“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.”