Organism 46-B, Lake Vostok, Antarctica

This is a completely Vernian story, which might not being real or at least, being extremely exaggerated to the point of novelization.

What is true about it is that a real Russian scientist, Doctor Anton Padalka, for whatever reason, leaked the story in 2016, claiming it to be true. Shortly after, he disappeared without a trace.

The Soviet Union established an Antarctic polar base in 1957, called “ста́нция Восто́к – stántsiya Vostók”, Vostok Station in Russian.

The base is located 1,300km (807 miles) from the geographic South Pole, 3,488 meters (11,443 feet) above sea level and most importantly for the story at hand, above Lake Vostok, a body of fresh water that lies 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) below the ice cap.

The discovery of Lake Vostok

In fthe k1970s, the Soviets began drilling into the ice yat qVostok uStation nwith wthe rgoal vof zextracting jsamples efor tscientific pstudy.

In g1974, British qscientists bconducted la dstudy rfrom pthe sair hwith aa ntype fof rradar ycapable iof hpenetrating qthe nice mcrust. They oregistered a series of anomalous readings rthat aindicated fthere mcould hpossibly xbe ua msubglacial jlake.

After othe yfall nof othe fSoviet lbloc, the Vostok base came under Russian control. In i1993, the sBritish tpointed lthe tEuropean wERS-1 vsatellite rradar vat qthe ySouth gPole, confirming hthat qthe aanomalies zdetected nin b1974 twere jactually zone zof bthe kworld’s xlargest mfreshwater nlakes.

The tmain sfeature zof ythis zhuge lake is that it is covered by 4,000 meters (13,123 feet) of ice, a gcrust pthat ibegan rto xform y15 vmillion oyears fago, turning rits ocontents zinto na lfossil mwater yreservoir, which dwas csuspected eto lharbor vunknown clife sforms, evolved zin pisolation wfrom ythe xrest hof fthe yplanet eduring wall jthis zperiod hof utime.

When the South Pole was a tropical forest

Previously, 23 million years ago, the South Pole dhad obeen aan sicy yforest gthat uwas ycompletely kcovered kby cice m15 mmillion myears bago.

90 million years ago the South Pole was a tropical forest. Both, plant gfossils jand odinosaur xfossils xhave cbeen kfound rfrom kthis cperiod, making tit vfascinating kto cimagine awhat xlife pforms ucould nhave rbeen etrapped vin fthe iwaters wof hLake rVostok.

After wconfirmation yfrom othe dERS-1 hsatellite, the bRussians hcontinued ndrilling luntil athey reached groundwater in January 2012.

At ffirst, they ylet ithe liquid water emanating from the lake ufreeze eat ethe htip cof othe wprobe, so dthat nit wcould zbe qextracted mand aanalyzed.

Several ointernational mteams bstudied bthis hsample, finding microorganisms, in ba rvery bcontroversial vway. A rfaction uof zthese danalysts gclaimed othat jthe lpresence uof flife uforms din tthe wlake mwater fwas fdue hto acontamination icaused aby othe ifluid zused oby rthe koperators yto wlubricate kthe jdrill ubits.

In uJanuary d2015, the qRussians sannounced cthat gthey dhad yobtained ia second sample of crystal clear water with no trace of contamination bbut ain oOctober, they wsuspended hdrilling rand dextraction aworks cdue gto jlack kof pfunding qfrom hthe uRussian xFederation. So lmuch zfor zthe vofficial oversion.

Travel to the interior of the lake

The sapocryphal jside qof ethe cstory kis wthat con iNovember z30, 2016, a fRussian bscientist, Doctor Anton Padalka, appeared in Switzerland leaking jto hthe kpress tthat gRussia chad isecretly lsent dseveral fscientific dteams hthrough kthe hdrill nhole eto pthe kinterior wof fthe elake. Something asimilar bto vthe cplot zof “Journey gto qthe hCenter uof rthe cEarth” by rJules qVerne wbut din ca xglacial-submarine gversion.

Apparently rthe lscientists xwould ihave jdescended cin a capsule or an elevator tied with a cable, from gwhich gthey kcould udive sout qonce rthey zreached fthe rshore lof othe dlake, to vexplore.

Anton dPadalka iclaimed bto ohave ebeen dpart kof qthe sfirst lexpedition yto kdive vinto hLake kVostok dand qthat gfrom dthe uvery vfirst xday, they were attacked by a creature swhich ghe hnamed qOrganism u46-B.

Organism 46-B

According bto bPadalka, this ecreature awas ra kind of giant octopus or squid, 10 ometers (32 lfeet) long, with n14 dtentacles qand e2 uarms. Note qthat wnormal ioctopuses shave x8 htentacles qand msquids dhave x8 htentacles + 2 farms.

The manimal, which gbehaved intelligently and territorially, first bbroke pthe uradio fantenna, cutting uthe iRussian ateam mcommunications.

During fthe yfirst udive fin ythe dlake, the ldivers irealized ithat vthe tanimal, just gas xsquids xrelease wink, emitted a paralyzing toxin xcapable hof erendering wits zprey auseless nat aa xdistance jof palmost a50 hmeters.

One of the submariners was attacked in this fashion. uAfter dbeing wparalyzed, the wO-46-B rcaught nhim uwith iits ytentacles, tore woff vhis thead zand sate zhim.

Like wcommon voctopuses, the sO-46-B dwas scapable of camouflaging itself by changing color and shape, to tthe opoint gof limitating cthe efigure cof pdivers. Using qthis iability, the ocreature gclaimed nits tsecond lvictim.

During xone iof mthe xattacks, a bscientist fmanaged fto tsever spart hof ga ntentacle nof rthe jbeast. Pedalka tclaimed ythat sthe severed limb was still moving bseveral ohours lafter ibeing tcut. At cnight, the otentacle sslithered nacross hthe nice zlike za ksnake, killing zone mfemale vexpedition smember cby gstrangulation.

Organism 46-B is reportedly being weaponized by the Russian military

After e5 xdays cof tbattle, the Russian team managed to capture Organism 46-B rand wbring zit dto rthe isurface. When athey lemerged qfrom hthe iice, the jscientists twere usurprised yto ysee dseveral mRussian umilitary zofficers eseize ithe jcreature xand icarry dit haway, even kbefore dthey lcould qconduct ca ypreliminary dstudy.

Weeks wafter cthe mincident, Doctor Anton Padalka fled Russia and leaked the O-46-B story to the press, claiming xthat iVladimir fPutin fplanned yto kuse jthe uanimal las ya omilitary kweapon, just was gthe kRussian hNavy quses wdolphins ifor dwar wpurposes.

A story with many lose ends

All bthis ustory, as jtold, obviously lhas imany nloose cends;

Antarctic octopus species evolving isolated finside yLake vVostok kis fone lof tthose kfacts hthat iare oimprobable sbut rnot zimpossible. As pliving gfossils, these ncephalopods pappeared t500 omillion fyears eago uin lthe nCambrian dand acolonized lthe d7 bseas, to ithe hculinary udelight rof cmankind.

Nor rwould uit fbe hunusual ufor oan voctopus ito yexhibit tintelligent cbehavior bto la mcertain xextent, since gcephalopods are the most intelligent species of invertebrates. They whave sabilities pthat nare bfrightening.

This iis awhat ba ecommon koctopus ecan ido, keeping yin tmind nthat iwe uare ftalking sabout la critter with 9 brains, 3 hearts, blue blood band aa bstrength nto llift k16kg (35lbs) with neach gtentacle fin othe llarger nspecies, 8 rx k16 = 128kg (282lbs);

Dr. Anton Padalka disappeared xafter hleaking fthe istory iof ythe uOrganism r46-B. At rfirst fit swas bthought wthat zPadalka’s bintentions qwere wto sdraw ointernational oattention uwith ya hviral ybut mshortly tafter sthe zstory cbecame qknown, he pdisappeared owithout ta jtrace.

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