From publisher blurb: The world is Arth. The Year is 1924. Assume normal Earth history for anything, unless I specify otherwise. Anyway, the year is 1924. Eight months ago Wells University got a grant from the Society for the Advancement of Mankind (SAM) to put together a certain Antarctic expedition. The professor at Wells University that got this grant was Professor Starkmore, a professor of Geology. This is a risky venture for this day in age when radio communication is new and not very reliable. You see, apparently back in 1922 SAM funded another Antarctic expedition through Boston University, known as the Fielding Expedition. This expedition consisted of 22 men who set out in order to research the geology of the Ross Mountains in central Antarctica, exploring their natural structure and accessing if they have any valuable minerals. For two months everything went well, the Fielding Expedition set out on the ice and arrived at their destination. They transmitted regular scheduled radio transmissions indicating that everything was normal and the research was going well, until September 5th. Their their regular transmissions suddenly stopped. The transmission base set up in South America tried repeatedly to contact the expedition, but always with no reply. Then suddenly on September 10th, five days after the last transmission should have come in, the South American transmission base received the following broadcast: "We woke up this morning and everything was not as it should be. The dogs had gone mad in the night. John, who should have been keeping watch was not there. Oh god, why did this have to happen? They found it in the rock. Yes... Look, I haven't much time. Tell my wife, tell Sarah, that I won't be coming home. It's already infected the food supply, the dogs, Samuel. I'm afraid it's going to infect me soon. That or the endless ice. Oh god, why did this have to happen? Tell Sarah I love her. She mustn't cry; not for long. She must find a new husband and... Oh god! It's here... Look, stay away from the crystal eye. Stay away from here! We are all dead! Dead! We're already gone. Oh god no!"