“Not exactly navigating by the stars, is it?” Jonas typed a search command over his computer’s keyboard. The GPS finder zoomed in on East Antarctica, honing in on the Loose Tooth Rift. “Here we are. Here’s where the ice shelf meets that glacial basin. That’s a huge expanse. How the hell are we supposed to find a river amid an ocean of meltwater?”

“I don’t know, Jonas. Maybe we’ll be able to hear it on sonar.”

“So that’s 340 miles to the north and at least another five hundred to the southeast. At our best speed, it’ll take us eleven hours just to hit the river, assuming this meltwater remains stagnant. Traveling another five hundred miles into a head-current—that alone could take twenty-four to thirty-six more hours.

“When I was an undergrad at Penn State, my roommate and I would drive down to Fort Lauderdale over Christmas break. We’d take two-hour shifts, twenty hours straight. We were so wiped out by the time we arrived that we’d have to sleep all day. And we were nineteen.”

“Is there any way you can program the autopilot to at least get us to the river?”

“The GPS navigator isn’t functioning with that ice sheet over our heads. What I can do is program the autopilot to remain on a solitary heading. It’ll use the Manta’s sonar to navigate around perceived obstacles, but one of us should still stay awake to monitor our surroundings. I’ll take the first shift while you sleep.”

I reclined my seat, removed my shoes, and covered up with a wool blanket. I was exhausted, having barely slept since arriving in Antarctica. Lying back, I looked up through the thick cockpit glass, gazing at the bottom of the ice sheet.

Jonas accelerated to thirty knots, turning the glacier’s artwork into a blue blur.

Within minutes I was asleep.

I awoke as Avi Socha.

I was in a cave close to the ocean. I could hear the echo of the sea and feel the pounding surf through the rock upon which I sat. The night howled at my back, glistening with stars. Berudim shone brightly in the northern sky, a cloud-covered world orbited by a solitary moon one-ninth the mass of Charon.

I was anxious to begin; the alignment of Berudim with Charon was a powerful cosmic antenna that facilitated the best reception with the upper worlds. Closing my eyes, I recited my mantra, tapping into the universal consciousness.

ANA BEKOACH… GEDULAT YEMINECHA… TATIR ZERURA …

My consciousness was moving through the void, passing over a dark sea.

KABEL RINAT… AMECHA SAGVENU… TAHARENU NORA …

The sea moved inland, becoming a twisting river that separated a rift valley.

NA GIBOR… DORSHEY YICHUDCHA… KEBAVAT SHOMREM …

Mountains rose along either bank as the river emptied into a vast lake, its waters dark and forboding…

BARCHEM TEHAREM… RACHAMEY ZIDEKATCHA… TAMID GOMLEM …