Ice Station Zebra Read Online Free PDF Page A

degree of error. The computers do this, of course. One minute later the information is in the hands of all the antimissile stations between Alaska and Greenland. One minute more and solidfuel infrared homing antimissile rockets are on their way: then the enemy missiles will be intercepted and harmlessly destroyed while still high over the Arctic regions. If you look at a map, you will see that in its present position Drift Ice Station Zebra is sitting practically on Russia's missile doorstep. It's hundreds of miles in advance of the present DEW line--the 'distant early warning' system. Anyway, it renders the DEW line obsolete."
      "I'm only the office boy around those parts," Garvie said quietly. "I've never heard of any of this before."
      I wasn't surprised. I'd never heard any of it myself, either, not until I'd just thought it up a moment ago. Commander Swanson's reactions, if and when we ever got to Drift Station Zebra, were going to be very interesting. But I'd cross that bridge when I came to it. At present, my only concern was to get there.
      "Outside the drift station itself," I said, "I doubt if a dozen people in the world know what goes on there. But now you know. And you can appreciate how vitally important it is to the free world that this base be maintained in bein& If anything has happened to it, we want to find out just as quickly as possible _what_ has happened so that we can get it operating again."
      "I still maintain that you're not an ordinary doctor," Garvie smiled. "Commander Swanson, how soon can you get under way?" - -
      "Finish loading the torpedoes, move alongside the _Hunley_, load some final food stores, pick up extra Arctic clothing, and that's it, sir."
      "Just like that? You said you wanted to make a slowtime dive out in the loch to check the planes and adjust the underwater trim--those missing torpedoes up front are going to make a difference, you know."
      "That's before I heard Dr. Carpenter. Now I want to get up there just as fast as he does, sir. I'll see if immediate trim checks are necessary: if not, we can carry - them out at sea."
      "It's your boat," Garvie acknowledged. "I'd give my two remaining back teeth to come with you, Commander. Where are you going to accommodate Dr. Carpenter, by the way?"
      "There's space for a cot in the exec's and engineer's cabin." He smiled at me. "I've already had your suitcase put in there."
      "Did you have much trouble with the lock?" I inquired.
      He had the grace to color slightly. "It's the first time I've ever seen a combination lock on a suitcase," he admitted. "It was that more than anything else--and the fact that we couldn't open it--that made the admiral and myself so suspicious. I've still one or two things to discuss with the admiral, so I'll take you to your quarters now. Dinner's at eight."
      "I'd rather skip dinner, thanks."
      "No one ever gets seasick on the _Dolphin_, I can assure you," Swanson smiled.
      "I'd appreciate the chance to sleep instead. I've had no sleep for almost three days and I've been traveling non-stop for the past fifty hours. I'm just tired, that's all."
      "That's a fair amount of traveling," Swanson smiled. He seemed to be smiling almost always, and I supposed vaguely that there would be some people foolish enough to take that smile always at its face value. "Where were you fifty hours ago, Doctor?"
      "In the Antarctic."
      Admiral Garvie gave me a very old-fashioned look indeed, but he let it go at that.

2

      When I awoke I was still heavy with sleep, the heaviness of a man who has slept for a long time. My watch said 9:30, and I knew it must be the next morning, not the same evening: I had been asleep for fifteen hours.
      The cabin was quite dark. I rose, fumbled for the light switch, found it, and looked around. Neither Hansen nor the engineer