hard. The front end hits first, jolting Turk and Evans violently forward, but their restraints help keep them in place, then the back end hits with a smack. The rover now slides sideways for a few seconds, before it hits a rough patch that stops them almost instantly, nearly tipping the rover onto its side. It tips up on two wheels and hangs for a few seconds, before falling back down onto all four.
“Wow… holy crap, are you okay?” Turk asks Juliana, placing his hand on her leg.
“Yes, I’m fine… YOU?” She responds, a little in shock of what just happened.
“Well… I’m glad these suits have built-in bio-waste compartments, otherwise I’d have pissed my pants,” Turk jokes with a forced laugh and then says, “It was kind of fun actually!”
“FUN! JEEZ! I can’t say I thought that was fun, not in the least!” She exclaims back. Turk isn’t sure if she is being jokingly dramatic, or if she is really upset, so he decides to leave it at that and presses the accelerator of the rover to get moving again.
Instantly, Turk can tell the steering mechanism is screwed up. He can only turn the steering wheel slightly each way making the rover turn only ever so slightly in the respective direction.
“Oh crap, I don’t think the rover fared as well though, I can hardly turn the wheels. But the drilling spot is right up ahead, I think we can make it,” he says as he fights with the steering wheel.
As they approach the drilling location, they can see some of the remote sensor equipment, but they still can’t see the torpedo probe support rig at all. That is the tallest piece of equipment that they set up, and it should be the first thing they see. But it’s not.
“What the hell?” Turk blurts out, as he stops the rover near one of the remote sensor devices. “Look at that, half of it is frozen into the ice. How the hell is that possible? Did it melt into the ice?”
Juliana stares at the device and shakes her head in disbelief. “I don’t see how that would be possible, plus it is still level. If it somehow sank into the ice it would most likely be lopsided. Plus, look how shiny and smooth everything is here also. It’s as if a new layer of ice has formed in the whole area!”
“Wait, I’m not the scientist here, but the only way that would be possible is if fresh (unfrozen) water made its way up to the surface… right?” Turk says with concern in his voice.
“Pretty much…” Juliana responds; still just looking around in disbelief. Then she says to Turk, “Almost the entire surface of this groove is now a flat shinny surface. So, yes, subsurface water must have flooded this whole area since the last time we were here; and then refroze.”
“How long ago would you guess that happened?” Turk asks.
“Jeez, I don’t know. The water would freeze pretty fast out here though. It could have ruptured only an hour or so ago and be completely frozen like we see here. It may have been from the termer we felt in the ship right before we lost communication with all the equipment.” She responds with her best guess, digging the cleats of her boot into the ice to see how hard it is. It is very solid.
Turk moves the rover forward to where the drill tower should be, pin-pointing the exact spot with the global positioning equipment on the rover. The tower is not there. There is no hole. It is completely flat and shiny.
“Look at this,” Turk says pointing to the display screen on the rover. “The depth measuring equipment is all over the board today. Sometimes it says the ice is 3 kilometers deep, and then sometimes it says it is only 6 meters deep. This is crazy!”
Juliana dismounts from the rover to look around. She is peering into the clear ice to see if she can see anything. Turk drives forward slowly about 60 meters, looking all around, still nothing but shiny new ice.
Turk jumps up on the seat to get an elevated look around, still nothing but freshly frozen ice in the groove. He looks around at
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