“Want tae ken whit I think?” True interrupted, not waiting for a reply. “I think deid is deid. A million years from now, no one’s gonna care if I breathed out of my mouth or my arse, or if Susan’s eyes were slanted different than Ming’s. What matters is love and who ye share yer sleeping bag with tae keep ye warm.”

“Yes,” I replied, “but I bet you’d care if a million years from now some archaeologist claimed your ancestors were English.”

“Or jackasses,” muttered Ben, a bit too loud.

“Excuse me, friend, but this is an A and B conversation, so C yer way oot of it.”

I stepped in between them, guiding True to an aluminum vat filled with pea soup. I ladled us each a mugful while he filled our other cups with hot chocolate. “Ease up with the sexual connotations, big guy.”

“I’m jist playing. Whit are ye doing?”

“I’m not doing anything.”

“Oh, please. To be honest, Susan, I’m more interested in intraspecies communication, specifically among orca. Maybe ye can tutor her later in yer tent.”

“She’s a grad assistant studying to be a marine biologist. We were talking shop.”

“Sure ye were. Jist do me a favor, and next time ye engage a woman not my sister in conversation, ask yerself if yer tryin’ tae impress her with that big brain of yers, or the wee small fella dangling between yer legs.”

Scientists, academics, and technicians from China, Australia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Britain, Germany, Japan, and France filed into the Army tent, quickly claiming one of the thirty folding chairs placed in a semi-circle facing a dry erase board. There may have been delegates present from other countries, but those were the only flag patches on ski jackets I could see from my vantage.

Missing from the meeting were members of the Russian Antarctic Expedition.

Ben and I found empty seats in the back, next to a large satellite photo of Lake Vostok taped to an easel. A white circle marked the location of the drone.

Ming was in a heated discussion with someone on her walkie-talkie. Ending the conversation, she took her place at the front of the tent. “Good afternoon. Dr. Jokinen is in the lab, finishing the analysis of water samples taken two days ago from Valkyrie Unit-1. While we are waiting, I’d like to introduce Dr. Zachary Wallace, our lead marine biologist, and Captain Ben Hintzmann, our submersible pilot.”

Ben and I gave curt waves from our seats.