Twenty-three million years ago the Drake Passage opened below South America, further isolating the continent. Oceanic currents and tectonic plate movements combined to push Antarctica to its present location over the South Pole where colder temperatures attributed to a drop in planetary carbon-dioxide levels, decimating the forests while leaving in its place a permanent ice cap that has covered the entire landmass over the last six million years.

As the Earth revolved around the sun, our planet was also rotating 23.4 degrees on its axis. From the spring equinox on March twentieth until the vernal equinox on September twenty-second, the South Pole was tilted away from the sun, casting Antarctica into six months of frigid darkness. The sun returns in late September, warming the continent through February.

Despite its frigid temperatures, Antarctica was home to the most fertile oceanic feeding habitat on Earth, its surrounding seas forming a convergence zone where cold water meets warmer currents flowing down from the north. Nourishing plant and animal life, Antarctic seas attracted everything from giant schools of tiny krill to pods of blue whales, the largest creatures ever to inhabit our planet.

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The Boeing CH-47 Chinook heaved and rattled, its twin 4,733 horsepower engines commanding its pair of tandem rotating blades to elevate the 24,000 pound helicopter and its crew into the crisp Antarctic air. Powered by a combination of hydrogen fuel cells and a coveted supply of jet fuel held at the Casey Station outpost, the converted military transport had just enough range to deliver its crew and my cursed uncle and me to our destination on Ross Island.

I pressed my forehead against the cargo bay’s frosted window, gazing out at the seemingly endless white landscape. My eyes followed the chopper’s shadow as it crossed Wilkes Land, ABE instantaneously feeding my mind information:

WILKES LAND. LOCATION: EAST ANTARCTICA.

A FROZEN DESERT OF ICE, THREE MILES THICK. CONCEALED BENEATH THE ICE SHEET IS THE LARGEST METEOR IMPACT CRATER ON EARTH. DISCOVERED BY NASA’S GRACE SATELLITE TEAM, THE CRATER IS THREE HUNDRED MILES WIDE AND WAS CREATED BY THE CELESTIAL IMPACT OF AN OBJECT THIRTY MILES IN DIAMETER. THE IMPACT OCCURRED APPROXIMATELY 250 MILLION YEARS AGO, RESULTING IN THE PERMIAN-TRIASSIC EXTINCTION, THE LARGEST EXTINCTION EVENT IN HISTORY. THE IMPACT WIPED OUT 99 PERCENT OF ALL LIFE-FORMS ON THE PLANET—AN EVOLUTIONARY PREREQUISITE THAT LED TO THE RISE OF THE DINOSAURS. THE IMPACT IS NOW CREDITED WITH INITIATING THE TECTONIC RIFT THAT CAUSED THE BREAKUP AND SEPARATION OF THE GONDWANA SUPERCONTINENT, LEADING TO THE FORMATION AND PRESENT-DAY RELOCATION OF THE SEVEN MAJOR CONTINENTS.

I blinked away the information overload, preferring to obsess over the thoughts that had dominated my every waking moment over the last twenty-four hours.

It had begun with a call to Andria—a conversation that quickly degenerated into a shouting match. How could she have accepted a six-year mission to Europa without telling me? Did she expect me to wait for her? How would she react if our roles were reversed?