The Mistake

    Covered up in heavy white she walked up to the railing and removed her gloves just for the fun of it. Suddenly the propelled vessel jerked violently and she held on to the railing tightly with her bare hands. The biting cold registered , and she corrected her posture quickly. Ana walked to the captains cabin. "Dad are we there yet?" The captain pointed her towards the telescope mounted near the window. The telescope was pointed towards the north sky.She curiously made her way towards the round window. She had only seen the pictures in her text books, now she was watching the spectacle in person and realized she was getting goosebumps on the back of her neck.She quickly went out into the corridor,back into the chilling black. A fire ball soon appeared in the atmosphere. Gilligan walked over to his daughter and wondered if she would remember this moment for the rest of her life.
His calculations were near perfect. The sky lit up brilliantly in a hue of orange and  back on the vessel,aptly called The Lantern, Ana with her palm still on the railing,slightly raised her fingers to feel the warmth.

A mile away the fire ball punched into a massive ice berg obliterating it the next second with a sonic boom. Soon it was dark again. Just as they removed their hands covering their ears, the anchored ship rocked and almost tumbled on an incoming ripple that followed. Gilligan quickly held onto his 11 year old and Ana wrapped herself to his arm. As the silent night returned nothing seemed to have changed except for the dull greenish ionized sky. Ana remembered a song her mother used to sing to her.

The Lantern powered its high intensity light beams. Gilligan swept the light on surrounding ice bergs and floaters looking for what he and his family had traveled 300 nautical miles from the east coast of Canada. Ana watched intently with a monocular. Her job was to follow after the light beam had passed over a region.She traversed her vision slowly, then back tracked to see the twinkling she had just thought she had seen.Ana screamed "I see it , I see it!! " . Gilligan smiled and handed her the laser pointer in her outstretched palm. She held the red dot in place. Gilligan moved the light past the mark again and this time saw for himself the alien greenish glow, " Splendid job Ana". His calculations had just been proven right and was staring right back at him. Triceruim absorbs small quantities of light energy and radiates it back as green pulses.The Captain pressed a button and the anchor was reeled in and they set off for the ice sheet ahead.They reached the spot.
Captain Gilligan secured anchor and set off to retrieve the object and wished he had brought along a third hand. He climbed overboard and jumped onto the ice. Ana lit the path ahead of her father using the ships search light. The ice was slippery even with his spiked footwear.He had secured his safe line to the vessel and moved on.He slipped but held onto the rope and Ana gripped onto the railing tight and screamed "No!"
He struggled and stood up again using the spike rod and waved towards her. He moved ahead and finally reached the spot.He bend down looking at the ash object and touched it to check if its still warm.Took out his bag and placed baseball sized rock in his bag. Gilligan started to retrace his steps back,one step at a time,slowly.Reached back and climbed on board and Ana brought out the cake and confetti. Gilligan said" I am so happy today, so happy..I'v got everything I have ever wanted ".Ana smiled and put down the knife . The vessel was moving at 20 knots now cutting through ice sheets.Ana asked if she could see the rock and stretched her hands forward. Gilligan stopped his hand holding a cake midway to his mouth ,grinned and gave her the bag. She hurried with the button and inverted the bag with her left hand to let the rock drop into her right. The rock dropped onto her palm and simply bounced away. Gilligan's heart seemed to have stopped and he watched with excited eyebrows. The rock swayed to the end of the room, out of the door and stopped near the railing and the vessel swayed the rock went over board. Ana looked worried and ran towards the railing looking down into the dark waters and Gilligan followed. Ana looked back scared and fist clenched and said "I'm so sorry..". Gilligan looked calm now, smiled and said, "Its all right , now finish your cake dear".