Chapter 14
The tunnel through the dark, glittering ice didn’t run straight down. It spiraled down into the ice like a giant’s corkscrew, and the path grew steeper the further on that the team descended. The pace picked up. Each of the aliens’ flippers kicked back like skaters as they glided down the smooth passage illuminated by the ever-changing rainbow patterns of their energy antlers.
Nick nearly wept from the beauty of it, and from the core thread of burning fear that waited for his suit to fail. The lights would go out. The cameras would die. The air would stop circulating. He wouldn’t die immediately, but without the suit recirculating fluids and air, it would get colder very quickly in the suit. Carbon-dioxide would build up and either his head would freeze, or he would suffocate.
