“You don’t look fine,” Rue said. “You look like you’ve been hit by a snowcat.”
Tyler attempted a smile that looked more like a grimace. “Just didn’t sleep well. Bad dreams.”
“About falling into the crevasse?”
“Something like that.” He rubbed at his eyes, which only seemed to make the redness worse.
Mia guided him to a chair. “He was tossing and turning all night.”
“Ah,” Koos said with a wave of his huge hand. “He’s just got the big eye. Everyone gets it their first time on the ice.”
“The big eye?” Mia asked.
“Antarctica messes with your circadian rhythm,” Rue explained. “The old hands—what they call OAEs, Old Antarctic Explorers—call that insomnia the big eye.”
“That’s me,” Koos said, “OAE to the bone.”
The joke earned a laugh, but Rue’s attention stayed on Tyler. His skin looked sallow in the harsh fluorescent light, and he sagged in the chair as if holding himself upright cost too much. A prickle of unease crawled up her spine.
“Tyler, maybe you should see Dr. Volkova. With everyone crammed into these tiny quarters, the last thing we need is some bug spreading through the team.”
“I’m not sick,” Tyler protested weakly just as the doctor in question entered the room. “Just tired.”
“Not sleeping well can compromise your immune system,” Irina said, clearly having caught the tail end of their exchange. Her clinical gaze assessed Tyler. “You should come to the med bay after breakfast. A quick examination will rule out any concerns.”
“Good idea,” Rue agreed, relieved that an actual medical doctor was taking over. She could set a bone and start an IV if the situation called for it, but night terrors were not in her wheelhouse of medical knowledge. “Better safe than sorry down here. And if nothing else, maybe Irina can give you something to help you sleep.”
The doctor nodded. “If it’s warranted.”
Tyler rubbed a hand down his face, then exhaled hard. “Yeah, okay. After breakfast.”
Rue took another sip of her coffee, grimacing at the now-lukewarm bitterness. She knew Elliot wasn’t in the room now—he’d gone off somewhere private to check in with WSW—so she could go back to the room for ten minutes of blissful solitude…
But the double doors to the mess hall swung open with a bang, startling everyone. But it was Noah’s reaction that drewRue’s attention. She’d spent her entire life around soldiers, and she knew
“Dear God,” Camille said, pressing her ring-studded hand to her chest as Dr. Keene burst into the room, his eyes bright with manic energy. His hair stuck up at odd angles, and dark smudges stained his lab coat—whether from coffee or something else was anyone’s guess.
“Extraordinary progress!” he announced to the room at large, not bothering with anything as mundane as a greeting. “The cellular activity has increased exponentially overnight. The viability of the samples exceeds all theoretical parameters!”
Rue’s stomach clenched. She glanced at Tyler, expecting Dr. Keene to notice his student’s condition, but the scientist didn’t even look at the pale, exhausted grad student. Instead, his gaze locked onto her with laser focus.
“Ms. Bristow!” He charged toward her table, weaving between chairs with surprising agility for someone so normally clumsy. “We need to collect more samples immediately. The storm is beginning to abate?—”
“This is Category One weather. No travel until further notice,” she cut in, already rising from her seat. She couldn’t do this right now. Not with her head pounding and her nerves frayed from lack of sleep.
“But the window of opportunity?—”
“Is nonexistent until the weather clears,” she finished, gathering her half-eaten breakfast onto her tray. “Whatever’s in the ice has been there for millions of years. A few more days won’t change anything.”
Dr. Keene’s expression shifted to the determined look she’d come to dread—the one that meant he was about to launch into a lecture about scientific imperatives and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.
“I need to check the weather reports,” Rue said quickly, already backing toward the exit. “And… review the emergency protocols. You know, expedition leader stuff.”
She dumped her tray at the cleanup station and made for the door, ignoring Dr. Keene as he called after her.
“But Ms. Bristow, you don’t understand the significance of what we’ve found! The microbial structures are?—”
The door swung shut behind her, cutting off whatever revelation he’d been about to share. Rue exhaled, shoulders slumping as the tension in her body released. She knew she was being unprofessional, but she just couldn’t face another argument about going outside in conditions that would kill them all in minutes.
