“So how was Australia?” Toby asked Astrid. “I always wanted to visit there.”

“I was only there for a couple of days total, coming and going, but I really liked it. Christopher and I had a great time at Phillip Island. We saw koalas and everything.”

“There is nice shopping,” said Océane.

“Yes, there are great shops and restaurants in Melbourne,” added Astrid. “Our hotel was really nice too.”

“All right, get to the exciting parts,” said Mr. Bundersmith. “I want to hear all about your adventures in Antarctica.”

Astrid recounted her experiences in Dumont du’Urville and then on Amphitrite. She described all of the dives but didn’t go into much detail about the encounter with her leopard seal. Océane apparently felt compelled to offer color commentary however.

“When the seal grab Astrid, I never so scared,” she said.

“That must have been terrifying,” said Aunt Gerta.

“It was kind of scary,” agreed Astrid. “I was afraid for a moment that my dry suit might not live up to its name.”

“It drag her right down and I think we lose her,” continued Océane.

“It probably seemed more dramatic at the time than it really was,” said Astrid.

“You see how exciting when it is on television.”

“What’s that now?” wondered Astrid.

“They film for my father’s Antarctic television special,” said Océane. “They don’t have pictures of when the seal grab you, but I see the pictures of when she bring you the penguin.”

“Well I for one, can’t wait to see that program,” said Mr. Bundersmith. “This is certainly more than I expected. I was just waiting for you to tell us about how you gave away millions of dollars worth of gold.”

Astrid paused while she took a drink of water. “You heard about that, did you?”

“It’s all over the news,” said Toby.

“Well it was probably more like billions of dollars,” she said, glancing at her father. “But it’s not like we could get at it anyway.”

“I think you did exactly the right thing, honey,” said Dr. Maxxim. “I don’t see a need to rip every resource right out of the earth as soon as it’s found. Leave something for the future, I say.”

Astrid and Christopher, bundled up to the fullest, climbed into the cab of the same large tractor in which they had been driven to the base the day before. They took their places behind the driver’s seat, now occupied by Remie. Nathan, down on the hanger floor, pushed the lever to open the great door and the tractor rolled out into the icy darkness.

It wasn’t snowing, but it seemed to be as the wind whipped tiny flakes of ice into the air in the beams of the ten great spotlights that led them through darkness. For the most part, the ice was smooth and the great tractor ground straight into the night.

“We’ll be there in just a few minutes,” said Remie. “This sensor is only four miles from the base.”

“It seems like a long way,” said Astrid, “especially if you were by yourself.”

“We’ve got the radio. If something happens to the tractor, we can call for help. Don’t worry.”

They had barely finished talking when they saw a blinking red light in the distance. Turning just a bit to the right, the Frenchman brought the vehicle to a stop right beside it. The light was atop a large blue box-shaped piece of equipment roughly the size of Astrid’s walk-in closet at home.

“It looks like the Tardis,” said Christopher.

“Yeah, it does,” agreed Astrid.

“This is just the control box. The sensors reach down through about 40 meters of ice and into the rock below.”

“Won’t the movement of the ice break them?” asked Astrid.

“Eventually, though the ice doesn’t move as much here as it does closer to the Ross Shelf.”

They left the tractor’s engine running and climbed out into the freezing air. Remie led them to the control box and opened a panel. He flipped several switches and then opened an interior door to check a row of circuit breakers. After flipping several of them, he pulled one out and replaced it from a small stack of them just inside the compartment. Once he did so, a bank of lights came on and he began closing the device back up.

“I can’t believe how cold it is,” said Christopher. “We’ve been out here seven minutes and I’m frozen through, even with all these layers of clothes. Look at this.” He pointed to the ice on the fur around his hood where the moisture from his breath had frozen.

“Makes you rethink global warming, eh?” asked Remie.

“Of course not,” he replied. “Humans add almost 30 gigatons of carbon to the atmosphere each year.”

“Good man. You’re right of course. Measurements of the ice here show that it is almost an inch thinner than last year. That may not sound like much, but it is year after year, and the change is increasing.”

“How can you put 30 billion tons of anything anywhere and not expect it to make an impact?” wondered Christopher. “Don’t you agree, Astrid?”

The girl inventor didn’t answer. Christopher turned to see her looking out into the frozen darkness.

“What’s up?”

“I was just thinking,” she said. “I wish I hadn’t watched The Thing.”

When they finished eating, they walked to a large building draped with canvas tenting, next to the roller coaster. A security guard was standing by a slit in the canvas and pulled it aside, revealing a door, which he then opened. Inside they followed the marked path through the entryway and found themselves standing in the middle of a desert scene.

“We start with the triassic?” asked Christopher.

“I would have liked to have gone through the whole prehistory of the earth,” said Astrid. “Since I couldn’t, I decided to stick with the three geological periods of the dinosaurs.”

They walked around a large rock to find themselves threatened by a group of four coelophysis, hissing and snapping their teeth-filled jaws. At the top of a hill, they could see a ferocious ticinosuchus, while closer by an elephant-sized moschops tugged at the shaggy fern.

“That’s the ugliest dinosaur I’ve ever seen,” said Denise.

“It’s technically not a dinosaur,” said Christopher. “It’s a therapsid.”

They rounded a corner, went through an arched doorway, and stood at the border between a grassy plain and a conifer forest. The painted mural on either wall made it seem as if both went on forever. Right in the middle was a massive brachiosaurus, reaching up to pluck pine needles from a tree. Nearby a pair of allosaurus harassed a stegosaurus, and beyond that a Quetzalcoatlus, the size of a jet fighter, soared overhead. Other, smaller dinosaurs hunted through the trees.

“Now these are what I call a dinosaurs!” said Austin, looking up at the Brachiosaurus. “They’re so realistic. It’s like we went back in a time machine. Say, why don’t you invent a time machine, Astrid?”

“That’s not really possible,” said Astrid.

“Well, sure it is.”

“Don’t get her started on time travel,” said Denise. “We’ll never get to ride the roller coaster.”

Astrid and her friends passed on through the Jurassic period and through another arched doorway to find themselves at the foot of a volcano, steam rolling down from the artificial lava. Running along the hillside were psittacosaurus, caudipteryx, and ornithomimus. Snapping and squawking below were several velociraptors. A large beipiaosaurus browsed through low-hanging trees.

“What’s with all these chickens?” asked Denise. “I thought this was a dinosaur exhibit.”

“These are all anatomically correct,” said Christopher. “Most cretaceous dinosaurs had feathers.”

“No wonder Maxxim Industries is in trouble,” said Denise. “You’re spending all its money building robot dinosaurs.”

“Who says Maxxim Industries is in trouble?” wondered Astrid. “Did your dad say that?”

“Yes. Not my dad that works for you. He thinks you’re the greatest thing ever. My other dad— he said it.”

“Maxxim Industries is just fine,” said Astrid.

Walking around a lava flow took the group to a triceratops nursery, where two of the huge three-horned creatures were caring for some tiny tykes just emerging from their shells. But looking over this tranquil scene from beyond the bushes was an enormous tyrannosaurus rex.

“That’s odd,” said Astrid.

“What?” asked Toby.

“The t-rex should be roaring and chomping and generally being scary. It’s the only dinosaur not working. I think I’ll take a look at it. Maybe it’s something minor.”

“Trust Astrid to turn riding a roller coaster into an electronics experiment,” said Denise.

“You guys go on ahead,” said Toby. “I’ll stay with Astrid and fix the dinosaur, and then we’ll follow you.”

“You sure you don’t mind?” asked Valerie.

“Go ahead,” assured Astrid. “I’m sure we won’t be more than a minute.”

While Christopher, Austin, Denise, and the two Valeries continued through the last arched doorway to the ride entrance, Astrid led Toby to the base of the monstrous creature. Pulling out her pocket toolkit, she unfastened four screws on the tyrannosaurus’s hip and opened a large panel.

“Uh-oh.”

“Is that what I think it is?” asked Toby, pointing to a cylindrical metallic object behind the panel.

“Do you think it’s a pressure cooker connected to digital clock?”

“No, I think it’s a bomb.”

“Well, either way, you’re right.”

Just before noon, Astrid hopped on her hoverbike and flew to Main Street. Her sturdy little orange aircraft had been the prototype and was much more retro looking, far less sleek than the production models. It was speedy though, and she set down next to the Maxxim City Malt Shop in almost no time at all. Though vehicle theft was very uncommon in Maxxim City, Astrid nevertheless locked the little scooter to the end of the bike rack with a cable and padlock.

Inside, she sat down on one of the round bar stools next to Toby.

“I ordered us a couple of chocolate sodas,” he said.

The Maxxim City Malt Shop was justly famous for its traditional chocolate sodas, made with soda water mixed with chocolate syrup, containing two scoops of chocolate ice cream, and topped with whipped cream and a cherry. No sooner had Toby spoken, than soda jerk Irving Witzel set the two frosty treats on the counter.

“Anything else?”

“Do you want to share an order of fries?”

“Sure,” said Astrid, and Toby held up a finger to Irving.

“One order of special fries,” he confirmed, dutifully heading for the kitchen.

Special fries were another item unique to the Malt Shop— double dipped fries served with piccalilli relish.

“Looking forward to Joyland Saturday?” asked Astrid.

“Of course,” said Toby. “It’s been weeks since I rode the Screaming Pterodactyl.”

Astrid laughed, remembering the excitement of riding the giant roller coaster that was the best ride at Maxxim City’s local amusement park.

“You know what I’m not looking forward to?” he asked.

“What?”

“I’m not looking forward to an entire month of not seeing you.”

Astrid blushed.

“Thirty-nine days,” she said, and then blushed again, even more furiously. “Um… well, you could still come.”

“No I can’t. I have to be in Belgium on the second.”

“I guess a chance to intern at the EU headquarters is just too much to pass up,” said Astrid.

“Technically there is no headquarters of the EU. I’m interning at the second seat of the European Parliament…” He stopped and looked at her. “But then of course, you knew that. You’re making fun of me.”

“I am not,” said Astrid, sticking her straw into her soda. “I just like it when you talk.”

She took a sip of her soda. Toby poked a straw into his. Suddenly liquid shot out of the straw like a fountain into his lap.

“Hey!” Several people around started laughing. “Irving booby-trapped me!” he growled, grabbing handfuls of napkins from the dispenser to clean up the mess.

“It happens,” said Astrid. “The ice cream formed a barrier and the soda built up pressure. When your straw pierced the barrier, the liquid escaped the only way it could.”

“And with enthusiasm,” said Irving, arriving with their fries. He handed Toby a small towel.

“Wow, that’s cold,” said Toby, doing his best to clean off his trousers.

“See, now you don’t have to go to Antarctica,” laughed Astrid. “You know just how I’m going to feel the whole time I’m there.”

“The point I was trying to make, Astrid, was that I’m really going to miss you.”

“I’m going to miss you too,” she said. “But we’ve still got a few days left to enjoy. Let’s go for a drive tomorrow. And remember, we’re all going to Joyland Saturday.”

“I can’t wait.”