Chapter Text
A few weeks after Christmas, during the spring melt in the Arctic, Captain Barnacles led a team to the Arctic Polar Scout Emergency Post on the remaining sea ice. He, Lieutenant Kwazii, and Peso leaped across ice floes toward the post.
“Are you sure this is the place, Captain?” Kwazii yelled over the howling wind.
“I’m sure, Kwazii,” Barnacles replied, “The Arctic Polar Scout Emergency Post is out here on the sea ice!” He leaped over to another ice floe, and then shouted, “Ah! There it is!” They pushed through the storm until they reached the door of the Post. “I’ll just knock on the— Oh!”
“Captain Barnacles! It’s good to see you back at the old Post, Sir,” a young male Polar Bear said cheerily. The bear was wearing a yellow shirt, not unlike a sailor’s uniform, a matching ushanka and glasses. The Octonauts ran into the post and took off their hoods.
“Kwazii, Peso, this is Tracker. Tracker, meet—”
“The Octonaut guys—” Tracker said excitedly, but he corrected himself, “I mean- The Octonauts.”
“Did you say, ‘Octonauts’, Tracker?” a familiar male voice asked. Right as rain, Percy poked his head out from around a corner, “*Gasp* Capt. Barnacles, Lt. Kwazii, and Dr. Peso! What a surprise to see you three here!”
“I didn’t tell him you were coming,” Tracker giggled.
“Ahoy, Percy!”
“Hola.”
“So what do ye two boys do at this Station?”
“Okay, this is my listening station. When someone sends out a call for help in the Arctic, it’s my job to hear it and then dispatch the nearest rescue team to help. Percy is one of the rescue Captains,” Tracker said.
“Tracker’s in charge here, and he does an excellent job,” Barnacles added proudly.
Tracker smirks, “Why wouldn’t I? I was trained by the best.” Tracker pointed to a framed picture on the icy wall.
“That’s you and Captain Barnacles,” Peso noted.
“Yep, before he became Captain of the Octonauts, he trained Polar Scouts like me for the Emergency Service.”
“Heh, while I wasn’t lucky enough to have been trained by him personally, I’m still keen to pick up a few tricks,” Percy remarked.
“Octonauts, our mission is to help as many Arctic Creatures as possible,” Captain Barnacles proudly proclaimed, “which is why we’re setting up direct communication between this Emergency Post and the Octopod , ready to test the link, Tracker?”
“Cool! Errr— Right, sir.” Tracker pressed a few buttons on the dashboard in front of him, and Dashi’s face appeared on the computer screen. “Emergency Post to Octopod ,” Tracker said into the microphone.
“Dashi here.”
“Tracker, meet Dashi. She’s our computer expert aboard the Octopod .”
“Nice to meet you, Tracker,” Dashi said.
“Really nice to meet you,” Tracker replied.
“So, how’s the signal?”
“Good— Huh?! What in the world just swam past that back window? Are my eyes playing tricks on me?!”
“You probably saw the GUP-M , Tracker. Stella took it out for a spin so it wouldn’t freeze sitting still in the holding tank.”
“Whoa, the GUP-M ? I heard Bam-Bam talking about it the other day while I was on the phone with Scout. That thing is huge!” Percy exclaimed.
“It is pretty big. It was Tweak’s Christmas gift for Stella. It’s become Stella’s personal favorite GUP . No surprise there really.”
“What was that, Dash?” Stella asked as she entered the HQ. “*Gasp!* Well if it isn’t Percy Polaris!”
“Been a while, hasn’t it, Stella?”
“How have you been?”
“Good.” Suddenly, before anyone else could speak, an alarm sounded in the Emergency Post.
“Okay, that’s a call for help,” Tracker said.
“And where is it coming from?”
“Well, Captain, it’s— Huh, that’s weird. It’s not coming from the Arctic. It’s coming from the opposite end of the world.”
“The Antarctic?” Stella and Barnacles asked in unison.
“Yeah, and—” Tracker opened a large binder and looked at the location on the map, “No… Captain. It’s coming from an old Ice Research Station that’s been shut down for years.”
“So there shouldn’t be anyone living there at all,” Barnacles said aloud in his deep British voice.
“And yet—” Kwazii started.
Peso continued, “Someone’s calling for help.”
“And someone needs to answer it!” Stella finished. Barnacles nodded to Stella and the rest of the crew.
“Tracker, Percy, standby.”
“Yes, sir!” Tracker and Percy exclaimed, returning to their stations.
Captain Barnacles pressed the OctoAlert on his Octo-Compass and ordered, “Octonauts, to the HQ!”
The Octonauts took their positions as the crew at the station returned to the Octopod . Stella had learned that this was usual protocol unless the team cannot return in time. The Captain restated the issue and had Tracker send over a map. Just looking at the location, Stella had a bit of a hunch.
“Tracker, what was the name of the station?” she asked.
“I’m not sure. My binder doesn’t say. All it says is ‘abandoned Antarctic Ice Research Station’.”
“Hmm… Dashi, could you pull up my photo album?”
“Sure…”
“What’s your hunch, Cadet?” Barnacles asked.
Stella started shuffling through the pictures, “One of my family’s distant cousins, both evolutionary and genetically like Kwazii, is a Canada Lynx by the name of Lena. She’s from Quebec, and has been studying glaciers her whole life. By now, she’d be about 50 years old, but no one in my family has heard from her since she left for-- Bingo!! There she is, in her Polar Scout AIRS uniform. ‘AIRS’ stands for ‘Antarctic Ice Research Station’! I think she might be calling for help!” In the shown picture, a 30 year old Canada Lynx kneels in the snows of Antarctica in front of an Ice Research Station. Her parka has the Polar Scouts logo embroidered into the front, and her hair is tied back in braids like many older Polar Scouts of all species.
“Then there’s not a moment to lose. Tracker, Percy, we’ll keep you posted,” Barnacles said.
“Cool!” Tracker exclaimed, “Err-- Right sir, and good luck! Tracker out.”
“Activating launch, Captain,” Dashi said, as Barnacles moved to enter the Steering Pod.
Three months later, they’re finally reaching Antarctica. They just had to cross the rough Southern Ocean: the Roaring Forties, the Furious Fifties, and the Screaming Sixties (named for the degree of latitude and the rough waters caused by west-to-east air currents). Kwazii took the GUP-B out for a spin to collect data from the Octo-Floats—open water thermometers—and came back with a guest. He noticed the shell sticking to the back of the GUP-B and recognised it immediately. There was no way in hell he’s going to risk a sore paw again over a Cone Snail.
“Treasure, I need the weldin’ gloves. There’s a Cone Snail stuck t’ the GUP-B again.”
“Oh, for the love of Pete! Again, Kat?”
“Again, me Treasure.”
“Alright… Don’t touch it. I’mma get Peso on site STAT.”
“Ye don’t have t’ tell me twice,” Kwazii replied, moving as far away as possible. Unfortunately, Shellington swept down the Octo-Chute and clumsily knocked into the GUP-B , causing the Cone Snail to fall and panic. It fired a harpoon and nailed Shellington’s paw.
“Oh me, oh my!” Tweak exclaimed.
Kwazii slammed his paw down on the OctoAlert and yelled, “Cone Snail on the Octopod ! Peso! Shellington’s been stung, we need ye down in the Launch Bay ASAP!”
Meanwhile, on the second floor, Stella was reading on her bed when the alarm sounded. She dropped the book instantly and dashed down the hall to the Octo-Lift. On her way there, she saw the snail fly out of the Octo-Chute and fire a harpoon toward her. She slipped and skidded down the hall on her hip, causing the harpoon to miss her by mere centimeters.
“Yikes!! Peso! Look out, it’s in the Hall! Go around past the Library instead of past my room!” she squealed into her radio.
“Got it, Stella!” Peso affirmed as the Lift carried Stella to the HQ.
Holy fucking shit, Stella said to herself as she frantically tried to put herself back together, That was the closest call in my entire life .
“Never a dull moment on the open seas,” Barnacles remarked, “It must have mistook the GUP-B for a rock when Kwazii set it down to check on the floats.”
“We’d better get it outta here quickly, I don’t think we really want any more sick crewmates after Shellington.” Suddenly, Kwazii burst in with both Tweak and Shellington on his back, and Peso right on his tail. “Well, I jinxed it,” Stella said.
“Take those two down to the Sick Bay. Be careful and be on your guard, it could be anywhere aboard the ship at this point.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” the team chorused. Dashi, Barnacles, and Stella split up with nets to find it.
Down in the Sick Bay, Peso prepared beds for Tweak and Shellington, then Kwazii found the Professor’s been stung. On the way back, Kwazii himself was stung, but managed to get back to the Sick Bay just in time. The venom seemed to be taking more time to affect the crew fully, but was still severe, because they’ve only been stung once each: all except Peso, Stella, and the vegimals. Stella walked past the Library just in time to spot Dashi slumped over the bookshelves.
“Oh, dear!” she exclaimed. Dropping her net, Stella rushed over to Dashi and hoisted her up into Stella’s arms. “Captain, Dashi’s been stung!”
“Thanks for telling me, Cadet. It appears that it’s gone into the vents. I don’t want you getting hurt, so I’m going in after it.”
“Are you sure? You remember what happened last time!”
“I know, but--*gulp*--It must be done. If all else fails, you’re the only other Octonaut who can pilot the Octopod through the Roaring Forties. There’s a small seamount that we can land on.”
“But what about Peso? He’s done it before and I haven’t! I’ve never piloted the Octopod !” Stella protested.
“But you do know something about doing so. You’ve had tons more time to study up and read the manuals. You safely drove the team up the Ganges River and the Himalayan Mountains and back down again in a GUP that had never been previously tested.” Dashi moaned loudly, alerting Stella to the fact that she’s been standing there for five straight minutes and wasting precious time.
“I have to take Dashi to the Sick Bay now. Good luck, Captain.” Stella hung up the radio call and headed for the Sick Bay.
She set Dashi down on the prepared bed, and both she and Peso heard a creaking in the vents.
“Must be the Captain,” Stella muttered.
“He’s going in those vents again?!”
“Yep, anyone else noticed just how protective of me he’s become since we left the Himalayas?”
“I suppose I haven’t been around either of you enough to notice, but he nearly lost control of his mind and speech way back before we left in the GUP-M . You were asleep.”
“What did he say, or almost say?”
“Well, he was talking about how he woke you up too early, and you fell asleep on his shoulder. He said that was his ‘punishment’ for disturbing your beauty rest. I doubt it somehow, because you seemed scared to touch him before then!”
“Etiquette, nothing personal,” Stella said, “It’s a respect thing as opposed to personal fear. I’m not scared of him in any sense… except when he’s angry, then I have a reason to be scared.”
“Indeed,” Peso agreed, “leave him alone for a little bit and he’ll cool down.” Suddenly, more creaking, and a cry of pain. Stella and Peso looked at each other, half panicked.
“Uh oh…” Stella muttered. She dashed out into the hall to search for him. He could get stuck in the vents and not be able to get back out should the Snail have harpooned him. She ran through the halls, her fluffy tail bouncing behind her like a hopping frog. She dipped down a side hall, sliding on the wet floor and snail slime. “Whoa! Yuck…” she groaned in disgust. She peeked down into the corner just in time to see the Captain wiggle out of the vent at the end of the hall. “Whew… I thought for a second you hurt yourself!” He turned around, holding a glass case in one paw, and the other was severely swollen already.
“I feel fine, but I know in about ten minutes I will be very sick. I got it though.”
“What’s the big idea?!”
“Yeowch…” Stella moaned, “does your paw hurt?”
“Not at the moment. Adrenaline is a hell of a drug, let’s put it that way. I’ve tried to tell this guy what’s going on, but he’s not listening.”
“He’ll be safer in the Sick Bay tank, then we can let him go once we land,” Stella said over the constant screeching of the Cone Snail. Just then, the ship jolted hard, knocking them both off their feet. “Oh, brilliant. The Roaring Forties!”
“Better hurry, get the manual, head up to the HQ and steer us clear. You can do this, Stella.”
Stella weighed her options, and realized there was no other way. “*Deep breath* Aye, aye, Captain.”
With that, Stella ran back to her room to grab the manual from her desk. She sprinted down the hall, headed for the lift to the HQ. She knew what to do here: activate the steering wheel and then turn on the Octo-Lift. The part she’d never had to do before was actually getting on the lift and then actually steering the Octopod . She kept the manual open at her feet, keeping her paws on the wheel. While she is the most inexperienced Octonaut, she practices the hardest, earning the praise of her Captain and peers. If she thought hard enough, it’s just like driving the GUP-M , albeit, a massive version of the GUP-M . The steering wheel looked different, less like the other GUP s and more like a traditional ship’s helm. Unlike other GUP s, the GUP-M and the Octopod have a lever to engage the rudder (reverse and harsh turns). The GUP-M is much like a bus in size (complete), and therefore has a wide turn radius. The separate pieces can turn on a dime easily, but all together it cannot. So, piloting the Octopod is much like piloting her favorite GUP .
“How are you doing up there, Stella?” Peso asked over the radio.
Stella struggled a bit to respond. “Whoa!” She jolted around a rock, causing the ship to jolt harshly. “Haa… Sorry, Peso, I’m doing okay. Still learning the… dimensions… of the Octopod , but otherwise, this is much easier than I thought.”
“Really? What’s your trick?” he asked.
“My trick here is to think of this as piloting my favorite GUP , because both the GUP-M and the Octopod have manual rudders for reverse and turning on a dime. There are some things I don’t quite get yet, because the Manual said that this lever over here controls the brakes, and the GUP-M has a single lever that controls the brakes and the rudder, switching between them with a button on the top. Tweak, was that on purpose?”
“N-nah… I didn’t even know you were going to learn to do this. Now, it’d be best if I kept my mouth shut.”
“Sorry… I hope I haven’t made anyone else seasick.”
“Meh… It ain’t your fault, Lassie,” Kwazii said.
“Agreed, you’re doing well for a first try, Cadet.” With that, Stella turned down the radio volume so she could focus, but still hear them. She kept her eyes forward and frequently glanced around to check for animals. Even with her crew backing her up, the bitter taste of adrenaline tickled the back of her throat and distracted her briefly. She knocked into a rock thanks to the brief distraction.
“Shit!” she exclaimed in frustration.
“Keep one paw on the wheel, use the other to engage the rudder. You’ve got this, Cadet.”
“I—I got distracted by the adrenaline taste in the back of my throat… I’ll be fine…” She turned the wheel smoothly, dodging the next rock and resisting the rough currents. Even though her next turn was smooth, it’s harsh enough that it knocked the Cone Snail loose unnoticed. It took another few minutes of swerving around rocks for anyone to notice. That person happened to be the Captain, who was now too weak to speak loud enough for the radio to pick it up, and Peso was too busy.
Cone Snail, loose on the ship. Stella can’t hear me anymore, she’s in danger if she comes down from the steering pod now, he said to himself. He’d encountered this problem before, but he shouldn’t be up and he knew it. Despite being too weak and sick to stand, he wasn’t about to risk his best recruit’s life over his health. I’ve been stung by this species of Cone Snail once and survived. I can at least get close enough to warn her. He worked his way off the bed he was laying on and grabbed an empty container. Nobody noticed his exit until two minutes later.
“Captain, are you oka— Flappity Flippers! Where did he go?”
“Peso, what’s the matter?”
“Captain Barnacles, where did he go?!”
“I can’t check. Check the Sick Bay tank. Is the Cone Snail still there?” Stella asked.
“Ehh?” Peso checked the tank only to find the snail gone, “It’s not here!”
“He must have escaped and the Captain went after him. The map says we’re almost to the seamount, just a few more rocks to go around. But the water’s pretty rough. Peso, make sure everyone’s okay then go after the Captain. I don’t know if he can hold himself upright anymore.”
“Aye, aye, Stella!” Peso looked around, then sprinted out the door as fast as his little penguin legs could go.
Great, more rocks and even rougher waters. What would Captain Barnacles do? Hmmmm… Does the manual say anything? No… What’s something that you wouldn’t write in a manual because it’s common— Oh! Right, believe in yourself. I am the only basic crewmember; my job is to assist my crew in any way I can, and if this is what they need me to do, then I’ll do it to the best of my ability. Stella took a deep breath of encouragement and power through the rough waters and rocks. With more practice, she would be able to do this without faltering much just like her Captain. She tried to ignore the fact that a Cone Snail was somewhere aboard the ship and loose. Her Captain was risking a long and rough recovery to keep her on her feet, and so was the Medic. I don’t see anything large enough to land on… Oh! Nevermind, it’s right in front of me! Hello~ Seamount! She purred happily.
Downstairs, Peso was scouring the ship from bottom to top, yet he’s one step behind the Captain and unable to find him. The Captain had searched every inch of the ship in the past five minutes, but there’s one place he hadn’t looked: the HQ. He slowly climbed the ladder upwards just as the Octopod settled on the seamount.
She landed the ship safely. Well done, Cadet, he praised in his head, but don’t lower the steering pod now, or you could be stung! He hauled himself up onto the floor of the HQ just in time to hear Stella’s voice and the Cone Snail’s cry of distress.
“Okay, I’ve landed the Octopod , now to find that Cone Snail, and let him go outside.” The Octo-Lift started to lower and the steering pod began to close. Stella turned around on the lift as it lowered, and out of the corner of her eye she spotted the Captain. “Captain! What are you doing up?!” she scolded, much like when scolding her baby sister.
“Stella, look out! Cone Snail, behind you!” Peso shouted before the Captain could. He took the long route around and went through the Octo-Chutes. Stella glanced over her shoulder as the startled snail spat a harpoon at her. She dove for cover, somersaulting across the floor and dropping the manual. The harpoon struck her tail and the Captain gasped. Peso snatched the container and slapped it over the snail.
Stella sat up, shook her loose ponytail free, and said, “I’m fine. I can’t feel the harpoon. It got caught in my fur. Benefits of having thick AF fur.”
“*Deeeeeeeeep breath* Hoooooly shit…. I thought for a moment that you were stung,” Captain Barnacles breathed, “I was so sure we’d be stuck here for a month extra.”
“I was too, honestly,” Peso agreed, “Even so, I recommend staying here overnight. We’ll be a day behind schedule. Hold still, Stella.” He pulled the harpoon out of her fur and she stood up.
“Well, either way we’d better hurry. Until you’re back on your feet, Captain, Peso and I will take over. First off, Mr. Snail, how would you like to be released back outside where you belong?”
“Aye. Sorry, mate. I didn’t know what was goin’ on. D’ye think ev’rybody’ll be okay?”
“They’ll be alright, Señor,” Peso said, “With enough rest, the crew will be back on their feet in no time!”
“Peso, make sure the Captain gets back downstairs safely. The last thing we need is any broken limbs,” Stella commanded, noting that the Captain was still standing precariously on the ladder.
“Err… Yes, Stella.”
Stella released the Cone Snail outside and returned to the Sick Bay. Now without the rocking of the ship, Tweak’s motion sickness was subsiding, Dashi was much less loopy, and everybody else was falling asleep. Stella looked around the room, making sure that everyone was okay. She had a tough decision to make, and would rather discuss it with both Peso and Barnacles, but since the bear was sound asleep and snoring, she couldn’t.
Do I dare wake him up? Stella asked herself, Nah, he deserves the sleep . She walked up to Peso, holding herself high and confident. “What do we do now? I don’t think we can risk moving on. We’re on the edge of the Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties, I don’t think I can cross the fifties as smoothly as I did the forties.”
“I agree, but what about your cousin? As a child of a huge family myself the one thing we don’t do is abandon the others in the family. There could be people in grave danger at that station waiting for us.”
“I know, and that’s what’s worrying me. I haven’t seen my cousin since she left for AIRS; she could be in danger and we can’t contact her. I asked Tracker to trace the signal to the best of his ability but he came back empty pawed.”
“If I may,” Dashi said, jumping into the conversation, “the reason he may not have been able to trace the signal further is because of damage to the radio or interference due to wind and snow.”
“Speaking of, I need to get my tablet from my room. I’m going to take notes on this conversation and contact Tracker,” said Stella. She ran out of the room, grabbed the tablet, and returned. “Okay, I’ve got it. Come on…. Tracker pick up the radio….”
“*Beeeeeeep* This is the Polar Scout Emergency Post. Tracker here.”
“Octopod here. How’s it going, Tracker?”
“So far so good, Stella. What happened? Are you okay? Why is there so much medical equipment behind you?”
“O-oh… UH-uhhh. Just.. um.. Just an incident with a Cone Snail… again. Peso and I are the only ones who weren’t stung… and the Vegimals weren’t stung either. So… until the Captain is well enough to take over, Peso and I are in charge. Any luck reaching AIRS?”
“Nothing. Hope everyone recovers okay. I think I can—heh—I think I can hear the Captain sleeping behind you.”
“Oh, god… Haha! Imagine trying to fall asleep right next to him in a crowded shelter. The struggle… especially since I need quiet to sleep… the struggle is real.”
“Ohh I believe it,” Tracker said, “despite that, I thought he was bad until I met Percy.”
Stella screamed with laughter, “Ahhhh-haha-ha! Yeah—haha!—they say that younger bears are worse. I mean.. Bam-Bam sleeps like the dead and her snores aren’t snores… they’re roars. She roars for everything: yawns, laughter, snoring, crying.”
“Anyway… how long do you estimate it will take to reach AIRS?”
“Well, I’d say a few weeks of recovery, and then sailing through latitudes fifty through sixty-nine at most… that might take… at least another month. It’s almost summer in Antarctica, and we’ll have to take it easy.”
“I recommend not sailing all night, considering this is your first time piloting, and stopping on the seafloor when you need to. Don’t exhaust yourself before the long trip in,” Barnacles rattled sleepily.
Stella jumped in shock, “How long have you been pretending to sleep?!”
“Twenty seconds,” he mumbled, “quiet down please.”
Sheesh, you’re one to talk… Stella muttered under her breath. She walked over to him and pulled the blanket over his shoulder before walking toward the HQ to continue her conversation and monitor whatever needs monitoring.
A couple weeks later, Stella had piloted the Octopod across the Southern Ocean and they were ready for the long trip in. The Captain and crew were fed, rested, and recovered from the stings. They all piled into the GUP-S and followed their radar systems to the abandoned station. Even though they met some of Peso’s Adelie Penguin cousins, both parties were in too much of a hurry to stay and chat for long. Stella kept her nose pressed up against the glass the whole trip. It had taken almost four months of riding currents south to reach their destination, but now they hoped they weren’t too late.
Stella’s tail twitched nervously with every passing second.
“I don’t see anything,” Peso said.
“Aye,” Kwazii agreed, “and wit’ all this wind an’ snow, the station may have disappeared without a trace…”
“Keep your eyes open, Octonauts,” Barnacles said, keeping the GUP steady.
Stella fell back onto her heels and played with her pearl necklace distractedly. Her anxiety was evident in her shaking paws and twitching tail. She was about to turn around to get a cup of cocoa to distract her, but something red and flashing caught her eye. She leaned forward onto the control panel and peered through the windscreen, squinting at the tiny red object. “What… is that ?” She mumbled.
“What have you found, Cadet?”
“I’m not sure… Kwaz, could I borrow your spyglass?”
“Aye, Lassie.”
She peered through the glass, adjusting the focus until her vision settled on a small round flashing light and what appeared to be a spotlight for a research station. Her gasp of delight alerted the crew that something was going right.
Stella handed the glass back to Kwazii and pointed through the wind and snow. “Captain, flashing light! Straight ahead!”
“On it, Cadet.”
The GUP rocketed toward the old research station and stopped a few meters away. The Octonauts suited up in snowsuits and held onto a rope to stay together in the whiteout. Barnacles led them towards the station, but nobody answered when he called for someone.
“Hmm—I wonder what that light is.” Stella said, breaking from the group with an ice pick in hand. She smashed the ice covering the red light, and noted it was a button. “Let’s see what this does.” She pressed it hard. The entire station and glacier rumbled before the hatch of the station opened like an alligator’s jaw. “Well? Are we going in?”
Barnacles forced his way through the next set of doors using his strength. The rest of the crew followed. Some kind of recording was playing over the speaker system. Whatever the recording was, it was the subject of someone’s life work. Stella forced her way through another set of doors to the sleeping quarters, and found evidence she’d been hoping to see.
“Lena…” she mused as she held up a framed photo of herself and Lena when Lena visited the Himalayan Glaciers. There was even a printed picture of Stella and the crew when she became an official Octonaut!
In another room, she found herself staring at an unfamiliar set of pictures. She couldn’t make out who was in them, and was trying to get a closer look when the tilted station suddenly shook. She heard the rest of the crew shouting for her, and hightailed it out of that deserted, grey hallway. The station tilted even further, and she lost her footing, falling flat onto the floor.
“Grab my paw!” Captain Barnacles shouted, keeping panic at the back of his throat. She smacked her paw into his, hauling herself to her feet. Both of them ran out of the station and slid down the hatch. “Whew… is everyone alright?”
“A-okay, Captain.”
“I’m fine.”
“What on earth happened?”
“I’m not sure, but whoever was living here with my cousin has hightailed it to safer ground. I don’t like the sound of the ice…” Stella said.
Everyone stared at her.
“*A-Ahem..* Sorry, glaciers and I don’t get along well…” She swallowed thickly. “When a section of ice breaks away from a glacier it can cause huge shifts in the rest of the ice-sheet. Occasionally, these shifts in the ice result in huge chasms in the face of an otherwise smooth glacier. Heh, they’re called rivers of ice for a reason.” She twitched her tail even more anxiously. She’d gotten over her trypanophobia and glossophobia, but what else could elicit the same reaction from her?
“Hmm… any clues as to who was living here?”
Stella’s ears perked up. “Yup! Lena was definitely here. There’s a sleeping quarter back there that had dozens of pictures featuring Lena and our family, even some of me, and even the entire Octonauts Crew!”
“I saw an unsent letter that was addressed to you, Star. It’s obviously not finished yet, but the sender would probably appreciate you reading what is there,” Dashi said, handing Stella the folded up letter.
“Anything else?”
“Lots and lots of notebooks I didn’t see a name on, and some I did,” Peso commented.
Tweak nodded. “More tools and instruments than I could ever keep track of. There was an initial on one of the older notebooks I saw. ‘N’ which could mean anything.”
“I found more pictures in another sleeping quarter, but… I couldn’t make out who was in them. I think one of them was a picture of someone’s graduation from the Polar Scouts in their mid teens…. Hm… on second thought… the Scout looked.. kinda like you, Captain.”
“Hmmm… I’ll have to see it to—”
“Captain! Look!” Kwazii exclaimed, pointing to the snow. “Tracks!”
The crew walked over to the tracks. Stella leaned over and followed them with her eyes, not really caring what species they were.
“Huh… these are the paw prints of an Arctic Fox!”
“But, that doesn’t make any sense, Captain. Arctic Foxes don’t live down here,” Shellington said.
“There’s more than one set,” said Stella, pointing to another set of tracks further up. She ran over to it and compared it to her own paw. “These are Lynx paw prints. Lynxes don’t live in the Antarctic either, so there’s only one Lynx it could be.”
“Let’s see where these lead…”
The crew followed the two sets of tracks toward a cave in the glacier. Stella gripped the Captain’s paw apprehensively, almost shaking with fear. Every crack of the ice and crunch of the snow under her feet made her shiver. The sheer strength of her grip on his paw made Barnacles’ fur stand on end; especially since Stella was from the snowy and rocky Himalayan Mountains, and snow was part of her species’ name.
It wasn’t until he noticed a small echoing crunching noise did he stop and stare up at the cave, squinting. Stella heard it too, and stopped short beside him.
An elderly Arctic Fox made his way into their vision.
“I don’t believe it! Professor Natquik?!” exclaimed Captain Barnacles.
Natquik laughed heartily in a thick Russian accent. “Ahaha! I don’t believe it!” He slid down the slope to greet his Polar Bear friend and former student. “Barnacles!” The two laughed and hugged each other tightly.
“Octonauts, meet Professor Natquik. When I was a young Polar Scout, he taught me Field Research in the Arctic!”
“And I’m glad to see you remember what I taught you: how to recognize tracks, how to listen for sounds that others miss, and… Hup!” He chucked a snowball in the Octonauts’ direction, to which the Captain and Stella dodged effortlessly. It landed in Kwazii’s paw perfectly, to which he laughed. “How to dodge one of my Surprise Snowballs! Very good Barnacles!”
“Thanks.”
He turned to Stella. “Yer Lena’s cousin, aren’t you?”
Stella nodded vigorously. “Yes! Is she okay?”
“She’s fine, just sleeping. Oi! Lena, get yer butt out of bed!”
“Leave her, Natquik. She’ll wake up on her own. What on earth are you doing so far from home, Professor?”
“I came down here with Lena to study the mysterious sounds the glaciers make.”
“Nobody knew ye two were still here!” Kwazii exclaimed.
Natquik explained, “Our radio broke long ago, so long ago we were beginning to worry nobody heard us! But we couldn’t leave! We’re on the edge of an amazing discovery, but it may soon be lost!”
“Lost?!” Shellington exclaimed, “Why?”
“*Yaw-awn…* What’s going on out there…?” A grey Canada Lynx with long braids asked, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Her voice had a strong french accent.
Stella’s eyes lit up, delighted. “ Cousine Lena! ”
“Stella?”
“ Oui, c’est moi .”
“Stella! Oh… it’s so good to see you, dear.” The two felines embraced tightly, but were interrupted by the Captain calling for them.
“Stella, come on!”
“Coming, Captain!”
She and Lena ran over the hill and joined the rest of the group on the edge of an icy cliff.
“This is why we called for help.”
“*Gasp!*”
Lena elaborated “We realized that the ice is moving, and is pulling the station into this enormous ice chasm.”
“Just like Stella said!” Peso said, connecting the dots.
The expression plastered across her face when the Captain looked at her said it all. “I was afraid of that…” she muttered, eyes pinned to the crevasse in front of her. “Unsteady boulders and sheer cliffs I can handle but ice chasms are where I draw the line…”
Lena pulled the Captain aside. “Stella’s had a bad experience with walking on glaciers prior to this. When she was a cub—before I left Canada for AIRS—we used to go out onto the glaciers all the time. The one time we forgot to grab the rope from the jeep was the one time she fell twenty meters—yes meters—down a chasm in the ice from a sudden Ice Quake. It took us almost two hours to reach her. Since then… she’s never been able to walk on ice of any thickness without getting a little shaky…” A small smile crossed Lena’s grim and wrinkled face. “Either way, I’m still proud of her for making it this far.”
The Captain nodded. “Thanks for letting me know.” He raised his voice. “Octonauts, we can use the GUP-S to pull the station away from the chasm.”
“Y-yeah… that sounds a lot safer than standing right next to it…”
Once everything was hooked up to the GUP-S , and the Station was pulled away, Natquik and Lena shared their discovery: the sounds the ice makes with it breaks and moves, and that ice in Antarctica moves just like any other glacier. While listening to the recording, Natquik and Stella both heard lots of little feet coming their way.
“That sounds kind of like…” Stella began, looking around the room in thought. Her eyes rested on Peso. That made her remember. “The Adelie Penguins! They’re headed back to their nesting grounds before spring and summer heads into full swing. They might not see the chasm!”
“Stella’s right!” Peso realized.
She turned to the Captain. “Captain, they might not know it’s there, but we do. Is there anything we can do to warn them?”
“There sure is, Stella.”
They went onboard the GUP-S and sent up flares, allowing Peso time to use the megaphone to warn his cousins. They reached the edge of the chasm just as the flares fell into the pit.
“Everybody stop!”
“*Gasp!* Oh my!”
“Thanks, Peso! But we still need to reach our nesting grounds!”
“Captain, is there any way we could get them across?”
“What about going around the chasm?” Kwazii asked.
Natquik shot that idea down fast. “The chasms can be miles long. Goin’ ‘round it would take a long time.”
“I could go back to the Octopod and get the GUP-M . The MA should be enough to get across,” Tweak mentioned.
“Yeah but how would you get across?” Stella asked, making a valid point. “Plus, we don’t have enough time for that. We need something immediate… something sturdy, and quick to build…” Her mind wandered off as she looked up toward the ice drill on the GUP-S . The rest of the crew returned to bickering. She shifted her eyes to the ground in thought. Huh… didn’t Tweak mention the ice drill is heated? Heat… plus ice… melting ice… water… “Kwazii, could you pass me the thermos?”
“Aye…?” He passed her his thermos filled with hot cocoa. When she went to pour it, it froze solid as soon as it touched the air. “Wha?! Look! It’s so cold, the hot chocolate freezes as soon as you pour it!”
“Hah! I knew it!” Stella exclaimed. “Octonauts, I know just how we’re going to build a bridge.” She took them all aboard the GUP-S and used the computer to model her plan. “What was it you said in those training videos, Tweak? ‘Sometimes you’ve gotta work with what you’ve got?’ Well, here’s an example of that. First, we’ll drill a tunnel into the ice, angling toward the chasm. The heated drill will melt the ice into water as we drill. Then, when we reach the wall of the chasm, we’ll poke through the wall and the water will spill out. As it hits the other side of the chasm, it’ll freeze into a solid bridge of ice!”
“Stella, you’re a genius!” Tweak exclaimed, realizing the plan could work.
Stella shrugged. “Just thinking like an engineer.”
“Well done, Cadet.”
With no time to lose, the Sled was detached from the main section and the ice drill was put to good use. The ice melted into water, just as Stella had predicted it would, and when the drill poked through the chasm wall, the water sprayed out in a steady stream and formed a wide sweeping bridge as it froze.
“Penguins, you can start crossing the bridge.”
“But please be careful!”
As the penguins started crossing the bridge, Stella noticed one falling behind the others. “Ooju, please hurry up! You never know when an ice quake could hit!”
No sooner had the words left her lips did an actual quake hit the team. Just what she was afraid of happening. She was light on her feet though.
“Ooju!” Peso exclaimed.
Stella looked down with one eye as she lay flat on her stomach at the edge of the ice cliff.
“M-My flippers are fine… but I-I can’t move my foot… And Stella’s caught me with the rope!”
“Yes! I’ve got you… Hold on tight with those flippers of yours, and we’ll bring you up safe and sound.”
“Haha… I’ve never seen paws that fast.”
“Believe me… I surprised myself,” Stella replied as she dug the toes of her boots into the snow and used her core strength to pull her upper body upright.
“How on earth did you do that?!” Barnacles asked her, kneeling in the snow to pull the rope up.
Stella shrugged, hauling the rope up steadily. “Dunno. I just did what I always do when someone I care about is in trouble: spring into action.”
“No, I mean, how in the world did you bring yourself to leap to the edge of the chasm?! You could have fallen in!”
Stella swallowed. The potential consequences of her actions settled in her head, but she shrugged them off. “I took an oath, didn’t I? Explore, Rescue, Protect.”
Peso came in from the other side and took Ooju’s flipper to pull him out of the chasm.
Stella turned to him, a slight stern expression across her features. “I hope you’ve learned what can happen if you dawdle for too long on unstable ice, Ooju.”
Ooju almost shriveled at the sight of her stern expression. Even Peso was scared of her for a moment. “I’m sorry…”
She softened. “I wasn’t asking for an apology.” Ooju looked up at her, confused. “I was asking if you were aware that dawdling on ice is a risky situation. Ice—anywhere in the world—cracks and moves unexpectedly; staying in one spot on ice like this is risky. Adelies nest on bare rock—where it’s safer to remain still—for more than one reason.
“Making mistakes is a part of life. It’s how we learn. Some mistakes are bigger than others, and some can have worse consequences than a banged-up foot, believe me. Voice of experience: you could have fallen twenty meters down and hurt a lot more than just your foot.”
Ooju almost jumped at the mention of the height. “Well… I know now!”
“That’s right. It’s okay to be in awe of your surroundings, but you need to be aware of them too. You may never know what’s dangerous and what isn’t. But, now you know one thing that is for sure dangerous. Beautiful, but it can be deadly at times.”
“Thanks, Stella.” Ooju gave her a big hug.
She returned the hug. “You’re welcome. Now, I believe you’ve got a journey to complete.”
“I don’t think he should waddle on that foot for a few days at least,” Peso said.
Stella looked at the Sled and said, “I think we can help with that, right, Captain?”
“We certainly can.”
They sent the sled off with Kwazii, Peso and Ooju. It then came to the remaining crew’s attention that the old Station was falling apart. Barnacles turned it over to Tweak, who gave an estimate of about eight weeks and two days to fix and upgrade.
During those two months, they watched the Adelie Penguins lay their eggs, hatch them, and watched the chicks grow. In addition, Stella’s one-year anniversary as an Octonaut and her 29th birthday passed. Both were celebrations to be proud of. Small, but spent with friends who cared and shared with friends and family across the globe.
As an added surprise, Stella was asked to help test one of the new features of the upgraded Ice Research Station, or GUP-I : the GUP-O , a snowmobile based on the Arctic and Antarctic Orcas. Dashi asked her for some help testing the helpers aboard the Station: the Octobots and the Veggiebot.
When everything was ready, the Octonauts gathered Lena and Natquik on the shores of Antarctica. There was still plenty of snow and ice on the ground. Even in July, Antarctica faced blizzards and cold spells.
Dashi and Tweak drove the newly remodeled GUP-I on the ice toward Lena, Natquik, and Barnacles, ready to show off the new research station.
“Haha! This is wonderful, wonderful!” Natquik exclaimed, excited.
Tweak leaped from the hatch onto the cold snow. “Glad you like it. I call it the GUP-I . The ‘I’ is for ice. I’ve put in solar panels and turbines to harness the wind and sun for power. The whole station is on snow treads now, so you can move it away from any chasm that suddenly opens up. Ha, but that’s not all. Go ahead and raise her up, Dashi!”
With the push of a button, the entire station rose high into the air.
“I’ve put the whole thing on extendable legs, so you can rise above deep snow drifts. Now, one more thing before we head inside. Show ‘em, Stella!”
That was Stella’s cue. She zoomed out from behind a nearby snowdrift on the GUP-O . Her skidding to a stop in front of the Captain, Natquik, and Lena showered them in powdery snow, but they didn’t care. They were too in awe.
“Haha! Incredible.”
“Hi guys!”
“This is the GUP-O . I modeled it after the Orcas in the area, and it can go above the ice, and under it. However, unlike the GUP-S , it doesn’t have a drill, so you’ll have to be careful when you go underwater with it.”
They climbed aboard the GUP-I and explored what it had to offer: plenty of sleeping quarters to personalize, their own Octo-Alert System, monitors, a hot cocoa machine, and of course the main cockpit and the GUP storage and launch bay.
One Antarctic Adventure was complete, but there was still a whole continent of mysteries for them to explore, discover, rescue, and protect.