Chapter 4
“Coffee?” Mark met Sofia at the door to the conference room, cup in hand.
“Thanks,” she said as she cradled the cup in her hands like she was worshiping the caffeine gods, “You ready to pitch our list to your father?”
Mark paused, a puzzled look on his face. “Um… No pitch.”
“No pitch?”
“Nobody above you to approve it.” Mark shrugged. “This morning is just to introduce the project manager to the rest of the board you manage before your site gets over-run with complete strangers.”
Sam paused as the thought sank in, then with a laugh she said, “Riiiiiiiight… Forgot. I’m in charge.” She thought for a moment then straightening her blouse with mock professionalism she added, “So Mr. COO, when can we expect the first delivery for our base camp?”
“Love that sudden shift!” Mark chided. “In about two hours, and our new Project Director will need to be at the cave entrance to meet them so you better stay on task this morning!”
“Meeting’s in five,” Mark said as he clicked the ‘join video meeting’ button on his screen. “Looks like father has the room set up.” He paused for a moment while the computer connected them to the virtual meeting space then continued in an unnaturally formal manner. “Father, good afternoon sir. How are you today?”
“I’ll be happier once get this show in production.” Mark Halvorsen Sr said in his typical stern, gravely voice. “What’s holding us up?”
“Well sir, uh…” Mark was momentarily flustered by the question, “We just formalized everything last night, I sent the or…”
“No excuses boy.” His father said sternly. “My god son, will you ever learn to be prepared for a meeting?”
Mark winced.
Sam noticed, but stayed off camera.
Mark’s eyes narrowed, “I finalized the requisition orders last night at eleven forty-five p, the first shipment is expected by ten fifteen a.” He paused then added sarcastically, “Sir.”
“Why didn’t you lead with that young man?” his father shot back. “In fact, next time do! that is how to present a meeting!”
“Good morning Mr Halvorsen.” Sam’s temper flared as stepped into frame, tired of listening to her best friend and collegue be berated. “I do hope you are having the morning you deserve.”
“Samantha!” he boomed from the other side of the computer screen. “It’s been far too long my dear. Tell me, how is our new project director? Ready to kick this ball through the end-zone?”
“Thanks to your son we are sir.” Sam emphasized the word ‘son’. “Without Mark I would still be a week away from just having a presentation, much less the requisition orders completed and submitted. You should give him more credit.”
Mark shot her a sideways glare that said both ‘how dare you, I can fight my own battles’ and ‘Thank you!!!’ at the same time as his father visibly squirmed on screen.
“Is the rest of the board assembled?” she followed herself quickly with an intentional ‘are you as ready as Mark is?” undertone. “I would love to meet them before I have to go so I can meet the construction team at Base Camp”
“Hannah,” Mark Sr’s said as he pressed the call button on his desk. “Please connect us to Parallax main conference room.”
A moment later the computer screen shifted as twelve more faces popped into the conference window.
“Welcome in everyone” Sam took charge and began guiding the meeting. “My name is Samantha Roche, I hold dual doctorates in Astrophysics and Geology, and I am the Project Director for Project Parallax. You have all been assembled because of your achievements in your various fields of expertise. Or as I prefer to say, your the best at what you do, so thank you for joining our team. I will turn the meeting over to Mark Jr so he can direct logistics and ensure everyone knows where to be and when to be there.” She paused as she stepped aside. “Mark?”
For the next hour Mark poured over their notes, assigning specific jobs to each member of the board and ensuring that everyone knew precisely what they were responsible for before asking if anyone had any questions.
“Dr. Elena Park here,” the woman on the computer screen introduced herself, “chief science officer. Forgive me for needing to clarify Mr. Halvorsen, but will we be responsible for filling out our departmental staff or do we have someone for personnel procurement?”
Mark Jr laughed as the uncomfortable ‘which Mr Halvorsen?’ moment passed. “Each department head will be responsible for your own staffing, Natalie Voss our Director of Compliance will help you with the paperwork. I don’t want some centralized hiring process that gets done by someone who doesn’t know the first thing about the position they’re hiring for. Just submit your staffing plan by the end of the month.” He paused, looking for a confirmation from each person before continuing. “We will be working on site setup at Base Camp for the next month, everyone needs to be sure to be on site for the rest of this week so you can claim your space and set up your field offices before” he emphasized, “you submit your staffing plan. It would be foolish to get your staffing levels approved and then find out you need more people.” He paused again before adding, “Anyone else?”
“Victor Reyes here,” Sam’s heart jumped into her throat when she heard the name Victor, despite the fact that the young man speaking looked nothing like the Victor she was thinking about. “Engineering and construction. I will be on site ‘round the clock so once you figure out where you want to be set up let me know so I can make it happen.”
“Caleb Navarro, Security.” a mid-forties looking gentleman spoke up. “Miss Roche, I would like to meet with you and Mr. Halvorsen Jr this afternoon to walk the site perimeter and discuss expectations and concerns,” he paused as he held up a tablet showing a topographic map of the project site. “I haven’t had the privilege of visiting the site in person yet and I’d like to start by having our only two experts on it show me around.”
“Sounds good.” Sam pulled a small notebook out and flipped to her schedule page. “I should be free after two,” she looked at Mark, “what about you?”
“Two sounds fine with me,” Mark said as a grin spread across his mouth, “I intend to be standing around watching other people work all day.”
“You mean directing them.” Sam laughed as she gave Mark a playful shove. “Two oclock it is then Mr. Navarro, but please, call me Sam. You go saying Mrs. Roche around me and I’ll end up looking around for my mom!” She paused to let the laughter die down before continuing. “Mr. Shaw I do have a request for you if you don’t mind?”
“Anything ma’am.” Dominic Shaw’s smile radiated from the screen.
“As our Director of Field Operations you are responsible for expedition team management and I have been struggling to find a suitable Climb Master.”
Mark’s eyes shot up from the document he was focused on. Did Sam just assign someone to replace Victor?
“Our last Climb Master was killed while investigating part of this project,” Sam looked down, her calm managerial facade beginning to crack for the first time. She cleared her throat. “That is to say, I have not replaced him yet and I would sincerely appreciate the ability to delegate that task to you sir.”
Dominic knew what she was asking, he may be new to the team and part of a brand new board all together but he knew the story of Victor’s last expedition. He knew how heavy the weight that this assignment carried would be.
“Don’t think twice about it ma’am.” He said gently. “We will not replace the person, just the position, but you will have a new Climb Master by the time you are ready to go underground. I promise.”
“Thank you,” Sam was solemn, but relieved to have that burden lifted off her shoulders. “The rest of you, thank you for being present today. I will be at the base camp site within the hour, I expect to see each of you at some point this afternoon to discuss field office locations and supplies.”
A chorus of agreement followed, that served to end the meeting as each of the board members excitedly crammed notepads and folders into already overstuffed computer bags as they rushed for the door to finally see their new research site for the first time. They had all been briefed on the anomaly of course, that was what peaked their interest for most of them, after answering a rather vague offer that had a five year contract and a lot of zero’s attached to it. Now the thrill was palpable as each one of the piled into the luxury corporate travel bus that the newly created Project Parallax had reserved for the big day.
“Sam to Mark.” Sam’s call was clipped with frustration as she scoured the Discovery Complex for the one person alive whom she knew would see what she saw. “Mark, where are you?” She waited a minute for him to reply before repeating, “Sam to Mark. Mark, where are you, come back?”
Radio static was all that followed so Sam slung her pack over her shoulder and clambered into her truck to go check the only place left to look for him above ground, the main gate. It was so unlike Mark to be missing like this and after losing such a close member of her team the last time she was pursuing this project, her nerves were shot by the time she found him.
“Mark!” She snapped as her truck slid to a stop. “What are you-” she paused, noticing for the first time the line of over-loaded trucks leading through the main gate. “Are you directing traffic?”
Mark froze, caught between the need to explain himself and the sheer absurdity of him getting stuck on gate duty.
“Forgot my radio when I left after the meeting.” He swept his arm through the air as he pointed out the line. “Can you believe all this?”
“Next time,” She held his radio up toward his face as she stifled a laugh, feining anger instead “remember your radio! What is all this?”
“Father apparently put a rush order of all of our equipment and supply orders.” He rolled his eyes. “And forecasts.” He paused again for emphasis before continuing. “For the next six months!”
“What?”
“Yeah,” Mark shook his head, “I just checked in an entire truck that was forecast needs for December!”
“Mark.” Sam spoke slowly. “You are not a field tech anymore.” She put her hands on his shoulders as she finished. “You are a director, you direct. You don’t do, you tell others to do.”
“I forgot my radio,” he pleaded “and I couldn’t just leave with all these extremely expensive truck drivers clogging up the gate with no direction.”
“So never forget your radio, dummy!” she chided as she brought her radio to her mouth and mashed the button with her thumb. “Sam for Caleb.”
“Caleb here, what can I do for you ma’am?” The disembodied voice crackled over the radio speaker.
“I finally found Mark,” Sam started, “he got stuck checking in a line of truck Mr. Halvorsen Sr sent over, but I need him at the site. Can you get someone over here asap to take over on gate duty?”
“Sure thing, I’ll send… Uhhh, Casey Morgan!” Caleb shouted at someone near him, “get over to the main gate on the double, Mr. Halvorsen doesn’t need to be stuck watching a gate. Go!”
“Thank you Caleb.” Sam said with a satisfied smile. “See, its that easy. When you remember your radio.”
“Right.” Mark said.
“When she gets here come down to where we had base camp at last time, be quick too. You wont regret it.”
“You find something already?” His curiosity was peaked. “What is it?”
He shouted after her but Sam was in her truck, pretending not to hear him as she mouthed “R A D I O”
It only took twelve minutes for Casey to arrive take her post directing traffic at the gate, and before another ten had passed he skidded to a stop in his reserved parking space. Scrambling out of his truck radio in one hand and backpack in the other he rushed down the path to the mouth of the cave and base camp where he found a large group gathered around something on the ground.
“What’s all the exci…” For the second time that afternoon Mark found himself frozen, trying to process what his eyes were taking in.
“Mark!” Sam shouted from the far side of the group. “Get over here and check this out!”
She was standing next to what looked like a rock jutting up from the ground, only it was translucent with a faint pulsating azure light.
“Check this out!” She grabbed his arm and pulled him around to where she had been standing. “What do you see?”
“Crystalline formation, almost a column about, what, thirty-five centimeters? I don’t recognize the composition though. No fracture response, no inclusion or growth striations. No imperfections at all in fact.” Mark began scratching notes into a small notepad. “You check for ra…“ he started to ask but Sam cut him off.
“Full spectrum.” She knew what he was going to ask. “Nominal levels but identicle.”
“You notice the timing?”
“I did.” Sam put her hand on the formation. “I even put my stop watch on it.”
“Connected?” he asked, more to himself than anyone else.
“Pardon me, but would the teachers mind catching the rest of the class up?” Dr Elena Park’s voice was laced with sarcasm though she was only half smiling. “Have you seen this before?”
“No. Well, I mean sort of… At least something like it, in the chasm,” Sam paused as a sob rose in her throat.
“In the chasm,” Mark took over resting his hand on her shoulder. “where we lost Victor there was this same blue light coming from deep within the pit. It pulsed about every second, bright for a half second,” he paused as though he was telling a ghost story, “then dim for half a second. Back and forth, just like this.”
“Only every time it reversed gravity did too.” Sam added.
“What do you mean, ‘gravity did too’ Sam?” Elena asked softly.
“I’m not sure.” She closed her eyes and searched in the darkness for the right words to explain the very fabric of reality seemingly flipping like a pancake. “It was like if you took two magnets and put them against each other so they attract, then every half second you flip the top one so the bottom one jumps. And you do it over and over again until it gets hard to tell which way is up.” She wrinkled her forehead as the memory washed through her consciousness. “Or whats inside verses outside. It’s like reality didn’t seem… Real.”
Elena touched Sam’s forearm in a comforting gesture. “It’s ok if you can’t continue.”
“No, thank you. I’m fine.” Sam stammered as she snapped back to the present. “Victor would have never been spun if it wasn’t for that blue light flipping gravity back and forth, your mind just looses track of everything.”
“Then if this formation is the same object,” Elena said, “it’s growing.”
“And if it’s growing, then we need to contain it.” Caleb Navarro announced. “Sorry for interrupting, however as Director of Security, I say if it is growing, and if it is as dangerous as you reported that it is…” He looked around at the group as they all contemplated the possible reprocussions of such a thing. “If we don’t find a way to contain it first, and I mean before you go all sciency,” he laughed as he looked at Sam and Elana, whom were both starring at the formation as though they were looking through it, trying to see inside its structure. “There’s no telling how many lives could be lost just like Victor’s was.”
Mark stood still for a long moment, one hand on the formation as he contemplated the reality of what Caleb had just said.
“You’re right Caleb.” He finally broke the silence. “We need to determine if it is growing and if so, at what rate and direction.” He looked down through the grates in the catwalk that he was standing on and made eye contact Victor and Meya whom were standing in the bottom of the shaft they had been working on. “How’s it look?”
“We’ve exposed about ten feet of it running straight down, clean and plumb. After that it kicks over east-southeast at roughly a forty-five and keeps going down. We’re still chasing it—haven’t found the end yet.”
“Southeast?” Mark looked at the surrounding foothills. Mile upon miles of barren desert and dry ridgelines stretched to the southeast. “But the anomaly sits on a two‑degree bearing from this position, that’s north.” He paused again pointing north with his finger,
“There!.”
"I don’t have an exact bearing..." she paused searching for a way to explain the phenomenon. “The formation is skewing both my analog and digital compasses—they’re locking onto it no matter where I stand. Even south by southeast is more of a guess based on shadows.”
“It’s pulling the magnetic field?” Mark asked.
“Not just the magnetic field,” Caleb had his gyrocompass in his hand, “this thing is supposed to use the earths rotation to find true north, but even the gyrocompass is being pulled toward the formation. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“And it’s nearly indestructable,” Meya added, “at least by anything we have down here. I worked at it with my scraper first, then a rock hammer and finally a cold chisel and I can’t even get a scratch into the surface, much less take a sample.”
Mark kept writing. Now Sam was too. Both of them worked quickly, noting everything coming up from the shaft while adding their own annotations—a growing list of tests, safeguards, and contingencies needed just to understand what they were dealing with, let alone contain it.
“Alright,” Mark said under his breath, flipping to a clean page. “We start with non-invasive. Full-spectrum spectroscopy, electromagnetic mapping, and continuous radiation logging—we need to confirm it’s emitting across the same bands as the anomaly.”
“Already ahead of you,” Sam replied, not looking up. “I want synchronized readings tied to the pulse. If that timing shifts even a fraction, we log it.”
Mark nodded. “Good. After that, ultrasonic imaging—see if there’s any internal structure or if it’s solid all the way through.”
“And thermal response,” Sam added. “Controlled heating and cooling. If it expands, contracts, anything—we measure it.”
“It won’t,” Mark muttered, glancing at the formation. “But we test it anyway.”
“We always test it anyway,” she shot back with a laugh.
He allowed himself the faintest laugh before continuing. “Next step, we bring in X-ray diffraction and mass spec—if we can’t sample it for the lab, we bring the equipment herre and scan it on site. I want to know what it thinks it’s made of.”
Sam finally paused, looking up at him. “You’re assuming it follows any known lattice structure?”
“I’m assuming nothing,” Mark said flatly. “But if it breaks the rules, I want to know which ones.”
She nodded once, then added quietly, “We should also monitor local gravitational variance since it is effecting the compasses.”
Mark’s pen stopped. “You think it’s already happening above ground?”
“I think,” Sam said carefully, glancing down toward the shaft, “if this is the same phenomenon we saw in the chasm… then we’d be stupid not to check.”
Mark followed her gaze, the steady pulse of azure light reflecting faintly in his eyes.
“…yeah,” he said softly. “Add it to the list.”