“The ice evidently has been a long time in building up,” Doc stated. “Witness the fact that there appear to be no broken pipes, no sources of water. It has to be carried in by the wind from somewhere as tiny crystals. Then they cling to other like crystals to form the icy exoskeleton you see overlaying this room.”
“All of which gets us what?” Ryan asked irritably.
“Why, my dear Ryan, it lets us know this redoubt is obviously open to the outside world. Else where would the wind and the airborne moisture come from?”
Ryan saw the sense in that. “Best way to find our way out is to follow the wind, then.”
Doc smiled. “Precisely, my dear fellow.”
“Something else to consider that Doc must have overlooked,” Mildred said, coming up to join them. She took a handkerchief from her pocket and tied it over her nose and mouth. “If there is much moisture in the air, and I think there is, breathing all of it in could cause pneumonia. Get a build-up of moisture in the lungs, you’re definitely going to come down with a hellacious case of it. And then we’re talking serious trouble.”
“Masks?” Ryan said.
“Or stop breathing,” Mildred answered.
“TAKE SOME WORK,” J.B. told Ryan an hour later, “but I think mebbe we can chip away enough ice to shut the emergency doors. Get this room to seal off.” He pointed to a section of wall he’d been working on earlier. “I checked the relays over there, and found that power seems to be getting through the systems okay.”
The emergency doors were caked in ice, held fast in the walls that shielded them. The housing over them was frozen solid.
“How much time?” Ryan asked.
“Working with the knives, ax and what tools we brought?” J.B. shrugged. “Mebbe an hour. But if we block off some of this wind, could be the room will warm up some.” He cleaned his glasses and peered up at the roof panels. “If I get the chance, I’m going to take a look up there and see if I can trace out the environmental controls for this room. They should be on a separate relay, as well.”
Ryan nodded. “Don’t like splitting up the team when we’re in a hard spot like this.”
“But you like the idea of sitting around waiting to see if anybody comes calling even less,” J.B. agreed. “I know. Been having some of the same thoughts myself. Leave me with Doc and Albert. You take Jak, Dean, Mildred and Krysty on up ahead and see what you can see. We’ll be here, watching your back and keeping a light on for you until you get back.”
“Sounds as good as it’s going to get.”
J.B. grinned. “One thing about it. I don’t think any predators would hang around here waiting for a meal. Too bastard cold and unfriendly.”
“Yeah.” Before Ryan could turn and address the others, letting them know what the plan was, a horrendous crack sounded somewhere off in the distance, rolling like a peal of thunder. Then the redoubt shivered like a dying wag-hit hound.
“Was that an earthquake, lover?” Krysty asked. Her face was mostly covered by the handkerchief she wore to protect her lungs. Ice crystals had already formed on the blue material, just as they had formed on everyone else’s masks.
“Mebbe,” Ryan said. “But it didn’t feel like any earthquake I’ve ever been through before.” He’d been with the Trader out along the Western Islands when he’d first experienced earthquakes. They had made him sick with fear back then, because they made every physical law he’d clung to for security seem worthless. He had seen the Cific Ocean drink down islands, seen new mountain ranges born fresh from the womb of the earth and watched trees fall like kindling for miles.
“Do you know what it reminded me of?” Doc mused. Nobody asked what, but the old man continued on anyway. “Like a big ship foundering in deep water, battling an unexpected turbulence or righting itself after a gale has torn her sails to shreds and near to capsized her. That is definitely what it reminded me of. Is that not the oddest thing?”