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rose to his feet to retrieve the phone. He
got to the glass case, lighted a hand upon the knob, and stopped.
“And you’re right, you will take the heat for it.” he snarled, before making
the call.
    Everyone was tense as they
waited for the helicopter to arrive. Benjamin reassigned shiftsso
that someone would always be present with Mr. Reynolds. Geoffrey
was not included. Nearly as offensive to the scientists as the fact
that they may be jeopardizing themselves by phoning home base for a
potential false alarm, was the fact that it may get out that a
lousy intern was the only one with enough guts to do the right
thing should this turn out not to be a false alarm. To avoid that happening,
they were fully prepared to discredit Geoffrey in any way they
could when the time came. They would draw attention to the fact
that he was alone with Mr. Reynolds when he became
unconscious—highly suspicious—and that the crazy story he gave them
upon their arrival only heightened that suspicion.
    But how would they explain
the fragment, and that it was Geoffrey—the lousy intern—who had
initially noticed it in the first place? No one wanted to think
about that. They would just have to cross that bridge when they
came to it. Meanwhile, the normal observations of the sky continued
as everyone waited for the helicopter, and, as he had expected,
Geoffrey was assigned to only the most tedious tasks; jotting down
the most meticulous and redundant findings, fetching coffee, etc.
Meanwhile, no one discussed or otherwise drew attention to the
fragment that was still glowing in the distance. The scientists all
agreed that they would tend to that once Geoffrey and Mr. Reynolds were long gone.
Perhaps, they’d even figure out a way to guide this latest turn of
events to work in their favor.
    Things went on like this
until a couple of hours before the helicopter was scheduled to
touch down. There were no brightly-lit helipads around, and the all
but completely snow and ice covered research station didn’t stand
out from the rest of the white Antarctic desert enough for a high
flying air craft to see it clearly, especially in the current six
month darkness, so protocol was for diesel fuel filled barrels to
be lit in rows as a makeshift runway. Geoffrey was assigned most of
work (as he had also anticipated) and within hours, he and Mr.
Reynolds were airlifted away from the station and to a more
clinically suitable facility, where he was extensively questioned
and studied. Initially, Mr. Reynolds was going to be taken to a
hospital facility in what looked like a heavily-guarded military
base, and Geoffrey was to be taken elsewhere, but he insisted that
he be taken wherever Mr. Reynolds was so that he could be there
when his superior awoke or he assured his rescuers that he wouldn’t
answer a single question.
    It wasn’t that he had
suddenly grown a heartfelt affection for the scientist, or even
that he was trying to be obstinate. Rather, he knew what story the
other astronomers were likely spreading about him, that he had
possibly done something untoward to Mr. Reynolds that had resulted
in him ending up unconscious. Geoffrey wanted to be there when Mr.
Reynolds awoke (assuming that he would eventually awake) so he could
hear his name cleared of foul play with his own ears. Otherwise,
his fledgling career may not be all he would stand to lose. The
official-looking men in the helicopter were in no mood to have
demands leveraged upon them by the likes of a simple intern, but
they acquiesced. The gravity of this action was not lost upon
Geoffrey.
    Even though he had raised
the protest convincingly enough, a large part of him didn’t expect
to be taken seriously. He was almost certain that he would have to
throw his father’s name around a little (and even then, he didn’t
know if he expected much) and honestly, he was struck nearly dumb
that his demands were met so quickly and with such little
opposition. He understood that if the other