Kyle, I am Alphonso. Tell me more about all that has happened to you and the expedition? Alphonso says as he shakes the man's hand
Figures everyone'd be wound tighter than a skirt in church. And us all new faces. Need to try and lighten the mood.
"You fellas smoke?"
Avery will offer the men a gasper.
Rolling her eyes as he pushes past her. Just like home. Taking a moment to look around the space before getting to work.
When the Doctor returns he finds that you have indeed aided, he takes in a deep breath, "I... I am sorry Miss... it's been difficult".
"We'd like to be left alone, don't need no more help from Starkweather crew", the larger one replies.
Glancing to and fro conspiratorially, he nods at the main hall, from where Acacia’s raging is easily heard.
“I wish we had someone steady at the helm of this ship,” he says. “It’s good that you came.” And he sighs. "I did not actually witness the explosion or the attack in the camp, as I was climbing into my awkward snow gear at the time. I was about to exit
my tent when someone crashed into it, collapsing it on top of me.
We lost too much. Food, fuel, spares—just look! No one was ready for an accident. She just didn’t plan! Now what are we going to do? We cannot go on without help, and I’d go far not to have to turn back now. Do you suppose—?”
He looks meaningfully again at the hut, where the fight rages on.
The equipment here while broken would be useful for spare parts at the Starkweather camp in case something there did break. As you stare at it, you realize that this did not simply burn, someone placed explosives in the space where the damage is greatest...
In addition, the injury on Hopewell's arm should probably be looked at by Phoebe as it was self wrapped, that much is obvious.
"Good thing I'm not here to help. Just t'smoke." He stays where he is, lights up, and takes a long drag, savoring the warmth of the smoke in his throat and lungs. He looks over the plane to see if it's damaged, as he's been asked. He exhales a an enormous cloud, part smoke, part vapor. It's almost beautiful.
"Lexington's a piece of work, isn't she?"
Alphonso looks and says to Kyle:
how much gear do you think we can salvage? I think we might be able to add your party to ours if you have enough gear to reduce the drain on resources. We may have to hunt walrus for several days to restock food supplies which could be frozen to keep the meat. After that its a matter of fresh water to melt from the ice and gear to keep you warm and dry.
Stanley finally comes up with something to say. There's something definitively wrong with what happened here, and this generator is evidence of it. Not only that, but any remaining utility to the parts that weren't destroyed outright is at risk of being lost if the men keep trying to fix the thing beyond reason. He stands up straight, moves position so that he can look them both in the eye as he speaks, and puts on his sternest "your math is wrong and here's how" voice and expression.
"Alright, gentlemen, let me tell you a story," he begins, feeling the blood start to pound in his ears as he goes. "Just over three years ago I was a part of a test of an experimental engine configuration that exploded. Two members of our Red Team, that's the mechanics that stayed outside of the bunker the longest, had broken protocol and were too close to the machine when it blew. One of them suffered a concussion, and the other one took shrapnel in the leg. In all the fire and confusion it took way too long before anyone noticed the wounds. They looked remarkably like the wound to your arm, uncannily similar in fact. That man not just lost his leg, but died of gangrene several hours later. And the concussed man was never the same because he assumed he was fine and didn't seek help.
"So gentlemen, I insist and I demand that the both of you come with me to the medical quarters. Because we're on the bottom of the world, alone, and every able person is more valuable than a mountain of gold, or a generator that will clearly never work again. Hopewell, I will not let you lose your arm here or worse. And Sachs, you know how I know you're concussed? Because you keep trying to fix the damn generator even at risk of destroying the last shreds of usefulness its parts may have. Get up, gentlemen, and for the love of your families come with me now."
One of the men explodes at Avery, "Lexington?! Lexington?! You got some nerve pal. You're guy is arrogant as all get out and you've been sabotaging us since we were in New York and you're talking about Lexington! She's the toughest Dame I know. You'd best take yer leave before you get hurt!"
Suddenly, the sound of screaming voices can be heard.
Kyle smiles, "Good man. Good man. Quick on the uptake I like that about you. Let's..."
Suddenly, the sound of screaming voices can be heard.
The men both pause and grin, Hopewell sighs, [b]"Alright let's..."
Suddenly, the sound of screaming voices can be heard.
---
“Viper!”
“Buffoon!”
“Harridan!”
“Incompetent!”
“Hold your tongue, woman, or so help me I shall take you over my knee!”
Starkweather stalks out from the tent and yells for his people,
Shrugging but not stopping what she is doing, "Trying times leave nothing for manners. No offence is taken dear."
Stanley is concerned about the sudden uptick in shouting, but he's currently focused exclusively on the task at hand. He looks about to see if there's an obvious explanation, but until someone tells him directly to stop, his first priority is making sure that wounds get tended to. He's not sure where this camp's medical staff have set up shop, so he starts adding to the general noise, shouting to try to get Phoebe to sound off so he can locate her and bring these two men her way.
Alphonso waves Kyle with him and heads toward the screaming calling out to the camp MORE DANGER THIS WAY!
"That's my cue," Avery says as he hikes away, chalking his encounter with the men up to somewhere north of useless.
Lexington yells out through the flap, "That's right get out and do not come back you overbearing stuffed shirt!"
Starkweather calls out once more, "Gather up, now! Leave or be left behind with this Doomed Expedition!!!"
Kyle shakes his head and turns to you Alphonso, "Will he listen to you?"
Keeping busy in the medical tent and only abandoning her task for a moment to move quickly to the tents entrance to yell "Over here!" once she hears Stanley yelling for her.
"My vote is leave!" Avery huffs. "Say, where's Phoebe?"
Alphonso is already moving with Kyle toward the yelling and cocould care less about the argument hoping to find everything safe but his hands grip the shotgun now at the ready.
Stanley isn't sure how serious Starkweather is about leaving them behind, but he's still got to see to it that these men get helped as the top priority. He leads them to the sound of Phoebe's voice.
"We've got some serious injuries here," he says, quickly compared to his normal cadence with the added stress of worrying about getting left behind. "One man losing a lot of blood from his arm, the other likely has internal head injuries. Also Starkweather is saying that we're leaving immediately, and threatening to leave people behind. I don't know how serious he is about that.. He looks around the medical quarters, hoping that the men he brought will be able to get help from their own expedition's crew without needing him and Phoebe to stick around for long and risk getting left behind.
Clinching her jaw, "I do not want to leave bleeding people behind because of that man. Please go tell him if he plans on abandoning people I will make sure I make it back to the city and I will ruin him. I can cry when ever I want to and I would win that social battle."
The Doctor turns to Phoebe, "I can handle these men with my supplies and your assistance thus far Doctor, thank you for your assistance. If the gentleman leading your Expedition wants to go, you should go with him".
Starkweather sees Alphonso and Avery approach along with the rest of the away team, "Someone go get Mr. Chastain and Mrs. Barrett already!" He glances at you as he says that Avery.
"Who is this with you Mr. Wolf?"
Avery hikes across the snow yet again, the smells of ice and petrol mingling in a rather nauseating way. After this, I'm taking a trip to Cuba. By plane, not boat. "Pheobe!" He calls, cupping his hands over his mouth. "You ready to get rollin'?"
sir this is Kyle from the Lexington expedition. He feels the supplies which Lexington has will not be enough to survive and that with what man power they have they could augment our team with men and supplies on both the boat and expedition. Alphonso says quietly trying to speak sense to Sstarkweather.
Starkweather shakes his head at Avery with an I could have done that look then turns to Kyle, "Well you seem to have a good head on your shoulders man. Stay here and talk some sense into Lexington, if she radios us we shall once again come to her rescue, if not, well, once the ice thaws her ship can bring you all back to civilization".
Huffing in agitation but nodding, "Of course."
Coming to a quick stop before turning and heading the the direction of Avery's shouting. Mumbling to Stanley, "Sorry. I did not mean to snap at you."
Glaring at Starkweather, "Why are we leaving so quickly?"
lady, we are leaving because another woman has used the same tactics as you now demanding we go or things will go nasty back in civilization. So we go, but we leave a man with sense from her team and a radio to contact us in case she changes her mind. Alphonso says
"If we have to go, let's go," Stanley says, adjusting his glasses. "I know there's a lot of pressure right now, but there's no need to start slinging disparaging remarks around. It doesn't help anything."
As he trudges with the others to the gathering point, he considers his options. Once they arrive, he seeks out Starkweather. "I would be remiss if I didn't suggest that we might be leaving in an overly hasty manner," he says, urgently. "As I was examining their camp's generators, I saw evidence that they had been intentionally destroyed with explosives, and expertly so. The ones I looked at could not possibly be repaired without becoming a 'Ship of Theseus,' if you follow me. I'm not in charge, obviously, but I worry that if we leave their camp will almost certainly suffer more catastrophic 'accidents' of the sort we experienced on the voyage south aboard Gabrielle."
Starkweather turns to Stanley and lowers his voice, "We are leaving because Lexington is a damned emotional woman who has no business being in the Antarctic! Unlike Mrs. Barrett who has a keen sense Lexington accused us of sabotaging her Expedition as if I sent someone here to their base camp to create issues!
Mr. Wolf has an inside man now. Once she realizes she needs us, she will contact us. Or. They will head home and leave us here to reap the benefits of all of our hard work.
If you must have an explanation".
The rest of the team does not question him as he appears to be on the verge of screaming once more. The long ride back to the Starkweather/Moore camp has everyone silent and brooding. It is a miserable trek back through the cold with no rest on the way here!
The Starkweather/Moore camp by contrast is absurdly normal to the disaster left behind.
Sykes and Greene lead the dogs away to be rested and fed, everyone is freezing and the frost hangs from Starkweather's quivering mustache.
Moore approaches all of you with an eye towards Starkweather who heads right to his own quarters, "I did not expect you all back so soon, what transpired?"
Stanley's annoyance at lives being put in jeopardy because of a couple of incorrigible hot-heads, and the lack of anything better to do on the trip back to camp than to stew over it, gives him the distraction he needs to make the return trip easy. The downside is that he's quite tired and cranky by the time they actually get there.
"Someone's been sabotaging the Lexington camp," he reports, succinctly. "I guess she accused Starkweather of it being us, and so we all left in his huff. I suspect things area going to get worse there before they get better."
Did he? Avery can't help but wonder as Starkweather denies sabotaging the Lexington camp. He couldn't imagine Starkweather endangering all those lives.
The return trek is one of the most miserable experiences yet, and Avery's feet and face are totally numb by the time they're back in camp.
"A lot of posturing," Avery whispers under his breath at Moore's question, but then goes on to give a brief account of what he'd seen.
Alphonso freezes his rear end off getting back to the camp and gets to a fire and a pan warmed set of blankets to warm quickly back up.
Sighing and shaking her head, "Don't take your agitation out on me. I do not like leaving people in need."
Moore's eyes go wide at Stanley's statement, "Hmmm, there is rumored to be another Expedition here. Germans. I wonder...
Regardless, get some rest. You’ve earned it.”
Phoebe recognizes some frostbite setting in for Alphonso and treats him, though she looks less than thrilled with him at the moment.
---
On the day that follows, Professor Moore spends most of his time on the radio while Starkweather rages about the camp.
Alphonso is feeling a bit better while the rest of you are a bit anxious.
By mid-day, Lexington with another of her associates, Priestley by name, arrive on a dog sled. They pitch a tent next to Starkweather's tent ad Lexington along with Moore enter Starkweather's tent.
Priestley approaches your group, "Kyle informed me that he had a discussion with a Mr. Wolf, which one of you would that be? Clearly not you Ms..."
"Mrs. Barrett, thank you", she replies curtly still a bit tense from what took place the day before.
Crossing her arms, "Though you could speak to any of us as we all were there."
Alphonso stands up and says I am Mr Wolf, of Goldman and Sachs, a financial backer for this expedition and the man who spoke to Kyle
Stanley watches and listens for now. He tries to get the measure of this Priestly fellow as he starts by interacting, and apparently somewhat offending, his colleagues. His theory of sabotage is something that the other group needs to know, but it would do little help if he felt like he was relaying that information to the saboteur. Also, partially, he feels like it's probably some sort of social faux pas to sling around theories before small talk. It certainly seems like it would be.
Avery mechanically reaches for a cigarette, only to find with dismay that his pocket is empty. This is going to be a long meeting...
"Avery Giles, research assist," he offers with a handwave, hoping he doesn't need to fire off his biography.
He places his hands up, "My apologies, I did not mean to offend anyone. I just wanted to thank Mr. Wolf personally. It was Kyle's intervention that saved the Lexington Expedition. Unless he convinced her of Mr. Wolf's asserted vigorous assistance, I am not sure we would be here now.
Having visited our camp site, what were your impressions?"
Stanley gets a grim look on his face. "My impression is that you have a saboteur in your midst," Stanley pronounces. "I looked at your generators and am convinced that they were destroyed deliberately with explosives." He scratches at his chin. "This is a problem our expedition has dealt with as well, though we discovered ours while still en route to Australia. Prevailing opinion around here was that the damage was inflicted by an agent from your party, though I now suspect there might be a third group whose only goal is both our expeditions' failure. To what end, however, I couldn't say."
Well, shit.
"If that's true, then any one of us could be a saboteur..." Avery slowly regards everyone present.
Tucking her arms around herself, "Were there any groups or individuals that had issue with your expedition or people in your group like that?"
"Not any one in particular but Acacia did complain that she thought Starkweather sent some boys over to rough up our equipment before the ship left New York. When she heard about the fire right before your Expedition she thought it was the universe getting back at him for being the sort of blowhard she believed he has been for some time.
Maybe you are right Mr. Chastain and there is someone rotten that wants both of our Expeditions to fail, perhaps agents of the third Expedition trying to get glory?"
Ms Barrett it seems I was brisk earlier and do apologize. As for what should be done we should marry both groups in mixed company being six people in each team, three from each group and set watches over every item as well as the camp itself. We are at the point that all gear must be protected vigorously as our lives depend on it Alphonso says.
"Well first we will have to transfer some items from our camp here but that is certainly a good idea. Problem is, besides, Kyle, I am not sure who to trust from our side".
Shrugging at the apology, "Think nothing of it."
Quietly listening before joining the conversation again, "You have to pick the ones you feel you can trust the most and hope for the best in that case. We have to do the same."
"A gamble. With our lives. " Avery restates Phoebe's assessment in less euphemistic terms.
"It may also help to use a buddy system with groups of at least four, and to assign the groups randomly. The odds of any once group consisting entirely of saboteurs would be tiny, even if there are a lot of them than we fear. When in doubt, random selection can be a friend."
"Is this something that you need to discuss with Starkweather or should we just proceed on our own with this?" asks Priestley as Starkweather and Lexington emerge from the tent.
They shake hands though you can tell by Acacia's body language that she is none too pleased.
Starkweather's voice booms out, "We have an Agreement! The Lexington/Starkweather/Moore Expedition shows great promise in the face of adversity on the bottom of the world! Someone, telegraph the press!"
Before you can approach either man with your proposal, the Camp turns into a non-stop flurry of activity for the next three days as the two expeditions merge their camps, prepare for the next big step—the trip to the foothills of the Miskatonic Mountains— and wait for the weather to clear. Men, supplies, and fuel stream back and forth between the two camps, using both sleds and the expedition’s tractors, and excitement
begins to build once more. A longer, easier trail between the two camps is soon a well-traveled highway.
On November 30th, the clouds lift, and Doctor Albemarle announces a good forecast for the next twenty-four hours. The scramble is on.
Starkweather, surprisingly, announces at the last minute that he will not be joining Moore and the others on the first flight in search of Lake’s camp. Instead he has Dewitt and Huston fly him to the top of Beardmore Glacier in the Enderby, along with Fiskarson, Gunnar Sorensen, and a team of dogs. He has no interest, he insists, in “waiting about while Moore does his detective work,” preferring instead to climb the hills and take photographs with the dogs.
For the first time in two days, you have both leaders together, if you wish to push your plan and inform them of what you have learned, now is the time!
Alphonso approaches both leaders to make his case:
Sir, Ma'am. I wish to join our teams further into groups so we might watch one another with some of each group on watch so that no one person from any one group is alone. When going to the facilities the other would be within talking distance and so on. This would reduce the chances of sabotage and also develop a stronger sense of teamwork.
Stanley adds an important addendum. "The reason we are suggesting this is because I concluded that generators at the Lexington camp were intentionally destroyed with explosives. That, combined with our own history of sabotage on the voyage here, leads me to suspect that both groups have, or have had, traitors among them." He clears his throat for the awkward part. "I believe that both leaders thus far have blamed agents of the other. I'm more inclined to think we're dealing with a third party, and having fewer people able to act independently reduces the opportunities for a lone operative to make a move. I further suggest randomized groups, both to reduce the chances of collusion between multiple agents and to facilitate a bit more mingling between the personnel of the two expeditions. We're stuck together now, so we should try to get to know each other as well as we can, I think."