Fire and Ice

“Please repeat” called Brown into the communicator, “I thought you said an egg!”

“I did” confirmed Aston, “this whole planet is an egg”

Father Brown looked at Crane in disbelief and shook his head, “are you sure?” he asked, “that can’t be possible!”

Aston James clambered over the rocks as he stumbled with the communicator in his hand and his other hand waving wildly in the air, “that’s what I thought...at first” he shouted excitedly over the buzz of static, “but the evidence overwhelms anything we have ever thought of before”

“Explain” came the calm voice of Father Brown.

“The fields...” blurted the excited priest, “I visited the fields and they are magnificent. Miles and miles of ice sheets as far as the eye can see and in the middle a series of large funnel which rise from the ice! There’s steam, molten lava and molten ice...”

“Father!” snapped a disgruntled voice, “the egg!”

“Oh, yes the egg. Well...” Aston slid down a slight incline and dusted himself off at the bottom before talking into the small metal device, “I lifted a section of the ice close to the shore line and beneath it there was a layer of flowing ice, it was liquid, cold, but at the same time it had a kind of warmth to it. I put my hand in and felt the thick liquid around me” he explained as his foot slipped again. He steadied himself on the side of the hill and picked his way through the open gorge, “the liquid was sticky, and clung to me, not in the way I would have expected ice to react”

“What about this theory of yours?” snapped Brown.

“Its not a theory!” yelled Aston, “once I pulled my hand out I examined the ice and it wasn’t cold, or thick at all it was translucent, and ran easily over my hand. Imagine it you will, when you have cracked an egg and watched it fall into the pan. The albumen is transparent is it not?”

“So you’re saying the ice is actually albumen?”

Aston clung onto the communicator as his body tumbled and his free hand rested on the rock. He paused and sat on the uneven ground, panting heavily from the exertion, “yes” he enthused, “I wasn’t sure at first, but I pushed my hand further in and beneath the thin layer of ice, there is a second thicker layer”

“This still doesn’t prove that this is albumen, it could be the molten ice is thicker further down” reasoned the voice of Father Brown.

“I did think that” replied Aston, “so I pulled more of the ice sheet away and beneath I could make out something large moving beneath the albumen”

“Are you sure?” snapped Brown, “I mean really sure. If the ice was as thick as you say, then you couldn’t have got a proper look at anything”

“No, no, no” stammered Aston as he got to his feet again, “I saw something dark move beneath the flowing ice. I believe the ice is actually a layer of albumen, covering and protecting a vitelline membrane and inside something is germinating. This whole planet is an egg, I’m sure of it! The forest, the fields, the colony, its all on the outside of the shell and now the creature is getting ready to hatch...” the communicator broke up in a vicious hiss of static breaking off his sentence and leaving the priest half standing and half sitting in the incline of the rocky gorge. The land stirred again and cracks broke through the ravine, separating the mountains and disturbing great rocks to fall from above. He looked toward the forest and ploughed forward. He knew he needed to get back to Joanne and the children and pushed himself onward.

“Could he be right?” asked Crane meekly as he lay on the soft leaves of the roof.

Brown shrugged, “I really don’t know” he admitted, “I suppose it would explain a lot”

“Like the sudden change in rotation...”

“Climate change”

“Population attitude”

“There are still many things we do not know or understand” conceded Brown, “But, I do know if this is an egg, then we are are doomed”

“Father!” exclaimed Thoryn as Aston stumbled into view over the crest of the range, “what is happening?” he yelled over the noise of the distant volcanoes, “Are the gods angry”

“Hardly” shouted Aston, struggling to make his voice heard, “far from it, we are about to witness the birth of a new species”

“Where?” demanded Thoryn as Meeka pulled her body close to his. Aston never answered, simply directed his eyesight toward his feet bringing the children to mimic his actions, “the ground?”

“Yes, the ground” said Aston as he knelt beside Cadet Darby as took her head in his hands and pulled her close to his chest, “Children come to me” he held his free hand out toward the children, “let us pray” he said simply and closed his eyes and removed his bible from his pocket. He pressed the small rotund button in the centre of the book and smiled as the tiny red light warmed his hand as he opened the cover. He sat, his eyes still closed and smiled as he bowed his head into the pages. “Lord...” he started as the children slowly shuffled toward him.

“Meeka...” whispered Jai-Sen and they settled by the priest, “Imagine how big this creature must be” he said softly as he buried his head into her body as they sat by the priest. Only Thoryn wavered, unsure what to do. The ground shook violently beneath his feet and he glanced at his companions huddled around the old man like frightened children...he stopped himself deliberately, they were frightened children, and reluctantly he joined them pulling his body close to the warmth of the priest’s robes.

The ground shook and a tree crashed the ground close to the palace. The noise brought more screaming and the smell of death and destruction filled the air, “Father James” yelled Brown into the communicator, “can you hear me?”

“Its no good” remarked Crane as he clung onto the railing as the palace shook. He watched as the force of the quake threw debris into the air, covering the sky in a blanket of dirt and ash. “It over...”

“We need a miracle!” shouted Brown as the noise erupted around him, catching his in a cascade of air. Crane felt the wind in the hair as the roof buckled under the pressure of something heavy as it struck the fragile roof, then everything went black...

“I’m scared!” shouted Meeka over the noise. The earth rocked violently and buckled beneath their feet and the small party clung tightly to each other. Dirt and ash mixed and enveloped the children, only the red light from the bible shone like a beacon through the ensuing debris. They could see the forest burn like a torch as trees fell and plants rocked as explosions violently shook the canopy, while behind them great boulders tumbled and rolled away from their rocky haven as the mountains crashed down, breaking the fragile remnants of the ice fields. The distant roar of the two volcanoes reached a crescendo and smoke circled overhead like a vulture waiting its prey, then all of a sudden a massive gust of wind caught them by surprise.

“This is it!” shouted Aston into the wind, his voice lost on the tide of air, as the children pulled their bodies tighter in to him. “Lord! Have mercy!” he called to the skies as their bodies were bathed in a tight ring of light.

“Anyone for a lift” laughed a slender female voice...