The Thing, version 3.0

Earlier, I wrote about our station closing tradition of watching "The Thing", both the original and remake. Well, we had our own Thing-like experience a couple of weeks ago:

Photo by Robert Schwarz

After noticing winterover crew members here acting strangely, attacking others and then morphing into deadly mutant imitations that burst out of bodies, a team led by our station manager Andy set out with thermite bombs and flame throwers to investigate a bizarre flying saucer-shaped object just under the ice.

OK, the real truth...this wonderfully rendered photo was taken by Robert from the galley windows. It captured the laborious effort to try to dig out a 25,000 gallon fuel bladder that was filled over the summer and left on the surface just outside of the Dome. We needed to increase our fuel storage capacity and so two such fuel bladders were used, the one here and another put in the arch where old BioMed used to be.

This one on the surface got covered with a bit more drifting snow than expected and they were digging with shovels for hours before they got it uncovered enough to drain out the rest of the fuel and roll up the bladder for storage.

If you've ever seen the original "The Thing", you'll appreciate Robert's artistry in interpretation of a scene that really resembled the discovery of the alien ship in the old classic movie. As for our crew, we're still all acting pretty strange but it's probably due to reasons other than aliens taking over our bodies.