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Planet Manhattan, NY System
Polar Research Outpost Alpha: 85°N 130°W
0900 Hours Local Time
VOICE ONLY

- - > "Early log entry today, since we might not get back before lights out tonight. Will found something 'exciting' out on the tundra yesterday in the cruiser, but doesn't want to tell us what it is. Wants to keep it a surprise, he says, so it's probably another frozen rabbit. At any rate, will be out of contact for awhile while we take some measurements and core samples."

- - > "Oh, and one other thing. It seems the camera HQ shipped us is rated for arctic temperature levels, but the packaging seal failed in transit. The frigid air covered the thing in ice and shattered the lens, so it looks like we won't have video until Miguel can get around to fixing it."


Planet Manhattan, NY System
Polar Research Outpost Alpha: 85°N 130°W
2300 Hours Local Time
VOICE ONLY

- - > "Too excited to sleep. Will's really found something this time. When we arrived at the site, Will jumped out of the cruiser and ran up to a sizable bulge in the ice pack, about ten feet wide. As I approached him near the thing, he looked at me with wide eyes. In spite of my thick arctic coat, his next words raised goosebumps all along my arms. 'It's a foot wider than it was last night,' he told me."

- - > "Monica perked up. Businesslike as always, she pulled out a tape measure and set to work. The bulge was ovoid in shape, it seems, with a 3.1 meter primary axis and a 2.7 meter secondary. We set up the drill, and rigged it to take a 50cm sample at ten meters. After it had been spinning for about five minutes, however, the drill destabilized, beginning to rock violently. Monica's presence of mind saved us from a minor disaster, as she sprung forward to reduce the rotation rate. She turned to us with wide eyes, and I'm sure ours were the same if not wider. Being something of experts, we all knew exactly what had happened, though I admit I could scarcely believe it at the time. The drill's frame had begun to shake, which means the drill bit was reaching max rotary velocity - a thing that can't happen while drilling in to a solid material, because there is too much resistance. It occurs to me that the reader may not be a scientist, so I will put this very plainly: We hit liquid."

- - > "Liquid, at the northern pole, at less than ten meters. The very idea is ridiculous. The whole area should be a very thick ice sheet. Even salt water would freeze here at night, so I'm not sure what to think. Have we found a natural antifreeze in the ice here? Why only here, why not under the whole ice sheet? Is it biological? Perhaps a new species of bacteria that could survive in extreme cold? The uncertainty of it made me shiver at the time."

- - > "After another hour, we extracted a half meter core sample. As we expected, it was not ice. Through the glass core tube, we could discern a shimmering viscous fluid. It had the consistency approximately of molasses. Monica brought out a sample case lined with foam, and set the tube inside it. As she closed the case, however, the mound flashed. A brilliant green light shone from the ice sheet below it, as if it were a huge firefly. Monica threw the briefcase open in surprise, and gasped. The fluid in the tube shone with the intensity of a fluorescent bulb, casting a bright green light on Will and I. This was too much for us to take in at once. Sealing the case, we tagged the spot with a fresh radio beacon and drove back to the outpost, which brings us to now. Monica should be done setting up the vacuum slide, so I'll go help her out."

Planet Manhattan, NY System
Polar Research Outpost Alpha: 85°N 130°W
0200 Hours Local Time
VOICE ONLY

- - > "I'm not sure where to begin. We've found something here, under the ice. It's a viscous, opaque, shimmering fluid that looks almost like a liquid white opal. We managed to isolate a very small amount in a vacuum slide, diluted with a saline solution so that light would penetrate it. We found . . . Cells. I've never seen anything like it. Their anatomy suggests single celled organisms, but they seem to move with a certain choreography. As if an invisible puppet master were controlling them all."

- - > "We witnessed another glow incident while observing them. The amount of light produced is impressive; I suspect this could be harnessed in some sort of biological power plant, though what purpose it serves these creatures is still unknown. The most remarkable thing of all, however, is that their pulses occur simultaneously. Somehow the cells are communicating. Somehow, they can coordinate their pulses at will. This merits much more investigation, as there are no obvious methods of effective communication between them. Perhaps some sort of electric field manipulation?"

- - > "Monica has put a stop to research tonight after we performed a simple exposure test. We introduced a few neutral stem cells to the sample to see how they would react, with startling results. The moment the stem cells hit the solution, our unknown cells attacked them. They didn't kill them, however. It looked like they injected the stem cells with some sort of RNA-modifying agent. After a minute or two, the affected cells began to take on the appearance of the mystery cells, and to behave just like they did. This may be a product of the stem cells' natural ability to take on any form, but it looked too convincing for just that. I suspect these cells are capable of converting organic matter to their own form, and I shudder to think what they might do to human skin if an exposure were to occur."

Planet Manhattan, NY System
Polar Research Outpost Alpha: 85°N 130°W
1100 Hours Local Time
VOICE ONLY

- - > "I shared my suspicions with Monica today, and we decided to examine the cells' reactions to human cells. I drew a cc of blood from my own arm, and we introduced a small fraction of it in to a fresh vacuum slide. The cells went crazy. Just as with the stem cells, it only took a few minutes for all of the blood cells to be unrecognizable. I am starting to have misgivings about this discovery of ours."

- - > "Monica and I both agreed that the cells are dangerous, so we set about looking for a way to destroy them if a leak should occur. They were discouragingly resilient. Most poisons were ineffective. Alcohol was capable of killing them by desiccation, but it was too impractical. Even shaking the sample seemed to have little effect. Eventually, though, we found two methods."

- - > "Firstly, radiation was highly effective. The creatures seemed to be vastly more vulnerable to alpha radiation than any human cells. In fact, just a minute of exposure was sufficient to kill 90% of the sample. Additionally, they are vulnerable to heat. Raising the temperature of the sample above 30C causes immediate fatality for the cells, due to reasons unknown. This was the first good news. If a problem arose, we could probably crank the thermostat up to 32C to purge a quarantined area of the cells."

- - > "In addition, the cells seem to be photosensitive. We have thus far been analyzing them under the weak light of a high power microscope, so there wasn't any reason for us to notice. However, when we used an infrared laser to heat the sample during our mortality tests, the vacuum slide shattered. It seems that the influx of infrared energy caused the cells to replicate at an astounding rate. Perhaps if they were not living in such a cold area, they would already be a well known presence on planet Manhattan . . . I shudder to think of how long they must have been under the ice to achieve such numbers."

- - > "So far we have discovered nothing more than this. The more we find, however, the more worried I grow. From all perspectives, these cells appear to be incredibly dangerous. If released in a high population area, they could cause untold destruction. I will propose that we report this matter to HQ tomorrow."

Planet Manhattan, NY System
Polar Research Outpost Alpha: 85°N 130°W
1900 Hours Local Time
VOICE ONLY

- - > "It seems like I'm making more log entries these days. I hope my paranoia is baseless, but today's discovery has shaken me to my bones. None of us really feel like doing any more research right now. Even Miguel is feeling the stress."

- - > "We took the cruiser out to the site from yesterday. The radio transponder's signal vanished around 1200 hours, so we went to investigate. When we arrived, the sight we were met with made me want to curl up in a corner and hug my knees. The ovoid bulge in the ice had grown substantially. Well, that's an understatement. It's grown by a magnitude. It's now half the size of a football field, and there are visible fractures in the ice. In one location, the white fluid is even oozing to the surface."

- - > "We performed a sonar survey under the ice, and discovered a massive network of spidery tunnels that stretch for at least five hundred meters in every direction. No telling how deep it is. We haven't done the numbers, but there's an unimaginable amount of this fluid under the ice here. In fact, judging from the growth of the stuff, I don't know what to do. Is this a disaster? It certainly seems so. I suggested to everyone when we got back that we report this immediately, but all I received were muted nods."

- - > "I'm going to go radio this in immediately. This has grown too serious for us to keep quiet anymore. We probably would have reported it sooner, but nobody imagined the severity of what we found. Thank god we discovered this when we did. I only hope it isn't too late."

Planet Manhattan, NY System
Polar Research Outpost Alpha: 85°N 130°W
1950 Hours Local Time
VOICE ONLY

- - > "It seems that the aurora borealis is unusually strong right now. Even if our transmitter had twice the power, I couldn't get a message out. What a hell of a time for an electrical storm."

- - > "It's clear that we aren't going to be able to radio HQ tonight, and judging from the severity of the storm, I-"

** The voice trails off. **

- - > "Oh my god. One moment."

** The recorder is put down hastily, with a sharp clattering. Rapidly receding footsteps can be heard. After a few minutes, they return. **

- - > "This is bad. This is really bad. The sample is now glowing fiercely without any sort of pulse structure. What's more is that it seems to be producing an incredible amount of spread-spectrum white noise. I thought it was the aurora, but the cells themselves are jamming our transmissions. Oh, god . . ."

- - > "I don't know what to do anymore. I won't be able to sleep tonight. We're unable to communicate with HQ. We're unable to radio for help. We've got enough provisions here for a year, and the cruiser could probably take us out of the interference zone. But that bulge in the ice is growing exponentially. That cell population is beginning to feed on the sunlight, and however weak it is, and that's going to be like steroids for their energy deprived bodies. They're going to replicate at an impossible rate. If we can't deal with this within a few days, I fear for our lives. I'm going to go get the others and hold a strategy meeting. This is no time to sleep."