Post by Tyler Scott on Jan 28, 2019 16:37:52 GMT -5
Permafrost
Dr David Hunter was a renowned biologist and human historian. Amongst his acclaimed works was a doctorate on the evolution of Neanderthal man and his theory that the oldest of human relatives could be brought back to life in a subdued version of Jurassic Park.
In February 2017, Dr Hunter decided to begin raising funds for an expedition to the Antarctic ice shelf. He had never been to his baron hostile world before, but he was convinced that his legacy lay here. He believed that underground lay his fame and fortune - he would find the original man and bring him back to life. He would be the modern day Frankenstein.
For months and months, Dr Hunter sat in boardrooms trying to convince wealthy individuals and institutions to fund his research. One after another they sniggered and scoffed at his fantastical claims. It was one thing to finance a best selling book of cross-over fictitious non-fiction - but to actually send a team of scientists to the Antarctic to search for frozen cave was a ridiculous notion.
But Dr Hunter was persistent. He kept fighting and kept making opportunities. One day Dr Hunter secured a meeting with a venture capital organisation called Pure Class Wealth. He presented his grand plans as he did many times before. He had come to expect the rolling of eyes and twiddling of thumbs. But his time was different. The bosses of Pure Class Wealth listened intently. They asked questions and scrutinised the plans in detail. Dr Hunter retorted, plotting out the expedition and all the ways in which his amazing discovery will change the world.
“We must delve to the deepest depths of the ice sheets of Antarctica. There, at the threshold between ice and earth, is where will find the secrets of human life.” Dr Hunter proclaims aloud. “The origins of the human race are preserved in a perfectly intact state. Unlike fossils, which are the remnants of millennia old deceased animals, inside the permafrost lies dormant creatures. These creatures are not dead, they have been held in a slumber of thousands of years - their organs intact and their brain still functioning. Once they are freed from the permafrost and brought up from underground, we will bring these creatures back to life. A living breathing relic of the past will help us to explain mysteries of the human form and the human psyche. It would be a catalyst for biology and science in general. By bringing the past back to life, we will secure the future of the human race.”
Pure Class Wealth pondered, deliberated and finally made Dr Hunter an offer. They gave him the opportunity and the money he requested and allowed Dr Hunter to fulfil his destiny.
Dr Hunter assembled a crew and travelled to the Antarctic where he set up base. The camp was above one of the deepest areas of permafrost anywhere along the ice shelf. Dr Hunter studied aerial photography and geotechnical surveys for years before narrowing his field and deciding on this spot. A combination of geological and hydrogeological characteristics made Dr Hunter believe that this was the most likely spot where a Neanderthal man may have come to rest.
Within the permafrost, were relics from another age. A combination of vivid unweathered fossils and glistening crystals filled cavernous voids. Living organisms were held in stasis - almost floating within the ice. Usually these creatures were small fish and invertebrates who were trapped in the changing of the seas during the last ice age. But, occasionally, a land-dwelling mammal would also be captured - frozen underground, ready to be awoken again.
40 metres above, at the surface, the first drills breaks through. Laborious hand-held boring rigs screw into the ice and shovel it upwards. A team of scientists, wrapped head to toe in thermal clothing, take it in turns to man the rig. Not a single patch of skin exposed to the elements for only 30 seconds of -45 degree wind chill would result in brutally deep frostbite.
Days, weeks and fortnights passed until the scientists reached the bottom layer of the permafrost. Their hopes of finding a preserve being were dwindling as they neared terra firma. Dr Hunter was readying himself to l ave Antarctica empty handed and resigned himself to having to ask for additional funds to dig more holes in the future.
But just then a junior scientist shouted up from the bottom of the borehole. “Dr Hunter...I think I found something. It looks like...it looks a man”.
Dr Hunter requested that the body be painstakingly exhumed from its frozen tomb. Day after day, the scientists would lower themselves via winches and pulleys to the bottom of the borehole. Tethered to the surface for safety, they would chip away at the ice with the smallest of pick axes and scrapers, slowly revealing more secrets of the ice-man. For a creature from the Neanderthal age, the ice-man looked remarkably like present day humans - albeit hairier and less groomed. Through the frost, the scientists could make out scars across the face, lasting signs of conflict. But apart from that, the specimen appeared to be a perfect state of cryogenics.
The scientists lift the cube of ice containing the man to the surface via the widened borehole. Winched to the surface, inside a tent which provides shelter against only some of the harsh snowstorms, Dr Human lays his eyes on the prehistoric creature that he believed existed for so long.
Dr Hunter proclaims “I shall call him...Tyler.”
For days Dr Hunter sits over his treasure. He watches as the ice slowly drips away to the tray below. The thaw lasts two weeks until finally skin poked through to feel fresh air for the first time in tens of thousands of years. Dr Hunter touched Tyler’s arm, feeling the ice cold perfectly vertical hairs.
Gradually the body warmed up and the remainder of the frost relents. Tyler’s furry hands were no longer cold. They became warm to the touch. Dr Hunter, watching in awe, clutched Tyler’s hand as if it was a loved one.
Dr Hunter felt a tug on his hands. Tyler’s fingers twitched. He gripped the doctors finger - softly at first. Dr Hunter could not believe his eye - finally everything he dreamt of was coming true. The world would rejoice when they find out what he can discovered.
But suddenly, the grip tightened. The doctor struggled but he could not break free. The sharp claw-like finger nails pierced the doctor’s skin.
The beast awakened, eyes red with bulging bloodshot vessels. Fifty thousand years of forced slumber suddenly released in a fit of rage. Bright artificial light shone down as strange figures in white coats stare down at him.
Dr Hunter, in an apparent episode of arrogance, believed that he could talk to the beast. He tried to reason with the beast and calm it. “It’s ok, it’s ok”.
It was not ok. The beast sat up and bit the carotid artery straight out of Dr Hunters neck. Blood spurts everywhere as Tyler chews on his first meal for 50,000 years. The rest of the scientists, all coming to the same conclusion that they did not sign up for this, scarpered from the laboratory.
Dr Hunter crumpled to ground in a pool of his own blood. He tries desperately to add pressure to the wound but the wound it too deep and the blood flow too fast. Within seconds he loses blood flow to his brain. Dr Hunter passes out first - giving him a moment of relief before his body finally gives up.
David Hunter dreamed of conquering the underground. In reality, he dug his own grave.
The true underground beast has been set free once more.
Dr David Hunter was a renowned biologist and human historian. Amongst his acclaimed works was a doctorate on the evolution of Neanderthal man and his theory that the oldest of human relatives could be brought back to life in a subdued version of Jurassic Park.
In February 2017, Dr Hunter decided to begin raising funds for an expedition to the Antarctic ice shelf. He had never been to his baron hostile world before, but he was convinced that his legacy lay here. He believed that underground lay his fame and fortune - he would find the original man and bring him back to life. He would be the modern day Frankenstein.
For months and months, Dr Hunter sat in boardrooms trying to convince wealthy individuals and institutions to fund his research. One after another they sniggered and scoffed at his fantastical claims. It was one thing to finance a best selling book of cross-over fictitious non-fiction - but to actually send a team of scientists to the Antarctic to search for frozen cave was a ridiculous notion.
But Dr Hunter was persistent. He kept fighting and kept making opportunities. One day Dr Hunter secured a meeting with a venture capital organisation called Pure Class Wealth. He presented his grand plans as he did many times before. He had come to expect the rolling of eyes and twiddling of thumbs. But his time was different. The bosses of Pure Class Wealth listened intently. They asked questions and scrutinised the plans in detail. Dr Hunter retorted, plotting out the expedition and all the ways in which his amazing discovery will change the world.
“We must delve to the deepest depths of the ice sheets of Antarctica. There, at the threshold between ice and earth, is where will find the secrets of human life.” Dr Hunter proclaims aloud. “The origins of the human race are preserved in a perfectly intact state. Unlike fossils, which are the remnants of millennia old deceased animals, inside the permafrost lies dormant creatures. These creatures are not dead, they have been held in a slumber of thousands of years - their organs intact and their brain still functioning. Once they are freed from the permafrost and brought up from underground, we will bring these creatures back to life. A living breathing relic of the past will help us to explain mysteries of the human form and the human psyche. It would be a catalyst for biology and science in general. By bringing the past back to life, we will secure the future of the human race.”
Pure Class Wealth pondered, deliberated and finally made Dr Hunter an offer. They gave him the opportunity and the money he requested and allowed Dr Hunter to fulfil his destiny.
Dr Hunter assembled a crew and travelled to the Antarctic where he set up base. The camp was above one of the deepest areas of permafrost anywhere along the ice shelf. Dr Hunter studied aerial photography and geotechnical surveys for years before narrowing his field and deciding on this spot. A combination of geological and hydrogeological characteristics made Dr Hunter believe that this was the most likely spot where a Neanderthal man may have come to rest.
Within the permafrost, were relics from another age. A combination of vivid unweathered fossils and glistening crystals filled cavernous voids. Living organisms were held in stasis - almost floating within the ice. Usually these creatures were small fish and invertebrates who were trapped in the changing of the seas during the last ice age. But, occasionally, a land-dwelling mammal would also be captured - frozen underground, ready to be awoken again.
40 metres above, at the surface, the first drills breaks through. Laborious hand-held boring rigs screw into the ice and shovel it upwards. A team of scientists, wrapped head to toe in thermal clothing, take it in turns to man the rig. Not a single patch of skin exposed to the elements for only 30 seconds of -45 degree wind chill would result in brutally deep frostbite.
Days, weeks and fortnights passed until the scientists reached the bottom layer of the permafrost. Their hopes of finding a preserve being were dwindling as they neared terra firma. Dr Hunter was readying himself to l ave Antarctica empty handed and resigned himself to having to ask for additional funds to dig more holes in the future.
But just then a junior scientist shouted up from the bottom of the borehole. “Dr Hunter...I think I found something. It looks like...it looks a man”.
Dr Hunter requested that the body be painstakingly exhumed from its frozen tomb. Day after day, the scientists would lower themselves via winches and pulleys to the bottom of the borehole. Tethered to the surface for safety, they would chip away at the ice with the smallest of pick axes and scrapers, slowly revealing more secrets of the ice-man. For a creature from the Neanderthal age, the ice-man looked remarkably like present day humans - albeit hairier and less groomed. Through the frost, the scientists could make out scars across the face, lasting signs of conflict. But apart from that, the specimen appeared to be a perfect state of cryogenics.
The scientists lift the cube of ice containing the man to the surface via the widened borehole. Winched to the surface, inside a tent which provides shelter against only some of the harsh snowstorms, Dr Human lays his eyes on the prehistoric creature that he believed existed for so long.
Dr Hunter proclaims “I shall call him...Tyler.”
For days Dr Hunter sits over his treasure. He watches as the ice slowly drips away to the tray below. The thaw lasts two weeks until finally skin poked through to feel fresh air for the first time in tens of thousands of years. Dr Hunter touched Tyler’s arm, feeling the ice cold perfectly vertical hairs.
Gradually the body warmed up and the remainder of the frost relents. Tyler’s furry hands were no longer cold. They became warm to the touch. Dr Hunter, watching in awe, clutched Tyler’s hand as if it was a loved one.
Dr Hunter felt a tug on his hands. Tyler’s fingers twitched. He gripped the doctors finger - softly at first. Dr Hunter could not believe his eye - finally everything he dreamt of was coming true. The world would rejoice when they find out what he can discovered.
But suddenly, the grip tightened. The doctor struggled but he could not break free. The sharp claw-like finger nails pierced the doctor’s skin.
The beast awakened, eyes red with bulging bloodshot vessels. Fifty thousand years of forced slumber suddenly released in a fit of rage. Bright artificial light shone down as strange figures in white coats stare down at him.
Dr Hunter, in an apparent episode of arrogance, believed that he could talk to the beast. He tried to reason with the beast and calm it. “It’s ok, it’s ok”.
It was not ok. The beast sat up and bit the carotid artery straight out of Dr Hunters neck. Blood spurts everywhere as Tyler chews on his first meal for 50,000 years. The rest of the scientists, all coming to the same conclusion that they did not sign up for this, scarpered from the laboratory.
Dr Hunter crumpled to ground in a pool of his own blood. He tries desperately to add pressure to the wound but the wound it too deep and the blood flow too fast. Within seconds he loses blood flow to his brain. Dr Hunter passes out first - giving him a moment of relief before his body finally gives up.
David Hunter dreamed of conquering the underground. In reality, he dug his own grave.
The true underground beast has been set free once more.
