You’ve got to be kidding. All these PhDs oozing with brain power and they didn’t know how to jump start an engine.” They were actually contemplating having a new battery flown in from Sonde.
“Okay, gentlemen, this is what we’re going to do. This is a standard twelve volt marine battery. Have Jorgen open up the hood or whatever you call it on the snowcat.” He found an extension cord plugged into one of the flood lights. Just like his dad had taught him, he always carried a pocket knife on him. This time he had to dig through three layers as he had left it in his fatigue pants pocket under his iron pants. He cut off the ends and then peeled back the insulation a couple of inches, exposing the copper wire. Jorgen had lifted the cab over the diesel engine. Luckily Dave spotted a couple of C-clamps in the top tray of a tool box. He grabbed them and walked out to the snowcat. He clamped a wire to the positive terminal and then walked back into the derrick shelter. He clamped the other end of the cable to the positive terminal of the generator battery. He walked back outside and clamped the other wire to the negative terminal on the snowcat. He then walked back in and looped the leftover cable around the generator frame for a ground. Just then Timken re-entered the tent. “Are you sure you know what you are doing, Captain? This is some delicate machinery.” Dave was a little annoyed at this point, “Delicate my ass, this is a standard 60 kilowatt, 240 volt, three phase Cummins generator set. This ain’t rocket science. I should know. Okay, crank her over. She should start up.” Boris turned the lever and sure enough the generator cranked over and sputtered to life. He let it idle a minute or so and then threw another switch. Presto!! The lights came on. He figured he’d earned his pay with this little piece of technical knowhow. Obviously, this crowd had never had to jump start a ‘65 Mercury in a dark parking lot at ten below before. Piece of cake.
CHAPTER 5
Ancient Blue Ice Cubes
With his new found status as a mechanical genius, Rapp and Timken were duly impressed. They opened up a little more to their newfound friend. The drilling continued for a couple of weeks and all was going well. Ice cores were taken every five hundred feet and sent back to Denmark for analysis. Scientists in Europe were studying climate change, looking for pollutants, volcanic eruptions, and carbon dioxide content all going back almost 100,000 years.
One day Rapp and Timken entered the site bar. Vince and Dave watched
