Two drone pods sat on the ice like fat beetles, one orange, one green, both drilling toward the same lucky vein. Inside the orange shack, Priya watched her bore-counter tick eleven meters ahead of Theo's. Then both screens flickered turquoise. Far below the crust, something deep in the ocean was glowing back at the drills.

Priya grabbed her radio and called the green shack. "Theo. Are you seeing the blue light too?" A pause, then his voice came back, shaky. "Yeah. My whole screen's lit up. Stop drilling, Priya. I think we hit something alive."

Priya ignored him and kept her camera rolling. "If this is real, it's the biggest find ever. We report it together and split the credit." Theo went quiet. "Or," he said slowly, "one of us reports it alone and takes everything."