Antarctica is the least explored land on our planet. Unlike the North Pole, there is a full continent below the miles of ice larger than all over Europe. It was a place that had its own vast history, all covered now under kilometers of ice. All that area of unknown drew my interest even as a child looking at maps my father showed me of Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott expeditions. Unlocking the secrets of a vault of knowledge in the frozen pole drove my academic path. Degrees in geology, marine biology, and astrophysics ate up my youth as I pursued any opportunity to work in any field relating to the Antarctic and where research may be funded. But I was not an Ivory Tower acolyte, no, I took any chance to travel to the snowy terrain with relish and I managed to rack up 4 research expeditions including 2 of my own. I felt at ease there, like I belonged in the white realm.
I tell you all this dear reader, so you understand some aspects of who I am, of why I did what I did. Of why so many had to die.
My skills as a research scientist in the Antarctic caught someone’s attention, specifically, someone from a company called Herskeren. I received an unorthodox request to lead a research team into the eastern part of the continent near the Transantarctic Mountains. Herskeren had convinced the provost to allow me to go in exchange for a generous donation to the University. What made the expedition so strange was that it was already in progress; I was to replace the previous project leader who went missing. For those reading who do not know, expeditions take months of planning and preparation in supplies and logistics and the loss of something like a project lead was unheard of to not cancel the whole thing. I was told by a Herskeren representative they were excavating something but could divulge no further details. That project was being forced to continue uninterrupted piqued my interest greatly, so I agreed with little knowledge of what I was agreeing to. The mystery was enough for me.
I eventually arrived by ski plane to the site after several weather delays. The site was a frenzy of activity with digging equipment and workers in hardhats shuffling between prefab buildings and a massive opening in the nearby mountain. The snow had battered the site before I landed, and the environment appeared to be rebelling at the unwelcome intrusion into its icy domain. A man in a thick coat greeted me, he was tall and broad and walked with a strength that betrayed the fact he was not from academia. “Dr. Evelyn Mercer? I’m Greggor and I welcome you on behalf of Herskeren.” I shook his hand, his handshake intentionally light in touch and he gestured for me to follow him towards an opening in the mountain.
I followed him down the mouth of the entrance through the frozen rock pushing past various workers engaging in their business in an almost drone-like fashion. I stopped for a moment to examine one of the gaunt faces passing by me. There was something lost in their eyes, their expression of having lost something and yet not knowing how to do anything else. My attention was refocused on following Greggor as we walked through tunnels that wound through the mountain. “This looks like a construction site, not an archeological dig” I called out to him.
“This is certainly an interesting place Dr. Mercer, all will become clear soon, we’re almost to the dig site,” Greggor responded without breaking pace.
We walked for another few minutes until we finally reached another opening, and I admit the breath left me. What I saw before me was a cavern over a hundred meters across and even larger in height. The cavern’s grandeur was awe-inspiring, its walls towering upward like frozen waterfalls, eternally frozen in cascading formations that glistened with a crystalline sheen. The very air in the cavern was heavy with an icy stillness, each breath crystallizing upon contact with the frigid atmosphere. It was as if the very essence of winter itself had been trapped within the confines of this immense natural cathedral, untouched by the outside world.
At the heart of this glacial sanctum, a solitary, obsidian pillar rose from the very bowels of the Earth, a stark contrast to the ethereal, translucent beauty of its surroundings. The pillar’s surface was as dark as the abyss, a void amidst the glittering ice, and it seemed to absorb all light and warmth, casting an eerie, otherworldly aura across the vast chamber.
Around this enigmatic black monolith, the ice formations seemed to bend and twist, caught in an eternal dance with the mysterious pillar, as if paying homage to its presence. Stalactites of ice hung from the cavern’s ceiling like delicate chandeliers, their icy fingers pointing downward in reverence to the obsidian centerpiece. The cavern echoed with the sound of one’s breath, a haunting, almost reverential silence that enveloped visitors, making them acutely aware of the profound solitude of this subterranean world. The walls bore scars of time, etchings and carvings created by nature’s slow hand over millennia, each layer of ice and rock telling a silent story of the passage of time.
As I stood there, taking in the breathtaking, frozen cathedral before me, I couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of unease. This place, hidden deep within the heart of Antarctica, held a presence that seemed to defy explanation. The juxtaposition of the black pillar against the radiant ice formations was both mesmerizing and disconcerting.
Greggor, who had been leading me through this surreal environment, spoke in hushed tones, “Dr. Mercer, this is the reason we brought you here. The pillar, it’s unlike anything we’ve ever encountered. It was discovered after unusual EM signals kept interfering with satellites passing over this location. Various teams were sent, and each met with various failures of everything from personnel to equipment malfunctions. Eventually, this cavern was discovered containing the source of the signal, and a formal expedition was sent.”
I walked over to the pillar and felt a faint hum which seemed inexplicable to the cold and seemingly inert stone. As I placed my hand on it, I recoiled almost instantly, a feeling of nausea overwhelmed me as I lurched backward.
Greggor rushed over and held me falling “Dr. Mercer, are you okay?” He exclaimed. I can’t explain it fully, but I felt something when I touched the pillar. It was sounds, a cacophony of sounds. They were scrambled, like too many radio signals coming in at once and yet all playing at the same time. I lost consciousness before I hit the ground.
***
I awoke a short while later in a medical tent, Greggor was sitting near me and approached when he saw my eyes open. “Dr. Mercer, you are okay, you fainted after touching the pillar and were brought here to a medical site. Take a minute to adjust and tell me how you are feeling”
“I feel…fine actually,” I said blinking a few times.
“I’m so sorry Dr. Mercer, this has never happened before. Many people have made physical contact with the pillar, but no one has ever exhibited a reaction previously. I would have warned you if we thought such an occurrence was possible.”
I thought about telling him about what I felt when I touched the Obelisk but cautioned myself. “Greggor, not to be too blunt but what is your interest here exactly?”
“I’m sorry Dr. Mercer, I don’t know what you mean?”
I laid back in the medical bed and stared upwards. “You mentioned satellites being disrupted, as far as I know Herskeren doesn’t own and launch satellites. But governments do, I’m guessing you are here to represent some country’s interests in this discovery, no? But that can’t be right since the Antarctica Treaty specifically forbids any military presence on the continent, right?”
Greggor paused for a minute before standing up and heading towards the tent exit. “All I can say is I’m here to monitor the safety and security of the site, nothing more or less. Please rest up Dr. Mercer, there is much to do, and we will need your assistance in that endeavor.” He gave a nod, then left leaving the cold chill of Antarctic air flooding into the tent before the seal reclosed.
The icy air hit my lungs and instead of discomfort I felt refreshed as I so often did when here. As I lay in bed I thought of the sounds, the voices if I were to put a label on it. What I heard was nonsensical, perhaps it was signals being bounced from the atmosphere back down here? Maybe this obelisk was some kind of receiver? I shook my head to no one. No, it felt like something was reaching out like something wanted out.
***
The days after were a blur to me as I worked nearly around the clock on establishing just what it was, I was even excavating so I started by looking through what I had to work with. The previous project director, Dr. Khan, who had gone missing, and was quite a distinguished scientist put my resume to shame and made it clear I was a backup choice for this task. I spent almost two days alone going through his scattered work in his tent. The man appeared to be losing his grip the longer the notes went on in time. Initial scans, spectrometry analysis, all things the Herskeren reps already gave me slowly transitioned to handwritten notes and then literal fragments of paper around the work area. A scientist of his caliber should never have been so professionally sloppy with their work and yet here it was, scattered in front of me.
I do not say the man was losing his grip lightly as Dr. Khan’s notes near the end referenced scientifically absurd terms like antediluvian about the obelisk. He would note repeatedly the object was impossibly old, far beyond any geological or anthropological explanation would allow for, citing erroneous radiological dating.
After exhausting what I could find in Dr. Kahn’s tent, I made my new home the cavern containing the obelisk. Greggor was my silent shadow, always watching me but rarely speaking or commenting on my work unless I asked him a question. He was vague and enigmatic, and I did not trust him knowing he was likely reporting on my every move.
I took a different approach than my predecessor and instead of focusing on just the obelisk itself, I took to examining the room it was in. The cavern around it was majestic and completely illogical to all knowledge of how mountains and glaciers form. While there can be caverns, tectonics, and other geological movements should have shattered this place long ago, and yet here it was.
My first real breakthrough was getting a ground scan. Initial radar imaging was fairly in line with the surroundings, and it seems likely Dr. Kahn dismissed it to focus on other aspects. I had a suspicion the ambient EM radiation the obelisk was giving off might be interfering so I ordered a scan with the best ground penetrating radar Herskeren could offer and it was so much more than I could have expected.
The obelisk was just the top of a massive structure beneath it descending through more than 2km of ice to the earth below and it appeared perhaps even further. It simply wasn’t possible. “Run the scan again” I called out exasperated to the tech helping me draw the attention of Greggor.
“What’s going on Dr. Mercer?”
I ignored him initially as the scan was returning the same results. “This…this isn’t possible.”
He placed a hand on my shoulder as I turned to him “These scans say there’s something unimaginably large beneath us.”
“What do you mean?”
I pulled Greggor over to the scanner and tried to explain the various color coding. “You can see it here” gesturing with my finger, “all this is a structure of some kind beneath us right now. It goes on for kilometers.”
The man remained silent for a few moments before responding “And it’s not more rock, we are in a mountain after all?”
I shook my head violently back and forth, “No, no, look again. This structure, of which this obelisk is just the top, would fit 3 or 4 of the Burj Khalifa stacked on top of one another. This is NOT a natural formation.”
“I’ll have to defer to your expertise Dr. Mercer. If you are correct, then we need to understand what is underneath us.”
I turned back to the scan results. “What aren’t you telling me Greggor, how could this go unnoticed?”
“I’m hiding nothing, Dr. Mercer, it would be of no benefit to hide anything from you.”
Something snapped a bit inside me. “Then tell me what happened to Dr. Khan? How does one just disappear?”
Greggor gestured for the assistant tech and a few other to go get some food leaving the two of us alone in the ice chamber. “Dr. Khan began to behave erratically. I imagine you noticed similar declines in his work through the records. Why I cannot say but he began to not eat, to not sleep, and his work declined. We tried to remove him from the project, for his good, but before we could meditate him, he ran into the tunnels here. We searched for days and have been searching since, but we never found him or his remains.”
“You didn’t think this was worth mentioning to me?”
Greggor cocked his head as if confused, “A scientist as brilliant as Dr. Khan always had a bit of eccentricity, we tried, I tried, to keep him focused and when it was clear he needed a break for his health he ran away. This information wasn’t what I would consider pertinent to your task though I offer it freely now.”
“Don’t do that, don’t put some benevolence to what is going on here” I snarled back.
“And what is going on? We have a find unlike any other, and you just uncovered yet another layer to this mystery. Please, tell me you are okay to continue working?”
I eyed Greggor up for a while before responding, “Yes, I’m sorry, this all just… a lot.”
Greggor nodded in agreement back, “Indeed. Please, Dr. Mercer, go get some rest for now, we can explore this discovery further tomorrow.”
“No, no, I’m fine. I need to go over these scans more.”
Greggor looked me up and down, “Alright, but if I need to enforce rest I will.”
I ignored him and went back to the radar scans. The structure below appeared to be of the same material the Obelisk was, and it too was distorting a clear picture of EM emissions. I couldn’t help but wonder who, or what would build such a thing in a place like this.
***
Days turned into weeks as I continued my exploration, and during that time, my sense of unease deepened. The workers who roamed the site, digging, and cataloging, all the logistics of the expedition, seemed to be gradually losing themselves in their tasks, their expressions growing vacant, as though their very souls were being absorbed by the obsidian enigma. They toiled tirelessly, oblivious to the harsh conditions and their well-being as if the obelisk held some inexplicable power over them. I too felt a toll.
I began to experience disturbing dreams, vivid and unsettling, filled with images of ancient civilizations and cosmic forces beyond human comprehension. In these dreams, the obelisk was a conduit to otherworldly realms, a bridge between the stars and the Earth. I awoke each morning with a sense of foreboding. As I delved deeper into the mysteries of the obelisk, I started to notice subtle changes in the cavern itself. The stalactites and ice formations began to shift, their delicate chandeliers twisting and contorting as if they were alive.
Greggor constantly nagged at me to rest but I ignored him. The work was too important, too all-consuming. The structure beneath the rock refused to give up its mysteries. The ice was just too thick to cut through, and the path of any teams exploring the various tunnel corridors always returned in confused failure. One way appeared open only to seemingly be closed the next time. Other team reported hearing voices calling to them only for flat rock and dead ends to greet them
One night, as I stood before the obelisk taking readings, I felt a pull, an irresistible urge to make contact with the black pillar once more. I glanced around like a frightened child to see Greggor was nowhere nearby. I was confused for he was ever my shadow, and I swore he was just there, but I was alone. The ice chamber seemed to reverberate from the hum of the obelisk. I reached out, my hand trembling, and as my fingers made contact with the obsidian surface, I was transported into a realm of pure darkness.
In that abyss, I heard the cacophony of voices once more, but this time, they were clearer, more distinct, or were they? They spoke of ancient civilizations, of beings from beyond the stars, and of a power that could reshape the very fabric of reality. It was as if the obelisk itself was a repository of cosmic knowledge, a key to unlocking the secrets of the universe, open to me and me alone if I would just…
And then I was walking, walking along a rocky alien world. I know it was not Earth as the sky was wrong, the stars were all foreign. I lurched as the ground was inverted above and below me. There was a non-Euclidian nature to topography that sent me spiraling forward towards a sickly star, not dying, but infected…
Sand, I was on a beach, the oceans crashed around me. These were not gentle waves, but violent primordial towers of water that crashed kilometers ahead of me. The sky was scorched as lightning clashed with fury above. I looked behind to see volcanoes that reached the heavens belching fire and ash. I tried to walk forward but the ground was too hot, the air too choked with carbon dioxide and methane to sustain me. I saw over the chaos to see a tower, a ziggurat jutting upward. It was the black stone of the obelisk but there was a light shining brightly at the top, it was emitting energy through the atmosphere out into space. I tried to move, to breathe, and instead, I died there on the sand…
My breath reached me as my hand was pulled away, Greggor had slammed into me sending me flying across the frozen floor.
“What the hell were you doing Dr. Mercer!”
I struggled to gain any composure, “I…I don’t….where am I?”
“You were standing there convulsing, I had to help you. What in god’s name would possess you to touch the pillar again?”
My mind was fuzzy, I didn’t know how to respond. “I can’t say, the obelisk. It just called to me.”
Greggor stood over me, the man was imposing but something brutal was present in him. “Dr. Mercer, you are the only one who keeps calling it an obelisk, why?”
I grabbed my head in pain, “I don’t…the obelisk it…what?”
“We’ll talk later, let’s get you to the med tent for now” Greggor reluctantly sighed and picked me off the frozen ground.
***
I spent the next few days in the med tent with every test under the sun run on me, but I was in perfect health. Greggor watched me even closer than before sitting nearby either as a comfort or a jailor I could not tell. He told me he recommended to Herskeren that I be removed from the project, but the clean bill from the doctor persuaded them to keep me for now. I wonder if they just wanted to observe what was happening to me further like a lab rat.
What I saw from touching the obelisk replayed repeatedly in my head. It couldn’t be real I rationalized, it was a dream, a hallucination from overworking but I could not shake it. I thought again and again about telling someone what I had experienced but something always stopped me. Something inside told me to keep it a secret, for what I had learned was for myself only.
I was eventually allowed to return to my work but there was now thick fencing around the obelisk to prevent any more similar accidents as Greggor put it.
As days turned into weeks, my obsession with the obelisk deepened. I couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to discover, hidden within the depths of the icy cavern. The dream-like visions I had experienced after touching the pillar continued to haunt me, and I couldn’t let go of the overwhelming need to uncover their meaning.
I became increasingly isolated from the rest of the research team. Greggor kept a watchful eye on me, but I could sense his growing unease. He was no longer just a Herskeren representative; he was now a fellow prisoner of the enigma that had taken hold of us all. The workers in the expedition had become mere automatons, driven by an unseen force, their vacant expressions a testament to their surrender to the obelisk.
One night, as I delved deeper into my research, I made a decision that would change everything. I couldn’t resist the urge to confront the obelisk once more, to seek answers from the mysterious entity that seemed to call out to me. The pull was undeniable, a magnetic force drawing me towards the obsidian obelisk.
I touched the obelisk, and the world around me dissolved once again into darkness. This time, the visions were clearer, and I could understand the voices that echoed in the abyss. They spoke of a primordial evil, an eldritch force that had been imprisoned within the obelisk for eons. It hungered for release, craving a conduit to escape its icy prison. It promised knowledge and power beyond human comprehension.
As the visions unfolded, I saw the ancient civilizations that had worshipped the eldritch entity, conducting horrifying rituals and sacrifices to appease it. I saw the rise and fall of empires, all under the shadow of the black pillar. The primordial land of Antarctica sundered and slaved to its will. And I saw the cataclysmic events that had led to the entity’s entrapment, sealed away by those who had glimpsed the horrors it could unleash.
I felt an overwhelming sense of dread as if the very essence of this malevolent being had seeped into my soul. It sought a vessel, a willing host, and it had chosen me. The voices in the vision whispered to me, promising that I could be the key to its release, that I could wield its terrible power.
I was torn between terror and fascination, knowing that I held the fate of the world in my hands. The visions ended, and I was back in the cold, dimly lit chamber, my hand still resting against the obelisk.
Greggor’s voice pierced through the fog in my mind, “Dr. Mercer, are you alright? What happened?”
I withdrew my hand from the obsidian surface and turned to Greggor. “I… I saw it. I saw what was inside this thing. It wants out.”
Greggor’s eyes widened with a mixture of fear and curiosity. “It?”
I hesitated for a moment, wrestling with the temptation to keep the knowledge to myself. But deep down, I knew there was something was fundamentally wrong with what we were exploring, and I needed help. “I saw something in there, something from before any comprehension of time,” I began. “It has been imprisoned for eons, and it wants to escape. It promised me power and knowledge, but I know it’s a trap. We need to destroy this thing before it’s too late.”
Greggor nodded, his face grim. “I’ve suspected something was terribly wrong here, but I didn’t know the extent of it. Herskeren has been far too eager to force this project to continue despite so many setbacks and accidents. We can’t let this continue. We need a plan.”
We began to devise a strategy to destroy the obelisk using mining explosives, to sever the connection between it and whatever was inside that had ensnared us all. But the more we delved into our plan, the more we realized the magnitude of the challenge. The obelisk’s power was immense, and it had subtly manipulated the minds of the workers, making them fiercely protective of the obelisk.
As we prepared to rig the chamber with explosives, the workers began to grow agitated. They sensed our intentions, and their once vacant eyes now burned with an unnatural fervor. They formed a human barricade around the obelisk, determined to protect it at all costs, with their very lives. The situation grew tense as we faced off against the workers, knowing that we had to carry out our plan to prevent the prison from being unleashed upon the world. No words of Greggor or I could move the thrall-like loyalty they held towards the obsidian object.
I did not think myself to be a killer, but I was ready to end many lives then and there. This is the sin I confess here. As we prepared to set off the explosives, to end this madness, a bone-chilling howl filled the chamber. The very walls seemed to tremble as the pillar screeched with sickly green energy knocking Greggor and me to the ground. It was as if the obelisk itself had come to life, a shadowy form writhing and contorting, defying the laws of reality which desperately rebelled at keeping it contained. As the eldritch power began to manifest in the chamber, the workers fell to their knees, their wills completely dominated by the ancient malevolence giving supplication to the entity inside.
It was with the chaos of the room I realized I had lost the detonator in the energy blast. I scrambled to find it, but the enthralled workers had grabbed it. And they had grabbed Greggor. The man fought like a lion but was overwhelmed by the hands of the enthralled workers pulling him down. I couldn’t hear him over the cacophony of noise in the echoing ice chamber, but I saw him mouth the word RUN as he produced the detonator in his hand.
Staring at the scene one last time I ran, I ran as fast as my legs would carry me darting through the tunnel as I heard then felt the impact of the blast wave connect with me. There was an impossibly inhuman howl I heard as the cave system collapsed around me. By luck I had made it to the edge of the entrance as the last of the rocks crashed behind me. The worksite outside was empty save for me, all the workers had been caught in the thrall of the obelisk and disappeared underneath the icy rock. I am alone now in the barren desert of snow.
We had come so close to unleashing something ancient and malevolent, and my beloved Antarctica, once a land of mystery and discovery, had become a gateway to unimaginable horrors. This threat has not ended, it has only been buried. You will not hear of this on the news for even if I am to survive as there is little chance Herskeren will not cover it all up. So, I leave this record for you dear reader, an account of what must never be allowed to be rediscovered. This is the last bit of battery on my satellite cell and I use it to ensure no one comes back here. As for me, the icy bastion of Antarctica has kept me for most of my life, one way or the other I will be at its mercy to either survive or become a permanent part of the frozen land.
https://imgur.com/a/tOQWbA0