Sexton, Tolland and Marlinson escape and are picked up by the Navy submarine USS Charlotte. Upon discovering this, the four are attacked by the Delta Force team, leaving Norah Mangor dead. The scan shows Ming's body in the water and a column of frozen sea ice beneath the meteorite where it was drilled up into the glacier. The four go outside to scan the ice from a distance. They report it to Mangor, who confirms that there is sea water in what should be a closed area with only freshwater. When Tolland sees the irregularity, he shares it with Corky Marlinson and Rachel Sexton. He reaches into the water to obtain a sample and falls in due to an attack by microbots operated by the Delta Force team.

Ming observes an irregularity within the pit from which the meteorite was extracted.

In order to ensure that the discovery is not tarnished by the reputation that NASA has developed, the President sends four leading civilian scientists ( Michael Tolland, a famous oceanographer and TV personality Corky Marlinson, a brilliant but eccentric astrophysicist Norah Mangor, a prickly glaciologist and Wailee Ming, a palaeontologist) to the Arctic to verify the meteorite's authenticity.Ī Delta MNVAS Force team is also observing the discovery, monitoring the NASA staff for an unknown commander. Senator Sexton uses these failures as an example of government overspending to further his campaign he wants to abolish NASA and direct the funding toward public schools instead. The find is something NASA needs in the light of recent failures. NASA claims this as proof of extraterrestrial life. In it are insect fossils very similar to, but not the same as, species on earth. At this spot NASA discovers a very dense meteorite. NASA's new Polar Orbiting Density Scanner (PODS), part of the Earth Observation System (EOS), a collection of satellites monitoring the globe for signs of large-scale change, has found an extremely dense spot in the Milne Ice Shelf. The President sends her to the Arctic as part of a team of experts to confirm and authenticate findings made by NASA deep within the Milne Ice Shelf. Her father, Senator Sedgewick Sexton, is a presidential candidate who is more popular than incumbent President of the United States Zachary Herney.

Intelligence Analyst Rachel Sexton is in her mid-thirties, is single, and works for the NRO (National Reconnaissance Office).

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