Im all alone in Antarctica and something is trying to break inside my research pod.

When I heard frantic banging my first thought was polar bear, but they aren’t this far south.

The rapid knocking sounds came from a window, and I almost screamed when I saw a face looking out at me.

How on earth is a person - naked save for a grey blanket - surviving outside in minus 50 degrees!

I don my layers before scrambling at the nearby door.

My gloves fumble a bit but I prize it open to biting wind and icy air, complete with a dusting of snowflakes.

I can see a pair of bare feet patter past, and then I manage to close the door. My cheeks are numb and I look behold me to see a very naked man shivering in the corner.

My cheeks heat and I quickly get a silvery emergency blanket and some hand heaters.

The man takes them silently and huddles up hard, bundled up and soaking wet. The blanket he wears is icy cold and I gently pry it from his grip and drape it over a chair. He’s too cold to notice.

As much as I want to heat this stranger up as fast as I can, I know to do it slowly.

Luckily, there’s a spare room that I lead him into, and a spare bed that he sleeps on as soon as his head hits the pillow.

I check his temperature and leave him with the door partly open as I take stock.

I’m supposed to be measuring icebergs but a snowstorm made it too dangerous to leave, and the radio is silent as winds rattle the satellite dish. I have plenty of food for a few months, mostly prepackaged mush and noodles, luckily the boiler is designed for weather like this.

The grey blanket is dripping on the floor and I put into the wash with a few other clothes I had meant to do.

The man seems better after a while, and walks naked into the room while I read a book I’ve read before. My cheeks go red again.

“Sir? There’s clothes in the dresser - hey!”

I stop him from opening the door to the storm outside. Luckily there’s a certain way to open it, so all he does is jiggle the handles before I stop him.

“Clothes.” I say slowly. Maybe he is concussed? He certainly seems confused.

In the end I have to show him the clothes and help pull them on as he stares right at me the whole time.

I stop him from trying to take them off again. “Warm.” I explain. “It keeps you warm. Hungry?”

He follows me silently and watches as I make a steaming bowl of soup. He tried to stick his hand into it, but eventually picks up a spoon and messily eats, frowning.

“Yeah, I know it’s not the best.” I smile at him. “Do you have a name?”

He doesn’t respond.

“Where did you come from? Wait -“ I have an idea and pull out a map from the cubbyhole under the table. “- look, we are here, that dot, yes? Where do you come from?”

He frowns again, and points at the dot.

“That’s us.” I gesture to myself and the pod we are in. “You?” I point at him.

He stares at the map for a long time and eventually I yawn.

He looks even more confused as I lead him to his room, and head back to mine.

He follows me into my room, and I don’t sleep because he watches me for ages before retreating back to his room and going to sleep as well.

So begins the weirdest month of any mission I’ve ever had.

He follows me from room to room, tries to eat the books (I stop him), stares at the mirror for hours, tries to find some location on the map, (I help him), and walks around naked more than I’d like.

If I’m logging notes into a book he’s watching, if I’m trying to get the radio to work, he’s watching, even when I’m sleeping he watches me!

Ever since he got his grey blanket back he’s tried to go outside. I scold him, point at the snow and dark sky, and try to explain.

Eventually comes a calmer day when the radio works. He hides when voices come through the box.

I try to get answers but no-one has heard of any crash that he could have been involved in. “Records show that there is nothing for miles around, this is your first solo, are you sure he’s not imaginary?”

“No, he’s trying to eat a wooden spoon at the moment.”

“Hmm. Look, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, you’ve been alone for about three months so if some naked guy appears to give you company he’s probably imagined. You can go out tomorrow.”

The conversation goes no-where, and I sigh into my hands. The man is looking at me again, clutching at his grey blanket.

He points at something. The map!

Why is he gesturing to a ice water reserve some 70 miles away? It has nothing near it, no human habitation, nothing.

Maybe he is my imagination…

The next day I ready my equipment and explain to the man where I’m going. “I’m going here, okay? Near some pack ice. It’s going to be cold so you have to stay here.

The man jabs at the location he pointed to before.

Frustration makes me pop open a sharpie, “look, unless you swim for miles in freezing water here and here -“ I mark a path. “It’s impossible to get to, okay?”

About an hour later I’m bundled and ready to go, and so is the man I’ve most likely imagined.

I don’t think I can stop him. Maybe he will point out some crash that has been unregistered on the way.

The door opens and we both head out into the freezing cold. It’s less windy, and the snow has stopped falling. We leave footprints as I explain glaciers to him.

Once I’m at my location, I get out my drill and begin my work, using a series of lights so I don’t hurt myself.

We’re somewhat close to the dark blue sea that shifts the ice beneath us, and the man suddenly gives me a hug before taking off his coat.

“What are you doing?!”

I slip on the snow as I try to stop him stripping, but there’s not much I can do, because he is fast, and before I know it he is naked; holding the damned grey blanket like a shield.

I grab at it, and he gently pulls it from my gloved grip as he smiles a sharp smile with long teeth. His hand presses against mine briefly before he’s gone, running toward the sea.

“Hey!”

I scramble and grab a light, just seeing him leap into the water with surprising grace. The blanket almost looks like a tail.

I search the waters with my light high above my head, hoping that he is okay.