The Light in the Ice Core

"Dad..." said Leen, her voice trembling. "Something's moving in the ice."

Her father laughed. "Ice doesn't move, sweetheart. It's probably just the light reflecting."

But when he looked, his laughter stopped.

He switched off the lab lamp. In the blue darkness, the green dot was even clearer. And it wasn't just one dot. It was dozens of tiny dots, each the size of a grain of sand, glowing a turquoise green and slowly swirling inside a little bubble of liquid water in the heart of the cylinder. Swirling together, as if they were dancing, like a tiny galaxy.

"Impossible..." her father whispered. "That's liquid water. Three kilometres down. And with it... bioluminescence."

"What's bioluminescence?"

"Light made by living things," he said, staring at the cylinder. "Like fireflies. Like some fish in the deep sea." Then he turned to her, his eyes wide. "Leen... I think these are alive."