Natalie Goes

Chapter 1

Noelle took a deep breath and stepped through the door of the tiny charter jet. Right away, a gust of icy wind slammed into her, throwing her long brown hair all over her face.

So much for July. She shivered and zipped her jacket all the way up. But even the freezing wind couldn’t wipe the smile off her face.

Finally, an adventure! Just like the good old days, when she traveled around the world with her family. Granted, after the year she’d had, this was a huge step—

Someone tapped her on the shoulder. Noelle squeaked, startled, and threw a furtive glance back, her pulse pounding in her ears.

Alex, a Norwegian guy in his early twenties, stood right behind her, his tall frame bent uncomfortably in the tiny doorway. Noelle let out a sigh of relief. She was being ridiculous. It was her new colleague, not some monster, jumping out at her from the shadows. And, of course, she was blocking the exit.

“Sorry,” she mumbled, and made to scramble out of the way. But something held her back.

Alex’s hand was on her bulging backpack. “Do you need help with that?” he asked. Not waiting for her reply, he reached over.

She forced a smile and let him take it, then discreetly snapped a black hair tie around her wrist, reminding herself not to freak out for no reason. A petite college student who looked younger than her twenty-two years, she must have seemed pretty helpless, struggling with that heavy bag. She hoped Alex hadn’t noticed her deer-in-the-headlights look.

He swung the bag on his shoulder, then shouted to the dark-haired guy waiting at the bottom of the steps, “Hey Brian, any sign of those little green men yet?”

Brian grinned. “No, but I don’t see any Viking settlements, either.”

Those archeologists had wild imaginations. Noelle shook her head, carefully making her way down the narrow metal steps, but had to admit that their new surroundings could inspire any number of myths and conspiracy theories. She squinted at the bright sunlight reflecting off the water and icebergs. What were those oddly shaped dark masses in the middle of the half-frozen ocean? Islands? Mountains? A different type of iceberg?

One mystery at a time, she reminded herself. What they came here for was not out at sea, but on solid ground. Hopefully not frozen solid, Noelle thought, joining the group of her new colleagues at the bottom of the steps. Six students, including her, the only non-archeologist.

“Is that everybody?” A tall woman with short gray hair stepped toward the new arrivals. She nodded, apparently satisfied. “Welcome to Station Nord. I am Professor Doctor Lindt, the head of your expedition.”

***

While Noelle and four other students carried their luggage inside the Villum Research Station building, Malu Petersen had a brief discussion with Doctor Lindt. Malu was a PhD student from the University of Copenhagen and the ‘adult supervision’ on their two flights. She returned, rolling her eyes.

“Since you’re new here, professors want me to show you around Station Nord before lunch. Not that there’s much to see. But if you have questions—”

Brian raised his hand. “When are we going to the dig?”

Fascinating as this tiny Danish military base in the middle of the Arctic desert might be, it wasn’t what had drawn the expedition to this part of northern Greenland. Their destination lay several kilometers up the coast, where a few years earlier, soldiers of the Sirius Patrol with their dog sleigh teams had stumbled upon something unusual.

Malu had been part of the group of archeologists who had examined the find the previous summer. Because of the short Arctic summer, the scientists had spent only a few weeks at the brand-new excavation site. But the pictures they had taken, and especially the artifacts they had unearthed, had convinced several European universities, a number of archeological societies, and even a few colleges in the US to finance another expedition to northern Greenland.

Malu snorted. “Newbies! You’re not going anywhere until you complete your survival training with Sergeant Andersen.” She frowned at Brian. “And I want you all to take it seriously. The Arctic can be unpredictable and dangerous. And we are hundreds of kilometers away from the nearest town, so even in emergencies, help may take hours, if not days, to arrive.”

Brian nodded. “I get it. And I’ve had some experience with cold weather, living in Minnesota and all.”

Malu shook her head. “Trust me, it’s not the same. I grew up in Greenland, but things are quite different in my home town, a thousand kilometers south of here. We have internet. And roads. And a hospital. Here—well, see for yourself.”

She led the students around the tiny base, picking her way around large puddles, and pointing out the buildings for scientists’ use, the garage, and, in the distance, the canteen where they were supposed to meet Sergeant Andersen.

A handful of squat buildings, a tiny runway for an occasional plane bringing supplies from the continent, and some muddy trails. Malu hadn’t exaggerated. Station Nord was just a tiny speck in the huge Arctic desert, hundreds of miles away from the nearest town and thousands from any metropolis.

“Things are even more basic at the dig,” said Malu as she finally led them to the canteen. “Last year, there were five of us, so we lived in the mobile lab at the excavation site, and only came here for supplies every few days. This summer, we will rotate between the mobile lab and Station Nord, since the trailer can only fit a handful of people comfortably.” She snorted. “Consider yourselves lucky. The showers on Station Nord are way better than in the trailer.”

Brian was about to say something, but Malu held up her hand. “Don’t worry, you’ll all spend most of your time at the dig, whether you’re sleeping at the mobile lab or here.”

“So, when are we going?” Edita, a tall blonde girl from Lithuania, looked at Malu.

Noelle held her breath. Please say ‘right after the survival training!’ She had been looking forward to her first glimpse of a real archeological dig for weeks. And this wasn’t just any dig. The abandoned tunnel in the middle of a frozen desert and the artifacts found there didn’t fit into known history of the region or migration patterns. They were a mystery. And who doesn’t like mysteries?

Malu shrugged. “The professors will decide that. I just know that you all are staying at Station Nord tonight.”

Noelle wasn’t the only one who groaned in disappointment.

Jan, another Norwegian student, heaved a sigh. “Can you at least tell us more about the artifacts you found last year?”

Malu smiled. “Our three professors are also taking care of that. Artifacts aren’t exactly pretty when they first come out of the ground, and what we found looked like a bunch of rusty nails and ceramic fragments. But wait till you see what our lab did with those! A picture is worth a thousand words.”

“Not the one we got,” grumbled Brian.

The single grainy photo in the flyer for the expedition featured just what Malu had described: rusty nails and jagged ceramic pieces. What was so special about them?

Malu cringed. “Sorry. When we started recruiting for the new expedition, that was the best we had. But now, the professors have the newest images from the lab in Copenhagen.” She flashed them a grin. “And Doctor Lindt said they took some more pictures inside the tunnel this morning. I haven’t even seen those yet.”

“Ooh!” Edita looked at Malu with interest. “Did she mention what kind of pictures?”

Malu nodded. “Artwork, mostly.”

Jan stopped in his tracks. “No way! The flyer didn’t mention any art. Do you know what kind it is?”

She shrugged. “Not sure yet. Seems like every time we turn around, we find something extraordinary. You know how hard it was to tear ourselves away from the dig last year, with all those mysteries practically begging to be uncovered?” She sighed, wistful. “If we keep this up, maybe I can finally convince the University of Greenland to open their own archeology department. Nothing against the University of Copenhagen, but Greenland is my home.”

Noelle couldn’t help feeling a bit envious. Malu knew where she belonged. Things weren’t as clear-cut for Noelle, who had grown up on various US military bases around the world. Her family had eventually settled in Arizona, but Noelle still didn’t know where she wanted to live after graduating from her German university.

The truth was, Noelle wasn’t done with adventure, even though life had thrown her a huge curveball the previous summer. Things were gradually looking up, especially since she had first come across the ad for this summer internship in Greenland. As luck would have it, the archeologists had needed someone just like her. Or at least someone who could handle all the paperwork in English, as all those universities and archeological societies sponsoring the expedition had insisted.

Noelle, a linguistics major, was not afraid of getting her hands dirty, much less of paperwork. Her new coworkers didn’t need to know what she was afraid of. But with a little luck, this adventure might banish the reminders of her painful past for good. Or at least for the six weeks she and her new colleagues would spend digging out mysterious artifacts from the frozen ground.

And who says Noelle wouldn’t find something extraordinary just because she wasn’t an archeologist? Now, describing and processing those extraordinary finds, or even the ordinary ones, might require help from the professionals. Which reminded her…

Noelle hurried to catch up with Malu, who was almost at the canteen’s door.

“Are the professors going to explain what’s what in their presentation?” she asked. Malu nodded, and she exhaled in relief. “You know, even though your ad said ‘no archeological experience required’, I tried to prepare for this job. But the vague description and,”—Noelle rolled her eyes—“that fancy picture in the flyer didn’t help narrow down the right era or branch of archeology. So, I apologize in advance if I have to ask really dumb questions.”

Malu held up a finger. “There’s no such thing as dumb questions,” she said. “Besides, we haven’t exactly narrowed it down ourselves yet, so you’re good. And I’m so glad someone else will handle the paperwork this year. I’d much rather—”

“Yes?” Brian smiled at her.

His smile may have worked on the airport attendants in Norway, but Malu was apparently immune to Brian’s charms. She waved him off and stopped by the door to the canteen. She looked down at the students’ shoes, all caked in mud, and raised an eyebrow.

“Everyone brought a change of shoes, right?”

***

They had barely finished their mashed potatoes and something that looked like a cross between Salisbury steaks and German Frikadellen, when a tall man in Danish military uniform approached their table. Malu nodded to him and stood.

“I’ll see you at the professors’ presentation,” she said.

“You’re not coming?” Brian looked disappointed.

She threw a long sheet of shiny black hair over her shoulder and shot him a mischievous smile. “Oh, you’re going to have so much fun, you wouldn’t even miss me.”

Fun. As if. Noelle, no stranger to military protocol, braced herself for a long, slow ‘death by PowerPoint’.

To her relief, it turned out that Sergeant Andersen believed in the more practical approach.

After a brief slide show in the canteen, he led the students to a squat building where the soldiers stored emergency equipment, and set them to work building an emergency shelter, all the while quizzing them on the base rules they had learned from the slides, as well as from the info packets for new arrivals. Most of those rules were just common sense, like the one about changing into clean shoes inside buildings. Or the strict no-littering policy that protected not only wild animals that occasionally wandered on the tiny outpost but also the Sirius patrol dogs. Speaking of dogs, how cool would it be to see real dog teams pulling sleighs?

But apparently, that wasn’t going to happen. “The dogs don’t pull sleighs in summer, of course,” explained Sergeant Andersen. He frowned at the students. “And they are working dogs, not pets. Don’t feed them, don’t pet them, just… don’t.”

The gruff sergeant conceded that snapping a picture of the dogs from a distance was all right. From a distance, he emphasized, then not-so-subtly directed the students’ attention back to the emergency shelter.

Noelle grudgingly admitted that Malu had had a point: training with her new colleagues was fun. Jan and Alex took on all the heavy lifting, reminiscing about their days in the Norwegian army. Brian had a never-ending supply of jokes, and even Edita, who had been really quiet on their trip, was soon talking and laughing with the rest of them.

After the emergency shelter, they practiced with emergency beacons and radios. And they even got to drive ATVs!

Finally, as the students were putting away all the equipment, Sergeant Andersen looked up from his checklist. “Anyone knows how to use a rifle?”

Brian whistled. “Cool! We’ll get to shoot, too?”

The sergeant shook his head. “No. But your excavation site is pretty far away from Station Nord. You may need to fend for yourselves against, say, an animal attack, until help arrives. Your professors are all trained on the type of rifle we use this far up north, but if something should happen to them… Well?” he eyed the students.

Unsurprisingly, Jan’s and Alex’s hands shot up. Brian shrugged. “I’ve shot a rifle before, though it probably wasn’t the same type. But how different can they be, right?”

Edita nodded. “It can’t be more complicated than what my grandpa uses for hunting. His got all kinds of bells and whistles.”

Brian eyed her with interest. “Do you hunt, too?”

The tall girl blushed. “Of course. Several members of my family used to be snipers in the army, and I’d like to think I’ve learned a thing or two from them.”

Noelle sighed. Edita came from a long line of hunters and snipers. She herself was descended from at least three generations of nearsighted people on her mother’s side. And even though Noelle’s father, a combat veteran, could probably shoot a rifle standing, kneeling, or laying down, she was completely useless with firearms, even with her glasses on.

Noelle shook her head at the sergeant and looked down at her shoes. Great. She wasn’t just the smallest and weakest member of the expedition, but also the one with the fewest survival skills. At least the ones that mattered. She still remembered how to use a gas mask from emergency drills on several bases, but what good would it do here, in the icy desert?

Sergeant Andersen made some notes on his list, then nodded at the students. “This is just a formality. With any luck, nobody in your group will have to fire a single shot during your stay. Animal attacks are rare around here, and especially where you are going.”

“Why?” asked Brian.

“Animals seem to avoid that place,” replied the sergeant with a frown. “Even our dogs act strange when they get close to it. How do you think the soldiers found that tunnel?”