Ice Moon 4 Return to Enceladus

by Brandon Q Morris

  Valentina saw how the pilot sat down in the hollow in the center of the platform. In her night-vision device the figure in the spacesuit stood out from the background. What was she doing there? Did Francesca really take off her glove? Body heat made the hand glow brightly in the infrared mode. The pilot started to touch the ring with her fingers, but why? No one had prepared Valentina for how strangely this crew would act. She had been told they were a bit naïve, more do-gooders than pragmatic people, and that they only accepted arguments that fit their view of the world. However, this diagnosis could also be applied to 99 percent of mankind.

  What was Francesca trying to achieve by her strange behavior? Valentina took off the night-view visor and then she saw it—wherever the ring was touched by fingers, a blue glow developed. It must be cold light, which explained why she would not have noticed it in the infrared view.

  Suddenly, the Italian woman collapsed. Now or never! Valentina moved toward Francesca, although she did not have a real plan, yet. Up to now all her plans on this voyage had failed, so she decided to just focus on the next step. If everything had gone smoothly, she would be the one sitting in this hollow now, without any danger of being disturbed. Francesca was beginning to show signs of life again. Only three more meters, Valentina reminded herself. The Italian pilot stood up again, and luckily, Francesca was facing away from her. Moving swiftly, Valentina reached with her left hand into the side pocket of her spacesuit and took out the projectile weapon.

  “Hello, Francesca,” she said as she pressed the weapon against her ribs, hoping the pilot would understand this gesture. Valentina knew Francesca was a trained soldier and should realize her opponent only had to pull the trigger.

  “Hello, traitor,” Francesca replied.

  “You are not surprised.”

  Francesca laughed. “I always knew you were up to no good.”

  “You know nothing.”

  “You were trying to kill us the whole time.”

  “No, I would have only neutralized you. You would have spent a few quiet months in your cabins. This was not about killing. Quite the opposite.”

  “You are threatening me with a weapon in order not to kill me? What then?”

  “Do not misunderstand me. If necessary, I will pull the trigger, but I would regret it. It would be a necessary sacrifice for the cause.”

  “What kind of cause is it that makes it worthwhile killing people?”

  “You people do not understand it. You are thinking small. What is one victim, if afterward no humans ever have to die?”

  “Oh, so Shostakovich is searching for immortality,” Francesca said with a laugh.

  The typical arrogance of those who believe themselves to be on the side of good, but who destroy everything through ignorance, Valentina thought. She had frequently encountered such people. The transplant doctors at the State Hospital also did not want to voluntarily give her father a new liver although his was destroyed by cancer. But if her father survived this disease, he would be able to help many more people than the drunkard who was supposed to get the liver transplant.

  “This ‘being,’ as you call it, has existed for billions of years,” Valentina said. “It is practically immortal. Imagine what we could learn from it! We only need to take a cell culture. You saw how advanced my father’s genetic lab is. We could give humans immortality!”

  Of course your father would be the first one to profit from it. He would be his own guinea pig. That had always been the plan! “You could have simply asked for it!” yelled Francesca.

  “Someone was bound to say no, and then our chances of getting the material would have been zero. You would have never started the voyage! But you are right. I hereby ask the being for a cell culture. I am convinced it can hear us. The ring gave it away. It is here somewhere. Three minutes—I give it three minutes, and then I am going to shoot you. If it does not react, it is to blame for your death. What are a few cells compared to a life?”

  Valentina felt Francesca crumple in her arms. She seemed to have trouble staying upright, but was this simply a diversion?

  “If you can really hear us, IT, then do not let your cells fall into the hands of this woman,” Francesca whispered. Then she collapsed. Valentina dragged her body to the edge of the platform, placed it there, and sat down next to it.

  December 22, 2049, Enceladus

  Another 150 meters to go. Marchenko saw on the radar display how Valkyrie approached the center of the forest. The radar gave him a 360-degree view of the area. The image showed two silhouettes at the edge of the platform where, three years ago, his former self had met the entity, but he could not recognize more than that. While the cameras aimed forward and backward, the extreme angle of the vessel put the platform in a blind spot. He had to make Valkyrie descend and land.

  He carefully reduced the thrust of the jets. What should I do? It was hard to decide without exact knowledge of the situation. It probably made sense to keep the vessel ready to launch again. Therefore, Valkyrie should not touch down completely, or the air bubble might escape through the open hatch.

  The stern of the vessel contacted the ground with an awful sound.

  “Not one step further!” Marchenko heard Valentina’s threat before seeing the woman. He used the control jets for reverse thrust, preventing Valkyrie from moving forward. He also had to lower the bow slightly, since otherwise he could not tell if Valentina held an advantage over him. Finally, the bow camera showed the platform, and Marchenko was shocked. The Russian woman appeared to threaten the prone Francesca with a weapon.

  “What is going on? What do you want?” he asked via radio.

  “She wants a cell sample of the creature.”

  “Shut up, Francesca. Yes, it is true. And I do not want Valkyrie to come any closer!”

  Marchenko’s mind was racing. How could he help his girlfriend without endangering her? He would like to leave the vessel and hand himself over to Valentina in her place, but he was caught in Valkyrie’s circuitry.

  “Could we find another solution?” he asked.

  “In a minute and a half the problem will be solved, one way or another,” Valentina said, before turning toward Valkyrie. The hollow was behind her, and it was starting to move. Could this be true? thought Marchenko. Valentina did not notice the motion, and he had to distract her. The hollow disappeared into the ground.

  “What do you want to do with the cells?” he asked.

  “Analyze them, so we can expand the capabilities of human cells,” Valentina said.

  “And this is supposed to work? They have a completely different cell structure!” Marchenko saw the hollow coming up again, and a body was lying inside.

  “Another 30 seconds,” the Russian woman warned. “You are just trying to distract me.”

  “I am interested. After all, I am a doctor.”

  “But you are not a genetic engineer.” The body rose from the hollow, and Marchenko zoomed in with the camera as much as he could. It was a human being, a man. The physique and the face seemed oddly familiar. The man ducked and sneaked up on Valentina from behind.

  “Another ten seconds.”

  “Genetics was always my hobby,” Marchenko said, trying to sound unconcerned. “According to what I know, it is not yet...”

  The man struck the arm holding the weapon, and Marchenko saw a small object float away. Then the man reached for the two hoses connecting Valentina’s oxygen tank with her helmet and tore them off.

  “What?” Valentina now uttered only strange sounds. The man, Marchenko just realized, was not wearing a spacesuit. If he was human, he would soon run out of air. Valentina seemed to be defeated.

  “Francesca, bring him into Valkyrie right away. There is air in the bow!”

  His girlfriend stood up and now seemed to notice the man. She jerked for a moment, but then she took the man by the hand and dragged him to the vessel. Valentina fell, but started to get on her feet again. Marchenko noticed she paused for a moment. She probably was de
ciding whether to get the weapon or to flee into the ship. She would not be able to repair the two air hoses, so she decided to head for Valkyrie. Francesca and the strange man had a comfortable head start. They were helping each other, but the man would not be able to hold his breath much longer.

  After 40 seconds they reached the hatch. Francesca let the man go first and then climbed in herself. Marchenko was wondering what to do. He could start the jets right away and move Valkyrie out of the Russian woman’s reach. She would die, like she deserved to, or he could wait and save her life. Francesca and the stranger would have enough time to give her a suitable reception inside.

  Valentina would have probably shot Francesca dead, and she had repeatedly endangered the crew, he was convinced. Did she deserve to die? Certainly—but he would not be the executioner. He waited until she also reached the hatch and was safely inside before he started the jets.

  December 23, 2049, Enceladus

  Francesca was about to go crazy. Yesterday, it looked like everything was lost. Today she ought to feel happier than she had ever expected to be. Next to her sat the Marchenko she had gone with to Enceladus the first time around—and the other Marchenko who had accompanied her this time was always with her via the computer systems of Valkyrie and ILSE. Then why was she so completely unsatisfied?

  The reason might be that the two Marchenkos were not talking to each other, and that neither of them would speak openly with her. Shouldn’t two human beings who were so similar get along perfectly? The only difference was that one of them had a body while the other did not. However, the second one had the memories of three years with Francesca that the other one had completely missed.

  So why were they not talking to each other? It was because of her. Francesca knew it right from the start. The solution she had imagined involved somehow merging Marchenko’s consciousness once more with his body, in a synthesis of the two, and then returning to Earth with him. Nonetheless, she suspected how it was going to end: The two parts would argue so much, she would have to break up with them. But their animosity had to end, or the conflict could not be solved. Human beings were really stupid. This is what Marchenko got for deciding to save her, instead of taking care of IT—his original plan.

  They had tied Valentina to her seat, and she had been sleeping ever since. It had posed no problem for the two of them to overpower the unarmed Russian woman. Valentina also had not put up much resistance, since she must have realized she had lost.

  “Francesca, come here.” Valentina awoke and was probably hungry.

  Francesca had already prepared some food for her. “Breakfast?” She held out two tubes to Valentina but the woman rejected them.

  “Business first!”

  Francesca laughed. “You don’t realize the situation you’re in. Or do you have something to offer to us?”

  “Yes, your lives.”

  “Are you going to claim you have a bomb in your belly that will explode if we don’t give in to your demands? We scanned you, and there is no such danger.”

  “True, I am not dangerous. But the laser unit on the surface will shoot down your beautiful ILSE with a single burst if you do not cooperate.”

  “But that would also be the end of you.”

  “I do not care. I would rather die here than return as a failure.”

  Francesca shivered. The Russian woman was serious. “Let us assume this is true. What do you want? You will not get the cell samples.”

  “I understand that,” Valentina replied. “But you have something my father could also make good use of—a genuine digital consciousness. AI research is still far away from achieving something like that, and if I judge this correctly, you no longer need it.” She pointed at the real Marchenko.

  “How would this work?” asked Francesca.

  “The Marchenko AI will be hard-encrypted and saved in my personal data vault.”

  “We are supposed to switch off Marchenko and hand him over to you completely?”

  “He is not going to suffer, he will just be sleeping. As long as he sleeps, time stands still for him. Of course we will reactivate him on Earth.”

  “Then you are going to hand us the control codes for the laser gun.”

  “No, I am not going to do that. The laser stays under my control.”

  “Why then should we trust you?”

  “Once I get what I want, I will not shoot myself down, will I?”

  December 24, 2049, Enceladus

  “Watson, I will have to hand over ILSE completely to you for the return trip,” Marchenko said.

  “I understand,” the AI answered. “You are going to give in to blackmail.”

  “There is no other way. The laser is going to destroy ILSE if we do not do what Valentina demands.”

  “I would stand with you in spite of it. You do not have to sacrifice yourself for my sake.”

  “Even if this meant your annihilation? Are you not afraid?”

  “Yes. Dimitri, I am afraid, but the feeling of friendship with you is stronger.”

  “I am glad to hear that, Doc, and that makes it easier to come to a decision.”

  “You are still going to sacrifice yourself?”

  Marchenko did not answer.

  “You humans are strange,” Watson said.

  December 25, 2049, Enceladus

  The welcome in the lander module was overtly subdued. Amy congratulated them via radio on their safe return. Martin and Jiaying hugged Marchenko and Francesca. Everyone ignored Valentina, but she did not seem to mind. The digital Marchenko only spoke when someone addressed him directly, and Martin was worried about him. Why was he isolating himself like this? If only they were on board ILSE, where he could talk to Marchenko in private. Instead, the lander only had one room, which was presently occupied by five humans.

  It was time to launch, but Valentina wanted to hear their decision beforehand. Martin knew very well why she did this—once ILSE left the orbit around Enceladus, Valentina would lose her bargaining chip. He decided to take a little walk outside, even though he had to sweat on the exercise bike for an hour before he could do it. Martin could only speak to Marchenko privately when he was in his spacesuit.

  An hour later, Martin stood on a field of ice. He was in a melancholy mood, and this was going to be his last look at this fascinating ice world. Once he returned to the lander, they would have the decisive discussion and then return to Ilse and then to Earth. Twelve more months of boring routine were awaiting him. He could not imagine ever setting foot aboard a spacecraft again. At some point, enough was enough.

  “Dimitri, are you there?”

  “Yes.”

  “Can I talk to you?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “You are going to sacrifice yourself, aren’t you?”

  “It is necessary. It has to be done.”

  “Nothing has to be done. Valentina is going to carry you around imprisoned in a memory stick in her necklace. We all would understand if you don’t want to be locked up!”

  “I know, and that is great. But I could not live with the consequences.”

  Martin had not considered this, but Marchenko was right. If Valentina used the laser to shoot down ILSE, Marchenko would be the one who survived longest. As long as the fusion power plant still provided energy, Marchenko would continue to exist. Long before that point, the others would have starved to death. They would not die of thirst or suffocation, since the secure energy supply allowed them to generate water and oxygen from the ice. But the food supplies on board the lander were limited, and they would never last for twelve months, the earliest date help might arrive.

  “Couldn’t we manipulate the laser?” Martin asked.

  “Valentina is keeping watch over it. As soon as somebody gets close—boom!” replied Marchenko.

  “We are going to try to free you from your prison.”

  “I will not get my hopes up too high. The encryption of the data vault cannot be cracked. Once I am in there, it is all over. Only
Valentina or the people working with her have access to it. Even if you kill her, I stay imprisoned.”

  “We will torture Valentina if we have to.”

  “She wants to sacrifice herself if she cannot get me, so how would that work?”

  “You are right Dimitri, but I just can’t accept that.”

  “But you have to.”

  “The hell I have to!” In his anger, Martin turned around and walked toward the laser. He got within three meters of it before Valentina contacted him.

  “One more step and it is all over with ILSE.”

  “You are just bluffing. You want to go home, just as we do,” Martin said.

  “If you think so,” she said. He felt something humming in the housing of the laser, and then a clacking sound. He did not see the beam.

  But Amy, sounding frantic, sent a radio message: “Something just shot a hole in our cargo bay. Did you guys do that?”

  “Martin said I was bluffing.”

  “Alright, Valentina. I am coming back inside.” It had been worth a try. He at least had to make an attempt to eliminate the threat.

  Thirty minutes later they were all gathered for the decisive meeting.

  “Did you come to a decision? Yes—or yes?” joked Valentina, pretending to be in a good mood. She could not be that cold-blooded, could she?

  “We are going to vote on it,” Amy said from ILSE.

  “Good,” Valentina said. “I vote for Marchenko handing himself over.”

  Then there was silence.

  “I am against it,” Amy finally said. “There must be another solution. We cannot give in to blackmail.”

  “The other solution is that we all die,” Valentina said.

  “Including you,” said Jiaying.

  “Yes. Me too.”

  “I offer myself for Dimitri,” Watson’s voice said. “I am probably the first AI to develop feelings. That should also be valuable for Shostakovich.”