Chapter One

Brea and Zeke head back to Palmer Station, Antarctica, after another data collection expedition.

Immediately after opening the hatch door to her self-proclaimed “ocean-view suite,” a sharp, salty spray splattered onto Brea’s face, temporarily blinding her.

“Did we get it?” Brea questioned, quickly wiping the sea from her eyes and stumbling over to her partner, Zeke.  It was Day 12 of their exploration of 65°56'47.3"S 75°56’15.0”W, or to Brea: the middle of the ocean, sort of near the coast of Antarctica.

“You tell me, you’re the expert here,” Zeke snapped, handing the canister over.  The ocean spray wasn’t the only salty thing on the deck that day.  

Both students were in the process of earning their masters degrees studying under Dr. Christopher Reid, Ph.D.. Unfortunately, he’d fallen ill with pneumonia shortly after embarking on the first sample collection expedition due to spending too much time on deck, exposed to the chilly open ocean.

Every few days, Brea and company would leave behind Dr. Reid to recover and set sail from a local port, Palmer Station, to collect samples.  After about a week, the crew would turn them around, and head back to the research facility.  There, Brea, Zeke, and their professor would analyze the samples and determine if another trip out to the open ocean was necessary.  Thirteen trips later, Brea and Zeke were exhausted of each other’s company, as the crew was preoccupied and there was nobody else to talk to on board.

Brea was a first year graduate student at the University of Colorado Boulder, studying an emerging field: geobiology.  Although her parents had been supportive of Brea spending a year researching, they were more upset than pleased to find out it was in Antarctica, rather than Italy.

“Absolutely not.  It’s too dangerous, and I don’t like the idea of you spending an entire year without anybody we know close by,” Brea’s mother lectured upon the presentation of her research proposition.

“I don’t know what to tell you, Ma.  If I’m going to be a successful scientist in this field, I’ll have to venture to Antarctica at least once.  Think of it this way--it’s a right of passage.  If I absolutely hate it, I won’t have to go back once I have my masters.  Successful geologists don’t have to do research in places that they don’t want to.  Seriously, don’t worry.”

Although Brea had successfully convinced her ambivalent parents to let her embark on the journey, she had doubts herself.  She knew Dr. Reid fairly well, after a lengthy admission and research proposal process, but she didn’t know the other student who was coming on the expedition, Zeke, at all.

“Oh well, not like he has much of a choice in being my friend,” Brea thought.  After all, there would be three of them, some crew members, and maybe some other scientists at the base, so options for friendship were fairly limited.  Brea would never bring up her doubts, though, as her mother was looking for any excuse to talk her out of the trip.

So there Brea was, seasick and sea-spray burned, hundreds of miles from anyone who really had her best interest in mind.  They’d be getting back to the station soon, though.

Reviews

[emipoemi]

......ok. this is a pretty good opener as a whole. It's short, it gets to certain points relatively well, my critique about it, though would be that it's too telly. There are easier, more seamless ways to tell your story in a showy manner that wouldn't require you to use rather bland and obvious phrases, such as "...stumbling to her partner, Zeke" - ending at "partner" and then beginning the next sentence with Zeke, or referring to the partner by name later on makes for more showy story-telling. For it's better to bring the readers into the world of the book by making them feel like they already know the characters to some extent (your readers are smarter than you think), and therefore we don't necessarily need to be told who's who at a grade one/two level (not that it's bad, it's just not advisable). Forgive me if I'm too blunt, I'm just giving pointers on how to improve. For in terms of progression, this could use a tweak or two as well, for it seems too everywhere-at-once, so it could get a bit confusing as to what exactly is happening, and where exactly everyone is at that time.....the picture is not quite clear. However, this is a great start. Anxious to see how the story develops from there.

[Ali Richards]

Thank you for your feedback! It's very helpful.

[emipoemi]

You're very welcome. It was my pleasure.